450 X 900 60 watt build.

[Rodney Edington]

A little more done










Bed is ready











And mounted












Tube mounts are next and then start mounting the electrical stuff and wiring

[Gene Uselman]

That is a very fine honeycomb mesh- interested to see how you like it. My experience is that the flashback from the honeycomb causes burns on the bottom of the material being cut. Not sure if finer will be better or worse.

[Rodney Edington]

That is a very fine honeycomb mesh- interested to see how you like it. My experience is that the flashback from the honeycomb causes burns on the bottom of the material being cut. Not sure if finer will be better or worse.

Gene,
I love the 1/8" cell honeycomb that my K40 has. The cross section of the aluminum is only .004" I see very little flashback on the wood I've cut. Granted, I've only cut thin wood and haven't used much power to cut it. Once I get this going, I'll do some 1/4" basswood and see if there is any flashback on it.

The reason I choose 1/8" for the K40 is that Most of what I cut has a lot of small parts and with this honeycomb, I don't loose them.

[Rodney Edington]

In the next day or so, I'll be getting ready to wire limit switches. I'm going to have both home and max on both the X and Y. Can I run both home and max wires together in a 3 wire shielded cable (common ground) or do I need them to be separate cables????


Thanks

[Rodney Edington]

I have gotten some more done. The Z axis is working smoothly. I need to build the stand for the laser before I finish leveling the bed to the both axis. The bed has a little over 8" of travel.





















I picked up this stepper controller a few years ago and it works great for testing.



















Bed at the full raised position












And at the lowest position.

[Rodney Edington]

After watching more of Russ's videos, I really like his idea of making a adjustable head mount. So I spent some time at my Bridgeport making one to fit my 12mm top mounted rail.


The original way I had it mounted was the head mount was bolted to a converter block that I had made.











I ended up with 3 plates. the middle plate goes on the bearing block.











Bottom of the bearing block plate. I milled it so the bearing block has a tight slip fit.











The other two plates bolted together












And mounted to the rail
At the highest level and closest to the rail












Lowest level and farthest away from the rail.

[Rodney Edington]

I was digging through my stepper motor stash and found a small NEMA 23 (I think it's 175oz) that will replace the 17 that I was going to use on the X axis. Also I'll be making it into "rack drive" like Russ uses.

The pulleys I ordered from China for the Y axis drive on March 8th just shipped Friday. So I hope to see them soon so I can start getting that finished.

[Gene Uselman]

Very nice parts Rodney- I am having an adjustable mount delivered from Cloudray today, which I will use with a stock cutting head until I can design a lightweight double head and make it... perhaps in my next lifetime?

[Rodney Edington]

Very nice parts Rodney- I am having an adjustable mount delivered from Cloudray today, which I will use with a stock cutting head until I can design a lightweight double head and make it... perhaps in my next lifetime?

I've looked at Cloudray website and didn't see that they had any. But today, I looked and found them.

[Rodney Edington]

Been working on the X axis rack drive.
This is what I came up with. I made a extra just in case I ever build another laser.
Plates










With the motor mounted. I need the extra offset cause of the pulley.












Mounted in place on the axis











Well, crap, that won't work. Back to the drawing board (CAD). I could try it this way, but I think the slight rub will generate some heat and wear the belt.