I just got a new CO2 laser, Omtech ZF2028-60. I’m a newbie. I want to make a trash tray so that I can easily remove the “chads” from the laser. Currently, I have to remove the knives and maneuver around the Z drive chain. A real pain.
I thought I might be able to make a wooden tray. I’ve made a few laser projects that included tabs and slots to assemble a project. Is there an easy way to do this in Lightburn so they all line up? Of course, I can use this tip (if there is one) for other projects.
Is there a front panel that can be lowered to provide access to the bottom of the laser? It wouldn’t solve for the Z drive issue but it should mitigate having to remove the knives.
Wood is not ideal here due to potential fire risk. Granted laser power is attenuated considerably at the focal distances that are likely in play so you’ll need to do a risk assessment.
There’s no magic here. I’d suggest aligning adjacent pieces of the design next to each other in LightBurn. That will make any tab/slot alignment issues apparent. You would need to rotate pieces to check against other pieces where there are multiple mating surfaces.
EDIT:
I do have one potential tip. Design the tabs or slots for one shape. You can use that shape as part of a boolean operation to create the receiving shape on the adjacent shape.
This is a solved problem at Boxes.py, although the customized link is a bit of a jawbreaker.
That’ll crank out a LightBurn file defining a shallow tray 700×500 mm on a side. Cut it from MDF or plywood, lay some aluminum foil inside, and you’re done!
This machine has a lower access panel to the bottom of the machine…
Have you ever opened it?
I think @berainlb makes a good point, don’t put flammable items, such as wooden containers in an area that is known to be prone to combustion exposure…
You need to think about this stuff before you do it or you will end up hurting yourself.
There have been no problems with this solution, the distance to the laser is too far to be able to ignite the base plate.
The only change I would make is to tilt the plate slightly towards the front and add a list on the front.
Yes, I’ve opened it several times to clean out trash. Also located behind that door is the drive chain for the Z axis. Yes, I’ve thought about the possibility of fire hazzard. Actually, I just received an auto focus kit from OMtech, and since it is not a "drop in item, I’ve decided to have a mechanic do the install because the chain needs to be shortened as well. OMtech conveniently neglected to mention this. I really appreciate the quality of this machine. But frankly, their tech support sucks. Emails between here and China are not good help! So, I plan to ask him if he can fabricate a metal pan for me. I will still need to stand this off from the bottom to get over the chain but, I don’t think that using wood supports to hold this would be a problem.
As long as I have you, the lid opens to about 45 degrees. Are other CO2 machines similar? I would like it to open to 90 so I don’t have to duck under it to adjust the location of my work piece. I’ll probably get the mechanic to do that to. I’ve used this guy to change cutter heads on my joiner and planer, and he knows machines.
Thanks E2 comments. My machine has a "bike chain and sprocket " . I’ve not done enough work on it yet but I’m guessing it could develop the same type or of problem. My solution is to build a chip tray, resting on supports to put it above the chain. Your post did not show how you did this. I apologize, I got several responses. Did you send the plan showing a wooden tray lined with foil?
Yes, although that was a sample of what Boxes.py can do, not what I have in the bottom of the laser.
The Z axis belt path is sufficiently convoluted that I gave up trying to fit a pan inside, because much of the belt and the pulleys would remain exposed to falling chips.
When I’m doing small objects, I put a glass tray underneath to catch most of the debris, then shovel / scrape / vacuum the rest out on a regular basis.
Hey Ed, quick question. I have a Sculpfun diode laser. When I’m running a project, the laser window shows total and time remaining.
As I recently mentioned, I just got an OMtech, CO2 machine, and when I run a project, the total and remaining time doesn’t show in the laser window. When I go to preview, I can see the estimated total time but can’t tell how much time is remaining.
Is there a setting I missed? Do I win a prise for coming up with a new problem?
LightBurn drip-feeds G-Code commands into GRBL controllers line-by-line (really, character-by-character), so it knows exactly how much of the program has been processed.
Ruida controllers don’t work that way. LightBurn must send the entire program in one lump and, after the Ruida controller has the whole thing in its flash memory, the program starts and there’s absolutely no feedback while it runs or when it finishes.
Basically, estimated time is as much information as you’re going to see for a Ruida controller, because there’s nothing else available.
By the way, I found an 18 X 26 metal sheet pan on Amazon which I can stand off the bottom of the cabinet with a couple of pieces of would so it sits above the drive chain to catch the vast majority of the debris.
