Rabbit owners

[Dan Hintz]

Figure on 100P and about 1/3rd of your wattage for speed as a starting point (e.g., a 60W laser would be run at 20S/100P).

[Karen Thompson]

Thanks Dan - I'll give that a go.

[Leon Shreves]

Hello group,

I live in the Washington DC area and have just purchased an older "new in the box" M40 from another member of this forum. The machine was delivered a year and a half ago but was never assembled and tested.

I fully expected to do several weeks of messing around with it to get it working. I also expected something expensive might need replacement.

The first issue I had was no power; dead machine. I did all the recommended things on the web to no avail. Finally opened up the power converter. Ooops! One of the 220 volt output wires was not connected. After checking pinouts and resistances I figured out which post to attach it to. Actually it was my second guess. It appears as though the wire was never connected. The binding post was totally open; not screwed in. After that when I plugged it in, the XY axes homed and it was purring. Yipee!

Then i hooked up the laser tube and the water pump. The pump has been totally unreliable so I will replace it. The laser is firing and seems pretty powerful with just 1/10 power set. So maybe the tube has aged well. Another Yippee!

I aligned the mirrors and now have continuity from the tube to lens from the whole range of XY coordinates. The stage adjustments for the mirrors are way crude but I got it to align.

When I hooked up the servomotors and sensors again the X axis wouldn't home. It would just go to the left a little bit regardless of its position. I figured the home switch was stuck and sure enough I felt around under neath the X axis bar and found a flakey little switch. I wiggled it and the XY mechanism worked again. Whew!

I now need to get the software working and check the data communications path. Once that is done I think it will be up and running well.

I am going to convert a little office refridgerator I have into a water chiller which should be quiet and efficient at nearly no cost.

I plan on sending the exhaust into a little utility room in my basement which I will then evacuate into my garage with a bathroom fan. My garage will smell but the house will be fine.

I am excited about my new toy and very thankful for how well the thing is coming together. I am also grateful to the seller for how well he kept it in storage and what a nice deal he made me. I probably wouldn't have bought a new one so the deal was a real enabler.

Regards to all,
Leon

[James Jaragosky]

Hello group,

I live in the Washington DC area and have just purchased an older "new in the box" M40 from another member of this forum. The machine was delivered a year and a half ago but was never assembled and tested.

I fully expected to do several weeks of messing around with it to get it working. I also expected something expensive might need replacement.

The first issue I had was no power; dead machine. I did all the recommended things on the web to no avail. Finally opened up the power converter. Ooops! One of the 220 volt output wires was not connected. After checking pinouts and resistances I figured out which post to attach it to. Actually it was my second guess. It appears as though the wire was never connected. The binding post was totally open; not screwed in. After that when I plugged it in, the XY axes homed and it was purring. Yipee!

Then i hooked up the laser tube and the water pump. The pump has been totally unreliable so I will replace it. The laser is firing and seems pretty powerful with just 1/10 power set. So maybe the tube has aged well. Another Yippee!

I aligned the mirrors and now have continuity from the tube to lens from the whole range of XY coordinates. The stage adjustments for the mirrors are way crude but I got it to align.

When I hooked up the servomotors and sensors again the X axis wouldn't home. It would just go to the left a little bit regardless of its position. I figured the home switch was stuck and sure enough I felt around under neath the X axis bar and found a flakey little switch. I wiggled it and the XY mechanism worked again. Whew!

I now need to get the software working and check the data communications path. Once that is done I think it will be up and running well.

I am going to convert a little office refridgerator I have into a water chiller which should be quiet and efficient at nearly no cost.

I plan on sending the exhaust into a little utility room in my basement which I will then evacuate into my garage with a bathroom fan. My garage will smell but the house will be fine.

I am excited about my new toy and very thankful for how well the thing is coming together. I am also grateful to the seller for how well he kept it in storage and what a nice deal he made me. I probably wouldn't have bought a new one so the deal was a real enabler.

Regards to all,
Leon

The Chinese made machines can be a little rough around the edges depending on the manufacturer; some a little more than others.
IT would appear that you have the skill to over come most difficulties you may encounter.
My machine worked right out of the box. and is still going as of this morning.
A few months after I got my Rabbit I also had a power issue but mine was a wire grounding out where it passed through the case from the supply to the tube; there was no grommet and the wire rubbed against the case.
I agree that the lens adjustment is very crude; I modified mine by adding some springs from some old ball point pens. I used the springs and some small flat washers to create back pressure against the mirror plate until I got it aligned then I locked it into place with the two nuts provided.

Welcome to the Creek.

[Dan Hintz]

Leon,

Glad you made it here... a really good groups of guys/gals. James will be your major host through the trials and tribulations of Asian machine ownership, but most of us will be able to answer machine-generic questions. I'm happy to hear the tube weathered storage well.

[James Jaragosky]

Leon,

Glad you made it here... a really good groups of guys/gals. James will be your major host through the trials and tribulations of Asian machine ownership, but most of us will be able to answer machine-generic questions. I'm happy to hear the tube weathered storage well.

I may be completely off base here, but do you have the pump plugged into the machine or a wall outlet; I ask because the pump is 220 and it will run on 110 only very poorly the same goes for the exhaust fan.

unless you are running vector cutting for several hours continuously a chiller will not be necessary. I can raster all day long without any problems. Also I am assuming that you do not have air assist, so you will be limited on vector cutting, unless you add air assist you will not need a chiller.
Jim J.

[Leon Shreves]

James, Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, the pump is plugged into the back of the cutter. It has difficulties starting. Once it starts pumping it works fine.

I'll definitely put the chiller lower on my priority list. Your advice makes sense to me. You do touch on a point that was going to be the subject of my next post; air assist. Do you have any suggestions on adding air assist to the M40? I was going to do more reading/research here before asking about air assist, but since you brought it up...

Thanks again,
Leon

[James Jaragosky]

James, Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, the pump is plugged into the back of the cutter. It has difficulties starting. Once it starts pumping it works fine.

I'll definitely put the chiller lower on my priority list. Your advice makes sense to me. You do touch on a point that was going to be the subject of my next post; air assist. Do you have any suggestions on adding air assist to the M40? I was going to do more reading/research here before asking about air assist, but since you brought it up...

Thanks again,
Leon

Unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to add air assist to my machine. I have a cnc router that allows me to cut everything I need; it also allows me to avoid the the inevitability of adding air to my machine.
I have kicked around some ideas but nothing concrete.
There was talk in one post, about one of the domestic manufactures listing information on how to add air assist to one of their machines; the poster seemed to think he could adapt that information to his machine. I believe it may have been USL laser but I am not certain.

If you do find a way to add air assist please photograph each step and part as well as keeping a list of suppliers and part numbers. There are many people that would be interested in this information.
In fact if you could make it a kit with instructions, you could clean up on fleabay.
Jim J.

[Zachery Thomas]

Leon,

I have the M40 also and added air assist but it really doesn't seem to help much. I've tried regular shop air (CDA) as well as N2. The problem is the software doesn't allow a slow enough speed for single pass cutting of thicker materials so air assist isn't needed.

Zax.

James, Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, the pump is plugged into the back of the cutter. It has difficulties starting. Once it starts pumping it works fine.

I'll definitely put the chiller lower on my priority list. Your advice makes sense to me. You do touch on a point that was going to be the subject of my next post; air assist. Do you have any suggestions on adding air assist to the M40? I was going to do more reading/research here before asking about air assist, but since you brought it up...

Thanks again,
Leon

[Leon Shreves]

Leon,

I have the M40 also and added air assist but it really doesn't seem to help much. I've tried regular shop air (CDA) as well as N2. The problem is the software doesn't allow a slow enough speed for single pass cutting of thicker materials so air assist isn't needed.

Zax.

Hi Zax.

Thanks for the info. How do you do multiple cuts of the same pattern? DO you dupe the cut mark and overlay it?

I am aligning mirrors and trying to get it just right at all positions. Very clumsy set up on the M40 for aligning the optics. The computer talks to the laser just fine, so all functions seem to be operating.

Now I am down to the task of learning Newlydraw. The first problem I am having is trying to orient the XY cartesion plane the way I would like:
X= (-L) (+R); Y =(+ goes to the back) (- comes to the front). I'd like the front left corner to be (0,0). So far, the best I can do is achieve that rotated by 90 degrees clockwise. (0,0) is in the back left corner. I'll keep trying and may post some screenshots with directed questions.

Thanks again,
Leon

[Zachery Thomas]

Leon,

Yes - you can dupe the cut lines or depending on the job it is sometimes easier to send the job a second time.

I would suggest keeping 0,0 at the back left and having right and front positive. It is possible to set it up the way you want, but I found you can get some strange results with raster engraving.

You can still cut/engrave jobs at any location on the table, just adjust the XY start position on the engrave screen.

Zax.

[Leon Shreves]

Leon,

Yes - you can dupe the cut lines or depending on the job it is sometimes easier to send the job a second time.

I would suggest keeping 0,0 at the back left and having right and front positive. It is possible to set it up the way you want, but I found you can get some strange results with raster engraving.

You can still cut/engrave jobs at any location on the table, just adjust the XY start position on the engrave screen.

Zax.

Sounds like sage advice wrt the axis orientation. There are better things to learn now.

I found a forum thread that describes converting a similar laser so that it can be controlled with Mach 3. It shows the opto-isolator input for firing the laser. The servo control should be simple for any one who has tried to build a DIY CNC machine. Here is the link:
http://www.routoutcnc.co.uk/Forum/index.php?topic=17.0

I am toying with a hybrid system that would allow for external control as well as the using the Newlydraw raster capabilities. Should be possible with just a couple of multi-gang switches or similar electronic solution.

For now, I'll learn to live with Newlydraw and start learning all the other things I need to know.

Cheers,
Leon

[Tom Ravenscroft]

Hi Guys

Can you tell me what size files your machines will download from your computer to the laser.

I have a Chinese Golden Laser and I get a memory error if I try to download a file larger than 200mm x 200mm @250DPI which is +-640KB

My bed size is 1540 x 950 mm so this restriction is really annoying. I have been trying to laser ceramic tiles, but would like to be able to do sizes up to 400mm x 400mm at 500DPI

The laser has a memory of 128MB.

I may consider purchasing another machine if I can't get this to work. I am looking at the Atr Sign or Strong machines.

Regards

Tom (From Oz)

[James Jaragosky]

Hi Guys

Can you tell me what size files your machines will download from your computer to the laser.

I have a Chinese Golden Laser and I get a memory error if I try to download a file larger than 200mm x 200mm @250DPI which is +-640KB

My bed size is 1540 x 950 mm so this restriction is really annoying. I have been trying to laser ceramic tiles, but would like to be able to do sizes up to 400mm x 400mm at 500DPI

The laser has a memory of 128MB.

I may consider purchasing another machine if I can't get this to work. I am looking at the Atr Sign or Strong machines.

Regards

Tom (From Oz)

Tom; That is the problem I have with my rabbit laser. The bed is larger than the software will allow me to print.

[Kim Vellore]

Hello group,


I plan on sending the exhaust into a little utility room in my basement which I will then evacuate into my garage with a bathroom fan. My garage will smell but the house will be fine.


Regards to all,
Leon

Leon,
The exhaust can be toxic and harmful depending on what you cut. I would spend some time and run a hose to get the exhaust outside the house...

Kim