Safety

Let's start with a word of warning: Lasers are dangerous. High voltage (240V) is dangerous. If you look at the license the modules are licensed under, you will notice that they are provided "as is" and without any warranty. This is no joke. If you use this documentation, make sure you know what you are doing and take appropriate safety measures yourself. The finished device is designed to be safe (but again, not warranty, we do not guarantee anything), while building it, you can be exposed to high levels of laser radiation and deadly voltages. While working on the device, you should

• Never power it on, if any contacts with mains voltage are touchable
• Never power it on without wearing laser safety glasses. There are three wavelengths involved, so they need to shield all of them: 1024nm, 808nm and 532nm
• Also, do not put others at risk. 

This is just a friendly, incomplete reminder. Again: no warranty. Read the licenses for legal details. Consult experts for laser and electrical safety.

Modules

The device consists of several modules, which can be used not just in the Laser4DIY, but also in other setups. They are therefore documented separately. The modules are:

• XY table
• Supply unit
• Enclosure, including safety circuit
• TEC Controller
• Laser Diode Driver
• Laser Source

The assembly guide will reference the documentation and source files (open hardware, baby!) for all of these modules, but also describe specifics when used in a Laser4DIY device.

Manufacturing the Parts

All modules need custom parts, for which different methods for manufacturing are used:

While many different technologies are used for the project, you can also use service manufacturer for these parts. Here are some notes to the used manufacturing methods:

3D Printing

The XY table and the enclosure require 3d printed parts. We used an simple FDM 3d printer with PLA, which should be available at every maker space or fablab.

Laser Cutting

There is only a single (non metal) laser cut piece. It's for the XY table and made from MDF. It's a simple piece, so if there is no laser cutter available to you, you can also make it by hand.

Metal Laser Cutting

We use laser cut metal for quite a few modules, from aluminum and stainless steel. Most of these parts need high precision, so manufacturing them by hand is not recommended. We do not have a metal laser cutter in-house, but we used a service manufacturer. There a quite a few affordable services, where you can upload DXFs files and give you a price quote instantly. Alternatively, these parts can be made using a CNC mill.

Sheet Metal Bending

The enclosure requires a sheet metal break to bend the laser cut metal sheets. If you do not have access to one, you can try DIY tools (youtube is a great source). You will only need to bend 1mm stainless steel, so there is not too much force needed.

Spot Welding

Spot welding is only needed for a couple of welding spots of the lid. 

CNC Milling

The laser source module requires CNC milled parts. The cooling blocks are made from copper and aluminium. Again, they need to be relatively precise, so manufacturing them by hand is not recommended. There are service manufacturers, you can use if you cannot do it yourself.

SMT Electronics Assembly

The two electronics components (TEC controller and laser diode driver) need a custom PCB. We recommend using a service manufacturer (at least unless you have a working Laser4DIY device :-D). The design includes SMT parts, but no very small parts, so they can be assembled by hand if you have soldering experience. There are assembly services as well, of course.

Additional Tools Needed

We assume that you have access to standard tools like screw drivers, allen keys, files and similar. Apart from these (and the machines to manufacture the custom parts, see above) you need the following tools:

• Laser power meter (suitable for 2 Watts of laser radiation at 1064nm and 532nm)
• Laser IR viewing plate
• Laser safety glasses (blocking 1024nm, 808nm and 532nm) 
• ESD grounding wrist band
• Soldering station with ESD protection
• Rivet gun

General Notes

The following notes should be considered for all modules:

• CAD files are provided for some of the modules. These are included to guide the assembly, an in-depth, step-by-step assembly guide is not (yet) provided. The CAD files are included in the github repository, in STEP format. This format can be loaded by most CAD packages, including the open-source software FreeCad. There is also a free viewer called STP viewer.

The following notes should be considered during assembly for all modules:

• Again: be cautious! Follow standard guidelines for laser and electrical safety
• Whenever a standard (non lock) nut is used, apply thread locker/sealant to secure it

Feedback

If you encounter issues in the documentation or the source file, please report it to the development team:

• For issues concerning source files in any of the GitHub repositories, please use the GitHub issues feature to submit a ticket for the corresponding repository
• For issues concerning documentation in this Wiki, please submit a ticket at the Assembly Guide Github repository.

Assembly

Assembling the Modules

For building the modules please refer to the linked instructions below

Main Assembly

After assembling the individual modules, it is now time to integrate all modules into the enclosure.

This is described on the Laser4DIY Assembly page.

As a final step, the laser has to be taken into operation on fine tuned: Laser4DIY Laser Source: First Light and Fine Tuning

Producing PCBs

When you have completed building the device, you can start making PCBs! Here is our tutorial on how to do that: Using Laser4DIY for Prototyping PCBs