The laser cutter turned up just over a week ago. The top of the crate was completely smashed up, and the two separate pieces were laid on top of the cutter and 'fixed' back on with a bit of plastic pallet wrap. The front side of the crate was cracked, but still in one piece. Needless to say the contents of the crate were covered in a fair bit of dust and dirt, and a few minor scratches in the paintwork, but luckily it was all intact, and at this stage everything appears to work.

Removing the legs is quite an involved process. There are a number of sheet metal screws holding the legs onto the machine, but half of them are under the cover for the belt and pulleys that raise and lower the bed. The problem is that all the other parts that are directly fixed to the base of the machine were fitted after the legs, and their screws go straight through into the legs as well. So to get the legs off, you have to remove the bed lifting motor, a couple of the pulleys on it's belt, the stepper motor drives, and one final screw nicely hidden in the cable channeling. Luckily I had a nice sunny day to do it, and it was all reassembled in the 'shed' a few hours later.

The extensive disassembly gave me ample opportunity to clean all the dust and dirt out of the machine, so the proverbial two birds were well and truly dispatched. ;)

I've fired it all up a couple of times, and burned some small patterns into some scrap wood, but haven't got as far as laser alignment or any real cutting yet, as I have a question about the laser cooling.

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The tubing for the coolant water is wrapped around the high voltage end of the laser in a fairly haphazard fashion, which makes it pretty much impossible to bleed any trapped air out of it. There seems to still be a decent flow of coolant, but I'm a little concerned about this setup, and was wondering if this is acceptable, or should I refit the tubing without all the twists and turns? I'm not really comfortable running the laser for more than a few seconds until I know whether this is OK or not.

Also I filled the coolant bucket with de-ionised water, and the pump was run for about a minute, and the water immediately smells musty. There was some green liquid in the laser tube when it arrived. Is there anything suitable for flushing the system out, or should a drain and refill with added antifreeze be adequate?

Finally, I only bought the basic machine without the rotary axis. There is wiring and connectors present for one to be connected, but the wiring only goes to a spare connector next to the two stepper drives. I'm just curious, but do the machines that come with the rotary axis have a third stepper driver, or is it just done with a wiring swap on the y-axis?