Butterknife

This is my attempt at making a laser cutter.

Day 1 (16/6/25)

Today I mainly just did research into how a laser cutter works, different mechanisms etc. Currently my idea is to just make a core XY, like the gantry of the printer that I designed a few months ago. I think tha tI will eaither go with 10 or 20 watts. And an enclosure is absolutely madatory. I got some plywood, and I am probably going to make the frame out of that. ""Total Time spent: 4 hours**

Day 2 (17/6/25)

Today I started to work on the CAD of my laser cutter, did some research into potential parts, and desided that I am goign to use 20 Watts for my saser cutter. That takes up almost a forth of the budget, I think that I might be able to find a coupon or something. Also believe it or not I think that I will actually be done with the CAD tomorrow, so lets hope that I can get this approved relatively quick ""Total Time spent: 4 and a half hours**

Day 3 (18/6/25)

Today I actually spent a lot of time recearching again, and I realized that lasers are actually a lot mor eexpensive than I thought. The 20 Watt laser that I was looking at actually only have 20 watts of input power, and the optical power was closer to 5 Watts. I am going to have to search more, because most of the cheaper lasers taht I was looking at do the same thing, so the laser might end up being one of the more expensive parts on this. On the other hand, I got some wood for the fram, and I finished up most of the CAD for the butterknife itself, but I still have the laser toolhead left, and outer encolosure. TOday it might not look like I did a lot, but a ton of research, parts finding, and just general replanning happened today. ""Total Time spent: 2 and a half hours**

Day 4 (19/6/25)

Today I added my laser, the mount from the laser to the linear bearings, and I started making the enclosure. I completely overestimated how fast I could CAD, however I actually finished the entire curring setup, and now I just need to make the top of the laser case, and then I will be able to start with the PCB. I mounted both of the motors, and assembled pretty much everything. I want to make this a reallly high quality project, so I will probably make the CAD as good as I can. I also want to make a PCB for a control screen, so that might also show effort. ""Total Time spent: 3 and a half hours**

Day 5 (20/6/25)

Today I think that I finished the CAD of the laser cutter, and that I will be able to finish the COM tomorrow. I made the outer enclosure, and I might add a littl ebit more for airflow and other electronics like fans and a control board, however I think tha tI will be able to get this over with pretty soon, even though I am pretty sure that I said this in literally other journal entry. On the bright side most of the parts for my filament recyclen have already arrived so that I can submit this pretty soon. I also feel like the CAD could be a little bit more clean with tht ecoloring, however I want to ship this before THursday, so that I at least have a chance at those headphones.