This is an Omtech K40+ only a few months old. I wondered why homing the machine would have the test burn spot so far ahead of the edge of the honeycomb insert. To reach the upper back of the honeycomb table, I need to reposition it up next to the drawer front. Hmmm.
Today, I was pushing the head back to home manually and it clacked, for lack of a better word. On looking closely, it appears that there is a screw on the left side that hits the housing of the machine itself. It’s always been like this. Clacking away, I mean.
My question is whether I should grind down this screw so it clears the metal in the back. Is this even normal? The machine actually seems to run just fine, but I worry that something’s off and I should try to fix it.
I was kind of thinking along the same lines as you, but gads, getting in there to change it out looked like it may be a major undertaking. LOL, that’s where the idea of grinding off the excess came from. I wonder if others are assembled this way. Or if this is even a problem. It definitely hits first when it goes to home, but then the machine and lightburn don’t complain about that fact, either. Hope I’m not borrowing trouble where there is really none. Thanks!
Which means the home position is just slightly inconsistent: definitely not what you want.
I regard my OMtech laser as a large parts kit closely resembling a functional laser, ao I feel free to crawl in there and make it work right (according to my definition) by applying enough labor and material to finish the last 10% of the manufacturing job.
It looks like a pan head screw would fit under that housing / vent / whatever, with the nut on the inside of the drag chain where it’s really hard to tighten. I betcha that’s how it was specified on the prototype of that machine, but the assembler just couldn’t be bothered with fussing around.
Alternatively, stick a sheet metal snippet on whatever surface the proximity sensor detects to move the home position few millimeters inward, thus ensuring the screw doesn’t quite kiss the housing.
I’d suggest you contact OMTech and ask them to fix it. It’s a new machine and should work without any kind of hassle with clearance issues. At the very least they should give you some of your money back.
I doubt it’s going to cause positioning issues, but it will cause a speed change when it rubs during a job.
It doesn’t really rub anything during a job at all, so I wasn’t concerned about that. It just seemed weird that when I manually push the head back while fooling with positioning the next project I’m going to wreck (JK) that the screw would slam into it like that. Just didn’t seem right.
The whole machine is weird, but not to an extent that it isn’t usable. Even the entire guts of it are fastened to the housing all cockeyed. The rails are lined up with each other fine, and squared, and they produce perfectly shaped cuts. They just freak me out when I look down on them to see them not lined up straight with the rest of the machine.
I got out my ancient Dremel, and a metal cutting disk and whacked it right down to the top of the nut. Plenty of clearance now! It seemed like the easiest way. I didn’t relish the idea of digging down into it to replace the screw with a smaller one.
The whole machine has been a learning experience. I bought it to replace my Universal M-300 that was nearly 25 years old. Having come from a world of motor driven z-axis, no need for a water container, and being able to send files directly to the machine from my graphics software, this makes me wonder if I’m losing my mind. But I didn’t need the big one anymore, the tube was outrageous in price to ship and recharge, and I’m only a commercial embroiderer who uses it to cut patches and things like that. Live and learn.
What’s interesting is, how big is your working area, exactly?
As @ednisley points out, I wouldn’t be surprised if a friendly Chinese assembly line worker “expanded” your usable working area by a few mm. Probably just moved your Y-limit switch / end stop 2 mm and everything would be fine. I hope you get as much enjoyment out of your K40 as I have.
The work area on mine is (I’m sorry, I still think in inches) 12x8. Pretty small compared to what I was used to, but sufficient for most things. I have found one job I can’t do already, that requires an area closer to 8½x9. Oops, bad planning on my part. I tried fooling the machine into thinking it was bigger, but it didn’t work, LOL.
So tell me. How in the world do you keep your little red dot lined up with the beam itself? The way they have it wrapped to the air hose makes it unstable, no matter how much I align it and tighten up the clamp. I’ve given up on using mine for anything at all.
I asked because mine was quite precise 230x320mm, if yours is, for example, 1-2mm larger it will indicate that your limit switch is not in the correct position. But now you are running, it probably doesn’t matter.
Red dot pointer…, there are those who hate it and those who don’t want to miss it, I have always used it. I made my own clamping system and used a cross laser on my K40, it worked perfectly. On my 60W OMT I also use a homemade holder for the auxiliary laser but I haven’t found a cross lens yet.
Yes, I know and have also bought from similar places before, but I have some “normal” pointers lying around and it’s only the lens itself that I was hoping to find sometime… ;-), they are replaceable cheap plastic discs. But I’ll probably end up buying a handful of laser pointers anyway.
Btw. I made a lens cap with a pinhole for the current pointer, to reduce the spot size, it works ok.
