What a Fun Day - New tube & Optics
Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:17 am
After a nice 300 mile round trip to HPC HQ yesterday, I got some new parts for the machine that has been used almost every day for three and a half years! A real testament to the quality of the components HPC supply.
A few issues throughout the day, playing about with the wiring and having flow issues and after a few hours I had the tube working and was ready to set up the optics which to my surprise was a lot easier than I remember. Was cutting within 10 minutes and very pleased to be back up to 22mm/s @70p (had dropped down to 10mm/s @90p the past 2 months).
Replaced my chiller too because I thought the old one was faulty, turns out after a load of head scratching and troubleshooting that it was gunk in the flow sensor causing problems and cleaning it out things were working then suddenly not again. So spent an hour cursing and ended up scouring threads on here until I found that it was most likely the flow sensor still causing the issue, so I shorted it to test if that was stopping the laser firing and that was indeed the cause. Easily replaced for a few quid so will do that next week.
Another thing I finally realised today is that I was putting the lens in the holder wrong all this time, I put the rubber seal in then the lens and always had to turn and tap it to get it central. Had a sudden flash of inspiration and realised there was a recess for the lens there and the rubber goes in on top before tightening. Dumb ass I am sometimes.
So long and short of it, our machine is still trucking, a few new parts fitted and it's working good as new.
Right, gonna go back to daydreaming about the LS1390 Fiber Laser.
HPC for life
A few issues throughout the day, playing about with the wiring and having flow issues and after a few hours I had the tube working and was ready to set up the optics which to my surprise was a lot easier than I remember. Was cutting within 10 minutes and very pleased to be back up to 22mm/s @70p (had dropped down to 10mm/s @90p the past 2 months).
Replaced my chiller too because I thought the old one was faulty, turns out after a load of head scratching and troubleshooting that it was gunk in the flow sensor causing problems and cleaning it out things were working then suddenly not again. So spent an hour cursing and ended up scouring threads on here until I found that it was most likely the flow sensor still causing the issue, so I shorted it to test if that was stopping the laser firing and that was indeed the cause. Easily replaced for a few quid so will do that next week.
Another thing I finally realised today is that I was putting the lens in the holder wrong all this time, I put the rubber seal in then the lens and always had to turn and tap it to get it central. Had a sudden flash of inspiration and realised there was a recess for the lens there and the rubber goes in on top before tightening. Dumb ass I am sometimes.
So long and short of it, our machine is still trucking, a few new parts fitted and it's working good as new.
Right, gonna go back to daydreaming about the LS1390 Fiber Laser.
HPC for life
Nice new tube is always a good feeling!
