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  1. #251
    fifa's Avatar
    Lives in bristol, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 26-11-2017 Has been a member for 4-5 years. Has a total post count of 31. Received thanks 3 times, giving thanks to others 0 times.
    Z axis can be easily blocked with "dummy nut" loaded with spring which is released with electomagnet when the machine (or only Z axis) is on.

    Material for dummy nut is usually nylon or HDPE, therefore no worries for wear.



    Congratulations for CF mill. I am impressed. Professional job.

    regards
    Last edited by fifa; 18-10-2017 at 10:13 PM.

  2. #252
    Lovely work there Zeeflyboy. A machine has to function but no harm in making it look nice along the way!

    I've hit a slow spot on my build and other commitments need sorting so looks like you are going to finish well before me. Good progress keep it up.
    Building a CNC machine to make a better one since 2010 . . .
    MK1 (1st photo), MK2, MK3, MK4

  3. #253
    Hi Zeeflyboy
    did you calculate? How much did you pay for everything?

    BR//

    Mario

  4. #254
    Sorry, qmarjov - I don't yet have numbers to share for cost. I will do a rough estimate nearer the end though.

    As you guys may have noticed, not much has happened last month or two. What with christmas and work commitments I haven't had time to do anything substantial on the project... The extra work related stuff should abate mid february and that is when I expect to pick this project back up more in earnest, though I may continue to do little bits and bobs along the way.

    The reason for this post is that I just got a cool new toy to play with and thought it was too cool not to share the results.

    When I say "I", I actually bought this for the wife so she could start a little home business to allow her to turn her hobby into a little side income stream. Of course, I get to play with it so I'm just going to count it as one of my toys!

    So what is this new toy? Why a 45w CO2 laser of course!




    We've actually done quite a few little test projects over the last day or two (including some cool stuff like etching slate coasters) to test out the machine and get the wife acquainted with operating it. But today I thought I'd have a little play with the sort of thing I actually want to use it for:

    I tweaked my Logo design and did a quick test in wood to see how it looks:






    Decided it looked nice, so went hunting down some anodised aluminium to try etching.... only thing I had to hand were the thorlabs angle brackets. I popped it and and had a guess at some numbers, came out beautifully! I had to remove the honeycomb tray as the brackets are a little thick to sit on top of that, so that is why the bracket is sat on some chopping boards. This job took about 4 minutes to run through.







    I'm pretty ecstatic with the result there.... definitely opens up some new possibilities in terms of finishing items I make once I've got the anodising rig setup and working.

    Aaaaanyway, back to real life work! Sad times.
    Last edited by Zeeflyboy; 12-01-2018 at 12:48 PM.

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  6. #255
    Nice logo and the laser you bought is a good move for someone who wants to start a home business!

  7. #256
    Well we shall see how it works out, I'm not expecting to be able to retire any time soon but I'm hoping she can make enough money to pay off the expense of the machine/maintenance and generate a little income from something she enjoys doing. Obviously this stuff is becoming more and more accessible so there are a lot of options out there for people looking for bespoke laser created items but I do feel its the sort of low volume thing that fits a "cottage industry" type operation rather well. I think going around and getting some tie-ins with local wedding dress shops and flower shops etc would be a good way of generating some business in a crowded online market.

    But more importantly, I get to play with a frikkin laser!

  8. The Following User Says Thank You to Zeeflyboy For This Useful Post:


  9. #257
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeeflyboy View Post
    Well we shall see how it works out, I'm not expecting to be able to retire any time soon but I'm hoping she can make enough money to pay off the expense of the machine/maintenance and generate a little income from something she enjoys doing. Obviously this stuff is becoming more and more accessible so there are a lot of options out there for people looking for bespoke laser created items but I do feel its the sort of low volume thing that fits a "cottage industry" type operation rather well. I think going around and getting some tie-ins with local wedding dress shops and flower shops etc would be a good way of generating some business in a crowded online market.

    But more importantly, I get to play with a frikkin laser!
    what size cutting area has it got?
    http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/10880...60cm-work-area My first CNC build WIP 120cm*80cm

    If you didn't buy it from China the company you bought it from did ;)

  10. #258
    20"x11.5" I believe, although in theory as long as the material isn't too thick (the slots are quite narrow) you can use the passthrough slots to feed a longer piece of material 20" wide through the machine though I haven't tried obviously.

    I believe the plan eventually is for it to take care of the passthrough automagically using the cameras for alignment and continuation of the pattern but that isn't available yet in the beta software. I believe it can be achieved manually you just need some way of indexing and aligning.
    Last edited by Zeeflyboy; 12-01-2018 at 04:47 PM.

  11. #259
    Wal's Avatar
    Lives in Stockport, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 30-03-2023 Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 491. Received thanks 71 times, giving thanks to others 29 times.
    That's very cool..! Any links to the laser you bought? What are you doing for extraction? I ask because the ones I've used in the past have had pretty expensive filtration set-ups attached to 'em - and given the smoke they generated on some of the jobs they really needed them too...

    Excellent work though, man and best of luck to your wife in her new creative endeavours..!

    Wal.

    Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

  12. #260
    Would like to know what machine that is.

    I have the K40 and the steps are quite visible when engraving anodized aluminum.

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