hello All,
i am in the middle of a DIY design
upgrading frame on an ebay k40
i need to extend power wire to laser and not sure if standard stranded wire will suffice.
i will need to extend about ~3 feet.
is there a certain wire gauge and insulation needed???
It’s special silicone high-voltage wire and splicing adapters.
The power from the wall, or the power between the PSU and the tube?
Thank you for reply.
It will be from the supply to tube.
I want to put in cable chain with water tubes for gantry movement
The splice will be just outside start of cable chain so there should not be any(much) strain or wiggle on splice point.
May I ask for a name of the type of wire or link to a good online shop that carries it.
I know Cloudray caries the HV wire, don’t know if LightObject or rabbit does. Any decent laser HV wire will do. On the other end, that’s just some standard wire. If you are looking at putting the tube on the gantry, I would put everything but the HV in one cable chain, and the HV in another. I was looking at a similar set up, running everything but the HV down one side, and the HV by itself on the other.
awesome
thank you very much
Are you in the states i got a lot of wire leftover and connectors.
Let me know i will send what I have to you.
Rudy
Florida
If you’re talking to me, I’m near Kansas City. The plan is a 5’ x 9’ flat horizontal frame to take a 4’ x 8’ full sheet of material with back stock in the base for stability. Tube on the gantry like this vertical one, but chiller and laser PSU on the frame with the rest of the electronics to minimize the moving mass. Had one guy suggest spark plug wire, but I don’t know the voltage comparisons between laser HV wire and spark plug wire. I can get spark plug wire in a kit for rewiring old cars with a 25’ coil and a bag of ends, so it’s worth looking into.
My biggest hurdle so far is to find V slot extrusion. Everybody has / makes the T slot.
Thanks, glad to see there is at least a US supplier. East coast, but better than none. I have a manufacturer not far from Kansas City, only an hour or so travel. Probably get the two or three pieces of V slot shipped in that need to be V slot, then get the rest T slot locally.
OpenBuilds is the original designer/manufacturer of the vslot profile.
I sent them an email via the contact form, hoping to find a source a little closer to Kansas City. Other bad part, the longest length they list on the web site is 1500mm ( roughly 5" ). I’m going to need two pieces roughly 9’ long if I’m going to be able to use it unless they have some kind of splice plate / insert they don’t show on the website.
Eh? 1500mm is 1.5M - about 5 feet.
Can’t the PSU be placed closer to the tube? Running low voltage controls and mains would be a lot easier. Dunno if you’ll start seeing voltage drop on the long HV wire.
Correct. I’m looking at a flat machine kinda like BuildYourCNC’s vertical one. I work primarily with 3mm Premium MDF and have a lot of waste needing to cut strips for one off cuts to feed the machine. Want to put back stock in the base, then slip a full sheet out and into the cutting area. With 8’ sheets plus a bit of over travel, I’m looking at a rough 9’ Y axis rails. The 1500mm will just work for the X axis.
Plan on putting the laser PSU roughly centered and on top. Not going to be an extremely ling run. Seen similar runs in large format machine promotional videos. And higher voltage AC means an easier job on longer runs. I’d be more concerned about low voltage DC.
roughly 5"
Not feet. 
Why not place the HV PSU on the gantry like the vertical build? Long, moving, HV wire just doesn’t seem like a good idea.
You can bump the wire gauge for DC and mains to manage voltage drop.
Not sure I want to add 8# ( 3.5kg ) of mass to the gantry. Going to be running bigger stepper motors as it is. I have a healthy supply of good used 3A NEMA 23’s and was hoping to use them instead of buying new for the Y axis. Even with gear reduction that’s a lot of mass to be moving when you add the tube and cooling water.