Hi there, I purchased a Mini 60 and it seems to be a great machine. The only problem I am having is with registering my cuts. I bought a Lightburn camera, have done the camera calibration and the camera alignment. I think my laser lid is opening to a slightly different place each time I open it because I will look at my artwork that I am going to cut with my camera, take a capture shot of it with my lid open. I will then, close my lid and open it again and take another capture shot. I can see that the artwork has shifted each time I do this. The laser cutter came with those hydraulic struts, so I switched them out for some ratchet,cam, stays but I am still having trouble. Is anyone having the same problem? I would love to hear how this problem has been fixed. Thanks for any help!
Something that I’ve seen done by others is a small steel cable with eyelets (like a guitar string) connected between one side of the bed and the lid, or a thin piece of metal with notches that can be used to hold the lid to an exact opening.
Something like this:
https://www.hardwaretree.com/proddetail.php?prod=S-186%2F10N
That looks promising! i will check this out. Thanks Oz!
Hi Oz,
Thanks for your advice about my camera and hardware for my laser lid. I liked the hardware that you suggested. I also happen to find some ratchet stays that are working so far. When I installed them, I had to bolt them down really good and used Loctite on the bolts and screws (I had to take off the thumb screws cuz they kept unscrewing themselves). Photo below.
I was wondering if you could help me with another problem I am having. This past week I noticed that my machine had lost some power. I cut 80# cover stock paper with my machine. I was setting my machine’s speed to 50 and it’s power to 30 and that did just fine. I had read that a lack of power could be because of a dirty lens or dirty mirrors so I cleaned them all. When I placed the lens back in to the laser head, I placed it with the round part of the lens facing up. Is that the right position for the lens? I don’t know if the cleaning made much of a difference. When I attempt to cut, I have had to keep slowing the speed down and upping the power. I was able to cut this star out with the power at 90 and the speed at 20. When it cut, it also left and additional mark that ran parallel to the actual cutting mark. The laser cut the star right on it’s black outline but left those additional marks inside and outside the star. I also cut a circle at the same time as this star and part of the circle did not cut. Do you have any ideal why this is happening and am I setting my lens back in the laser head correctly? I set my laser focus to 6mm as I usually do. Also, what temperature should the room be that houses my laser cutter? Thanks you Oz! Your advice is very much appreciated! Below is the cut star.
When I placed the lens back in to the laser head, I placed it with the round part of the lens facing up. Is that the right position for the lens?
Yes - Curved side up.
When it cut, it also left and additional mark that ran parallel to the actual cutting mark
That is almost certainly from the beam hitting the nozzle / cone on its way out. The reduced power is because the beam is being partially blocked or reflected, and that ‘echo’ you see off to the side is the reflected part of the beam. Check that the laser is hitting the mirror at the top of the lens just slightly above center, and that the beam is going straight through the air nozzle, not hitting either side of it.
Also, what temperature should the room be that houses my laser cutter?
Above freezing, if at all possible. There isn’t technically a temperature that’s required, but room temp or just below is probably best for the tube life. If the room is too cold, and the tube gets quite cold, you can cause what’s called “thermal shock” when you start firing the beam and the water & exit nozzles heat up. If you cause too much temperature difference between different parts of the glass, the expansion can crack it. That’s pretty rare though.
Okay. That’s really interesting. So that “echo” is a result of the laser beam not going strait through my laser head? And the reason for that is because the laser beam is hitting the last mirror in the wrong place? Does that mean that I have to check the alignments of all of my 3 mirrors or just the last mirror? Can I place a piece of masking tape in front the last mirror and pulse my laser to figure that out? And why should the laser hit the mirror slightly above center?
Honestly that depends on the machine and the 3rd mirror - many of them, because of where the mirror sits, need to have the beam hit just slightly high because the mirror is set back slightly, and hitting it high pulls the beam forward. In reality I should’ve said hit the 3rd mirror wherever you need to in order to send the beam perfectly vertically through the nozzle.
I would check alignment everywhere - if you took them out to clean them, it could be any of them that’s out of alignment.
Yeah, that information looks very helpful. I will check it out. Thank you Oz!
In the link, it says to adjust the tube, you have two screws you can use to adjust. My Orion Motor Tech 60w doesn’t have those two screws. My tube to mirror 1 is not dead center, It’s center but slightly higher. I have 3 shims with screws in it front and back of tube, and then two tube bracket screws.
Thanks for the photos Jayeleitch! I will have to look at my laser tube to see how it is configured.
Thanks Oz and Jayeleitch! I realized that the mirror in my laser head was slightly off. I re-aligned that mirror and I think I have power again! I appreciate your help!
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