LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

Hi, my name is Jason Campbell. I live in Central Michigan. I retired early a few years ago due to some severe back issues that have pretty much crippled me. Now I have to much time on my hands, so I purchased a Chinese 100w laser engraver to add to the things I may still be able to tinker with, even in the bad days.

When I was younger I ran a full metal fab and machine shop making parts and upgrades for the off-road community. I still own all the fabrication equipment. I have a CNC plasma table, CNC Bridgeport Boss, 3d printer, and many manual machines and told as well.

Since retirement I've pursued one of my other more sedentary hobbies, design and repair of (mostly) analog electronics. I have a very nice electronics lab and bushes is really booming. I used to make a lot of custom engraved acrilic artwork on my CNC machines, but I'm no longer able to spend that much time on my feet. I bought the laser to go in the corner of my lab so that I can still do some of the artistic stuff I enjoy. I'll try to attach some pictures of my work.

Welcome Jason- you are fortunate to have a lot of skills to sustain yourself after you back problems. You will find that the laser is less effort and quicker than the CNC - not having to secure the work to the bed is a great help. And acrylic is the ideal material for the laser, and very versatile. I recently build an acrylic bender and have been experimenting with cutting on the laser and then bending with some precision.
You will fit right in here I am sure, we always encourage pictures of products that members create as it encourages creativity, Gene

Thank you Gene, I'd love to see the details of your bender. There is a acrylic window used in a vintage amplifier that I often have come through for repair. They have small 45° polycarbonate windows that flush mount into the case. I've considered machining the flange and shape with the CNC mill, but then I need a reliable, repeatable way to bend them. Of course polycarbonate can be cold bent a ways with I'll effect, but I'd really like to design and build a hot wire bender. If I used acrylic, being able to laser engraver the windows would just be the cherry on top!

I did attach pictures to my introduction post, but apparently they did not stick. I'll resize them a bit smaller, perhaps the forum software didn't like the sized.

Thank you for the welcome!

Jason

Here are the pictures that I accidently put in the double post. I apologize again for that. I'm using my phone because it's convenient, but not always the greatest for things that require dexterity and younger eyes...
This is an amplifier I built several years ago. I designed the case and acrylic myself. It was all cut in my Bridgeport Boss Series II CNC.
This is a older car audio amplifier. I did all the electrical work on it for the owner. All the wet caps were replaced, film caps were "upgraded", op-amps were upgraded, and various other changes were made. I finished off by cutting a new bottom and end plates for it. The acrylic was all made on my series II.
This piece was done for a collector. It was a replacement insert made to replace an actual glass piece in a one off amplifier. Robert Zeff, who owned Zapco built this amp for his personal vehicle. The story I heard was it never got installed. It changed hands somewhere and the glass insert got broken. A collector I know purchased the amp for his collection. The seller did not send the broken glass. When the new owner told the seller he was going to try to get it remade, the seller tried to extort more money for the shattered glass. When I heard about it, I offered to do it in acrylic for him. I redesigned the whole piece working of just a few pictures of the original shattered glass. It came out very nice and made the owner extremely happy!
This is my new laser cutter. I've had it a few weeks now but still don't have it setup yet. Doing my best to get to it soon though.
This guy here was probably my best but if the year. I go to a nearby state college's monthly surplus sale nearly every month. I was building my own chiller for my laser and it was coming along it well. When I was checking out at the surplus sale, I glanced down near the cashier booth and I saw this prize. It's a industrial grade water chiller. I bought this and another olfer analog one for $25. This one was very nearly new, I peeled the protective film of the LCD when I got it home. I wired them up and they both run perfect, so I got to abandon my cobbled up chiller and move to a real piece of industrial kit.

Thanks,
Jason