100w 1200x900 Laser Build

[Tim Mellor]

It is a bit hard to tell from the renders or Cad files but their will be a Tube cover isolated fairly well from the main enclosure. The plan is to use the now highlighted rails as the corners of a box above the table feed area and up to the top of the enclosure. These rails are part of the outer shell and clear the Gantry and internal frames.

Just need to watch the coating on the signboard if it gets in line with the Laser is why I am adding some steel plates in a few places. It will produce some nasties.

[Pete Cyr]

Your design looks pretty substantial as far as rigidity goes - should be very stable.

[Gene Uselman]

I have spent a bit of time sealing my tube area off as it was pretty much open on each end of the enclosure where each tube [if there were two] with the #1 mirror is or would be. The opening for the beam need only be a half inch, and could be a larger opening with a movable smaller plate over it for a better seal. My tube still gets filthy. If I were a younger man I would tear off the upper portion off and make a new one- the upper and lower cabinets are normally bolted together. My ambition is fleeting with the virus I am afraid. The laser will not hurt the ACM by the way, I have done may experiments with it, just burns the paint off the surface.

[Tim Mellor]

It is the paint that was the worry not the Laser getting to the core causing an issue. The coating on the ones I looked at is PVDF. The breakdown of Flouro Polymers is likely end badly so it just seemed sensible to keep a barrier in front of it. Back when I had a real job I had a customer who produced HF and we used to have a service contract with them so Organic Flourines scare me with cause.

[Gene Uselman]

Right you are. Ours comes with one side mill finished, probably safer?

[Tim Mellor]

I can get a mill finish on one side but not locally. If I leave the ordering the cladding until after the frame is completed I can most likely get it cut to size and get it freighted as a pack but a couple of full sheets wouldn't ship well.

While it isn't likely to cause an issue if a stray reflected beam vaporizes a tiny bit of PVDF I only put up the warning to others that might read it later. Generally the airflow through the Laser would render any vapors to insignificant levels too.

A quick mock up of the panels to protect the tube with some of the outer panels removed. The main internal frame will need to be a clearance fit for the tube part to go through the panel then most likely a soft gasket between the two. I won't bother detailing it fully at this stage as it is more of a custom fit when built.

[Tim Mellor]

Might be time to invest in a Torque adjustable electric screwdriver 'some' of the screws (550 but another 3-400 to come) for the build arrived along with the bits for the Z drives plus 'some' of the 90 degree brackets.

[Gene Uselman]

Highly recommend a cordless screwdriver, I bought a cheapy to see if it would be handy and immediately stepped up to a Hitachi 3.8V with a flex handle position. I love it. It actually has a dial indicator for torque which I have never used, I don't think you will overtorque anything.

[Robin Croen]

Awesome build! I enjoyed following the YouTube videos and I'll enjoy following your build here as well.

One comment/suggestion: It looks fine from the renderings, but I would double check that all of the mirrors are easily accessible from above. On my machine mirror 2 is under a part of the casing and can only be accessed from the side... big pain when trying to align the beam.

Can I ask where you sourced your aluminum and MGN15 rail?

[Tim Mellor]

With mirror access all the panels will be screwed on so access will be easy. Couple of pics below with the top and front panels off. I decided against a beam combiner (Hi Gene ) and I will be having a play with some Laser lines to form a cross on the head.

Some of it was to save the space but also not to lose any unnecessary power and the single dot indicators suck. So two of these on a lightweight mount https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000648 ... 4c4dIxbUBg

The T slot which is most of the build is from a Local importer http://www.mkalu.com/ as it was the most local and allowed my to buy longer lengths with less shipping issues as I was able to pick them up myself.

The V-Slot I ordered from the local version of http://makerstore.cc/ plus I added some extra rails for 'other projects' Aussie website https://www.makerstore.com.au/ With these they offer very competitive freight on lengths up to 1.5m which suits this design perfectly.

The MGN15 Rail I ordered from here and it is somewhere between Korea and me currently https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3305632 ... 4c4dIxbUBg Finding a source of continuous lengths at 1000mm cut down the options a bit but I didn't have to look to hard.