David Bunch published a new build:

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I had not thought about doing that, but have looked at the LaserPecker & thought it would be cool to laser vertically.

Since I still had that engraver beside me in the house & looked at your idea & think it should work. Holding it vertically, the carriage stays in place except for moving initially a little bit. I would have to adjust the cantilever to be less sticking out the back and add some kind of base to support the vertical position. I will have to play with that idea little to test it. I was just thinking about what I could work on next. Thanks for the idea.

 

I did a proof of concept & looks good to me. I just shifted the feet back so I did not have to move the cantilever 2020 & added 2 -2040s. I probably would put the 2040s to the outside for more clearance of the motors possibly hitting them. 2020s would probably work also, but this is what I found 1st when looking thru my spare parts. Having it with only one angle bracket would make it easier to make it parallel with verticals that are not quite vertical, that is if it is a strong enough connection.

 

If I follow you correctly there is a simpler solution for the round objects by buying a rotary roller engraving module which you can get for around $65. ORTUR sells one of these on a China site & Amazon.

I have a 1 meter length of 2060 left over from a Delta printer I didn't build & will cut that in half & swap the 250mm lengths of legs out for the 500mm, so I can keep the configuration set for either situation. This only adds 1 lb 3.5oz to the machine weight. I might could take a 2x6 & screw it to the end of the legs for the vertical rest as that would give it more ballast for the vertical configuration. Of course wood is not always flat like aluminum extrusions are.

I find it funny that when I was designing this machine I was looking at that laserpecker engraver & wondering how I could build something like that where I could engrave on vertical 4x4 deck post or a lower 2x4 railing & I did not see this possibility until you mentioned it. I think engraving an ivy growing up the 4x4 post would be pretty cool.

The 2 plates attached to the wheels for the 2040 extrusion, I have the wheel spacing between the 2 sides at 60mm. I noticed your aluminum plates for this size have 59.7mm. I initially used 59.7mm, but found I had not adjustment room for the eccentrics. Just that .3mm made a difference for me with the plastic parts & my printer has pretty good tolerances. If I cut them from aluminum, I would set them to 59.7mm.

Do you think the nema 17 with these specs 1.5 A, 0.42 Nm, 59 ozin is enough for the vertical axis? Think that total carriage assembly is around 3 lbs. or so. Someone on the other forum thought that might need a bigger motor. I might not know until actually testing the movement in that direction.

 

I was able to cut my 1 meter 2060 and keep the debris minimized in my shed. I replaced the 2060x250mm feet with 2060x500mm feet. I replaced the 2040s I was using for the vertical feet with those 2060x250mm feet & added an extra angle support for each. One angle is on inside bottom of 2060x500 & the other is on the top outside of 2060x500. This feels pretty solid like it is now. I ran out of Tee Nuts, so had to take 4 off my rolling plotter that was just sitting around. I will have to do a dry run burn test without the laser wire attached to see how it holds up. Probably need to drape some sort of weight over the vertical feet to keep it from creeping. I will shoot a video of it so any minor or major problems will show up. Here is the current configuration. Weight is about 8 lbs. 10oz.

 

I would say the first test looks like hardly anything to change. It does have some settling creep, but that should be easily fixed by making a plastic block to replace limit switch & just slide it to meet carriage & make that Origin for that axis. I am quite surprised at how well this worked on 1st try. Maybe I will try a real test tomorrow on my CNC table leg. Too hot in shed to do that now. Someone commented on the video that reminded to look into the grbl settings again. I am going to set $1=255 to keep motors energized & see if that solves the settling problem.
Here is the video.

 

That pretty much fixed the problem. Will do a real burn test with it tomorrow & maybe repeat the pattern to see if it overlays it.

 

I will do that tomorrow. There is nothing special about them.

 

I uploaded my grbl settings to the Files tab. I went thru my X & Y limits and have a little more width on the X than I originally thought. My limits are now 435mm in the X & 305mm in the Y. The Y-axis in the cantilever axis.

 

I did another dry run after setting the $1=255 and seems to have no play in the vertical now. I will do a burn test today & run it twice to see if it overlays exactly.

 

I don’t have laser glasses for the cat so can’t run the laser with her around. Her name is Smokey.

I did a burn of the leg for my CNC table & ran it twice & this photo was taken after the 2nd burn. I don’t see any overlap in the 2 burns. Don’t think I could ask for any better results on the first vertical burn test. I weighted the legs on this burn, but didn't on the deck posts below.

Since that worked well, I went on to burn a couple of posts on the deck. When I did the post closest to the house, I moved the leg closest to the inline with the 2060x500mm to be able to be able to move the machine close enough to house to get the design fully on the 4x4. Could also put the laser carriage on backwards if you really needed more space, but that is more trouble.


Here is what the updated design looks like & gives me 20mm more clearance on the ends. I am pretty happy with this design now.

 

While running these vertical burns, don't know if it is my imagination, but it seems that smoke gets out of the way easier than when burning straight down.

 

This does sound like a good idea. I would want to test them with a similar weight item before putting the engraver on there. How about two of these suction cup lifters. suction cup lifter products - Grainger Industrial Supply And these from Amazon have quite few good ratings. https://www.amazon.com/FCHO-Suction-Aluminum-Vacuum-Lifting/dp/B07HNRB2CJ

 

It finally dawned on me what you were getting at here. For some reason, I was thinking you were talking about rotating the engraver & not the mugs or bottles. At any rate, that seems simple to implement.
Could do something like this DIY 3D scanner uses. Ciclop 3D Scanner by BQEducacion - Thingiverse
Thought I would take a stab at a different design to start with. Since I have 3 - 2040x250mm, thought I would use them for the legs to get turntable high enough for the engraver. This would make it all one assembly. The motor will have a coupler with a M8 hex head bolt with the head attached to the turntable & a bearing between table & coupling. I am not going to make the turntable very big, so hopefully it will not have any wobble. Here is where I am currently going with this. This is probably too complicated, so might just start with the turntable portion & work my way down.

 

Here is a design that might be a good starting point. Printed Arduino Turntable Takes Objects For A Spin | Hackaday

Or this one. Photo or Video Turntable - Motorized - 608 Bearing UNI.by Inhibit | seo.market.title-append | PrusaPrinters

 

I used the 2nd link in my previous message as a guide, but am using a pancake nema17. The bolt & bearing setup is similar to that used on the MPCNC. The shaft of the motor has a slotted bracket with an M3 screw. I am not yet sure how to secure the motor to the base yet. Top turntable is 126mm in diameter. I was trying to get that as small a diameter as possible so the laser does not have to be extended as far.