A little machining and other bits

[absolom7691]

Same here. Everything I do ends up looking like an Etch a Sketch drawing.

Why do you think I went the CNC route??? lol. My manual work looks like it belongs on my mom's fridge with a gold star for trying!

[mixedgas]

My Day job stuff, having gone from if I need it: A. Full DIY manual shop access, B. Have a Machinist make it to my drawings, or C. send it over to an 8 station CNC shop, to having just a Sears Belt Sander, Hand Drill, Micro drill Press, and Tabletop Drill Press at the new job. The production tooling is sent out to a job shop down the street, thank God.

At my new employer, I do stuff that makes them think I'm Obi Wan Ryobi*, and world class. While I look at my stuff done here at work with more primitive tooling and think I'm Augie Ben Doggie at best. Often, I just take parts home and do them there.

* Well, compared to the last guy at my present employer, I do make good looking stuff. I have to redo / fix thirty years of quickly made gear with no drawings on a daily basis.

Steve

[VDX]

... I'm making "serious stuff" R&D since maybe 30+ years ... since then most "critical" stuff is made at home, as I have all sorts of "DIY" machines from CNC-milling, laser-engraving, paste-dispensing, micro-assembly, (stereo) microscopy ... and even some "nanotech"-stuff ... at home - But only because I was mainly busy with microtech, laser-development and some AI-programming around high-speed position detecting/tracing, image-recognition and microscopy recently -- so no "big, heavy and sturdy" tooling needed

Pretty all CEO's were OK with this arrangement, as otherwise it would cost some heavy bucks to install this in/for the different day-job in the respective companies

[TheHermit]

Just watched this, was reminded of this thread, figured VDX & Steve might find it interesting, and decided to share
😎

[VDX]

... yes, a pretty interesting application, if you have the equipment ... luckily I have a 30W MOPA from JPT

Maybe even more interesting -- my actual setup has a scanner+optic with 110x110mm scan area and a spot diameter of around 35µm ... actually ordered a different telecentric optic, which will give a reduced scan-field of 6x6mm(!) with a resulting spot diameter of only 6µ(!!) ... and roughly 30x higher energy density too (!!!) -- so comparable to a fiberlaser with 30W x 30 ==> 900 Watts (!!!!)

Viktor

[absolom7691]

... yes, a pretty interesting application, if you have the equipment ... luckily I have a 30W MOPA from JPT

Maybe even more interesting -- my actual setup has a scanner+optic with 110x110mm scan area and a spot diameter of around 35µm ... actually ordered a different telecentric optic, which will give a reduced scan-field of 6x6mm(!) with a resulting spot diameter of only 6µ(!!) ... and roughly 30x higher energy density too (!!!) -- so comparable to a fiberlaser with 30W x 30 ==> 900 Watts (!!!!)

Viktor

Very cool. I ended up with a 200W JPT MOPA but I haven't been able to crack the stainless steel coloring yet. I managed to get a mauve color and a very light blue but that's about it. I suspect that it's because I have no idea what grade the stainless is. I imagine that has a lot to do with it. It would seem that there are a lot of variables is getting color right! I'm still learning and having fun with it.

[VDX]

... I've tested some years ago, with an older 30W MOPA and "normal" stainless steel (in German "V2A" or "V4A") with not so good results (first combined image attached).

Most of this "colourfull" results are made with steel, alloyed with Titanium (Chinese something like "steel #92") - have some too, were giveaways on fairs from chinese laser-manufacturers or German companies, importing lasers (mostly from IPG and JPT, second image with the "colour-tree").

Viktor

[absolom7691]

... I've tested some years ago, with an older 30W MOPA and "normal" stainless steel (in German "V2A" or "V4A") with not so good results (first combined image attached).

Most of this "colourfull" results are made with steel, alloyed with Titanium (Chinese something like "steel #92") - have some too, were giveaways on fairs from chinese laser-manufacturers or German companies, importing lasers (mostly from IPG and JPT, second image with the "colour-tree").

Viktor

That color tree is great! Thank you for sharing. Once Halloween is done this year and when it cools off in my garage, I am going to play with it a lot more!