I thought about that… but as you can see my machine is almost the size of the room lol
Yea, I got lucky when we bought our house a few years ago, it came with a barn!
Spoilboard is on and ready to be faced. Second pic is the router bit set that I have had for years but like never touched with my plunge router… I think so of them will be getting dirty soon!?
Question - The bit top row 5th over a 5/8" straight 2 flute cutter… would that work for facing as I do not have a facing bit right now?
I have never need the precision to have to face my spoil board, but if you need it that bit should work. You should probably use my perpendicularity tool to make sure you router is super straight or you will leave stripes in your spoil board. It is pretty easy to use if your tool is leaning a bit a small piec of tape or foil or soda can can shim it in the right direction. This will also let you cut faster.
I shall print it tonight. I set the Z at zero and move the router around it only caught in one spot and it just scratched the surface of the mdf. Probably slight variation in the mdf. I am going to try a few tests before i spend hours facing it.
Here is a quick 20 second video of our first laser burn. Its in a 2x6.
The attached picture is the same logo blown up and burn on to cardboard. Cant wait to try some raster burns and once all my bits arrive do some actual cutting.
Finally my first cut in wood.
3/4" Standard Plywood
30’ 0.1mm single flute engraving bit (Probably about 40% rpm)
10 mm/s (starting slow)
1mm DOC
Looks pretty good. Some of the real fine detail was chipping out but that is plywood for you.
Overall I think the test was a success
Well I am going to “upgrade” the rails on my machine to the True Color EMT. It is supposed to have a durable smooth finish.
I am getting a lot of weird vibrations/shaking at the centre assembly which translates to the finished product. It seems to be worse in some areas of the rails then others. I have tried sanding, rotating, sanding some more, scraping, sanding… and it still does it. If this dont work i guess a rebuild with 1" stainless.
I have felt the motors as they run and they move nice and smooth. The rollers move nice and smooth too. Tried tightening and loosening the tension bolts on the center assembly too with no result.
Well scratch that… The colored stuff is the same thing. Just painted.
Started print the 25.4mm version in PETG last night. 0.5mm nozzle, 0.4mm layer height, 4 perimeters 60% infill… What I have printed so far is solid. Should went PETG the first time… Not that would fix my current problem.
Found closet rods at Rona for $12 each that will cover the 60" inches per axis I need. Bit of a pricey upgrade compared to conduit but I think it will be well worth it.
Just had a thought regarding the curtain rods…
The adjustable steel curtain rods have 2 bars that slide into each other and the are generally a pretty close fit. Now although I had a pretty tough time trying to flex a 48" section of the rod by itself I wonder would the added weight of leaving the inside rod in place be worth the possible increase in rigidity?
The perimeter rods would not matter cuz they dont move but the Gantry rods?
I don’t have end stops but if I were to print off some end stop holders and clamp them to the x and y rails (as you have), would that be a quick way to square my machine before a print? Then I could simply slide the whole gantry over to the left until both rollers touch the end stops and then slide the gantry forward until the other rollers touch their end stops.
As it is now, the gantry acts as a lever because it touches the opposite roller first when trying to square things up, so you have to move each side independently ensuring they are equal distances from the corners.
That is essentially what i do. Disable the motors slide the rails so they touch then hit the home buttons to re engage the steppers. 15 minutes spent setting them up to save time every time. works great
Rebuild to the 25.4mm version complete. Used Chromed steel closet rods. Size was perfect didnt even need cut them down for the outer rails. All the parts are except the rollers are Black PETG printed with 0.5mm nozzle, 0.4mm layer height. Strong stuff. The rollers are grey PLA printed with the same settings.
I can say going from conduit to smooth rails what a difference. It is so much quieter and movement is much smoother. It cost about 5 times more then conduit but i would definitely recommend it.
Now back to lasering stuff. My mirror work was backing up on me. LOL
Well I bit the bullet and bought the Pic Engrave 5 Pro… Let me say it is worth every penny. The skip white back ground feature works flawlessly with a simple check box. This feature alone has turned 13 hour engraves in to 6 hours saving me big time.
I am in the midst of trying to write up a little tutorial on how I do this. Any thoughts on what info I should include… Not very good at making instructions.
attached is one of the most recent makes
Looks good.
For the instructions I just use the windows snipping tool to take screen shots at every step of the process, then some pics when I get to the machine. After that I just put them all in the page and add a sentence or two to explain them. For me its much easier to explain the steps when there is a picture there, and any info/experience that pops in my head I add to it. I could never sit down and write a tutorial and then make pics. Think of my instructions as low end and Leo’s laser instructions as top of the line!
So with that shower rod is your X and y pretty rigid over the 5’ span?
Its a little more rigid then the conduit, but runs smoother as the surface is smoother which for me using the laser a lot is important.
No issues with it sagging or flexing even in the center?
Do you have a video of the laser going?
Not that I can tell… I have this huge machine and I have not used beyond 600mm in either direction LOL
I do not have a video yet but will soon for my mirror tutorial