Laser Cutter Refurbishment

That looks brilliant. A big thanks to everyone involved in getting it to us and getting it up and running!

Can I double check this please?

You have connected the water and air pump and that is the result cutting at 15% power?

If so, very impressive. Well done!

I spoke with Ryan yesterday (I had to call him on another matter). The main thing is to ensure that the laser tube is full of water and has no air bubbles at any time.

Once that is achieved, then the manual would be my next source of information.

I would be very interested to see the results of some repetitive engraving - such as brickwork patterns for model railways. According to Jon from Richmond MakerLab, that was the activity that exposed the issue with the x-axis belt.

It the machine does not do repetitive, fine, rectangular engraving well, then I think that there is a fairly urgent requirement to sort out the x-axis idler and the alignment of the x-axis belt.

After that, the next stage should be cutting at successively increasing power levels to establish maximum power output at this level of focus (I.e. what can it cut through (material and thickness) and how much of the bed can it do that on) before the focus is adjusted.

Also, this process will establish whether the PSU is likely to blow up in the short term.

Regards,
Malcolm

Very Pweety ! Fantastic progress :slight_smile:

Yes, Itā€™s all plumbed in. I wouldnā€™t want to run anything long on it just yet, until I have some way of monitoring the coolant temps, current and other critical stuff. My main aim was to see how much work it does need, so that when Ryan comes to help us out, it doesnā€™t become a waste of time just because a widget is missing or broken.

The 15% was just for the paper. To get the 3mm acrylic cut I had to slow it right down, and crank the power up a bit, so I was going to wait and find out what reasonable values for both of those are. It was up to 85% power, and down to 6mm/s for the acrylic - didnā€™t want to go higher than 85%, as Iā€™ve heard some tubes donā€™t like it. It was cutting nicely though, with no burning and just the smallest amount of visible vapour.

I might try the fine-pattern test on paper or card next, as thatā€™s a relatively low-power test but will test the mechanical aspects of the machine nicely.

Basically, I donā€™t want to crank our an hour-long cut at high-power until someone has checked it over. :slight_smile:

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Okay folks, the move-in date is set to Friday 30th (thatā€™s this Friday!) thanks to @MikeBookham offering his vehicle.

I need one more person to volunteer their muscles at the Camberley end to help get it loaded up, as itā€™s really a three-person job.

I am assuming thereā€™ll be people at the Guildford end already.

I am hoping to come down to Guildford on Friday evening. This is because I have the ā€œproperā€ water chiller for the laser in the boot of my car since before David and I brought the laser to Markā€™s and I need it not to be in the boot of my car any more.

I canā€™t leave Maidenhead before 20h00 - so wonā€™t be passing Camberley until 20h30 or later. I assume that this is too late to be of help at the Camberley end?

Oh cool, good news. Iā€™m hoping to be down in Guildford by that time and unloaded - you may escape the manual labour this time :slight_smile:

Okay, so as many of you saw on Friday, the laser is now in place. Many thanks to everyone that helped move The Beast upstairs and into place.

Now we need to get it running nicely. Thanks to Malcolm, we now have a really good chiller, so weā€™ll be able to run any job at max power.

The main item left to fix is the venting. For now, Iā€™ll probably just get a hose long enough to sling out the window. Thereā€™s probably not much point building something specific for the window just yet, as theyā€™re all being replaced in a couple of weeks.

Iā€™ll also get a new honeycomb bed, as the nailbed we have at the moment isnā€™t really suitable.

Window replacement is scheduled to start on the 10th of October.

I have just heard from Richard Ibbotson. He has managed to pick up a Purex Laserex 400i extraction unit. (http://www.purex.co.uk/shop/Systems/Digital-Systems/400i/p-74-75-134/ or similar)

He was asking if I knew of anyone who might be interested.

He is looking for around Ā£100 for the unit and it will need new filters - which Richard expects to cost around Ā£200.

I donā€™t think that this is essential for your laser but I thought that I would ask whether you are interested before Richard finds another home for it.

Also, I spoke to Ryan and he is ready to come down and advise on matters like focusing and using the control panel once you have it plumbed in to your liking.

Finally, have you had any time to look at the bearing on the x-axis belt tensioner?

The extraction unit sounds interesting. Iā€™m not sure how much we need it, but it would certainly reduce the amount of evil we pump into the neighbourhood, and for Ā£300 itā€™s pretty reasonable. To everyone else, what do you think?
For reference, the 400i dimensions are 465x528x1070.

The laser is now in place and I got some ducting for it. I still need to hook up all the hoses and stuff to the chiller and air pump. The BR are having all the windows replaced, and we wonā€™t have a permanent venting solution in place until after that (as we might have to change it otherwise) so Iā€™d probably like to wait for the training until then. Otherwise thereā€™s a good chance Ryan will come down on the night thereā€™s a gig on downstairs, and we canā€™t open the windows to sling the vent out.

Iā€™ve not been able to look at the tensioner yet, was doing more mains wiring last week.

I talked to the contractors yesterday, it should be possible to fit a wood panel to accept the laser cutter hose in the new window, this maybe happening tomorrow.

Is there a suitable fitting for the end of the hose, if so would we know itā€™s dimensions ?

Oh nice!. The hose is 150mm diameter. If the hole is about that, we can fashion a manifold of some sort to join the hose to the hole.

Great, so if I ask for a hole of 155mm diameter that would suffice ?

We now have a wood panel with a 155mm hole for the laser cutter exhaust in the new wndows, all ready for fitting the vent !

Nice. I should be there tomorrow evening. Will probably be later, because I have to go home first.

It posed for this photo earlier ā€¦

Cool!

So are we getting to a stage where I could usefully wheel Ryan down for calibration type activities and planning of interlocks, etc.

P.s. will the people below the vent mind the smell of extreme barbecue or ablated acrylic?

Hi Malcolm. Yes, I think weā€™re ready to book in a visit! The window fitters should be done in the next day or two. There is nobody directly below us (closed Boileroom windows) or the left or right, so we should be good to go. In time, we can investigate some filtration if it seems necessary.

Hi Mark,

Hopefully I will see Ryan tomorrow evening.

What are your opening times/times when were can get access? (Evenings/weekends preferably)

Regards,
Malcolm