[ML-General] Large Laser upgrades and repairs

[smeeon at gmail.com]

With the help of Travis last night we got the Z-Axis repaired and tightened up, as well as a few other hardware tweaks like leveling the bed. 

Travis loaned a laptop to be used for the laser cutter, and Hunter helped setup the software. 

I focused the laser so that when it's Z is Homed (Datum) and 1/8" (3mm) material is loaded it's perfectly focused. If you want to use thicker material use a little math to calculate. 

1/4" acrylic is actually 6mm so drop the bed 3mm to accommodate. If it's 1/4" MDF drop it 4mm. A caliper helps in this. 

If you are unsure I've created a laser focusing tool, see attached image (hopefully)
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Sometimes the laser focusing tube gets loose from vibration and slides down. This tool will help re-align it without all the guess work. 
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Also if anyone has problems with the unit, please don't be afraid to use the emergency stop button. Loud scary noises usually mean it's misbehaving and the emergency stop is meant for that. 

Please don't be afraid to email the list with how the unit was damaged. It can go a long way towards troubleshooting what's wrong and getting it fixed. This should hold true for any equipment. 

Thanks everyone. This was a lot longer than I expected. But I know the laser gets used a lot by everyone. 

-- 
Daniel Valdez
Audio Insight, Inc.
www.audio-insight.com
Office 256-885-1995
Cell 256-783-6983

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