Some possible changes to your Chinese Laser Tables

[David Somers]

Morning All!

Now that I am the proud owner of a Chinese Laser, which I do like overall, one thing I found that drove me a bit nuts was the setup of the Honeycomb table. It seems to be common through the design of Chinese Lasers and not just a feature of the manufacturer I bought from.

The issue for me is that the honeycomb table is free floating and has no guide bars on it. You either rest the honeycomb on the table edge, or you set it on the knife edges in my case. As you raise and lower the table the vibration from the motor will make it wander around a bit. And the design of the table makes fixing it in place with screws or bolts a bit odd. Once I did come up with a way to fix the table I found the edges of the aluminum frame of the steel honeycomb were not square to each other, and not staight anyway.

So I dinked around with various ways of fixing this and finally came up with a solution that worked well for me. I need to add here that SMC member, Walt Langhams, gave me a nice idea for using magnets which I applied to both the table and the guide bars. Thanks Walt!!!

So....I have attached a zip file containing 2 Word Documents. One document describes how I fixed the honeycomb in place, the other how I made the guide bars. (note....doing the guide bars without having a way to repeatably fix the honeycomb table in place doesn't gain you much.) In both cases I had a few goals. One was that the process hopefully involved NO or at least minimal use of tools or permanent changes to the laser. Another was the results be easily reversible if I changed my mind later, and lastly that the setup be fast to setup and fast to remove and be easily repeatable.

So.....for those of you with Chinese lasers I hope this either provides you with a simple fix for these two issues, or gives you some ideas for your own fixes. Be sure to share stuff with us. I am sure there are many ways to do this that we can benefit from

Dave
Honeycomb and guide bars for Chinese Laser.zip

[Bill George]

When I was using the honey comb table it was very true and square. I got it lined up and used 4 long sheet metal screws to hold it to the engraving or laser table. Marked and pre-drilled the holes, not a rocket science job.

[David Somers]

That certainly would have made life much easier Bill! <grin> Alas. Not the case on mine. Not too far off, but enough to offend my anal retentive nature.

Dave
PS....why is anal retentive a pejorative term? One would think retaining yours would be a good thing while losing it would be awkward in so many ways? In Eqypt would this be considered the Mystery of the Sphincter? Perhaps this could be a History Channel special? <grin>

[Roy Sanders]

Hi Dave,

Thank you. I am definitely giving this a go. I do have difficulty getting my work square on my honeycomb table. You are so right about the mismatch between frame and table. I will offer feedback after I give your plans a whirl.

Roy

[Paul Phillips]

That certainly would have made life much easier Bill! <grin> Alas. Not the case on mine. Not too far off, but enough to offend my anal retentive nature.

Dave
PS....why is anal retentive a pejorative term? One would think retaining yours would be a good thing while losing it would be awkward in so many ways? In Eqypt would this be considered the Mystery of the Sphincter? Perhaps this could be a History Channel special? <grin>

Oh how we have missed you Dave!