Looks well packed. Watching for more updates cause we might be ordering one of these sooner the later.
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Looks well packed. Watching for more updates cause we might be ordering one of these sooner the later.
Yes, I'm very pleased with the packing. Found a couple of loose screws under the motorized bed, so will have to figure out where those go.
Overall, I'm very happy with what I see so far. I have to do some actual work now, so i'm on hold with anymore with the laser till this afternoon or evening.
Wade
About the glass window, i have not seen an option for the yellow laser protection tint. But an idea i had to put a film on the clear glass like the ones we use for tint car windows. Or laser protection eye glasses. They have a set for 90$. The thing you have to make sure now is to start the laser adjustment from the laser tube (to be 100% level with the chassis) and then go to the mirrors.
Yep, I ordered the laser glass, but I think they thought I wanted laser glasses. Definitely NOT what I wanted, or what I thought I paid for.
I'll get it figured out, even if I have to purchase the yellow glass myself. Regardless of this hiccup, I'm very pleased with the laser so far. The tube arrived in perfect shape to, and was very well packaged and secured.
Wade
All good then, waiting forward for your review in the setting and working process :cheers:
That will start later today. Gotta find the instruction manual and video yet. :)
Wade
Poked around a bit since I would be wanting the same option, seems like some of the CO2 laser window glass/poly is available in clear, so maybe it is. Would of been nice for several reasons to of had the protective film on the window during shipment. Would of let you know for sure what you had and then been a layer of protection on the window from possible scratches.Quote:
Originally Posted by polakis
Well, they had the laser packaged really well and had some very squishy foam over the top of the unit, then it was all shrink wrapped. The window was pretty well protected.
That being said, the window is definitely NOT laser safe glass. The woman I talked to thought I wanted laser glasses (which they did send), but looking thru those things make me sick to my stomach. Not that I've ever done it before, but it's what my mind envisions if someone had a bad acid trip. I took them off as quick as I put them on.
I'm talking with them about getting me the laser safe glass I asked for. I may need to look into some film to put over the window tho which will work just as well.
Anyway, here are a few more pictures.
I am very impressed with the rotary units. The laser I use currently had them as well, but they are nowhere as nicely refined or well built as these. The blower I got with it is QUITE robust and big. Hope it doesn't sound like a jet engine! The cooler is nice and well built as well, pretty similar to the one I currently use. They actually appear to use ball screws on the motorized up/down table. That should be very nice for good, smooth operation.
I was a little disappointed with a couple portions of the back panel. Instead of having sockets, or at least grommets, they have 2 different wires just coming out of metal holes. I will at least be putting grommets in there, maybe even mounting the plugs directly onto the panel. The back of the panel appears very well put together. I did go around and check all of the electrical connections and they are all very solid. Everything is tightened down well, and all crimps are nice and tight.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...1&d=1453351520
A few of the pictures I uploaded show a little rust. I'm assuming it was from the journey over the ocean, so I will likely sand it down and spray some primer paint on those spots. It's only surface rust, so I can't get too bent out of shape.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...1&d=1453351562
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...1&d=1453351562
For getting the laser off of the pallet, I made a couple of small ramps out of some scrap 2x4 and 2x6's. I just screwed them into the pallet, and me a buddy just rolled the machine down the ramps onto the floor.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...1&d=1453351562
The pallet that the laser was shipped on had a base made out of 2x4 steel tubing. I think I may just build a trailer out of it since it's so well put together and welded. It's made up of 2 beams one way, by 3 beams the other way. Very sturdy pallet.
At any rate, she is down off the pallet now, and is ready for me to start installing the laser tube. I'm a wee-bit nervous about that part, but the video I got from bodor looks like it will help a lot. I am not going to use water tho. I'm planning on getting RV coolant to use in it watered down 50/50. The RV coolant is suggested by several online sources as it inhibits microbes and just plain getting nasty, and it's non-corrosive.
Cheers to a great day!
Wade
These things like rust or plug fittings or other similar "defects" are the week points of chinese companies in general. I do not know why they do not pay more attention to those details... I guess it is related with the pretty low price of machines if compared to good branded companies.
As for the blower DO install it outside your shop. It makes a lot of noise if you have it near the machine. I can tell you this from my experience of this specific blower as i saw a similar size machine (Bodor) installed from the Greek distributor of Bodor. I sucks a lot of air and thus you will not have a big problem with long pipes going outside your space. Also i have the same opinion with you about the RV coolant. I would not definitely use plain water from rusty pipes that carry dust and rust.
As for the rust on the chassis, they produce many chassis at a time and store them in their warehouse till the time of assembly comes when an order is placed. So they spend many months stored there probably with a lot of humidity. Plus that the quality of the painting process is not great. It cannot be from some days travel during shipping. It so, the cars for example should have rust when transported with ships -;)
Get your hands on the machine and feed us with information!!
Hmm, I'll have to think a bit more about my exhausting system then. I was a bit worried about the noise because that fan is so huge. I'll have to plug it in and see just how loud. Putting it outside my shop isn't very feasible. I did have a conversation with my sales person at bodor, and they said that in a survey of their customers, the customers preferred to have wiring rather than a socket. I don't get that, but whatever. I still told them they needed to hard mount the cables so that the metal didn't wear away the wires.
I did get RV coolant. It's pink. That should be interesting. LOL
I also found out after hours of research and phone calls that polycarbonate or clear acrylic (which is what they installed in my laser) actually blocks the energy from the co2 lasers at 10,600 nm, so I will probably just buy some colored film in amber or green to cut down on the bright light. They glasses they sent me quite honestly suck. I'll probably buy a pair of polycarb glasses with tinting for the time being just for added protection.
Didn't have much time to work on setup last night as I had to run around getting supplies and I had a long day at work, so I kinda died out early.
Hopefully will get more work done on it tonight, and definitely over the weekend.
Wade
Yea they have weird opinion about customer needs or just a silly excuse......
You should connect everything (pipes) on for the fan sound test because the sound comes also from the laser table enclosure. It reacts like a sub woofer.
For the glasses, you may use simple good quality sun eye glasses.
Good luck with the rest
Time for an update!
First of all, Bodor sent a USB drive will all of the manuals, and some installation videos on it. The video is pretty good, no sound, but has subtitles, which has worked very well so far.
I did have a few questions on stuff. One of the first I had was about the raw wires they provided. Green, Yellow and Red. Seeing as the machine is from China, I chose to ask what color was what.
Attachment 305192
PE (Yellow) is Ground
N (Green) is Negative
L (Red) is positive
I kinda figured that was it, but I wanted to be 100% sure. I wound up going to my local hardware store and getting myself a 20A 110V outlet and plug. I kinda decided that since the laser requires 22A @ 110V, I should get the largest outlet I could. Here is a photo of the plug that I chose.
Attachment 305194
Since the back panel was bugging the crap out of me with the wires just going thru holes in the metal, I bought a couple of grommets and put them in the holes around the wires. Wasn't too big of a deal, and then I just zip tied the wires in place so they couldn't pull on any of the internal electronics.
Attachment 305196
I lightened up the pic a bit so you could see my modifications better.
After this, it was time to install the laser tube. I was very paranoid about this part, and very ginger with it. It was amazingly well packed. Installation was very simple, pretty much just set it in the cradles and put the top brackets on. The coolant tubes were fairly easy to slide on, but again, I was very gentle and patient while doing it. The LAST thing you want to do is break the glass tube nozzle ends. Just 2 wires to hook up as well. They screw into metal on the laser tube, and I just snugged them up real well.
Attachment 305198
Attachment 305200
Attachment 305210
After that, I filled the chiller with a bottle of RV coolant (pink stuff) and about another 1/2 gallon of distilled water. There is a nice indicator line on the back of the chiller that indicates whether you are full or not. Then hooked the tubes up to the chiller itself. Inlet on the chiller, to Water Out on the laser, Outlet on the chiller, to Water in on the laser.
Attachment 305202
Then I powered on the chiller unit and watched it pump coolant thru the laser. That was actually kind of neat, and I wish I had video'd that part cause it was kinda cool seeing the pink coolant flowing thru the twisty laser tube. Oh well. :)
Then I proceeded to spent about an hour moving the laser around to find the right spot for it. (after spending some time cleaning up the area and getting rid of dirt, dust and metal chips from my lathe and mill). I have a 25 ft x 25 ft shop space, and I try to keep one bay open so I can work on my snowmobiles and cars should the need arise, so I wanted to get the placement of all the machines down as best I could. Here's the position of the laser (for now).
Attachment 305204
The little air compressor is under the laser, the exhast fan is currently behind it, as well as the chiller, which will wind up getting rotated 90 degrees when I finish all the assembly and whatnot.
And, finally, the first power-up. I was definitely asking the powers that be to let it work and not blow anything. :) You can see my venting system in the back, not yet hooked up. I bought the wrong flex tube as what Bodor sent was not long enough. I can tell you that when you first power the machine on, that exhaust fan will scare the crap out of you... my gawd! It's loud, but doesn't scream. I'll have to see how it is after using it for a while. Might have to get a different style fan or something, not quite sure yet.
Attachment 305206
One thing that I'm not real thrilled about is that fact that you have to flip the breaker on the back of the laser to kill the power to the machine itself. The power strip that is built in for the compressor, the fan, and the chiller is controlled from the double-breaker on the back of the control panel. To avoid having to use this, as I have several machines that will sit near the laser, I will probably install a switch for the outlet that the laser is plugged into and just control it from the wall. My laser laser had a key switch which was used to kill power to all of the devices connected to the laser.
Attachment 305196
I have a quick power-up, datum, and jog video to show as well, but you tube is being a putz.
I'll get that up when I can get it to work right.
Wade
Oh, and one more tidbit!
Laser pulse test!!!
Attachment 305208
Stuff left to do:
- hook up exhaust fan to outdoor vent
- align mirrors
- test cuts!
Feel free to ask any questions! I'll do my best!
Wade
Nice update and work progress. It is definately a must to do a step at a time with extra care. Better to be proactive than reactive for sure. Keep up the good job and let us know the alignment and test cut results. Make sure you make the pulse test in every corner of the table, all 4 spots that x and y axis travel :)):cheers:
Here's the video of the initial test moves.
https://youtu.be/hMAgCQ26kuM
I also got the rest of the venting installed.
Attachment 305384
In addition, I got the RD Works software installed and tested. I was able to do some fine cuts.
One thing that has me totally tripped out, considering this machine shipped halfway around the world, is that the mirrors were still perfectly aligned from the factory. I had to make no adjustments what-so-ever. Everything was DEAD on. I'm beyond impressed with that. I'll do some more test cuts tonight. I already did acrylic, what a beautiful cut.
Wade
One little bit of info about the glass. I called a laser safety products company, and they told me the wavelength of a co2 laser is blocked by standard clear acrylic. The wavelength is 10,600 nanometers btw. Anyway, the laser is ok to look thru, but they said some window tinting in yellow or green would cut down on the white flash effect. It won't blind you to look at it thru clear plexi, just give you a sunspot effect for a bit.
Good to know. If the tint is just to help filter it a bit, I have a good source for remnant translucent vinyl.
I need to find some like that too. Care to share the wealth? :)
Wade
Here's a little video of it in operation doing some actual work.
https://youtu.be/Ox5i8_rLa50
I'm very pleased with this machine.
Wade
Hi Wade,
Thanks so much for all of the information provided. I am looking at purchasing a Bodor laser too.
Please can you let me know the overall dimensions of the machine and the dimensions of the back slot? I would be cutting laser ply on mine if I bought one, and annoyingly it comes in 1325mm x 1325mm sheets in the UK... I am wondering if this would fit on the bed of the 1390 laser (I know that the max cut size is 1300mm but I'm hoping the wood would still fit in the machine as I would cut it down anyway... I was going to go for a flat bed laser, but I wouldn't be able to fit it through the doors of the unit we let! Max size I would cut would be 1300 x 750 anyway.
Also, do you have any idea what the difference is between the BCL1309XU, BCL1309XS and the BCL1309X?!
Do you have a contact at Bodor you would recommend using?
Many thanks mate,
Joe