Laser Cutter/FDM Printer

I love the speed, ease of use, and quality of laser machining--and I wanted to have a small system for personal use. Being tight on space, I opted to build a 3D printer and retrofit it with a low-power, but effective diode laser.

To produce a lightweight laser source, I used a 2 watt 450nm laser diode, an aluminum heat sink, and an off the shelf laser power supply. I then designed an enclosure with lighting, exhaust, laser shielding, and safety interlocks. I used an FDM printer (I also built) to print the mounts I needed to affix the laser to that very same printer. I wired it all up and modified the printer's firmware to accommodate the new laser addition. All the functions of the original 3D printer were maintained. I generated gcode using a vector drawing editor, Inkscape, and a Python extension based on "Gcodetools." I used Repetier to communicate with the printer's microcontroller and send G code. I've since had success cutting or etching paper, wood, acrylic, and leather among other materials. Below is my first attempt at etching and cutting cardstock (sorry for the portrait style video):   

The finished business card:

Here's an etch and cut in 3mm acrylic:

I started with the RepRap Prusa i3 design to build a 3D printer base, which I would later augment with a laser. The mechanical frame is laser cut acrylic. The controller board is an MKS Base 1.4 board (a single board version of the Ramps 1.4 controller). Below It's running Marlin 1.0.2: