Laser Mounting-

[carmangary]

You can buy a Harbor Freight micro mill or mini mill and do your own machining. For laser mounts and stuff the micro mill would do it all.

[chad]

HI guys, I have a pretty well stocked cnc machine shop and would be willing to do some small contract stuff. I have a couple of projects for clients that i have to get done but after that I could be persuaded to do some machining.

I have to charge something but I will guarantee that I will be cheaper than a big machine shop. Plus I am an old school laser guy..

here is a tipple tree for a custom motorcycle for a client. What a pain.. Started out as a chunk-o-6061

Chad

[thesk8nmidget]

HI guys, I have a pretty well stocked cnc machine shop and would be willing to do some small contract stuff. I have a couple of projects for clients that i have to get done but after that I could be persuaded to do some machining.

I have to charge something but I will guarantee that I will be cheaper than a big machine shop. Plus I am an old school laser guy..

Chad

once i move i wont have access to a good cnc but i will keep you in mind... plus you quote hunter s thompson in your sig so how could you not be cool!

(i have that tattooed on my side)

[Pitts]

Don't know much about your supply problem but your differing height problem is easy to fix..

One : take your highest laser beam.. thats your "fixed benchmark" unless you want to grind some off .. not really a good idea.

Next measure that height with the beam on very low brightness... use the edge if a ruler.. preferably an engineers ruler watch out for any reflections back into your eyes.. I found just let it kiss the edge..

Then get a plate of ali' that brings you close but just under this figure. (unless you are lucky enough to strike an exact match on the first go to a standard size. (yeah right !!) This plate can be bigger than your laser footprint if you want.

Now make sure you have your highest laser screwed down because that moves the beam slightly down.. Now do some shimming. If your close use say 20 thou shim you can get this in shim packets from some hardware places but aircraft hangars, aircraft homebuilders usually have heaps. You can cut this with tin snips or heavy scissors ( do NOT let the wife catch you though).

I used this on my RGB and it works a dream.

Drilling and tapping a plain ali base plate is easy if you have a battery drill .. drill your hole then fit the tap to the drill and SLOWLY tap with some cutting oil (or kerosene) . Works every time .. (most mechanical engineers will freak at this idea but its fast)
..

Take your time because this near field alignment is worth getting right. That is you want the beams all sitting together all nicely mixed up into one. You do not want one sitting slightly outside the other or above or below.
Get this right and the far field will be much easier.

Shimming is easy and low tech.... don't be put off, unless of course you can afford the nice CNC work shown above.

Then search for Stanwax's article here on PL for alignment .. explains it in a minute... the best one I have seen so far.

Remember the more effort you put in at the drill / tap and shimm stage the easier the rest will get.

By the way watch for the slight sideways step (about one beam width) everytime you go through a dichro.. if your scanner mirror is small it may matter when you have all beams running.

Cheers

Ray


NZ

[FrankenPC]

HI guys, I have a pretty well stocked cnc machine shop and would be willing to do some small contract stuff. I have a couple of projects for clients that i have to get done but after that I could be persuaded to do some machining.

I have to charge something but I will guarantee that I will be cheaper than a big machine shop. Plus I am an old school laser guy..

here is a tipple tree for a custom motorcycle for a client. What a pain.. Started out as a chunk-o-6061

Chad

That is BEAUTIFUL work! I have a 4axis CNC machine I built out of garbage Chinese machinery and HQ gekko controllers and software. See my images in the users gallery. I can't do anything near as beautiful as you have done. I'm just a hacker. So cheers to you pro!

I'm currently working on a 808nm and a 10,000nm laser cutting solution for my CNC mill. My 20W 808nm diode and my 30W CO2 are in preparation. I'm going to cut sheet aluminum and plastics. Wish me luck

[stanwax]

Chad
Just make me one o them - dunno what its for and I will never use it but man that is art!

Rob

[FrankenPC]

I'm seriously considering making some 3/8" slotted aluminum "L" brackets and mounting my lasers sideways. That way I can controll the two critical axis while retaining decent cooling conduction.

[stanwax]

That is exactly what I have done in my 'little' projector. Blue is mounted flat and dual red and the green are turned through 90 and on slots to allow height setting

Rob

[trwalters001]

Hi Rob,

Do you have any pics of your setup (showing vertically mounted dual reds)?

Tim

[stanwax]

Indeed I do Tim
http://www.photonlexicon.com/gallery...anwax/album72/
nothing hi tech but they work a treat

Rob