I’m still pretty early in my laser engraving explorations, but I’m not treating that as a limitation. I’ve got an entry-level machine, a modest budget, and a few hours a week to explore what it can do. That’s not a disclaimer – it’s the framework I’m working within, so I’m learning how to make it fun. Part of playing around to figure out what works is making my environment more conducive to getting shit done, and this is what today’s post is about.
For project #1, I put the laser onto a little round table in my office. My ventilation was the window plus a fan that was hauled out of the attic to help shove all the crud in the right direction. Power cables trailed across the room, and my laptop was perched precariously on top of a little trolley to get it close enough to the laser.
This was obviously not sustainable long-term, so I got to work.
Step 1: Make a base with a grid marked out to ensure perfect positioning every time (This was actually step 0 because I did this for the first project, but it’s going in here because it’s part of the setup evolution). My grid is printed on A4 paper spray mounted under recycled toughened glass, with electrical tape marking out the perimeter.
Step 2: Find a table more fit for purpose. As my laser is the small but mighty 3W Sculpfun C1, I decided after measuring things up that what would really work was an old Singer sewing machine table (I am borderline obsessed with them and this was excuse I needed).
Step 3: Collect a Singer table picked up on Marketplace for a song and give it a refresh. It was actually perfect for the job and means that all the essentials are stored with the laser. Plus it came with a perfectly fixable sewing machine.
Step 4: Make a secure laptop shelf for the trolley from scrap wood.
Step 5: Rearrange the entire room to make the setup work and eliminate trailing wires.
Step 6: Make an enclosure to help with ventilation.
There will at some point be a whole post about how the enclosure was made. I kinda winged it after watching few YouTube videos for ideas. We already had a spare extractor fan lying around along with some orange translucent acrylic and plywood from previous craft/DIY stuff, and a whole lot of hardware including hinges, so the only outlay here was on a tumble dryer hose. Not pretty, but it does the job. There are some links on the resources page to similar materials.
Step 7 is an ongoing battle, and that’s storage.
Leave a Reply