Personal laser cutter

It’s easy to underestimate the implications of running a laser cutter. Toxic fumes, tons of space occupied (machine and stock materials), breakdowns. It’s maybe not worth it since there are so many companies that will ship you laser cut parts in a day or so. However, there’s no turn-around like in-house, and some applications might really benefit from having a machine locally. Here are a couple of interesting options.

LazerBlade

(Pictured above) Darkly Labs‘ goal was $45,000 for their Kickstarter. They got $569,397 (Australian Dollars, which are within about 5-10% of USD). Clearly there is a lot of demand for an affordable laser cutter (units were being sold for around 700 USD in the Kickstarter). There is a lot of good design going into the LazerBlade. However, the thing can’t cut much besides paper. With the more powerful of the two lasers they tested, 2 mm white acrylic was cut in one pass (good!), as was 5 mm balsa wood, but 3 mm black acrylic was only engraved. Limits to power notwithstanding, it looks like a nice product, and is very inexpensive.

Full Spectrum Laser

Here’s a step up. They also had a successful Kickstarter, but they’re targeting a different audience. Their product is a bit heavier duty, and is based around a 40w CO2 laser. It cuts 6 mm acrylic, MDF, delrin, PET, silicon, rubber, etc. It costs about $3500.