Laser Cutter - Setup, concerns, processes etc

General
43

Hi All,

I was cutting a Prusa i3 frame on the Laser cutter this afternoon and while everything was gong fine at the start, towards mid- job the laser significantly lost power and in some parts was not cutting at all.

I was cutting 6mm acrylic at 80% power and 2mm/s speed.

here are some pictures.

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In the first picture you can see the large “side section” of the printer frame. The laser progressively “lost” power at the bottom right corner and then while it was traveling to the left did not cut at all and only the red dot was visible. Then at the bottom left corner it progressively regained a small amount of power and continued moving towards the top of the acrylic sheet, however it was not able to cut anymore.

does anyone have any idea of what the problem might be??

:frowning:

44

Was the laser tube still firing?

45

I had to leave so I didn’t double check. However, when I stopped the job while the laser was not cutting all the way through, it was cutting around .5 of a mm.

46

That looks like the mirror has managed to get out of alignment.

47

There could be many reasons for this,
My thoughts is the safety cut out,
Safety are…

  • On the lid
  • On the Controller (Disabled at present though a wire may have come loose)
  • On the Cooler (did it get bumped and loose power? or over heat?)

or… The mirror as @devians has suggested…
Were the lock nuts screwed in the last alignment.

48

The mirrors just might need a clean again or to be aligned again hopefully

49

I hope that’s the case as well -_-

50

Did you attach a ‘borked or broken’ notice to the cutter so noone uses it
until we can inspect it?

51

I had to run to meet up with Jessica (I’ll give the exec an update on that tomorrow) so unfortunately I didn’t.
I also left some of my stuff, including my acrylic sheet -_-
I know Sven will be there tomorrow so I’ll probably ask him if he could do that.

52

Coolio, just so someone doesn’t accidentally waste their expensive stock or
make the problem worse :slight_smile:

53

Sorry to say everyone but the laser is not firing what so ever, I have a little time to check it out on Saturday morning, was not able to check to see if the power was getting to it or not, sorry

54

Jimmy and I just checked it out. It seems that the tube is being powered but is not firing properly. We know this because the test button on the laser tube’s PSU does in fact power up the tube, which only glows dimly (and won’t even burn paper).

The tube may be cactus.

55

Tube has been replaced.
Diagnosis - PSU Brock

56

any updates on the laser cutter?

57

@Crofty: last I heard, you were making contact with the chinese
manufacturer to do a support request…? ( last tues). Maybe you should
be giving us an update on how that went…? :slight_smile:

58

Luke is taking care of that now. I believe he is still waiting for a response from the company who sold the laser cutter.

59

Sent a email with pictures yesterday…
Hopefully will get a response tonight…

60

I passed it off to the exec I didn’t have to time to do it

61

AAAAAAAAAAND…
The laser people have concluded that it’s most likely the laser PSU!!!
YAY!!!

They are sending us a replacement, I need to get some photo’s of our PSU so they know what type we have so they can send the correct one (will do tonight unless someone can send me some sooner).

And now the kicker…
We have to pay the postage both ways, it’s in their agreement.
This is going to cost us about $80 ($40 each way)

1 Like
62

So we’re out money on something under warranty? Shame the ACCC probably
can’t enforce the consumer protection laws on them probably.