PDA

View Full Version : Fiber- anyone using a 300x300 lens, and/or a motorized XY table?



Kev Williams
06-06-2019, 1:41 PM
I'm so PO'd right now-- I ordered a crap load of operator panel blanks cut to size and anodized, this year my customer wanted me to buy the whole year's worth up front so there'd be no delays in fabrication. Projections put it at 270 panels-! Ok, we can do that-

And I've had issues with the anodizing for the past couple of years, so I changed shops. I had a sample panel made and anodized, I was happy, for the most part.

So what's happened since, is that 270 of these panels just fubar'd the new shop's normal routine I guess, they've had my panels for over a month, getting small batches done to keep me going, so that's good.

I've gotten 3 batches now, the latest batch yesterday, 120 panels. And why I'm PO'd is because all 3 batches, while looking the same, don't engrave the same at all.. the test panel and first batch engraved fairly bright, but had to watch the power so as not to blow thru to the metal. Second batch wouldn't get near as bright. I found with this batch that 'less is more', I got the brightest marking at half the power I normally use.

but this 3rd batch- No matter what settings I've tried I can't get it to engrave anywhere close to 'bright'. A light dinjy blue is all I can muster, regardless of machines and power settings...

I've spent over $5000 on this material, and as far as black anodizing looks and 'performs', they're all a good match and look great. But it comes with no warranty on what happens when you fire laser beams at it! Which I understand.

So-- once I'm out of the first 2 batches (still waiting on final batches) I'm stuck with blue engraving and MY customer will likely have issues with it. My recourse would be to fiber laser the things. But with a galvo the working area size becomes a problem. However, most of the panels are 15" or less in height or width, and a 300mm lens provides over 16-1/2" of work area. But almost all panels are well over 16" in height or width depending. Many panels would only need 1 reposition to complete, and 99% of the engraving requires no graphics joining, the one exception being 1/8" wide border lines that run out to around 20", but those aren't hard to line up (love the LEDS!)...

In examining my ebay2/cabinet laser, there's oodles of room to accommodate even the largest panels I make, as far as room under the lens and tower goes... And in most cases I could probably reposition the panels manually, provided I get the base table squared to the machine's output. And actually, that can be done in the software. But I've watched Triumph's motorized XY table do its thing with a galvo fiber, and having the software do all the repositioning automatically would be wonderful! But, Triumph's is the only one I've seen work, and it has a 300x300mm XY move distance. Nice, but a 400x400 (12x12"-ish) move would mean I could run every plate I make without moving the actual plate, using a 300x300 lens....

That's what I'm after, but I would definitely consider a manually moved XY table, if for no other reason than cost. And I'm sure a 300 lens will take care of anodized aluminum, just curious if anyone's been using one and how it works-

Trey Tull
06-06-2019, 3:00 PM
I use an XY table for 99.9% of my setups. I don't usually need to move stuff mid work but they make everything SOOOO much easier to fine tune. Adding stepper motors to an XY table wouldn't be that hard and could easily be controlled with an Arduino.

Also, I have some black anodized sheet in the shop that does the same thing. Only a dull blue when hit with my 60w ULS CO2.

John Lifer
06-08-2019, 7:41 PM
I've a 300x300 but only 20 watts Kev. It works good for what I've tried. On my 150x150 lens, I use 7 to 10% power and I've upped to 15 to 20% on the 300x300 to get the corners. Probably would work fine.

Kev Williams
06-08-2019, 9:57 PM
I have a small XY "drill" table, I believe I bought because of Trey's post about it -? I love the thing, SO much faster and easier to move the part than to move the graphics! I want to get a couple more!

I'm thinking more along the lines of something like this- passive, not motorized (although motorized would be good! :D)
411106
I drew this up assuming 24" long rails with 2" long bearing blocks to be spaced 6" apart on centers. This would give me 16" of slide both directions. With a little modification I could make this work using my cabinet fiber. Wouldn't be cheap though, Hiwin parts from one website would run $478 for the 4 rails and bearings sets, and I'd still need a new table top for the cabinet, and the necessary plates to build the rail assembly, and time to build the thing. But it would work! And every hour I spend on C02 lasering and setting up would be cut down by at least 75%, and the engraving would look MUCH better. Now if I could find one already done! ;)

I figured a 300 lens should work just fine, thanks for the real-world review John :)

And as I'm sitting here typing this, sitting next to me is my 30 year old New Hermes 5000XT engraver, that for the past few years now is basically proprietary to one customer. That customer's parts can be done on any of several other machines, so-- I'm wondering why I don't just make this my new combo gantry-fiber laser? Seriously- It would take me about an hour to fab up a bracket that I could bolt right to the spindle head- meaning the machine could still do tool engraving.. To that bracket I'd mount the laser's main head assembly. There's plenty of fiber optic cable and room behind the machine for the main case. This machine's spindle head has 2-3/4" of vertical movement, so focusing won't be an issue. With a 300mm lens able to engrave a 16 area and 8" beyond the table's original boundaries, every panel I make could be fully engraved without moving the panel. The largest panels would need to engraved from 4 points, all others from 3 points or less...

I could make do with a 20w laser too, if I were to buy another one. But just checked ebay, there's only a $400 difference right now...

My wheels are turning...

Gary Hair
06-08-2019, 11:53 PM
For what you are needing to build you could easily use fully supported rails with linear bearings instead of the (very) expensive Hiwin parts, 2 sets of 20mm on eBay are about $40 each. You would discover this really quickly but either the x or y needs to be mounted on the opposite bearing blocks in order to move - just like the gantry in a co2 laser. It wouldn't take much to add lead screws and steppers run using an Arduino board with minimal programming and you would have an xy stage that would have a pretty high degree of accuracy, all for less than the Hiwin parts.


I have a small XY "drill" table, I believe I bought because of Trey's post about it -? I love the thing, SO much faster and easier to move the part than to move the graphics! I want to get a couple more!

I'm thinking more along the lines of something like this- passive, not motorized (although motorized would be good! :D)
411106
I drew this up assuming 24" long rails with 2" long bearing blocks to be spaced 6" apart on centers. This would give me 16" of slide both directions. With a little modification I could make this work using my cabinet fiber. Wouldn't be cheap though, Hiwin parts from one website would run $478 for the 4 rails and bearings sets, and I'd still need a new table top for the cabinet, and the necessary plates to build the rail assembly, and time to build the thing. But it would work! And every hour I spend on C02 lasering and setting up would be cut down by at least 75%, and the engraving would look MUCH better. Now if I could find one already done! ;)

I figured a 300 lens should work just fine, thanks for the real-world review John :)

And as I'm sitting here typing this, sitting next to me is my 30 year old New Hermes 5000XT engraver, that for the past few years now is basically proprietary to one customer. That customer's parts can be done on any of several other machines, so-- I'm wondering why I don't just make this my new combo gantry-fiber laser? Seriously- It would take me about an hour to fab up a bracket that I could bolt right to the spindle head- meaning the machine could still do tool engraving.. To that bracket I'd mount the laser's main head assembly. There's plenty of fiber optic cable and room behind the machine for the main case. This machine's spindle head has 2-3/4" of vertical movement, so focusing won't be an issue. With a 300mm lens able to engrave a 16 area and 8" beyond the table's original boundaries, every panel I make could be fully engraved without moving the panel. The largest panels would need to engraved from 4 points, all others from 3 points or less...

I could make do with a 20w laser too, if I were to buy another one. But just checked ebay, there's only a $400 difference right now...

My wheels are turning...