Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby awesomenesser » Sat Sep 03, 2011 8:30 am

I finished installing and wiring the led strips to my frame. There are a few pictures below. Also I setup a library with all of the pictures I took during the build process they are located here.

P1000852.JPG
The frame with the led strips turned off.


P1000851.JPG
The frame with only the gantry led strip on.


P1000850.JPG
The frame with all of the led strips on.


P1000853.JPG
Since I had some left over I added a strip above the electronics.


In order to be able to control all of the extras that I am adding to my laser I am creating a custom front panel with the needed switches. The switches will be able to activate the following: gantry led strip, frame led strips, pwm/pot, air assist override, exhaust override, and a surprise for later. The top key switch controls the main relay and the bottom (momentary) enables the laser test fire button. Also I am relocating the e stop to the top of the laser because I ran out of room.

Front Panel.png
A rendering of my front panel.
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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby awesomenesser » Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:16 pm

I went to one of my friends houses this weekend and did a little machining. I had my friend lathe a channel in the upper lens mount so that I can use a o-ring to support the lens instead of aluminum. (I got this idea from J45on)

My skins will be here Wednesday so I can start cutting plastic without killing myself with the fumes. I also ordered a variety of plastics from mcmaster carr so I will let you know how those work out when they arrive.

P1000867.JPG
The lathed upper lens holder.


P1000872.JPG
The upper and lower lens holder with lens and o-ring.


I already did one test cut with 1/8" acrylic I made a bracket to mount my flow rate meter to the extrusion. I did the lest cut with the exhaust hose held over the gantry, it worked fairly well but the acrylic smell still made it through. (I cut my initials out of the bracket to see what the laser could do and it worked rather well)

P1000808.JPG
The flow rate meter with its laser cut bracket.
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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby dirktheeng » Wed Sep 07, 2011 1:05 am

I like the o-ring idea.... I may ask a friend a work to see if he can do this for me. It will totally prevent any scratching.
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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby awesomenesser » Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:23 am

dirktheeng wrote:I like the o-ring idea.... I may ask a friend a work to see if he can do this for me. It will totally prevent any scratching.


Yea I didn't like the idea of screwing an expensive lens between two pieces of aluminum. It also helps out with the fact that the air assist nozzle is held on by that bottom lens holder and it is much sturdier with the o-ring in place. I am still thinking about remaking the air assist so that it holds onto the upper lens holder.
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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby awesomenesser » Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:49 am

Well it is finally done!!! (Except for the table material which has been ordered)

P1010008.JPG
The laser in all of its glory.


This is a picture of the back panel with the air assist quick connect. Thanks Bart for the back panel without the grommet holes it makes the laser look much classier. (Bart you weren't joking about having no extra room in the crate, it was very nicely packed and I didn't have a single imperfection on any of the skins.)

P1000968.JPG
The rear panel with air assist.

Note: The label in this image is wrong do not set the steppers to 4 for 1/8th stepping set them to 3 (The motors do weird things).

I cut the corner out of the rear skin and mounted the radiator to it using 2.5" screws and some aluminum tubing as spacers. I also tested the water temp. to see how cool it kept the laser wanting to make sure two fans was enough. I fired the laser on full for a 5 minutes and the water temp. only made it to 29C and dropped back to room temp after a few minutes. So I am pretty sure 2 120cm fans is more than enough.

P1000948.JPG
The radiator mount and the exhaust port.


I wanted the radiator to be able to removed so that I could move it around to bleed air out of the system and make it so that I did not have to disconnect the tubes at any point. FYI, those are coils of silver in the distilled water, they are suppose to kill some bacteria, viruses, algae and fungi in the water.

P1000947.JPG
The radiator access panel removed.


Here is a picture of the final liquid cooling system from the inside.

P1010016.JPG
The liquid cooling system tube routing.


I replaced the y axis motor shafts and shaft couplers. I had a bit of wobbling in the shafts so I decided to order a replacement. I bought the shaft from mcmaster carr and the couplers came from ebay (search 5mmx6.35mm flexible coupler). The y axis motion feels smoother after the conversion.

P1000933.JPG
The new shaft couplers and shaft.


I am uploading another hundred pictures to the library now so take a look if you want more detailed pictures. link
Last edited by awesomenesser on Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby bdring » Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:53 pm

I happen to have a bunch of those same couplers on order from a different source. I am trying to find some true 1/4 I.D. bearings that a shaft can go through. VXB is not answering my email. What did you do to get the shaft in the bearing?
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"If you didn't build it, you will never own it."
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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby awesomenesser » Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:35 pm

bdring wrote:I happen to have a bunch of those same couplers on order from a different source. I am trying to find some true 1/4 I.D. bearings that a shaft can go through. VXB is not answering my email. What did you do to get the shaft in the bearing?


I did have some issues with the shaft, I had to use a combination of sandpaper and a wire brush bench grinder wheel on the ends of the shaft. Luckily the way the table is assembled you can press the bearing into the end and cut the shaft to the right length. Then slide the whole assembly into the laser adding the cog wheels as you go.

I tried to order those couplers from somewhere else because I did not want to wait a month for china shipping but I couldn't find them anywhere.
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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby dwessels » Thu Sep 08, 2011 5:13 pm

Looks great!

How / where are you measuring the temperature?

-d
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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby awesomenesser » Fri Sep 09, 2011 12:12 am

I plan on adding inline temp probes in various places in the coolant loop but I haven't bought them yet. I temporarily used my multimeter which has a temp probe that I lowered into the reservoir. I will be reading and converting the temperatures using an AVR which will use a small monochrome LCD to read out info such as temps and flow rate. The AVR will also have the ability to break the safety loop if the pump quits or the temps get too high.
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Re: Big Ol' Laser, by Awesomenesser

Postby TLHarrell » Fri Sep 09, 2011 5:53 am

I would hope there is some sort of an alert condition prior to the safety loop being tripped. I've had a couple projects ruined due to my laser stopping in the middle of a run. Once from a USB glitch, once from the new computer going to sleep in mid-job. Give yourself time to respond to a condition.
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