LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

All the 110 volt wiring is done except for a SSR that will turn the CW 5000 chiller on when the laser tube power supply is on.
All steppers are wired as is the power to the stepper drivers. Need to do the limit switches and control card to stepper drivers.

Control panel is made of .062 aluminum
Upper left is the water temp then emergency stop and amp gauge
The lower left switch is main power. Above it is the laser power and chiller
The lower right is the exaust blower power supply and the other is extra.
And the U-Disk is in the middle.













Incoming panel
Bottom is main laser power. Top is chiller. The others are computer connections.












Canopy struts are on and adjusted. Kind of stiff till I get the skin and glass installed.

Took my Starret level and leveled both Y axis rails and the X axis rail both for and aft.
With everything all level, I leveled the tube and then took it out and added some disks I printed to do the preliminary mirror alignment using a laser pointer that I made.

You are making great progress- I remember those days, now I average about 25% of what I think I should get done in a day. I am building a Rotary device and revising the files and instructions as I see better ways of design/construction.
It feels great to be doing something I actually know how to do... and seeing progress. Also building up some 6" cannon wheels which is about 10 mins of laser time for the rims/spokes and an hour to 3D print the hubs and then mostly glue drying time in the jig I built to assemble them. I have steel tires that will be glued on [not shrunk on]. The pict looks like the hub is crooked but it is not- wheel has just had an app of glue and is drying.

Gene Uselman wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 You are making great progress- I remember those days, now I average about 25% of what I think I should get done in a day. I am building a Rotary device and revising the files and instructions as I see better ways of design/construction.
It feels great to be doing something I actually know how to do... and seeing progress. Also building up some 6" cannon wheels which is about 10 mins of laser time for the rims/spokes and an hour to 3D print the hubs and then mostly glue drying time in the jig I built to assemble them. I have steel tires that will be glued on [not shrunk on]. The pict looks like the hub is crooked but it is not- wheel has just had an app of glue and is drying.

Wow, the cannon wheels look awesome.

I know what you mean about only getting 25% done. I'm the same way.

After obtaining more info, the load of a induction motor doesn't do well on SSR's. So I'm going to wire the switch to the chiller and the SSR to the laser power supply. I want to keep the laser power supply and chiller together to keep the chance of tube failure caused by no water at a minimum.

All I have left to do is the Z axis limit switches, and the water and air pluming needs to be done. I'm waiting on parts that will be here Friday.

When I turn it on, it homes to the front right. Here is where I need some help configuring the controller. I've got it to "English" and I can move all axis's. I need to know how to get to the screen to input the steps per mm, change home from the right front to left rear.
I have not downloaded RDWorks or the drivers yet as I'm too computer dumb to get that done and put on the right harddrive (my computer has 3 of them). My son should be over sometime in the next couple of days to get that done for me.

I hope I'll be cutting with it by this weekend.

I got the X and Y pretty close as far as size and movement, but it homes to the lower right and I want it to home upper left. Also the arrows are backwards on the X and Y, so I probably have the motors wired backwards as well as the limit switches. The limit switches are working so if I have the motors backwards, I also have the limit switches backwards too. I need to find out what wires on the motors to switch and then switch the limit switch wires too. The Z works as the arrows shows.
I'm getting there.

All of those settings are done in Lightburn- Edit - Machine settings. Each axis has it's own parameters.

This morning I switched 2 stepper wires on each of the X and Y axis drivers and both axis limit switch wires and it homes as it should. The arrows on the controller are right now too.

I'm waiting on a 24 volt pneumatic control valve to turn the incoming shop air on and off. That will be wired so the air is on when the machine is powered up. I have a 24 volt 5 way valve the will be made into a "air assist" valve.

Got to go to the store for plywood for the bottom of the cart for the chiller to set on and a 5/16" barbed "T" and 1/4" reducer to hook up the water pressure safety valve.


Also need to get to the metal store and get aluminum to skin the machine with.

Gene Uselman wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 All of those settings are done in Lightburn- Edit - Machine settings. Each axis has it's own parameters.

Thanks Gene, but I don't have any of that installed on the computer yet. I've done everything so far on the controller itself.