Quick Tip / Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Moderators: HPC, Daven

Post Reply
Spooky
Posts: 1291
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:17 pm
Contact:

Quick Tip / Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Post by Spooky »

Just a quick tip, when your fitting a new tube or aligning mirror use a small square of acrylic to test fire the beam.
If you use paper or thin card the beam will burn through real quick and soot up your mirrors.

rgrds

Dave
Please note I am not employed by HPC, any advice or recomendations I give are based on my own experience and are not necessarily the same as HPC's. First point of contact on any hardware issues should be with HPC
Dave@OpticalPower.co.uk
HPCLaser
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:01 pm
Contact:

Re: Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Post by HPCLaser »

Remember to "tape" this in place though (Health and safety)

Charlotte
bob
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2009 7:28 pm
Contact:

Re: Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Post by bob »

Hi Spooky,
You can also turn the laser test power down in the keypad so its around 70% this makes it more accurate,
Also trying with clear acrylic works.

The last mirror is a pain as this is the one that can give double lines or angled cuts remember to adjust the opposite as it goes through the lens... :?
Bernie_of_CPE
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:25 pm
Contact:

Re: Quick Tip / Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Post by Bernie_of_CPE »

Hi Guys,

Being a complete meddler by nature it occurred to me to substitute the units own laser for a visible one to perform the alignment work, it's safer and really should be a built in feature. Perhaps someone could suggest this as an improvement to the design to the Chinese manufacturers? It would be so much easier if adjustments can be made in a "live" situation where the effect of the adjustment can be seen as you do it.

So far I have bought a cheap laser tape measure from B&Q (the UK version of Home Depot), the laser unit is small and removable and I am sure could be mounted in the output path to show beam redirection along the mirror route. A small laser etched target made to mount on the last mirror block is all that will be needed. Once set up I am sure this would make aligning mirrors a cinch.

Alternately by removing the bed and mounting the visible laser into the output nozzle sending the visible beam laser the wrong way through the output nozzle and back to the tube could be a better option. This could certainly be done in my 6090 Pro. I will give this more thought and mock something up. I just think that using a lower powered laser with a constant beam to test alignment would make this job so much easier.

I'll let you know how my tests progress.

Bernie
Best regards.

Bernie_of_CPE (Custom Product Engineering)
Daven
Posts: 1632
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:44 pm
Location: Devon
Contact:

Re: Quick Tip / Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Post by Daven »

I was thinking the same Bernie - I had a laser sight from an old saw but it produces a line rather than a spot but the unit itself is small enough to rig something up!

Be interested how you get on!

Cheers

Dave
Using two LS3060's and an ex 3020 user
Please note I am not employed by HPC, any advice or recomendations I give are based on my own experience and are not necessarily the same as HPC's. First point of contact on any hardware issues should be with HPC
PhillyDee
Posts: 622
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:25 am
Contact:

Re: Quick Tip / Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Post by PhillyDee »

I do something similar with telescopes. Its alled collimation, and they use off the shelf laser pointers. You could use a Green laser pointer, as the beam is visible in the dark.
http://www.tmbelectronics.com - Electronics, tools, hobby tools, power tools, and much more!

An ex LS3020 user now playing with an LS6840PRO (60W) and an LS1290PRO (80W)
Spooky
Posts: 1291
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:17 pm
Contact:

Re: Quick Tip / Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Post by Spooky »

or look at the CO2 beam via a digital camera :) they pick up radiation in that spectrum :)

best wishes

Dave
Please note I am not employed by HPC, any advice or recomendations I give are based on my own experience and are not necessarily the same as HPC's. First point of contact on any hardware issues should be with HPC
Dave@OpticalPower.co.uk
Daven
Posts: 1632
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:44 pm
Location: Devon
Contact:

Re: Quick Tip / Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Post by Daven »

Maplins sell these. Could be useful ;-)

Thinking about it how would you get the two laser beams parallel?. I was thinking you could find the laser cutter beam using the acrylic on the first mirror method but then if you point the diode beam at the same spot it would have to come from the same co-ordinates.

If you cut a plate with a cone to center on the end of the tube that the diode was then attached to - would that work? Does the beam always come from the exact centre of the tube? Interesting :?:

Dave
Using two LS3060's and an ex 3020 user
Please note I am not employed by HPC, any advice or recomendations I give are based on my own experience and are not necessarily the same as HPC's. First point of contact on any hardware issues should be with HPC
SimonMallas
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:23 am
Contact:

Re: Quick Tip / Fitting New Tubes - Aligning Mirrors

Post by SimonMallas »

Hi Dave,
Working backwards from the nozzle Would be so complicated, as the laser tube can be in any position. Alot of other machines have got this feature, its a bit like the auto focus, your never quite 100%, so end up manually checking it!! and really alignment isn't really hard or time consuming to do, as long as you stick to the rules.
Cheers Simon
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests