Engraving laser in Silhouette Portrait Cutter

Since this is my project feed, I get to digress a bit. This little machine has a lot of potential to fill several maker needs. A future project will look at making this machine either mill PCBs or at least apply etch resist. The Portrait and Cameo both have an optical sensor which can see registration marks on the material to ensure precise location of the pattern on the material. This would be very useful for doing double-sided boards.

If anybody has any future ideas for upgrades, let me know and perhaps I will take it up as another project since I would like to get the max use out of this machine.

At some point in the future, I will likely delve into reverse engineering some of it and possibly writing some custom software to control it. For now, it can be controlled through Inkscape. And of course it comes with software from the manufacturer that is also pretty decent, but more directed at crafts.

So my second iteration is shown in the project picture. It involves a clip holder to snap in the diode and enough room around the lens to accommodate a ring that slides on to the lens. This allows the lens to be twisted about 180 degrees. I am not sure yet if that is enough adjustment range because the lens threads are very fine. The holder is designed to place the end of the diode module at 30mm from the platen when the pen is down, however. So only small adjustments should be necessary. I would welcome some ideas for improvement on this.

In the picture, you can see the part that protrudes over the flat area. This is where a switch will be mounted. I am currently looking for an ideal switch/mounting arrangement. My next experiment will be to see if there is enough force to push a tactile switch.

As-is, there are too many overhangs for my comfort. As you can see the print quality turned out pretty rough. I think cutting it into multiple parts is the only way I can go to clean that up.

Still nothing for handling cooling or air assist to the diode. This is really going to be necessary for any laser 500W or more. My options seem to be limited for this since there is not very much room around the diode available. You would be my hero if you have a winning suggestion for this. One of the ideas I am toying with is to place the diode perpendicular and use a mirror to direct the beam down the barrel. This would afford me quite a bit more room for cooling. But it would necessitate removing the cover of the Portrait and possibly even the back (which I had already done.) I'd rather not force anyone to modify their machine. I'd like this to be just a drop in tool.

You can go take a look at the first iteration at the thingiverse link above. I will be updloading this second iteration there soon. It is not really 3D print ready yet, but I'd like to make it available for others to toy with and help improve.