Laserscript user forum

Just a quick note to probably state the obvious to most people

A few pieces of equipment you should factor in when buying a laser machine.

Fire Extinguisher!! ESSENTIAL!! even a small fire when cutting paper or suchlike can damage your nice shiny new machine beyond economical repair. A good quality CO2 extinguisher should sit close by to cover you if anything goes awry. Powder and foam are great in the right circumstances but on delicate equipment both will probably do more damage than the fire itself.
A warning though (Hell I need to make sure I cover myself) is do NOT use CO2 extinguishers on metal fires, Sodium,Phorphorus,Magnesium etc then again if you stick anything like that in a laser machine theres a good chance fire isn't going to be your biggest problem

Vernier Caliper (Digital)

Nothing worse than cutting out a load of parts (especially cast acrylic) and finding that variation in thickness means none of it will fit together!! Cast acrylic can vary by as much as 0.4mm total or 10% (on thicker stuff) so a decent vernier is a great idea. Mitutoyo is the best but can be expensive, (£80+) but as a long term investment will pay for itself in less scrap many times over.
Please don't bother with the ying pong £20 jobbies from the local market, the accuracy is suspect at best and little better than a wooden ruler at worst!

On that note it's time for the school run if anybody else has any good thoughts on recomended purchases ,stick them up

best wishes

Dave

http://hpclaser.co.uk/index.php?main_pa ... ucts_id=37

IsoPropanol Alcohol,

Many materials contain oils and resins that will make a nice sticky smoke in your laser cabinet (Medite / MDF can be the worst) because of this your Laser lens and mirrors can get mucky and this will lead to a loss of performance due to beam scatter. Cleaning is essential but must be undertaken with care. The Meniscus lens on a laser has a filter on the surface, if this gets scratched you will have a £75 piece of scrap glass to deal with.
Always use virgin cotton buds from a good source such as Boots the chemist and discard once used.
Spray the bud with a little IsoProp and clean from the middle of the lens / mirror outwards in a circular motion. It is possible to buy dedicated lens cleaner but to be honest it's just a brand name for IsoProp and costs 4 times as much.
Murphys law says the day you need to clean your lens will be a sunday when everything is closed so having a tin handy will save a few headaches

best wishes

Dave

Hi,
Masking tape is always a handy thing to have laying around comes in for all sorts of things like alignment and masking materials, either for back painting or keeping smoke / vapours being blow back on to your material.
Cheers Simon

A preferred one is vinyl application tape. Its pretty much the same as masking tape, but comes in much larger rolls. I think I have 8" and 4" wide here .

A vernier caliper to check sizes is essential. I also use it to check focus. (62.5 from the top on the ali bracket)
Digital 12" is preferred!

Couple of things we find very useful...

Tea trays! - we managesd to get a couple that perfectly fit the bottom of the case below the cutting bed - when they fill up with junk, simply lift them out and tip away the waste plastic. Much easier than diving into the bowels of a 6090 to clean it out! (last time I was at HPC, it seems they now have machines with a built in "drawer" for just this purpose).
And on a related note, a nice powerful vacuum cleaner to suck out the remaining junk from the nooks and crannies - makes light work of clearing out the hundreds of 3mm bolt "holes" that we cut every day!

Hi

If you got no nails and sausage's for finger's like me then mini suction pads are usefull for getting the final mirror out for inspection/cleaning.



Not a problem on my 3020 at home, but the 1290 at School is a real pig for me to get it out as it's flush with the mount and with all the alignment screws in the way.

A also keep a sheet of 6mm EVA foam handy to place on the bed in case of accidental droppages, better safe than sorry.

Peter

Hi I always lay a towel down before lens/mirror work....oh and switch off the machine....