Primo Upgrade Medina, OH (Now with lasers!)

[niget2002 (David Walling)]

Looks like I have some more testing/changing to do to get really good cuts.

I went to cut an ornament and it didn’t go well. None of the cuts went all the way through and having to do 9 passes caused a lot of burning along the edges.

I took this as a sign that it is time to upgrade the laser on the machine. I’ve never been really happy with the 3.3w unit. I know a diode laser will never be as fast as a co2, but I always wanted it to etch just a little faster. We’ll see how it does with a more powerful unit.

I should probably make my own thread at this point.

[wellthad]

there are some good black friday deals on aliexpress

[wellthad]

I picked this guy up.

[wellthad]

[thinkgmack (Jerry V)]

That’s a great deal! Will this work with our MPCNCs though?

[Strider_Matic (Tim O.)]

Well, why not?

Glass is from a flat bed scanner I harvested for parts. 100mm/min, 100% on the frickin’ laser beam, single pass. Did make crackling noises as it burned. I didn’t know if it would shatter or not. Guess not.

[barry99705 (Barry)]

It’s the little spots of glass spalling off the surface you hear. The under side of the tape will have glitter on it now.

[Strider_Matic (Tim O.)]

[Strider_Matic (Tim O.)]

Here’s some more glass lasering. I mirrored the cut and put the tape on the bottom of the glass. I figured that way it’s burning the tape closest to the glass first, instead of burning thorough the tape. 200mm/min, 100% power, “Fill” in Lightburn selected for the paths.

“Top” as far as work orientation is concerned.

“Bottom”

After cleaning…

Lightburn’s preview said this took 1 hour, 4 min. Apparently glass etching cream takes 5 minutes.

[timonjkl (Tim W)]

All you’re using is blue tape? Did it work better burning through the tape or through the glass into the tape?

[Strider_Matic (Tim O.)]

Yep, just the tape. Seems to work better through the glass rather than through the tape.

[timonjkl (Tim W)]

Now I really have to try this

[Strider_Matic (Tim O.)]

So I tidied up the rig, changed my X gantry, and added some end-stops for homing, now I just keep searching my house for stuff to try lasering.

Here’s some slate tile.

100mm/min, 100% power, 1 pass. Interestingly enough, the burn is raised on the slate.

[Strider_Matic (Tim O.)]

Here’s a speeds test swatch. from 100mm/min to 2000mm/min. All at 100%, 1 pass.

First one took about 12min., last took 53sec.

“Fill” 2000mm/min, 100%, 0.1mm line interval. Took 9:35.

[Strider_Matic (Tim O.)]

Back to the glass.

Tried some higher speeds with the glass process. Using the “Fill” cut path I get etching at 200mm/min and 300/min. Using “Line” cut path at 300mm/min I got a whole lot of nothing after removing the tape. I just let it start the logo and run a few passes at 0.1mm line interval for the Fill tests. I didn’t want to wait for the whole logo to finish just to see if it would mark the glass. The Line test I let it run the whole logo.

EDIT: Sorry, I guess I should read my own posts before running more tests…The etched logo was already at 200mm/min.

At 400mm/min(Fill) it is unnoticeable without angling the glass.

[vicious1 (Ryan)]

Love seeing the tests!!!

[Strider_Matic (Tim O.)]

I just now realized why I’ve been having such a rough time with my aluminum extrusion gantry wheel fitments. I bought T-slot extrusion. I apparently needed V-groove extrusion. (face palm) Thought it was different names for the same thing. Slight difference in the channel depths and bevels.

[Strider_Matic (Tim O.)]

So I started to feel like the Primo was getting neglected, then I saw @Flyfisher604 made a sweet pen/knife mount that fits the DW660 mount. His thread HERE. Thanks for that! Decided to try some pen drawing with a tool change.

[Flyfisher604 (Don Gamble)]

Glad the mount worked for you!

[jeffeb3]

Time to experiment with some plotterfiles.com or sandify.org files!