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"Do you expect me to talk?" "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to experience some pinpoint burns because your body is a curved medium and I haven't invested in a laser with auto focus!"
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Sep 30, 2015 09:32
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Ambihelical Hexnut posted:The glow forge is using accessibility as the means to excite customers into crowd funding their production run. There is legitimate value to that, and it's not a bad thing that someone might want to make lovely 3d scans on their phone and then 3d print them without having to learn about the technical concerns of the machine. The technology is exciting...not $2k exciting for me but I guess you gotta impress your friends somehow. I don't think the defensive driving analogy holds up. It's more like not wanting to take a rally driving course because you only intend to drive around town and commute to work. I've seen a lot of people online looking down their noses at the glow forge for being "babby's first laser", and the response is "fine, it's not for you". It reminds me of the EE guys who scoff at arduino users because it's not "real" embedded programming because it has an accessible IDE and tutorials. As an open-source-it hack-it-to-own-it technical user myself I can appreciate the limitations of the glow forge but we're still considering getting one for our makerspace, probably in support of a larger more capable machine. A good chunk of our community don't have the time or energy to invest on top of their existing projects / interests. They are happy to work within the limitations because they only have simple needs. Don't underestimate the value of accessibility. Thanks to user-experience-focussed design my 81 year old grandmother can use her iPhone 6 and face-time with her grandkids around the world with practically no assistance.
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Oct 2, 2015 13:20
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Our makerspace group have been designing and gathering materials for a DIY cutter using a 5W laser like the ones above. Apparently they'll do useable amounts of plywood. Going the standard shop-bot style gantry design with scavenged smooth rod and stuff, using the most common (and therefore cheap) stock clamps and bearings we can find. Not sure if we're going belt or screw for the linear drive. Probably screw for the torque.
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Apr 21, 2016 15:06
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Hmm, forgot to mention the bit where I want to be able to swap in a small brushless spindle for light cnc routing.
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Apr 25, 2016 21:29
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Baronjutter posted:So my bumpy laser wasn't from the chain, it's from the top wheel on the laser head. The outside of the wheel feels clean, so something must be wrong with the bearing inside? it's just a little rubber wheel thing attached by a bolt into the laser head. Would some contact cleaner maybe melt what ever's grunging up the inside of the wheel or is that not a safe thing to spray near a laser? It looks like we'll have to take the whole drat head off to even see what the problem is. Contact cleaner should be fine, liquid lighter fluid might be better. Just keep it out of the optics just in case. Leave the enclosure open for an hour or so afterwards to let it evaporate. If cleaning does work then don't forget to oil / grease the bearing afterwards as you will have washed away whatever lube may have been there. If it's still notching then chances are it's hosed, probably foreign matter. Bearings aren't expensive or hard to find - it will be a standard size, just order a new one. I'd suggest a sealed bearing (SS suffix) rather than simply a shielded one (ZZ), as you have unknown contaminants in your build area and air assist may be kicking them up, they're also maintenance free - they have grease sealed inside which will last the life of the bearing. You should be able to push/pull the bearing out of the wheel and press in a new one without much bother.
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Jul 11, 2017 14:33
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