Ben's 2.x Laser Build

[Halfdead]

The box is pretty heavy even empty (it's about 1.5 sheets of 3/4 plywood and 1 sheet of 1/2) and the wheels lock really well. With all that stuff in the drawers it's by far the sturdiest thing I've ever put the laser on.

Yes, the plastic tub is my new reservoir. It was empty in that pic. It's a "waterproof" box. I drilled a hole in the lid to get the tubing/power through. There's some adhesive cable management clips stuck to the inside now so that the water coming out of the tube is visible re-entering the box.

Right now the water is siphoning partly back out of the laser when it's off and takes a few seconds on start to purge the bubbles again. I know I used to have setups (still with the reservoir below the laser, and with the same pump) where that didn't happen, but I'm not sure why. Maybe I need a big service loop to break the vacuum. Unfortunately my tubing is getting shorter and shorter! Probably time to replace it.

Can anyone recommend a water quick disconnect for a setup like this?

Can't you just submerge the outlet hose?

[BenJackson]

Can't you just submerge the outlet hose?

I deliberately didn't (so I could observe the flow) but maybe that was the trick when I had it working? I guess that would have to work...

[educa]

BEN. Did you actually change your code or port it to the latest versions of LInuxCNC or are you still using the 10.4LT ubuntu like 5* years ago?

I still use that version but would be very interested to know if you have already actualized the software or also still use that old but working code?

[BenJackson]

If you flip back a few pages you'll see I bought an E5 DSP when I unpacked the cutter after moving. So I haven't used LinuxCNC for a long time. There are some things I miss, but it's so much easier/faster to use the laser cutter casually now.

[Halfdead]

Can't you just submerge the outlet hose?

I deliberately didn't (so I could observe the flow) but maybe that was the trick when I had it working? I guess that would have to work...

You can get a flow indicator for like a dollar on eBay, submerged it should work.