help needed to align laser beam

[Dan Hintz]

When you're aligning this thing, you should only need to press the test button for a second or two to mark the paper and see where it lines up. It looks like your burning through the paper and getting soot on the mirrors and lenses, which will destroy them in short order. When you get new lenses and mirrors in, go through the alignment process before doing anything else.

[maria galligan]

Hi
To answer some of the questions. The mirrors are orange, not blue and that is not a reflection but a burn mark.What Dan said is what,s happening. It's soot from burning the paper. I didn't know that was no good to burn the paper on the mirror. A hard lesson learnt, will know for next time. I have the last 2 new mirrors and will try again today set set it. I know what was happening yesterday. It was the soot mark stopping the beam. Ill look at rabbit usa site as well as the cheap laser modification. Thanks for all the advice it helps us newbie's.

[Rodne Gold]

Yellow/Orange optics are generally lenses - Mirrors are either gold or silver..and VERY shiny, did you mean gold not orange?? if you have soot marks on the mirrors , you should be able to clean them quite easily , no need to use "new" ones.

[maria galligan]

Yes they are gold not orange. But how do I clean the soot of the mirrors?

Thanks Dom

[Dan Hintz]

Yes they are gold not orange. But how do I clean the soot of the mirrors?

Lots of threads to answer these basic questions... I'll suggest again, start at thread one and start reading, there's way too much useful info to pass it up. Start with some reagent-grade alcohol, or in a pinch, just use some isopropyl alcohol.

Thanks Dom

You've signed off as Dom on several occasions... who is Dom?

[maria galligan]

Hi thanks. Dom is Maria's husband. We are both trying find out information together because we are trying to start a small business personalising products. So we need to get our laser working. That's why there's been so many questions. But thanks to you all and the help you are so willing to give we are slowly learning.

Thanks Dom and Maria

[Andrzej Piechota]

Hello Maria
Please read this link: http://www.rabbitlaserusa.com/Manual...Alignment.html . This is description of setting mirriors and lens for correct beam from tube to engraved material.
brgds

sorry not see that this was already posted

[Larry Robinson]

One thought is to make sure you start your mirror alignment with the mirror closest to the tube and then work your way toward to the head mirror. This should be explained in the manual. A LOT of patient is required to do the mirrors the first time.

[maria galligan]

The problem I have is that when I set the laser head mirror the beam moves a lot. When I set it closest to the second mirror it's fine but when I move the laser head to the far position the beam moves 40mm to the front of the machine. But both mirrors are set in the middle. I have noticed that the second mirror and the laser head are not lined up. I mean the laser head is 7mm closer to the tube on the gantry than the mirror is. Is this a problem? There is no more adjustment faward on the laser head nor is there any front to back adjustment on the mirror bracket? Any help please?

Thanks Maria

[Dan Hintz]

Pictures would help significantly here.

1) The gantry should be parallel with the top/bottom edges of the table... if it's not, fix that first.
2) Then, the tube should be (ideally) parallel to the table (though it's not a necessity). If you can't adjust this, don't worry about it, it's not critical and can be fixed with the first mirror adjustment.
3) Both the tube and table should be perfectly horizontal (or at a bare minimum, parallel to each other in the horizontal direction)... if they're not, fix that next. This is also not critical and can also be fixed with the first mirror adjustment.

Once that is done, start adjusting the mirrors in the following order:
4) Beam should hit the first (non-movable) steering mirror dead on the center.
5) Beam should hit the second (movable) steering mirror (attached to the gantry) dead center at the top of the table and at the bottom. If it doesn't, adjust the first mirror to make it so.
6) Beam should hit the third (movable) steering mirror (on the carriage) dead center at the far left and far right of the table. If it doesn't, adjust the second mirror to make it so.
7) Beam should hit the focusing lens dead center. If it doesn't, adjust the third mirror to make it so.
8) Go back through steps 4-7 and make sure nothing has significantly changed position.

[maria galligan]

Thanks Dan

Ill have a look at this in the morning and ill post some photos then also.

Thanks Maria

[maria galligan]

Here are some pictures of this problem. The one photo shows how the mirror and head are not parallel. I don't know if this is a problem?

[Dan Hintz]

Focus, please!

That first image, if I'm viewing it correctly, shows a major problem... if the second mirror (the one on top) is not in line with the third mirror (on the carriage), you have no hope of keeping the beam centered when the carriage moves. Resolve that issue before doing anything else.

[maria galligan]

How do I know when the second mirror and the laser head mirror are in line? The second mirror bracket is home made so it could be that the mirror was put on the machine in the wrong place. Should I use a visible laser light to check beam path?

[Mike Null]

Dan

I would think that the alignment has to begin at the tube. I don't know of a way to align the mirrors with each other unless the tube is aligned with the first mirror.

Again, I have no experience with this machine but it seems fundamental that all adjustments must begin at the tube and mirror no. 1.

Homemade mirror bracket?????? Why?