Laser cutters for model making?

[Whoop]

Hi all,

I was chatting to a friend last night and he's bought even more laser cut MDF model train kits to build and paint which got me thinking about making them ourselves.

I've seen a couple of people with cutters on here, is there a good starting point for this? (it won't be anything particularly thick).

Thanks

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Really depends what you want size wise and how technically minded you are. You can get solid state lasers for pretty cheap, usually in the range of at most a few watts… slow and limited in what they can cut through.

CO2 laser is ideal for what you want, around 40w would be fine. there are many Chinese models available (some better than others) for reasonable money but may need some fiddling with.

For ease of use if you aren’t great with tech you’d want something like a glowforge, but you pay for the privilege.

Also if cutting MDF have good ventilation and try to get low formaldehyde type.

 

[Whoop]

Cheers for the reply, I've been having a quick look and I'd say (as I'm not the expert on the kits) it's 4mm - 7mm thick MDF with probably a 200mm bed at max.

I had a quick look online and with the 4mm scale 00 guage stuff even a large barn is only 150mm length x 135mm width x 110mm Height when assembled.

Good tip on ventilation though, I can get a dust collector through work and put it in the shed.

 

[Zenduri]

I've been toying with the idea of picking up a chinese K40 laser cutter/etcher for the last week or so for hobby/ side hustle purposes

 

[jsmoke]

What about a 3d printer?

 

[Zenduri]

What about a 3d printer?

Who? me or OP?

 

[jairok]

I have a hPC laser cutter and the one thing that stops me using as much as I should is the software. For that reason i would say to avoid the cheap ones unless they have Good software.