The Shop > CNC

DIY Laser cutter/engraver design advice

<< < (3/3)

awemawson:
Very good resolution on that Cat model - did you draw it yourself  :clap:

vtsteam:
The fur looks almost real, and the green LEDs were a nice touch!  :clap:

picclock:
@WeldingRod
What an excellent cat picture, was it a scan ? :)

Using a rod to drive the two axis is a good solution to keeping things in step. My long shaft would be over 1M, and is probably a safe solution. However in my experience, two motors driven in parallel will not go out of sync during normal operation unless moved by hand. If it proves to be an issue I can use a fallback by triggering limit switches/sensors on each side to disable the stepper pulses for the relevant motor. The pulses would be re enabled by the change of direction line level. Failing that I may try your idea  :headbang:. time will tell. I have seen one design on the internet which uses two steppers so clearly it works for someone.

My main concern is the X axis which at over 1M long may tend to resonate. The weight of the mirror lens assembly plus the drag of the air feed tube / led pointer wires makes it tricky to get a feel for. The motor end of the axis will be fixed to the gantry. The far end will allow for some change of length, possibly a shaft in the end of the extrusion into a linear bearing.

Thanks for the input

Best Regards

picclock

PS also thought about replacing the led on the laserhead with a couple of cheapo mW power visible lasers and setting them up such that the light dots merge when the correct focus distance is set (Dambusters style). that way you get accurate position and focus.




 

WeldingRod:
I had problems with my dual Z screws getting bumped differently and tilting the works until I put a belt between them.  Of course, it ran smoothly enough that it would go down under gravity with the power off.  Belting them together stopped that problem too!

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

picclock:
My Laser tube finally arrived  :thumbup:. Its a Leci W1 tube. Scanning the barcode takes you to the leci site which says it checks out as genuine part. It has a performance graph on the tube and you can see that anything above 75W is optimistic

Did a functional test and it burnt a 5mm spot in some blue tape and wood. Nice round spot, so it all looks good. 

Working out the layout I'm definitely going for the driven shaft method for the Y axis. It means I can reposition the motor to get more useable depth.

Just need somewhere to store it safe until I'm ready to fit it now. Looks very delicate !!

Best Regards

picclock

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page