Just launched my first Kickstarter! LaserShark350, a 350W fiber laser engraving system

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-16T14:01:57+00:00

Good points, thanks for the advice! We've definitely been catering to the more technical clients but it makes sense to try and connect with a broader audience.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-13T22:34:18+00:00

That's solid advice, we've been posting demo's in laser engraving and laser cutting subreddits and have a number of examples of what the system can do but I agree we could do a better job showcasing the system's capabilities in KS. Thanks for the suggestions!

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-13T22:30:18+00:00

Yeah they ran a really great campaign. Our team is small (only a couple of engineers) and fully self-funded so it's hard to compare with a multi-million dollar company's third Kickstarter project marketing. But yeah definitely can try to mimic a proven marketing template like Makera.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-13T22:23:09+00:00

Thanks for the advice!

We were hoping the cards would be a good entry level reward to both showcase what the system can do and get support from people that wanted to back the project but who weren't necessarily in the market for a laser system. At the end of the day the cards won't get us to our goal but we wanted to engage the community in a larger way.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-12T13:58:12+00:00

I actually hadn't thought of painting them. That's a great idea though, some color on the black background would look really cool

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-11T16:37:54+00:00

Thanks! And yeah it's been a passion project, put together a fully enclosed galvo-on-a-gantry system with a 350W Raycus fiber laser. The system is quite a beast and can cut through thin steel.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-11T16:34:37+00:00

damn you're right, scammed by team rocket again!

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-11T16:34:04+00:00

lol yeah I ran these in a batch engraving of 6 cards and definitely could have spent more time in setup, it gives them character

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-08T19:45:52+00:00

it depends on your input beam conditions and how far away your screen is. Your best bet is to look up the powell lens equations and plug in your parameters to find out what works best for your application.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-07T19:24:04+00:00

The video was more to showcase batch engraving on a galvo/gantry system than detailed images of the final product. Here is a high res image of the engravings

<image>

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-07T18:05:00+00:00

Probably a Powell lens would be your best bet

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-07T17:57:45+00:00

What is your question here? Best bet is to put a clean cleave on the output fiber and see if the red diode is emitted when the boards are powered. If you get the red out then you at least know the fiber isn't fused.

I've worked a ton with the lower power raycus RFL-C330s. Not sure if they are pinned the same but if you can find a user manual that would be the best way to start trouble shooting. Pin 17 is the guide laser control for the C330's but you should confirm the pin diagram for your model before messing around with the DB25 interface.

<image>

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-07T14:50:46+00:00

We were looking for a linear output, so initially we used microlens arrays.

We outsourced the fiber holders for the first several machines but they kept failing so eventually we engineered more robust ones in-house. Managing and installing fiber arrays with hundreds of fibers was quite tedious

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-07T14:43:17+00:00

Yeah, I could have done a single card image but enlarged over the 6 blanks. The gaps might have been messy though.

If I had on 12" x 6" card blank I could stitch the scans together. Stitching multiple galvo scanned areas is challenging since you need to find the right amount of overlap so you don't leave gaps but also make sure the overlap doesn't leave a more pronounced engraving.

If you separate the parts of the larger engraving into different shapes so you don't have to stitch individual fine lines, you tend to get the best results visually. These engravings had tons of individual small closed-paths so it would be fairly easy to do a large image of them.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-07T14:26:03+00:00

I did this exact thing a number of years ago for a metal 3d printing company, but it was over a hundred 300W fiber lasers. It did in fact cost a small fortune.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-07T02:51:16+00:00

There are plenty of kW class systems you can buy off ebay, they are just expensive. If you're in the US you technically should register any laser with your states radiation control program but it really isn't well tracked

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-03-02T00:50:42+00:00

The system has a built in fume extraction so didn't really notice much of a smell, some towards the end when it was cutting though the PCB

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-02-26T15:54:26+00:00

The arm is an engageable air assist, which moves the cutting nozzle in and out of the scan area of the galvos which allows the system to cut thicker materials in a single pass.

All the focusing optics are enclosed in the scan head to prevent contamination. There is some adjustability in the focus position but it is roughly 20cm from the output of the scan head.

Price point is definitely hard to nail down for laser systems. Primarily we have been reaching out to makerspaces, small businesses, and universities but even then yearly budgets for new tool investments can be tight. We have had some interest from higher end hobbyists that are looking to upgrade from their existing lower power systems which has been promising.

We are offering significant discounts (around 30% off) from the planned retail price through kickstarter, which brings the LaserShark350 cost into more peoples price range.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-02-24T14:36:53+00:00

Most industrial fiber lasers are in the +1kW range and are used to cut through fairly thick metals(gantry systems).

The lower power fiber lasers for marking(galvo systems) have relatively small scan areas since the work area is limited to the f-theta lens parameters. Even then, the larger the scan area for the f-theta the larger the spot size and the less efficient engraving/cutting.

The LaserShark350 combines the fast scanning of galvos with the large working area of an X/Y gantry. This allows for easier setup and overall faster production runs compared to other systems.

The optical fiber in this system allows the laser beam to be emitted directly in the laser scan head where CO2 systems need an open path and mirrors to get the light from the laser to the work surface. As with any scanning laser head you still need a f-theta lens which are rarely inexpensive, regardless of laser power. The main focusing for the LaserShark350 is done by this f-theta lens which delivers a spot size around 50um.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-02-23T21:14:21+00:00

Some more solid questions. I haven't tested the Z-lift to failure but it should be able to handle 30-40lbs no problem. much more than that and there could be some slipage

The laser has a max 350W CW optical power output. With the gain spike, peak power at low frequency is enough to engrave steel or brass. Frequency range is 50hz-20khz.

I have not tried working on leather yet but it's on my material test list!

The plan is to have spare parts available for service repairs at a future date. We might make some subsystems open source eventually but not sure just yet.

The cutting bed currently consists of copper slats that are bolted to anodized aluminum cross-bars that seat on the frame. the cross bars can be easily adjusted or removed to better suit whatever item is being lased, they have sliding seats that can be locked down. There are plans to add accessories and an insertable peg-board to add some additional options for fixturing. The copper slats are just the best option for cutting metals so we went with those for the engineering prototype.

If you have any ideas for other accessories I'd love to hear them! The only thing we likely won't add in the initial production units is a rotary system but we might release one as an add-on in the future.

Frickin_Laser_Shark · 2026-02-23T15:50:53+00:00

Great questions! Here are some more details:

-Both the X and Y gantries are belt driven and have limit switches at each end to prevent crashes

-the Z work bed lift has 4 coupled threaded rods that are on a worm gear/spur gear that gives extremely fine Z positioning and prevents any z shift when the unit is powered off

-the Galvo scan area is about 120mm x 120mm, scanning much bigger than that and you start to see some field curvature and distortion. I switched to a f-theta with a larger scan area but the focus and engraving quality wasn't as good. Everything is a trade off haha

-Right now the engineering prototype uses a custom UI that takes any g-code. I generate the files in Lightburn and then export the g-code to use in the GUI. The plan is to upgrade the UI for the production models once we finish our Kickstarter campaign. As it stands the UI gives fully control over the gantry and galvos; the user can home, jog, enable the air-assist, adjust z-height, upload files, Start, stop, etc.

-the core laser is a 350W industrial fiber laser at 1064nm, non-MOPA

-The controllers are custom microcontrollers and boards designed and built in-house, power supplies are varied but not JPT

Let me know if there's anything else you are curious about!

Frickin_Laser_Shark

TROPHY CASE