How to install and setup a Co2 Laser Fence in Lightburn
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- Опубликовано: 30 дек 2020
- In this video I show you how to install a fence on an OMTech 80W Laser (this will work for others) and set up in Lightburn to be able to reference the zero position when cutting! If you found this video helpful I'd appreciate it if you liked and subscribed and shared with others that might get some info out of it. thanks
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superb ! thank you. The important "flash of the blindingly obvious" that I hadn't worked out in anticipation, is how you use the laser to cut your fence after the fence was fixed in place, to ensure it would be parallel/ perpendicular to the laser's x &y. Inspired !!!
Awesome! I’m glad it helped you out
I use the lower left for all of my "positive reg" but I can use the same method, and indeed I will. Thanks for the helpful video!
Absolutely! Thanks for watching 👊
Great job explaining how to do this. Adding a frame to mine today. Thanks again n
Awesome! Glad you liked it. I appreciate the feedback
Thanks for this! Good stuff
Glad it helped!
nice job on the video
good info
Thanks Todd
That thing is sweet! Let’s see what all you make!
Thanks! I have some more videos in the works. 👊
I did something similar, my origin is left upper corner since it's a yellow and black, but I first squared up the bed to head and installed a strip of aluminum on the left side, and then did the top piece like you did for the top edge. Perfect repeatability, I just have to remember to put a .1 offset at 0,0 and use absolute coords for cutting. I can repeat a cut at the 1" y and 1" x every time.
That’s awesome! In my haste to get this running a day or two after getting it I just threw this together and didn’t square the bed prior to setting up the fence. I like the idea of the aluminum. With how thin my fence is I’ve noticed some issues with placing boards with rounded corners on it. I’m gonna use that aluminum idea when I redo it! Thanks 👊
@@jackalopecustom I used 1/16" by 3/4" strip. I took cardstock and placed it against the edge of the honeycomb, and set a cut from X0 all the way down so it cut a straight line. then lined the strip up with the cut and screwed it to the honeycomb rail. Only downside is thin stock can slip under, so 1/32 sheet stock needs to be carefully aligned. For the back stop I did somewhat similar to what you did except I used zip ties to secure the 1/4" ply I used to the honeycomb, and made the piece the length of the cutting width which on mine is 27.48, the drew a line from y0 across and cut the board. I don't worry where the nozzle is anymore since I use Ab coords for cutting, just have to make sure none of the cuts align with 0,0. I have a MEWE page called Chasers group, come join us, we could use a few more people, you have a good idea there that people can use too.
Take it easy with the z axis belt, moving so fast you may burn the stepper driver. Rotating a motor by hand the motor becomes a generator. So take it slow when you do that or install a switch on the cables.
The z axis is manual only. No motor attached. That’s really great insight for those that do have a motor attached though! Thanks 👊
been wanting to do this for a while, Thanks!
Thanks for watching! Glad it helped
Good day. I followed your video and everything was working fine. I recently changed my grid settings to 1/4" and my working size to match my work bed and now I'm receiving this message, Need more overshotting or larger accleration, on the controller. Now I have to move my design in lightroom about 2 inches from the top and side. Could these changes have caused this issue? Any help would be appreciated. Thx.
Great technique. May i suggest OBS for capturing the screen so the moire is reduced? You can have multiple video feeds and desktop view scenes you can switch between with a simple key command.
I’ve never heard of OSB, but will check it out! In my other videos I started using a free screen capture app and that works so much better than the phone recording. Thanks for the suggestion
I just bought 1 a couple months ago and now its making a strange noise and doesnt work very well
I've never understood why people set their origin anywhere other than back left? Or what I should say is set the origin anywhere other than the same corner where the beam enters the cabinet?
That's an interesting thought provoking thought : I've never thought about it (I'm new to lasering however... so am assimilating things as swiftly as I can). Do you suggest this from a standpoint of "it seems abstractly appealing : that that's where the laser is coming from, hence it's the "origin" of the laser, or is it a more technical reason : that the shorter the path of the laser (and most cutting will probably be near the origin, as large jobs will inevitably be a small number of the jobs one does), the more likely the beam will line up with the optics as near perfectly as it can, but chances are it might be somewhat wonky by the opposite corner : and also be going through more smoke if extraction isn't great, by the time it hits the focussing lens ? Hence you're suggesting this to try and maximise quality of cutting ?
@@jonnyhifi Yes, exactly, everything you've said... The closer to the source, the more powerful the beam... all beams diverge to some extent as they travel.
Now I know that we're only really talking a very short distance, but the likelihood that you've got the mirrors absolutely perfectly aligned is not high. So there's a good chance the beam is striking the lens in a very slightly different place depending on where the head is in the machine. So you might be getting different results the farther you get from the source. When you couple the fact that you've likely got smoke particles inside the cabinet too, which will absorb even more of the power, it makes more sense to do all your cutting and engraving in the corner of your machine where the the beam enters. Obviously, if you're cutting/engraving to the maximum size your machine will allow then you don't have much choice, but if for example you are engraving say a board 12" square, then why you'd place it smack bang in the centre of the bed is beyond me... Everything I do is aligned right in the top/back left corner, right where the beam enters.
@@semperidem2577 If I may. CO2 lasers work in the 11.6nm frequency range, and can pass through smoke with ease, if that's a concern. Much like the infrared systems that firefighters use to see inside structures that are filled with heavy, dense smoke. Secondly, if your beam alignment is good, then you'll have full power at your focus lens regardless of the position within the work area. If you don't, it's time to grab a wrench and start sighting it in. The beam size as it enters the 3rd mirror on my 100W OMTech, for instance, is approx. 2.5mm. Given the surface area of the mirrors, as long as your vertical (3rd mirror) alignment is perfectly vertical in respect to the focusing lens, you'll have no issues. The focus lens tightens my beam, with a 63.5mm FL lens, down to 0.06mm in diameter and I can utilize every last mm in the frame. I have another laser I built with a 55" x 44" working area, and even with the much longer travel path for the beam it performs similarly. Third, if you get one of the OMTech machines, one of the first upgrades you should do is to rip out the garbage "exhaust fan" which is a glorified PC fan, and throw an inline 6" fan in - but not at the laser. Optimally you want negative pressure on your system, so place it as close to the exhaust vent as possible. Not only will it reduce the Db in the machine by about half, but you'll get much more effective smoke extraction. I do a lot of depth engravings, large scale, running at 500 mm/s and 75% power, just blasting away and vaporizing material - normally an extremely smoky situation. With the exhaust modifications I mentioned, it remains nearly smokeless inside, providing an unobstructed view from my internal camera even, and prolonging the working life of your components. As to the origin point, which is settable via the Ruida and through Lightburn, there are a lot of reasons to move it away from the corners of the bed. The honeycomb tends to slope up at the sides and overall is actually pretty poor at presenting a flat, even worksurface. If you use the camera feature in Lightburn (which I'd highly recommend doing), the highest resolution and therefore accuracy is going to be near the center of the bed. My origin is set to dead center, along with other coordinates programmed in lightburn (the four corners, X - center, Y-center, and home of course). This allows me to place my design with a single click, literally toss a piece of material in the machine, tell the camera to orient the engraving accordingly, and away I go. My workflow is demanding and this expedites things tremendously for me. I'd also suggest a touch off sensor (probe) as well as automating the Zed axis. Good luck friend, happy lasering.
Hey I'm doing a lot of research, I'm about to either buy or build my own laser. Question I have is, does the honeycomb bed move at all or is it pretty solid?
I’ve had zero movement on mine in the year or so that I’ve owned it. Very solid
@@jackalopecustom ok. Thanks!
Did you cut 1/8" hard board with 80w laser at 20speed /55 ppwer?
Im asking because I have a laser with reci tube 90w (100w peak)and I was cutting same material at 25 speed/ 90w power... so Maybe something is going not correct
Thanks for the video
Jorge!
Jorge I’d look into your mirror alignment and the cleanliness of your mirrors. Something isn’t right
@@jackalopecustom Agreed, also check into the reverse alignment tool from Amerian Photonics. If you use it to align your Reci, you'll be slicing 1/8" at 40mm/s +, 65% power.
Hey bro que you explain how you use the laser with lightburn?
Yeah I’ll be making a video on that here soon! Stay tuned
I am sorry but I don't understand why you need to create a fence in your laser, aren't the rails 90 % to each other... and you can use a carpenters square from that set your piece. Also In Lightburn ( in the "User origin" setting) you can click on your image then click on the "move laser button position button (and put it in the middle or any of corners of your Image) then send it to the laser and then hit Origin on the Ruida controller. and it will start from that position to repeat cuts. ( a lot of times I will put painters tape on my grid and run it once at low power to have a temporary image on the grid of where it's cutting) also maybe consider a camera for lightburn. I wish you all the best of luck , Having a laser is a great tool in the shop.
I’m sure there are plenty of different ways to square up material on your laser, this one just works for me. I made a fence for my wood cnc as well. Each (laser and cnc) has a home position and the ability to reference offsets. This is a quick and easy way to get your material in a known spot and start working.
Many laser users I’ve seen on RUclips utilize the camera or tape or some other method to square their material up and if that works for them, more power to um!
Thank you for your insight and kind words and I will be looking into a camera in the future.
I can't speak for other OMTech owners, but my bed came from the factory horribly misaligned with the gantry system, and is no where close to being usable as a reference for square. Neither are the honeycomb frame pieces perpendicular with each other. Also, the honeycomb beds are natively poor for this job, and a 16-gauge piece of thin steel frame for the honeycomb is by no means conducive to repeatability, as it offers little backstop capability and even poorer reliability. If you're dead set on having a repeatable alignment point, what he's done here is one of the cheapest and easiest methods for gaining such a function from your laser. Just about every laser I've ever worked on or seen suffers similar issues, unless you throw down for a Boss or Trotec, but then you're paying 20 times more for the privilege, when a 50 cent solution like this is perfectly workable. Even Glowforges (gag) have this issue, and rely on their positioning system and scannable tags on their proprietary materials to attain this function.
@neonsynth you hit the nail on the head! Thanks for your response
@@jackalopecustom you're welcome friend. Just trying to share the knowledge gained; we're all in it together and face the same struggles. I'll be posting videos on my setups and builds soon, I'll drop ya a link if interested.
Absolutely. I’ll check it out when you do! Thank you 👊