A few months ago published K40 Whisperer, a piece of software that makes the stock electronics tolerable and able to accept normal SVGs and DXFs. The K40 laser has been around for several years now, but only recently have a few very interesting hacks and mods come out that push this blue light special laser cutter into semi-professional territory for people willing to get their hands dirty. The terrible electronics are gone, you don’t have to use Corel, and for a hundred bucks, you have something resembling a professional laser cutter. Since all of the K40 laser cutters are the same, and they’re really only a power supply and a CNC gantry, this is the one-stop-shop of K40 upgrades. The Cohesion3D board is a direct, drop-in replacement for the control board found in the K40 laser. The Cohesion3D Mini is a drop-in replacement for the stock K40 board. The stock board found in a K40 (left) and the Cohesion3D Mini (right). If you’re doing something weird, like a 3D printer with strange kinematics, a 5-axis milling machine, or you’d like awesome engraving on a laser cutter, Smoothie is the way to go. Basically, if you’re building a normal, ordinary DIY 3D printer, a RAMPS or RAMBO will do. These are tiny, relatively low-cost boards that use Smoothieware, an Open Source, 32-bit CNC control system that is extremely extensible and very powerful. We saw at the Faire last year when he was demoing his Smoothie-derived boards for 3D printers and CNC machines. This is the cheapest way to start lasing in your workshop. Of note is his K40 upgrade that turns the eBay special laser cutter into a 32-bit professional machine. This year at Maker Faire, of Cohesion3D brought out his Smoothie-derived control boards for CNC machines and laser cutters. Fix that, though, and you have something really spectacular. There is a downside to the K40, though: the control electronics and software are notoriously terrible. I speak, of course, of the ubiquitous K40 laser, a machine you can get off of eBay or AliExpress for the price of a generic, off-brand 3D printer. Of course, those in the know have already been using laser cutters for years, and there are options for desktop CO2 laser cutters that cost less than a kilobuck. It looks like lasers are the next 3D printer. Glowforge was out in full force, but the most interesting aspect of the Glowforge - a compact filter system that sits right underneath the laser - was not to be found. Dremel announced a 40W laser cutter, but it won’t be available for purchase until this time next year, there is no price yet, and therefore doesn’t deserve further mention. This year at Maker Faire, laser cutters were all the rage.
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