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Since I'm also an impulsive ninny, I'm waiting for my shiny new adventure in disaster to show up. It's been a few days with no tracking number, but the seller on ebay marked it as shipped with an expected delivery date of next Tuesday. In the meantime I'm clearing space off and collecting supplies. Of all the goofy tools I own, I think this one has the most capacity to ruin my retinas or set my shop on fire. Or both. I wear fairly large glasses, are there any CO2 laser protection goggles out there that can be worn over glasses? I don't mind paying for PPE when warranted, but all the stuff I've found doesn't look like it works with eyeglasses. edit: politicorific posted:Well poo poo, I had an electrical outlet fixed today in my apartment and found out all the outlets in my building are not grounded. Plus, the guy who wired the place warned me to only use hair dryers on 2 specific outlets. He wasn't speaking English... I assume the wire gauge is too light for the current draw a hair dryer can pull. The power box has the following circuit breakers: double 50 AMP (feed?), double 30 AMP (Hot Water heater), double 20 AMP (Air Conditionaer), and 2 single 20 AMP circuits (lights, outlets). Do you have any coldwater copper pipes near? That may provide a suitable ground in lieu of nothing. I can't imagine that the power draw of the entire laser system exceeds 100W, so you're probably safe there unless you're really pushing 20amps in the whole apt. total, in which case you'll just pop the breaker. If the wires are sized so badly that you can't run a hair dryer on any outlet in the apt. you've got bigger problems. I'm not an electrician though, so somebody else can come by and tell you these suggestions are dumb. Pimblor fucked around with this message at 18:26 on May 19, 2016 |
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May 19, 2016 18:19
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My journey into fires and madness has begun! Maybe NSFW for language   The fan was a mess as previously described, the vent hose was garbage which I replaced with a semi-rigid aluminum duct (good to 400F) and vented outside with a super nice all metal dryer vent hood. I sort of half-assed the laser alignment in (it was waaaaaay off), I'll fiddle with that more later. Nothing appeared to be broke, and this seller (rumei-shopping) got it to me for $385 shipped to the door via FedEx home. It came double boxed and a poo poo load of bubble wrap and hard foam. Thanks for the thread OP. I never would have known about these wonder POS lasers. Here's cardboard covered with brown masking tape after being cut and the masking tape peeled. 
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May 23, 2016 12:35
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Dialing in the mirrors has turned into a sonofabitch for me. I wish there was an easier way to do this rather than run through packs of post-it notes and trial and error. Confounding this is the terrible fan motor blocking the back panel to access the first mirror. Getting rid of that POS is my top priority. The included LaserDRW software is garbage, but contrary to popular internet wisdom does support vector graphics in the form of your grandpa's favorite vector format WMF. The Corel Laser plugin DOES NOT work in Windows 10. If you plan on keeping stock controller/software, just find a lovely old Windows XP box cause none of this janky rear end Chinese stuff works in 10.
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May 24, 2016 04:20
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FISHMANPET posted:My controller computer is running Windows 10 with no real problems with Corel Laser. The only annoying thing is the way the plugin's notifications interact with Windows 10 notifications, causing a million popups. The popups were easily silenced but on a fresh install of Win 10 I'd hit the go button and the Corel Laser UI would disappear and the job would crap out halfway through. It was easier to drag out an old XP box than to gently caress with it for more than 20 minutes.
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May 24, 2016 18:03
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Just screwing around with a piece of maple firewood (not my sausage fingers): edit: for shits and grins I'm gonna try and laser engrave bone
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May 24, 2016 23:04
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Parts Kit posted:Have any of you guys with the chinese CO2 lasers tried the inkscape plug in for generating code? I looked at that but it doesn't seem like that talks directly to the proprietary controller that's in the laser cutter. You'd need a card that speaks gcode which is all it appears to output. In other news, after using the Corel Laser plugin in Win XP, I noticed that there is a little pink icon that shows up in the notification area that can control the laser plugin after right clicking on it. I'll give it a shot in Windows 10 again (I never saw it in 10 because it auto-hides it.) and see if it will work. Although the crappy old XP box has been working flawlessly for the purpose, so I'm not too bent out of shape.
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May 26, 2016 18:26
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politicorific posted:Okay dumb question, the white wire in the upper left would appear to be the ground to my apartment's electrical box, but it isn't hooked up to any of my outlets. That bus bar to the left ought to be a ground. That white wire is probably hot if it's going to a breaker. Who knows though, I've never used/seen breakers like that. They could be just the neutral though and I don't know if its kosher to use that as an earth ground or not.
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May 31, 2016 00:52
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What PSI/kPa are you guys running air assist at? I tried using an old aquarium bubbler pump and it seemed to do gently caress-all.
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Jun 18, 2016 00:22
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Rakins posted:Dunno if any of you are a member, but there's a google group for K40 owners that has been really helpful in upgrading my machine. Everyone replies at all hours of the night and gets you help with a problem fast. I printed out those focusing tools in the first link on my first gen replicator and they are kinda meh. It's a step up from post it notes but the fit on the mirror is too tight and the cutting head is sloppy on both the OEM head and the air assist head. One minor upgrade I did was JB weld a little aluminum plate to keep from burning through the ABS: 
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Jul 3, 2016 03:39
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and drilled some holes to screw new duct into case so no more space in between. Also ripped out the lovely clamp bed and gained about 3 inches of vertical space for focusing. Added the ebay Saite_Cutter air assist head with new lens which is really nice, but just need to re-focus machine now. I cracked a nipple on my water inlet and couldn't get the hosing to stay put or keep from leaking with silicone, hose clamps, or zip ties and marine epoxy did the trick. Just swapped the pump for a lower flow rate so I don't stress it. But the 10 layers of epoxy have moved my tube about a quarter inch from where it was originally so focusing is turning out to be a pain. I'm trying to move my mirrors further back but might just cut the side out of the case and move the tube back so I don't have to mess with every drat mirror mount. Also almost have my smoothieboard in too!
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I don't recall seeing this posted but this looks like a nice general guide to aligning your laser cutter (I found it in that google group mentioned above): http://www.lightobject.info/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2835
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Jul 3, 2016 14:29
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Mister Sinewave posted:I realized a neat application I never considered before: cutting the foam from e.g. instrument cases for a custom fit. I'm not sure a cheapo laser would have the cutting depth you'd want over just a hot wire.
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Aug 27, 2016 13:43
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:34 |
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Mister Sinewave posted:I cut some multi-layer instrument cutouts and they are utterly precise compared to doing it by hand. Also it was less than a minute total and minimal handling/extra steps so overall pretty nice. I don't know about commercial CNC hotwire setups, but I've seen some hombrew jobs that are just that, x/y table and stationary hotwire. I don't think a jigsaw style would work as a hotwire is usually a nichrome or steel wire with current passing through it. In this case you'd likely just drill/cut a hole and thread it through to make the internal cutout.
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Aug 28, 2016 02:17
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