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Thread: Being careful with my Portable laser

  1. #1
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    Being careful with my Portable laser

    Ok, so there was a post the other day about portable fiber lasers and the cabinet lasers. And I think this is relevant to anyone who has one.

    I had need to engrave on a sheet of stainless steel 44"x84" for a customer. Initially thought about my big CO2 and cermark, but I decided it would be too hard to move around, into basement, and then through the laser. So I decided to use Fiber. So I took it to the sheet rather than the sheet to the laser. Into my little tractor's bucket, carpeted bottom, strapped it down where it wouldn't move.

    Drove to my wood shop, (not far, but too far to tote up a hill and around the 200 feet or so) where I had set up the sheet inside the door. Tractor makes it pretty darn easy. Set it up on my rolling cart, and engraved a bunch of letters. Worked out pretty well. (time to do 3" letters is another story, but being a fiber, I could start a letter or letters depending on width and walk away for a while) Finished up today, took fiber down and back in bucket. No jarring, pulling or anything terrible.

    Set back up to do some guns this afternoon. Turned it on and danged if the alignment LED pointer (outside head LED) wouldn't come on.
    Well, I manually focused on the three different guns, Dang it, that LED sure makes this easy on something like an MP40. But I got them done.
    Then the pieces of JDS leatherette (journals) that a customer wanted. Fiber does tremendously better on that stuff than my CO2. The CO2 will either not cut or cut too deep, just can't get power settings right.
    (oh, being flat, focus is easy on the journals....)

    Then I started troubleshooting. Moved cable around, nothing. Decided to see if I had bumped enough to jar connection loose inside box. No, everything there is well screwed down or glued down with silicone.
    Found a splice in the cable a foot from the head, but nothing looked damaged and moving around did no good.

    So I decided to pull off the top and see how to replace/where the first connection was located.
    So here are some pictures of top cover off.
    fiber head1.jpgFront to back Looks ok
    fiber head2.jpgFarther back. Nothing yet
    fiber head3.jpgBack towards the front
    fiber head4.jpgWait, what's that?
    fiber head5.jpgYep, connector is disconnected.
    There are two plugs, one for each LED. They are wiretied pretty good, but on either side of their connection and they could move apart.
    So I plugged back together and taped the joints. The rear plastic plates that 'hold' the cable in don't do a good job. Unlike the connection at the computer, the connection is pretty loose.
    Before I move again, I'm going totape up enough that they can't move and pull anything loose.

    So the moral of the story is to be careful, watch what you are doing when you are moving these portables.
    Woodworking, Old Tools and Shooting
    Ray Fine RF-1390 Laser Ray Fine 20watt Fiber Laser
    SFX 50 Watt Fiber Laser
    PM2000, Delta BS, Delta sander, Powermatic 50 jointer,
    Powermatic 100-12 planer, Rockwell 15-126 radial drill press
    Rockwell 46-450 lathe, and 2 Walker Turner RA1100 radial saws
    Jet JWS18, bandsaw Carbide Create CNC, RIA 22TCM 1911s and others

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Iowa USA
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    Wow, thanks for posting, good to know.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  3. #3
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    Yeah Bill, that rear connection is really loose on mine. there are a set of 4 cables out the back and they don't fill the black cover at all. I hadn't paid a bit of attention to this up until yesterday. (moved laser probably 4 or 5 times prior with no issue)
    Woodworking, Old Tools and Shooting
    Ray Fine RF-1390 Laser Ray Fine 20watt Fiber Laser
    SFX 50 Watt Fiber Laser
    PM2000, Delta BS, Delta sander, Powermatic 50 jointer,
    Powermatic 100-12 planer, Rockwell 15-126 radial drill press
    Rockwell 46-450 lathe, and 2 Walker Turner RA1100 radial saws
    Jet JWS18, bandsaw Carbide Create CNC, RIA 22TCM 1911s and others

  4. #4
    I spent the recent few days moving two fiber / galvo laser machines. The one thing I recommend is that you calibrate your laser after moving. I simply draw a 30mm square and then adjust the software parameters until it really cuts 30mm square. Then I tape down the metal test part.. make a final 30mm square... adjust the red-pointer offsets until matches the cut square. Maybe this is an over-simplified explanation, but the idea is that I calibrated my machine and I am happy to get my red outlines to show me exactly where my cuts will be.

    just my experiences...
    Ray Scott
    Owner/Engineer at Rabbit Laser USA


    Advice... Never use your tongue as a multimeter.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Iowa USA
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ray Scott View Post
    I spent the recent few days moving two fiber / galvo laser machines. The one thing I recommend is that you calibrate your laser after moving. I simply draw a 30mm square and then adjust the software parameters until it really cuts 30mm square. Then I tape down the metal test part.. make a final 30mm square... adjust the red-pointer offsets until matches the cut square. Maybe this is an over-simplified explanation, but the idea is that I calibrated my machine and I am happy to get my red outlines to show me exactly where my cuts will be.

    just my experiences...
    Mine came all the way from China and nothing changed. Only adjustment was that external red dot to aline with the internal one.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

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