Mounted the Laser on my existing CNC Router to experiment with the concepts.
All the brightly coloured parts were designed on "123D Design" and printed on my 3D printer. Some parts were made 4 or more times until he was satisfied!
A tall cake stand engraved for my friends 'The Horns'. The whole unit needed to be on a frame to raise it up.
Sequence of making the printed parts. A free download "123D Design" using various shapes to build up the component then on to the "Cura" slicer program before being printed layer by layer.
A wooden Bow-Tie routed to size then engraved for my friend Chris - the maths professor
Mostly off-the-shelf components really inexpensive with loads of information on the net.
I found a 5W LED Laser on-line and set it up on my CNC Router to experiment with. Later I decided to build a 2D machine from scratch using supplies from on-line stores. I also tried my hand at a stop-motion video inspired by the work by Frank Howarth  I later upgraded to a 15W Laser
Many of the components were printed on the 3D printer which was a great learning curve. The low cost LED lasers are an easy way of getting into the hobby. The more powerful CO2 Lasers are bit daunting. The project took about 6 months.
Laser Engraver
There is a YouTube video of the build HERE