OmTech CO2 60/50W
My laser head is off vertical slightly but enough it is screwing up the use of my 4" lens. I am guessing the slotted adjustments that have bolts penetrating the belt:
Also: If I change the vertical of the head I will need to refine the mirror adjustment, correct?
I placed a flat piece of material on my bed rails with weight on it. The head is true vertical. Sooooo, what next to make the 4" Photonics cut, it will engrave. I removed the lens tube, the head cuts perfectly with 25mm/min speed and 30% power. Do I dare make the hole in the lens tube slightly larger so the beam won’t bounce off the lens tube?
I will put the quietus on this original post right now.
Conferred with a gentleman from Photonics about possibly making the hole in the nozzle larger. He told me some of their customers had done that with excellent results. I have lost an entire day or two of work screwing around trying to get these to work. Put my 2.5" Cloudray back into the machine, works like a charm.
I am sending items back to manufacture. I don’t need any more crap in my life.
The problem with the ‘hole’ fix is the beam is no longer at a 90 deg angle to the material and will leave a ‘slanted’ cut. It will also focus slightly different as the beam isn’t going straight down the tube and striking the lens in the center…
I doubt it’s the belt connections… These machines have very little adjustments even in the required areas (such as Z for a head).
Ensure the 4" lens is sitting flat, which you’ve probably done…
If the head is square, where is it getting off?
I use a jig to test my vertical alignment…
This head, being open like it is make alignment pretty easy… it’s much more difficult with your type of head. It’s also easy to put ‘targets’ in various places to see where the beam is striking.
Now I am confused. The exit hole in the nozzle could be wide open “same diameter as the main portion of tube” and the laser beam should not be affected??? Air assist in the Photonics unit is close to top of nozzle instead of close to bottom end. Stem tube includes the lens glued in and screws into upper end of nozzle. When I remove the nozzle and “fire” the laser I can cut 3mm plywood like hot butter with speed of 25 and power at 35% plus the cut is cleaner except for fact I can’t use the air assist. I could fabricate a brass or aluminum tube to attach to flat side of laser head with a small bend at the bottom then attach the rubber tube from my air assist. What affect does leaving the beam exposed outside of nozzle other than the lens being open to contamination? Or my getting more exposure to the beam if I am observing. I do wear goggle protective.
I managed to refine my measurement on the vertical with one of my smaller tools, it was dead on vertical. Lens is setting flat.
With the 4" lens unit installed I can get a decent engrave line but it will not cut at any focus distance from lens. The nozzle is heating up but it does not get hot. I am guessing the beam is hitting exit hole off-center.
If it’s aligned it should come out of the hole without issue…
If it’s not coming out of the hole then it must be off at an angle … or I’m not reading you… ?
I am going to check again the mirror alignment, only thing I can think of at this moment.
Did you ramp test the 4" lens ?
I done several ramp tests when I first got the 4" with little success. Decided since the 2.5" was working well I wouldn’t waste time to adjust mirrors etc.
Decided to adjust the mirrors today after watching and listening through Sadler’s Video. His points of adjusting are far superior to most. Worked pretty hard today and this evening on the mirrors. M1 to M2 spot on. M2 to M3 spot on but I ran it without tightening the stop nuts on M2. Couldn’t cut a single thing with either 2.5" or 4". Will check through it again after I hopefully get a good nights sleep which I don’t do well anymore. lol