Laser Engraver Hack

I purchased a NEJE laser engraver to make small laser engravings. The NEJE is a 1000mw 405nm laser with a X and Y axis movement. The NEJE comes completely assembled with safety glasses, software on a mini SD card and two USB cables for power and computer link. It has a small 38mm X 38mm engraving area. The engraver works great for wood, plastic, leather and paper. The software that is included with is easy to use and allows for control of scale and laser burn time.

Since every device has multiple uses I wondered if I could use a 3D resin for a 3D printer to make a plastic part. I purchased a bottle of Makerjuice G+ black pigmented resin to experiment with. I also had some UV Sun Cure 2000 resin. Both will polymerize with the 405nm laser on the engraver.

A plastic cap from a one quart jar was used as the resin holding vat. I used a small wood block of the same height as the resin level to focus the laser (very important to get the most focused laser spot when using this laser)

I loaded a simple cog gear image and set the laser burn time to an intermediate setting (60) for a test. The laser burn time was too long and the two samples turned into two solid plastic blocks. After a few over exposed sample runs, I found out a very low setting of 1 or 2 on the laser burn time would work fine.

Since the included 1000mw laser was too strong to work well I decided to replace it with a lower power one. I purchased a 5-10nm 405nm one on Ebay for @ $10. Both the NEJE laser and the new smaller one both have only two electrical leads witch makes for an easy replacement.

I cut the leads midway on the NEJE 1000mw laser and soldered a simple two lead connector to it. I soldered a similar connector to the 5mw laser. Now I could loosen the two hold screws on the strong laser and substitute the weaker laser in its place. A very easy swap by snapping the new connectors together.

As I ran the new 5mw laser test I used the same cog gear image to compare. After two laser power level tests, I found a good setting at 10. A laser power level of 60 was too much.

Success I now have the ability to make small plastic 2D parts. They can be made with a .5mm -3mm thickness depending on laser power levels. Now if I could add a Z axis to make a true 3D printed plastic object.