[dvdlock]

Although it may take some time, I have found a way of slowly getting some distilled water. We have a condensing tumble dryer and every time Sue does the washing I rush to empty the water container. To speed up the process, after I go to the gym (three times a week) I now hand wash all my kit and bung it in the dryer - it's amazing how much water towels can hold - about 4 litres a wash so I might be ready in three weeks time!!

Mike

Hi Mike,

Why not just capture some rain water. You could intercept it from a guttering down pipe. All you would need to do is filter it through some foam. At the end of the day it is distilled.
I happen to use a water softener for our house so i just use water from the tap.

Alternatively, you could pop down your local Aquarium store and get some RO water (reverse osmosis). You couldn't get purer than that for your needs.

Regards

Dave.

[Mike F]

Hi Dave,

I had thought about rainwater and I already have about 500 litres in collection butts, for the garden. Problem is that rainwater collects all kinds of industrial rubbish on the way down and I can't vouch that my roof is 100% bacteria free

After doing some further searching I have found a place quite nearby where I can buy 25 litres for just £12.50 GBP so 50 litres is not going to break the bank. With it being reasonably close, I can go and pick it up and save carriage charges.

Thanks for everyone's help on this - I think we are nearly there.

Mike

[Litografa]

Improvement of cooling system is very popular topic on russian-speaking recources. And two very interesting summaries:
1) You can use any water in your cooling system - even from your water pipes. Reason is following: this water will affect on two parts of your laser - glass tube and cooler device. It's very easy clean cooler inside once per 6 month, and usually glass tube is working not more than 6 months. To have silt and algae inside tube and cooler you need more than 6 months. So don't worry and use usual drinking water.

2) Is it possible increase heat exchange by using another than water cooling liquid? Some peoples use TOSOL - this is cooling liquid for car engines. Result - yes, it work GENERALLY well, but chinese pump is not powerful to pump TOSOL and was broken in 7 days time.

[Mike F]

Hi Litografa,

It is interesting that you mention using ordinary tap water, this is precisely what I use in the water cooled spindle on my milling machine. When I first used it, I had problems with algae growing after a few weeks but someone mentioned that I should add some anti freeze, as used in car cooling systems because it has an antibacterial agent. This has worked brilliantly and I am going to add anti freeze to the water for the laser. The addition of the anti freeze has kept the spindle water crystal clear, albeit a rather nice pink colour, though there is some sediment that has settled to the bottom. This does not seem to be a problem and is not getting any worse. The added bonus of the anti freeze I am using is that it will change to a yellow colour when the water becomes contaminated and I will know it is time to change.

I think I will still get the purified water for the laser as I don't want any sediment to start collecting inside the laser tube where it will be difficult to clean.

Thanks for the interest,

Mike

[sukelaser]

purified water or distilled water is better, but it is not a must! We often use ordinary water for cooling!
Alice
[email protected]

[garagefela]

It doesn't quote your tag... 'No, Little-Johnny, pomegranate is not a type of English stone' but I just wanted to say that made me laugh

Zax. (yes, I'm a pom... relocated to the US, so that makes me a limey)

Ha ha, thought someone would find that mildly amusing.

Garagfela & Zax,

Garagefela - do you follow the cricket?

Mike

As you British are so traditional and why change anything I also say, you should just stop all the mucking around and just hand over the Ashes right now.



Cheers M ( A Michael as well)

[Mike F]

OK, got my water today. I took dvdlock's advice and visited my local aquarium dealer. They sold me a 6 gallon container for £12.50 and filled it with RO (reverse osmosis) water for another £2.40 - 6 gallons (27 litres) for just £2.40 seems way too cheap but I was not going to argue. The container will come in useful when I need to replace the water.

I put about 20 litres into the container with the pump and added a litre of antifreeze, mainly for peace of mind and anti bacterial duties. It is also useful when chasing bubbles from the laser tube as the water is now a nice pale blue. I had a bit of difficulty in chasing out a persistent bubble at the cathode end of the tube and I had to take the tube off its mountings, rotate it and tap it gently to persuade the bubble to remove itself.

Bottom line is that now all the ancillary equipment is installed and working so, tomorrow I will install the control card in the computer, load the software and see if this thing will move. After I verify that all the axes are moving, I will attempt to do the laser alignment - should be fun.

Apologies for lack of pictures, I will try and post some tomorrow.

Mike

[dvdlock]

OK, got my water today. I took dvdlock's advice and visited my local aquarium dealer. They sold me a 6 gallon container for £12.50 and filled it with RO (reverse osmosis) water for another £2.40 - 6 gallons (27 litres) for just £2.40 seems way too cheap but I was not going to argue. The container will come in useful when I need to replace the water.

I put about 20 litres into the container with the pump and added a litre of antifreeze, mainly for peace of mind and anti bacterial duties. It is also useful when chasing bubbles from the laser tube as the water is now a nice pale blue. I had a bit of difficulty in chasing out a persistent bubble at the cathode end of the tube and I had to take the tube off its mountings, rotate it and tap it gently to persuade the bubble to remove itself.

Bottom line is that now all the ancillary equipment is installed and working so, tomorrow I will install the control card in the computer, load the software and see if this thing will move. After I verify that all the axes are moving, I will attempt to do the laser alignment - should be fun.

Apologies for lack of pictures, I will try and post some tomorrow.

Mike

Pleased you got sorted Mike.

I haven't used anti-freeze but i did install a fishtank heater in the cooling tank. I leave it turned on, and the cooling pump, in the winter as my laser backs up to a garage door, stops it freezing.

I may consider the anti-freeze though as an additional precaution. What type did you use?

Regards

Dave.

[Mike F]

Hi Dave,

Just ordinary, Halfords anti freeze. Worth checking for the one that changes colour with contamination (though this may only happen, in a car, when the cylinder head gasket goes and the products of combustion get mixed in with the water). The good thing is that they all have an anti bacterial agent in them which will help us keep the water free of alien growth.

Mike

[dvdlock]

Hi Dave,

Just ordinary, Halfords anti freeze. Worth checking for the one that changes colour with contamination (though this may only happen, in a car, when the cylinder head gasket goes and the products of combustion get mixed in with the water). The good thing is that they all have an anti bacterial agent in them which will help us keep the water free of alien growth.

Mike

Cheers Mike,

Good luck with the set-up.

Dave.

[Mike F]

A few pictures to muse.

I have now got the machine moving and responding to both the front panel and the software. There were some issues with the loading of the software and drivers and, although the machine seems to be responding OK, I am not totally convinced all as it should be. In the end I had to manually load the drivers and one thing that puzzled me was that is asked me to put one file in the windows\system32\drivers directory and one in the Windows\INF directory - I could not find that directory so I decided to create it - no joy there as windows decreed it was already there - still can't find it.

I resorted to letting windows load the drivers and checked that I could see the file in the \drivers directory but as I cannot see the \INF directory, I could not check that one!

Now the problem - With or without the software running I should be able to press the 'Test' button to fire the laser. However, as soon as I power up the machine, the laser is on and no matter what I do I cannot turn it off, neither by the front panel nor the software.

I have emailed JCUT but doubt they will reply till tomorrow

Mike

[rowbare]

[QUOTE=Mike F;645151
I resorted to letting windows load the drivers and checked that I could see the file in the \drivers directory but as I cannot see the \INF directory, I could not check that one!

Mike[/QUOTE]

INF is a hidden directory under c:\Windows

Open an Explorer window and go to the Windows folder. From the Tools menu on the menu bar select Folder Options. Click on the View tab. In the Advanced settings section, find the Hidden Files and Folders item (it has a folder icon) and select "Show Hidden Files and Folders"

bob

[Mike F]

Thanks Bob - I can now confirm that the drivers are all in their correct place.

A bit more info - I decided to test if it was a software problem or not so I removed the data cable from the machine, unplugged the data and power cable to the laser power supply and re-started the machine. All was as it should be. I then turned off the machine, plugged the laser power supply back in and turned the machine on again. Hooray :banana: I can now use the 'Test' button on the front panel.

With my lack of electronic knowse I figure this means I have a software problem.

What I intend to do now is to align the laser beam as I have noticed that the beam does not strike the final mirror in the centre (see photo)

More soon.

Mike

[Mike F]

I can use the 'Test' button on the front panel only if the data cable from the computer is detached. It makes no difference whether the software is running or not - as soon as I connect the computer to the machine, I lose the 'Test' button. Maybe this is how it is supposed to work, maybe the 'Test' button is for setting up purposes only, indeed, it may be a safety feature so that the laser cannot be fired when under software control.

However, this does not explain why the laser cannot be turned off once under software control. Still got to sort this one out.

I have played a little with the alignment and it is a can of worms. It is comparatively easy to align the laser for one position of the head but to get the beam central for all areas of the bed is going to be a nightmare. Below is a photo of test firings from all four corners of the bed and one from the centre. The gizzmo at the top is the cross hair used for alignment purposes.

With three mirrors to adjust and also the height of the laser tube, can anyone suggest, from the images below, which mirrors will effect the beam for each of the positions? Ohhh, my head hurts.

Mike

[dvdlock]

Hi Mike.

It is a nightmare isn't it?

My best advice would be to check the alignment between the first and second mirror. If you do the burn check/test on the mirror which is 'fixed' to your x-axis you should see the burn maintain position when you push the x-axis 'I-beam' up and down the y-axis.

If you find the burn marks shifts from left to right (or visa/versa) it means that there's an alignment problem where the line between your first and second mirror is not parallel to the y-axis rail.

If this is the case the fix would be to move the first mirror after your laser tube further away from or closer to, the laser tube, depending on which way it is out of parallel.

I think that was as clear as mud eh?

Let me know if you get what I mean or not.

Regards

Dave.

[Mike F]

After a few more test burns (see photo), I think the set-up is pretty close now. In the end I resorted to looking at the manual (chair) and between the manual, Dave's recommendations and a bit of logic, the alignment went reasonably smoothly, if tedious.

The software appears to be behaving itself now, after the re-set, though I did manage to drive the table into the laser head :withstupi The software has a button for driving the head, in X and Y, to its datum and one for driving the table, in Z, to its datum. The X,Y datum works fine and drives Y first till it hits the home switch then backs off, and then the same in X. However, I pressed the Z datum and, sure enough, the table started to rise and rise and rise. I managed to hit the E stop just as the table collided with the focussing head. Fortunately, no damage done.

On inspection the Z axis has no home or limit switches :nono: Maybe have to see if that can be rectified or somehow blank the button on the screen.

Overall, I am quite chuffed at the moment as all seems to be working. So much so that I put a piece of 2mm acrylic under the laser and cut out some letters just 8mm tall. The letters are anagrams and are: ' NAIVE SOULS' or 'ANUS OLIVES' whichever takes your fancy. I gave the letters to my other half and told her to re-arrange them. She knows me too well and told me I was soft - hey ho.

Mike

[Pierke]

Nice work Mike.

Can you put a picture from the inside off your machine, such as the "Z-axis"?

Pierke

[Mike F]

I'm sorry Pierke, I thought I had already posted this one - obviously not. I'm afraid the photo is not of the best quality but you will get the idea.

Managed to engrave on and cut through some 0.1mm glass fibre sheet today. Unfortunately I cannot take photos of it as it is clear and will not show up. The sheets are destined to become body tubes for small rockets. I had to play about a bit with speeds and power but got some very reasonable results in the end - some charring right on the edges but not really surprised as I am burning through epoxy resin doesn't smell too nice either

I know there are a few modelling mates who will be beating a path to my door once they know the machine is up and running

Mike

[Mike F]

Hi,

I am now trying to do a grade engraved image of a photo. I converted the said photo in Corel Photopaint X3 to an 8 bit grey scale image and tried to load it into Lasercut. I got an error message saying the software only recognises 2 bit images. How do I convert my 8 bit image to a 2 bit one?

Corel Photopaint X3 can convert to 1, 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit images but not 2 bit. Are there any freebie image converters that anyone knows of or am I missing a trick somewhere?

Mike

[dvdlock]

Hi,

I am now trying to do a grade engraved image of a photo. I converted the said photo in Corel Photopaint X3 to an 8 bit grey scale image and tried to load it into Lasercut. I got an error message saying the software only recognises 2 bit images. How do I convert my 8 bit image to a 2 bit one?

Corel Photopaint X3 can convert to 1, 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit images but not 2 bit. Are there any freebie image converters that anyone knows of or am I missing a trick somewhere?

Mike

Hi Mike,

You need to convert to a 1-bit image. It's often referred to as a 2-bit. It's just plain old black and white.
Unfortunately our Chinese built systems can't handle greyscale. However, you can still acheive a fairly good result.

I have a software package called Photograv. You can simply open up a colour photo, select an material type, resize and adjust the resolution and click 'final process' and it does it's stuff and provides an output ready to go to your laser. Photograv is just under £300 and available from hpclaser.co.uk

There are other ways. You can use a dithering feature in your photo software, not sure what it's called in photopaint but it'll be there.
There is also something called the 'Gold method', you can find it doing a google search. I know about it through SMC (sawmillcreek.org).

I have found Photograv easy to use and allows me to get on with it without spending too much time on image preparation.

Whichever process you use, be aware that the output image looks terrible on screen. However, it's a different story when you get it engraved.

Hope this helps

Dave.