Then you could do this too! 
It really is no more difficult.
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Me…this…too!
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I think everything you need to make this is here, list of parts, overall design of the boxes, etc. What else is there? Fundamentally this is just a big box with a fan mounted in it… wiring up a fan is pretty easy, after this it’s just a matter of designing your boxes and sticking them together and you’re off?
I even used a box generator to make the basic shapes. Then I took the box faces and added holes where needed for the switch and power and fan mount…and that’s pretty much it.
There is some thinking to be done around how to make your mesh and some nitty gritty details about your box design, but that’s pretty minor stuff and my photos can probably give you plenty of ideas.
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Thank you. I’ve been reading the entire post very carefully. I think you’re right…just go step by step with your photos, descriptions, and instructions. Can’t even think about doing this very soon, but now it’s in my head.
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This is a really great idea… one I am going to have to try. I had a thought about the dip or flex in the mesh – it sounds like the dip is not really enough of a difference to really be noticeable. Is that the case? Would some sort of support for the mesh help – like this.
I was thinking that a removable support system would help support the mesh and even made of draft board it would last a while as the power for cutting paper is not great.
Or is that overkill because the flex/dip is not that big.
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So you are definitely onto something. I built a vacuum table a while back that is for sanding, keeps the dust down. I used pillars like that to keep it from collapsing (it’s powered by my vacuum cleaner, which has a much higher static pressure than this project).
I posted about it here, let’s see… aha here we go:
The mesh barely deflects at my current vacuum amount, I’m not worrying about it anymore. If I upgrade the fans to something with a much higher static pressure I will think about making a metal support grid along the lines of what @rbtdanforth suggested.
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Such a great idea!
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Great! i cut tons of tiny pieces and they always fly away or go down the holes in the crumb tray.
Some folks put a piece of tin/aluminum foil under their work - the laser can’t cut through it so your little pieces are safe. You may end up with greater flashback though, so testing is in order.
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Ok, if I get brave enough I’ll give it a try. I’m a terrible chicken when it comes to fire.
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Thank you for the inspiration, great thinking!
I copied your idea and built one myself. But now I am a bit afraid to use it, because of the stainless steel mesh. I have red mixed messages about reflection of the CO2 laser beam on steel (mainly the messages say it is fine by the way).
I painted the mesh black with acrylic paint, to make it even less reflective.
This is how mine looks like now. I took your builds in the comments in my design and to prevent the bodem from getting scorched, I have put a ceramic tile on the plywood bottom.
The power comes from a 12V battery in the back, there were the laser will not be able to hit it directly.
With the mesh in the GF:
The back is less than 5 cm high, so the airflow assist head shoudn’t be bothered.
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(In the pictures the ceramic tile is to far to the back, so I moved it to the front now. That seems to be the better place for it to sit)
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keep in mind, your honeycomb tray is steel. so you’ve been using steel the whole time.
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Yes, thank you. You’re completely right!
Nice! What model fan are you using?
Just seeing this for the first time - too cool!!!
I’ll be curious to see if you get enough suction to make it work here. Those fans are rated to 1.95 mmH2O, the ones I use are 27.3 mmH2O, about 14x as much vacuum and about 2.5x the airflow.
That being said, if you seal it up it might well be plenty. Vacuum works on surface area, so if you’re cutting larger pieces I bet they’ll stay put.
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I guess you are right. I do have to cover up the space that is not used by the paper I am cutting, to get enough suction.
Ideal would be a stronger fan (or better 2 of them).
Even with a stronger fan, I have to cover it up too. I use sheets of printer paper to cover parts of the mesh that aren’t under my material.
There’s a whole discussion about fan power in this (super long and boring) thread. If you dig in you can see far too much info about delta fan models and whatnot. Your design looks smart, pretty modular, like it might be fairly easy to make new fan mounts with different fans if you needed/wanted to?
Who knows, it’s a good experiment! If it works then you’re setting up a new idea of what is needed to make enough vacuum. We’re all just mucking about with lasers here. I like your use of tile as a base, that’s a good idea.
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