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Thread: Cheap laser cutter modifications.

  1. #61
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    Rodney, you are a mind of information

    Regarding the honeycomb, I've never really had any issues as with wood you can sand any slight marks off, acrylic you just leave the film on. Even without the film on I can't say I've had much of an issue apart from on clear acrylic with a rather damaged honeycomb grid.

    Raising the part is obviously an option but for a lot of the kind of things I'll be cutting, I've found it doesn't work too well - if your cutting small detailed parts or thin parts they can sag in places and mess up the cutting (and etching if you're doing it all in one job).
    Small parts is the reason why I went for 3.2mm cell honeycomb when most machines have 8mm or larger.

    TLHarrell, I would have thought that thin wire would work but only on a smaller grid and it might be tricky to get the required tension on it. It would 't really work for heavier objects either but should be ideal for sheet materials.
    I'll be interested in how that works out if you do go that way.



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    Quote Originally Posted by mowcius View Post
    In Universal laser machines that I've used, I think there's some kind of substance below the honeycomb bed to absord the laser if it gets all the way through the material/runs over an edge and just goes straight through the honeycomb - anyone know if that's correct/what the substance is? Or just any suggestions as to what to put under the honeycomb?
    My ULS has the honeycomb table, and all it really has under it is about a 2 inch gap. The light diverges enough before it hits the bottom so it doesn't burn the paint off. The downside is that if debris collects down there, the diverged beam IS still hot enough to set it on fire.

    Black anodized aluminum has worked well for me in the past - once you get away from the focus point, it just absorbs the energy.



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    Quote Originally Posted by Rodney Gold View Post
    Anodised aluminium acts like a "backstop" for the beam , it absorbs it.
    You can lay a thin sheet down and elevate the acrylic you cutting off it for fume and melt clearance , just use some 10mm scrap blocks of acrylic etc. Honeycomb is a problem as you get flashback from it , often marring the back surface of items you cutting.
    I use the same trick, but I'll also add tape or paper to the top of the backstop material. Then I run the job on the paper only so I can see where the lines will be, and add supports inside/outside those lines to elevate the material.

    I've never been able to get "perfect" acrylic edges with the honeycomb table, it either doesn't cut through, or you get the bounce back lines



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    Cheers - I'll see if I can get a sheet of black annodised aluminium or if I can find somewhere cheap to annodise a sheet for me.

    In other news, my LAOS board is half soldered - got the parts I was missing ordered yesterday.
    I'd forgotten how expensive connectors were though - it was cheaper for me to place a separate order from Rapid Electronics with 4 pairs of connectors + VAT & shipping than it was to buy them from Farnell.
    For anyone in the UK, Rapid is about 10 times cheaper than everywhere else for connectors...

    I've also got a 12mm (hopefully) lens on its way to me from China as well.

    A bit more progress has been made on the machine hardware too - I'll try get some pics up soon.



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    Great work on the thread, I have been looking at buying one of these for a week or so and found it very helpful, would you still recommend it or do you think there is a better model available? Cheers



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    Quote Originally Posted by raphael150 View Post
    Hello Mowcius,
    Very good thread, you are doing a great job.
    I have exactly the same machine and gonna do some changes like you´re doing, but the biggest change you need to do is the Controller board.
    I´ve bought a TB6560 and it is set aside for awhile and I´m just planing how to install it in my machine. The big chalange I see is firing the laser using the board relay with Mach3.
    Thank you for show us your job
    Raphael

    Hello,raphael150.
    Why is it set aside for awhile? Is some thing wrong with the circuit board or the limited power? Have you try THB6064AH?



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    Quote Originally Posted by raphael150 View Post
    Hello Mowcius,
    Very good thread, you are doing a great job.
    I have exactly the same machine and gonna do some changes like you´re doing, but the biggest change you need to do is the Controller board.
    I´ve bought a TB6560 and it is set aside for awhile and I´m just planing how to install it in my machine. The big chalange I see is firing the laser using the board relay with Mach3.
    Thank you for show us your job
    Raphael
    Hello,raphael150.
    Why is it set aside for awhile? Is some thing wrong with the circuit board or the limited power? Have you try THB6064AH?



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    Quote Originally Posted by MadMachines View Post
    Great work on the thread, I have been looking at buying one of these for a week or so and found it very helpful, would you still recommend it or do you think there is a better model available? Cheers
    For the price there isn't a better one available. I don't know I'd recommend it because there is so much that could do with being improved/modified - if you've got the money then go for something better.
    If you're not thinking of replacing the controller board then it also probably wouldn't be a good choice.



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    Wink To buy a laser. Where ? please help

    Hi to all who are reading this one. I am asking for a help. I'm a new in this forrum, there is many king of lasers, and im just want to buy one hceap laser. I have founded the blue boxes co2 lasers in ebay, but in realy I have bought one, and they asked aditional shipping, now they dont response and etc. I'm asking where can I buy one cheap lasser for laser engraving ? Im living in eurpe. I need some info where can I buy cheap laser like for 400$-800$ or somethink like this (the shipping included in this price). Can someone help me ?



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    Quote Originally Posted by mowcius View Post
    For the price there isn't a better one available. I don't know I'd recommend it because there is so much that could do with being improved/modified - if you've got the money then go for something better.
    If you're not thinking of replacing the controller board then it also probably wouldn't be a good choice.
    I agree. If you are not prepared to open the machine up and tweak it along with working through getting a new controller setup I would not go with this machine.

    Required Modifications to make this machine reasonably usable:
    1) Requires a custom cutting bed constructed and installed
    2) Requires a custom extraction fan duct be created and new extraction fan (fan it comes with is worthless, doesn't seal when installed and blocks access to the laser tube door for mirror alignment)
    3) Air assist needs to be added
    4) Machine needs to thoroughly checked for square and alignment
    5) Controller replaced with Mach3, DSP or Retina Engrave

    After doing these you will still be under a comparable machine in cost, but you have elbow grease and hard work involved.



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    Gadrock, I wouldn't put all of those in my list of requirements to make it a reasonable working machine (eg. Air assist isn't on a lot of machines over 10k - it's useful for a lot of things but not essential).

    I received more toys today - my mbed, stepper drivers and other components for my controller board. Got a bit of soldering to do now, looking forward to it.



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    Yea I'd agree air assist is not "essential" for everyone. It's on my list cause I use RowMark Laser Max which basically requires it to get a clean cut. Your mileage may vary.



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    Thanks for your help guys. I was wondering also what hrs you have got out of the laser tube, as a lot of others seem to be having them fail after only a few hrs?



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    Right, here's some pics of some progress:

    Cable chain on new mount.

    It's very slightly too tall and catches the lid so that needs to be lifted up by ~15mm

    The LAOS board.

    I've been busy soldering up the LAOS board - almost finished now then I'll load up some code onto that and build up an i2c display setup - connect up my steppers and see if I get movement!

    Progress has been annoyingly slow recently though

    I'd like to say the end's in sight but I still have a long list of ideas so it's not really.

    MadMachines, as I haven't really used mine yet I couldn't say but I sure hope it's a few hundred hours at least.



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    Looking good so far on setting up your machine. Loving the cable chain mounts. You do nice, clean work.

    For those who don't want to jump through all these hoops (I didn't either, starting off) I'd recommend checking out Full Spectrum Engineering. They do all these upgrades, and their controller is really very nice. Yes, you will pay more, but you're also buying the support to go with it. Some of the Chinese companies will basically ship you a laser, working if you're lucky, and disappear once they have the money.

    For those with the time and resources (like above) to put into it, buying one for $800 off EBay is a decent enough choice. It's a good little starter machine. I've had mine for a few months now and I'm already dreaming of building something a LOT bigger.



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    Quote Originally Posted by mowcius View Post
    Right, here's some pics of some progress:
    It's very slightly too tall and catches the lid so that needs to be lifted up by ~15mm.
    Mine taps the lid pretty much constantly when it's rastering. Not an issue when it's doing vector cuts.



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    Quote Originally Posted by TLHarrell View Post
    Looking good so far on setting up your machine. Loving the cable chain mounts. You do nice, clean work.
    For those who don't want to jump through all these hoops (I didn't either, starting off) I'd recommend checking out Full Spectrum Engineering. They do all these upgrades, and their controller is really very nice. Yes, you will pay more, but you're also buying the support to go with it. Some of the Chinese companies will basically ship you a laser, working if you're lucky, and disappear once they have the money.
    Yeah a lot of people seem to buy from them - sounds like a good option if you're in the US.

    For those with the time and resources (like above) to put into it, buying one for $800 off EBay is a decent enough choice. It's a good little starter machine. I've had mine for a few months now and I'm already dreaming of building something a LOT bigger.
    I haven't even finished this one yet and I'm still planning my next one. I'll likely dismantle the one I have then just make a new chassis and cutting bed, might replace the steppers too.
    Hopefully see if I can recoup a bit of cost once this is working but with an extra £200-£300 or so I should be able to make a decent new chassis to attach the parts I have to.



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    Quote Originally Posted by TLHarrell View Post
    Mine taps the lid pretty much constantly when it's rastering. Not an issue when it's doing vector cuts.
    If I'd gone with slightly smaller cable chain with a slightly smaller bend radius then I might have got away with it. If I hadn't enlarged the cutting bed then I'd probably also have been ok. As the cable chain wears slightly it might not bend up so much in the middle but as it is I can live with having the lid open slightly.



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    how much was the cable chain? and where did you get it?

    thanks
    Michael T.
    "If you don't stand for something, chances are, you'll fall for anything!"


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    Quote Originally Posted by miljnor View Post
    how much was the cable chain? and where did you get it?
    As I recall, I got it from SourcingMap and it was ~£10-£15 for 1m although it did take ages to arrive with being shipped direct from China. They do various sizes but I'd recommend shopping around a bit more than I did and seeing if you can find somewhere which might be able to get it to you a bit faster.



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Cheap laser cutter modifications.

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