Still alive!

[David Somers]

Hey all!

Sorry for the long absence! Been swamped since the spring. Still swamped actually, but John Bion and Dave Sheldrake said you were all wondering if I had been abducted so I figured I better pop on before I was declared AWOL? <grin> Not abducted!!! Still here in Seattle and doing fine thanks to frequent cups of really stout coffee.

Between learning to use the laser and the CNC after they arrived and all the bugs were worked out, and trying to get things done beyond those two toys. Between that and dealing with a myriad of house guests all summer I have not had time to do much but answer the more pressing emails.

The new laser and CNC are dandy though and I have been very pleased with the Chinese company I bought them from, Liaocheng Ray Fine Tech Co Ltd. For those of you who knew Blanca Yan in sales at Shenhui, this is the company she is working at now. A side note. I think John Bion purchased from them recently and did not have quite as good an experience with them as I did. You should talk to him to get details. Not bad, but frustrations? I think there were some issues with the import process? Talk to John. My own experience with them was excellent though and Blanca was a delight to work with.

We did have some issues of course, mostly due to communications and a lack of understanding of our respective power systems. Once we got past that with a few Aha moments on both our parts things worked fine. I was in no hurry however so this posed no problems. As many have said here before, if you are considering a Chinese laser purchased directly, don't be in a big rush to get things up and earning money. That would be very risky if this is your prime piece of equipment and you need it producing $$ right away. But if you have other machines earning revenue for you, or you are a hobbyist with little to spend on a laser then this may be a path to consider? The CNC also has worked quite well, again with some issues that we resolved with time. I will post on that in the CNC forum though.

The machines were both well made and I had no issues with the construction or finish. The import process went well, though you may remember these both arrived during the dock worker's slowdown on the west coast, so my laser and CNC languished on a ship moored out in Puget Sound for weeks upon weeks upon weeks. I could see them on the deck of the container ship with my binoculars. They were playing shuffleboard, sipping umbrella drinks, and generally enjoying their cruise. They eventually arrived intact and amazingly enough the laser was still very nicely aligned.

For some reason, I expected the laser to have the bigger learning curve than the CNC. But it turned out the CNC was the harder one for me. I am not trying to schmooze you all when I say that all my time lurking and bantering on SMC prepared me very nicely for using the laser. It felt pretty natural by the time I got it and I felt like a had a solid clue about using it. When I finally started really delving into it I was able to use all the info I got on SMC to check it out thoroughly, make sure it was aligned well, tested everything thoroughly, and start doing tests on various materials to develop a solid listing of materials and settings to make future work easier. I reworked a few things on the laser to make it easier to work with. All with the background you folks gave me. I also recently had a nice idea from John Bion regarding the setup of the honeycomb table involving some honking strong magnets. It worked beautifully (many thanks John!) and I expanded on the idea to make some nice edge guides for the table. The Chinese don't seem to worry about alignment of tables and the use of guides from what I can see. My background in woodwork and woodturning makes me a stickler for alignments so that was my one real issue with the design of the machines compared with western machines. I have also come to desperately love masking tape for all kinds of things. With Ray's suggestion over at Rabbit USA I found the masking tape from Harbor Freight to be especially useful.

The CNC took a lot longer though as I got used to new terminology, things to consider in setting up jobs to run, getting used to the way various bits worked on diifferent materials and the speed and feed settings they needed, etc. It was a fun process for both though and as you might guess, it will be an unending learning curve.

They are both here and functional though and I can finally participate in SMC with a bit of hard background rather than just the "book larnin'" I had before from following you all so closely. If you have a Chinese laser and want to compare notes about it don't hesitate to ask, either through the forum or by PM. I am not reliant on it for an income yet and can take time to help you dig.

Having said that, I should also warn you that I still have a chunk of time coming up where I will be stretched thin for time due to other commitments. I expect to see this go on well into October at this point. So I wont be hanging out on the forum the way I did before at least until then. But don't hesitate to PM me if I can do anything for you. And I will try to get on here more frequently than once every 6 months!!!!

I hope you folks have all been doing really really well this summer!!!!

More later!

Dave.....your long lost forum pest!!! <grin>

[Bill Carruthers]

Congrats Dave on the new operational status and great to see your back!
Cheers

[Samuel Espy]

Yes gratz on the 2 machines, and I am glad you were just busy. Although the strong statements about NOT being abducted make me wonder if thee doth protest too much. I mean how can we be sure that you haven't been taken over by an alien AI? Especially since the claims last year that a terrestrial AI passed the Turing test. So, just how are we to know? Enquiring minds and all that. ;-)

[Ron Gosnell]

Dave, I would be very interested in your guide and magnet ideas for the tables.
Maybe you can post as you set it up for us. I agree about the Chinese and table alignments.
Welcome back :)

Gozzie

[Mike Null]

Dave

I don't know how you think you can just up and leave anytime you please. We'll be speaking to your CO about that.

Anyway, good to have you back and to hear all is well.

[Bert Kemp]

Well its good to know you didn't deep six trying to swim out to the freighter and try to swim your machines ashore.
I was really worried I lost my Nauga watching buddy. You do know its almost time for their annual migration across the Naugatuck River ,wouldn't want you to miss it. Glad you checked in Dave.

[Scott Shepherd]

Thanks for the update Dave! Great to hear from you and glad you're progressing nicely with your two new toys.

Sounds like you are busier in retirement than you were working :)

I can't wait to see some photos of the things you are doing.

[John Bion]

Dave, good to have you back in your place, like a trusted and well thumbed manual :)


As a point of correction, I did not purchase from the same company as you and from correspondence I had in the past with Blanca, I can only recomend her ( although at that point she was with another company).


Masking tape is my friend and alignment my enemy, although one learns to deal with it. I have been warned not to laser a magnet by mistake, apparently the results could be interesting!


thanks for all your advice for woods/treatment and prompting questions which solved problems.


Kind regards,
John

[David Somers]

Morning John!

Sorry....when I read your post just now I realized I had mixed you up with Walt Langhams. He was the one who had used the magnets for the table. They are under the table so not likely to get hit with the beam. Though my solution to an edge guide setup does use some magnets. I will look into your comment about a magnet and laser and see if I can find a simple and effective way to modify my setup before I post it for folks! Thanks!

BTW. Do you know what happens to magnet that gets hit with a beam? I assume the heating shatters it which could be dangerous. I will check elsewhere to be sure too.

Dave

[David Somers]

Hey again John!

This was interesting. According to KJMagnetics, the source I use for magnets, neodymium magnets will lose their magnetism if heated over 590F or 350C. They don't mention the magnet shattering when heated other than warning you not to machine them since they are very brittle and the stresses of machining may cause them to shatter. Heat by itself just seems to demagnetize them permanently. They do have high temp magnets in the N42 series but the difference only seems to add about 50F of heating tolerance compared to a standard N52 magnet. You need to search for them specifically. The prices are about what a normal N42 is. For those not familiar with these magnets...N52 is the highest strength of the rare earth magnets and N42 is a level below them. Still quite strong, but noticeably weaker than a comparable N52. KJ shows the approximate pull in pounds for each magnet so you can compare strengths.

Also....I always feels obliged to warn folks about these magnets. If a child or pet were to swallow one or more of them they could easily die if one magnet and a piece of metal, or a pair of them is in the gastro system. They may come together and severely pinch tissues together causing blockages and gangrene. Really bad. And they are strong enough I just cant imagine a surgeon getting them out without invasive surgery. They are also wicked strong and if allowed to slam together can shatter violently, or severely pinch tissues. They are wayyyyy cool, but not toys by any means. I use little 1/16 diameter magnets for closures and they are so easily dropped and lost that I take extreme care with them. No kids, but our dog is in charge of floor cleaning and I would be totally crushed if something bad happened to him. So take care with these things. OK.....stepping off soapbox. <grin>

Dave

[John Bion]

Thanks for that thought Dave (this just goes to prove my earlier point about you :) ), I use Neodymium magnets quite a bit for lids, pins etc. Never thought of a child swallowing them .... ouch! My kids love(d) to play with them (past tense now).

I think it was somewhere on this forum that someone warned that rare earth magnets (REM) (that was easier to type than Neodymium) would shatter if the laser beam hit them (might have been Dave Sheldrake?) I use magnets from speakers to hold stuff down on the laser (with a little handle screwed into centre hole in order to aid lifting them off), as well as other alternatives. Masking tape is my best buddy in this regard.

Regards, John

[David Somers]

Hey John,

I use the little disk shaped REM's with the center hole in them as well. I use a British product called Sugru (sugru.com) to encase them and put a little grab point on the top that is low enough it doesnt interfere with my shortest focal length lens, but is enough I can still pull the magnet off easily. The Sugru on the underside of the magnet protects whatever it is sitting on while the N52 magnet is strong enough to hold through the thin Sugru layer and whatever I am holding down. It just has to hold well enough to keep the blower from moving it around so there is plenty of strength there.

For those who are not familiar with Sugru...we can get it in the US and CA too. It is a silicon putty with an open life of about 30 minutes. You can easily mold it and it sticks to almost anything. Once cured over a 24 hour period it is resistant to chemicals and heat, has a soft but firm surface that is easy to grip, and can be cut or sanded as needed to complete your shaping. It is great stuff for small repairs and modifications of things. A friend who is an engineer at Boeing Aircraft turned me onto it. The engineers fell in love with it for all kinds of things. (but they don't use it on the airplanes in case you were worried. <grin>) I used a packet of it to repair some badly cracked bicycle shoes and they lasted another 2 years after that. Hard to beat. Check it out if you get a chance.

Dave