upgrading hackspaces laser cutter

[Jeffrey Aley]

i think i've convinced myself that as many safety interlocks and limit switches as possible should be put on this thing then... it's used by upto 200 different people potentially, and each person has their own idea of how to use it that differs slightly from their induction on the machine.


I am wondering about the way the ruida controllers handle jobs, it seems it stores all past jobs in memory?

the current set up, we send the job to the machine, that is the only one there and you start it, when you're finished you either send it another or turn the machine off for the next user.
this deletes the job from memory, so starting it up starts afresh.

Can this be done with the ruida controllers?

My machine only has 1 X and 1 Y limit switch. Just because the diagram shows the controller CAN have extra stuff, doesn't mean you NEED to have the extra stuff

For the jobs: the RuiDa controller (and RDWorks software) can work in both modes. In my case, I simply send the job from the PC to the laser directly. It's somewhat like a printer in this mode. The laser does not retain the job in it's memory - the PC re-sends it each time I want to cut.

You may also upload jobs to the lasers' memory. This enables you to work w/o a PC connected. It is also handy for people who are in a factory / production environment where they need to cut the same few jobs over and over.

[Doug Fisher]

Are you watching all of the second-hand/resale websites to see if you can find a better built and well-cared for used unit so you have a better starting point? Have you asked sellers like ThinkLaser, Just Add Sharks (still open?), ATK Lasers and similar to see if they have used/demo units for sale? Lots of people buy ebay units but then never use them and look to sell them. Some of the ebay units are decently built. I think you will be able to find a decent one in good working shape with better components if you take a while to look. It seems to me you are just trying to "polish a turd" when throwing money at that machine plus its bed size is very small for a hacker space.

[Gary Richardson]

We wish we could have got a machine from just add sharks, i was at the nottingham hackspace when they started up and got the amazing silvertail A0 cutter for them, unfortunately they have gone now,

the leeds hackspace is a bit wary of lasers now, as they were basically ripped off big time with that piece of shit they have now, they were told it was a good machine and all the rest of it, well, you've seen the gantry design, it's just an extended K40.

I think part of upgrading this machine was also proof of concept for some things, to show we could do the rest of the job and build a complete new machine almost any size we want, the only restrictions being gantry materials and sag with something silly like an 8 foot by 4 foot machine (we can all dream)

But if we could source an ex demo machine for the budget we have, i'm sure they would go for that