Brian's "my wife isn't sure about this contraption" build

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slant direction

Postby quadmasta » Mon Jan 09, 2012 5:47 pm

It's slanting away from the mirror from top left to bottom right. Looks like a backslash \

I don't have precise enough instruments to tell whether the close side of the workpiece has a slant or not.
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Re: Brian's "my wife isn't sure about this contraption" buil

Postby macona » Tue Jan 10, 2012 3:17 am

Your alignment on the long gantry to head axis is off horizontal. As it moves it is reflecting towards the edge of the diagonal mirror and then going though the edge portion of the lens instead of the center of the lens. This will cause the beam profile to be messed up.
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clarification, please

Postby quadmasta » Tue Jan 10, 2012 12:50 pm

Are you saying that the final mirror assembly isn't perpendicular to the gantry or that the gantry extrusion isn't parallel to the laser's path?
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Re: clarification, please

Postby twehr » Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:34 pm

quadmasta wrote:Are you saying that the final mirror assembly isn't perpendicular to the gantry or that the gantry extrusion isn't parallel to the laser's path?


The gantry and laser path (from mirror 2 to final mirror/head assembly) should be parallel. Therefore, the final mirror needs to be perpendicular to both.
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which way is it off?

Postby quadmasta » Tue Jan 10, 2012 8:11 pm

Since the beam's end is wandering farther away, does that mean that the entire gantry is tilted toward the electronics side of the frame or the other way?
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Re: Brian's "my wife isn't sure about this contraption" buil

Postby macona » Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:39 am

It does not take precision equipment to do this. I use pieces of acrylic as targets and pulse the laser to mark the spot. In the case of the gantry, I take a piece of acrylic in front of the final mirror. Fire the laser with the head at one end, move it to the other and fire again. The should be on the exact same spot. You can also replace the lens with a piece and make sure the beam is coaxial. Just touching the test button very quickly is all you need. You want to mark the plastic, not burn through it.

It takes a while to get a laser in full alignment. It took me probably 2 hours to do the big rabbit we had at techshop. But when I was done It cut very clean and consistent, Alignment has a lot to do with cut quality.
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