Circuit Stand

A few months before purchasing the laser cutter, I designed this small circuit to simulate electrical signals for the equipment I work with. While the circuit wasn't designed really for mounting, I came up with this little stand to make it a little nicer looking. It's smoke grey 3/16" Acrylic, rastering was at 100% speed 100% power, vector cuts were 10% speed 60% power. 

Free Patterns

I came across this site with lots of free vector patterns. I think these will be useful later on. 

http://www.craftsmanspace.com/free-patterns

Butterfly Test Cut....

Found an easy butterfly graphic for my next text cut, it was easy to modify to get into the right format, and the cutting went well. 1/8" ply. The first one I did was at 30% speed and 40% power, it didn't quite make it through all the way on all the lines, so I did another at 30% speed and 50% power, it came out very clean. The kerf is very tight, should be good for any application I have in mind.

As you can see from the pictures, smoke is very minimal, the exhaust system does a wonderful job.

 

First Fire....

With the water, air and exhaust hooked up, it was time for a few test fires. I was going to check the mirror alignment first, but I decided what the heck and did some test fires on some cheap 1/8" ply I had laying around. I played with several different settings to see how they would effect the cuts. You can see in pencil on the photo the speed/power I used for each cut to get an idea of what the machine does.

The good news was that the exhaust system is working really great, it kept the work area clear and all smoke was always completely gone after about 1 second after the cutting was done. In fact, I think that the exhaust makes the air assist somewhat worthless. The bottom two pieces that were cut out were with the air on and with the air off, there was very little difference.

Next up to play with was a couple of black river rocks. I figured since my wife's aunt and uncle were leaving today, I'd try out their names. This was at about 40% speed, 95% power.

Starting out with a Full Spectrum 40W Laser....

This is a new blog to share my experiences with a new (used) Full Spectrum 40W Hobby Laser I picked up off Craigslist. I've been shopping around for a while and am hoping to try out a few different things I've had on my mind to laser out.

First things First,  I needed to set things up. Unfortunately, where I wanted to put the laser in the basement didn't have a good way for "easy" ventilation, so I had to go big. I purchased a 190 cfm inline centrifugal type fan, ran 25' of 6", then 15' of 4" rigid duct across the 3-car garage and down into the workshop. The fan is hooked up to a wireless remote, so I can didn't have to run wiring all that way. Next, a bench was built and electrical run. All I needed next was to hookup the cooling water and I'd be ready to fire!

A big thank you to Glen Langton for the help!!!