If you have air assist then beam hitting side of nozzle
@Steve_Clark sure. The problem was that I wasn’t getting any power or a burn mark to the bed/table when I test fired. I was getting them at every other position and in alignment on all the mirrors except from the laser head mirror to the lens to the bed. I couldn’t understand why because it appeared I was lined up perfectly.
It wasn’t until I removed the laser head mirror, replaced it with tape and test fired that I saw the beam was going in the front center hole but hitting the back (the actual mirror) at an acute angle. That is where and why there was a loss of power/no burn marks on the table.
Once I discovered that, it was about repositioning the first two mirrors, not just realigning, just to get the beam it hit that last mirror and reflect down at 90 degrees.
On the flip side, I have also gained about a half inch at the top of the table and now have to cut part of the blue vent to utilize it.
@Nathan_Thomas does this illustrate the problem so we can capture it for others?
Left it looking down on optical path, right is looking into the machine from the front.
Arrows show correction movement.
@donkjr Yes sir. Concerning the diagram on the left, it will look like all is perfect because the beam is coming off the y axis mirror and hitting the laser head dead center…see pic from earlier post.
It’s the diagram on the right that was the epiphany. Once I thought to remove the mirror to see exactly where it was hitting I saw that even though it was coming in dead center on the front…it hit the mirror at an angle more to the left, not centered. Which as you illustrated, altered the angle to the lens which led to no burn marks.
Great post, thanks’