New toy in the Oil City workshop

OilCityPickups

More tools arriving shortly for use with the laser ... the asthmatic air pump will be replaced with this ... a snip at £100 and a reasonable 65 decebells ... it only needs to deliver the maximum of 5 psi so it should be miles big enough

OilCityPickups

Hummm compressor arrived today ... badly damaged in transit ... totally inadaquate packaging. Awaiting the seller's solution ...

Clearly a UK box shifter who doesn't check Chinese imports before putting them out to customers. Gurrrrrrrrrr

lasermonkey

CW Nd:YAG lasers are used for marking and etching. I used to make them in a previous life. Well, I made a few, before the company went into medical lasers ( Q-switched ruby, LP Alexandrite and LP Nd:YAG).

OilCityPickups

Made the first set of flatwork today ,,, all good really ... couple of issues ... no compressor yet so the generic air pimp supplied under performed as I expected, The mirrors seem a touch out of line (to be sorted) as there';s a power falloff at the extreme end of the carriage travel. But all in all you'd never know from the results. 

Andyjr1515

This is all very exciting, @TheGuitarWeasel

m_c

One of these is on my 'must buy when profits need spent to avoid tax' list, which isn't going to be this financial year!

It's a good choice of machine, and what I've been recommended to buy from someone who spent 3-4x the price on a 'quality' UK machine. He sent his UK one back and bought one of these, as he said accuracy and repeatability was rubbish, and the Chinese one was a night and day improvement.

The smaller A4 sized Chinese one's are however rubbish. Poor reliability, with a fixed bed needing everything to be packed up to be in correct focus.

Do you have a link to that compressor?
It looks like it may be an ideal addition to my workshop for powering the mister on my little milling machine, instead of having the big compressor cutting in and out all the time. It would be good to know just how noisy it is, when you actually get a fully functioning one..

OilCityPickups

Okay, gradually getting the machine dialed in ...

The compressor for air assist is a huge improvement, mind you it's 10l air tank means it has to work quite hard to keep up with the laser. 

Still cutting small sheets at the moment as I am still getting the feel of the power and cut speed settings. Flatwork fibre is very dense and hard and needs quite a slow cutting speed and plenty of oomph.

Had a hiccup with the water cooling pump today, again not really up to the job ... the one supplied is  just a garden fountain pump ... so I have ordered one with a 50% higher flow rate.

earwighoney

@TheGuitarWeasel

Are you going to be using your new toy to come up with some custom designs?  Would it be possible to ask what they are or the new protypes sworn to secrecy? 

If I could see something a bit different it'd sound something like a string through Supro style pickup but retrofit a standard pickup route or something completely different to the reissues/conventional designs!  

OilCityPickups

earwighoney said:

@TheGuitarWeasel

Are you going to be using your new toy to come up with some custom designs?  Would it be possible to ask what they are or the new protypes sworn to secrecy? 

If I could see something a bit different it'd sound something like a string through Supro style pickup but retrofit a standard pickup route or something completely different to the reissues/conventional designs!  

There will be some custom designs for sure,now we are freed up to create with just rout space as the criteria. She Supro is a split single coil design and I have toyed with those several times, but been limited by available flat work designs. I am getting into using 1/4 inch magnets, and you can expect several designs based on those :-)

OilCityPickups

Now getting the Co2 Laser properly dialed in. Am in the process of fitting a secondary air pressure gauge to accurately set the air assist gas pressure. At the moment I am using the 'crack the valve a bit and adjust it till the work piece no longer flames' method. This is okay, but the first piece of flat work on the work sheet tends to get a bit singed while I find the optimum pressure, and the valve is not particularly 'fine' in its adjustment. A second inline valve and gauge will enable me to accurately repeat settings.

Okay, with the purchase price of the machine, a higher capacity coolant pump and compressor and odds and ends, the price of going 'all in house' with our laser work has reached about £1600. Actually that is a small price to pay for the versatility of the machine and accuracy of the final product. I seem to be turning out more consistent flat-work than I was buying in and that is a huge plus.