Also ordered:
Air assist head
18mm lense
Cohesion 3d board with lcd and z axis driver
Water chiller. Just the radiator type
Air pump
Tubing
Better exhaust fan
Various switches, bus bars, wiring etc…
I plan on ordering the holgamods z kit today and whatever is needed to run it.
Is there a beam combiner that isn’t too terribly difficult to setup? Is it worth having one?
Anything I’m missing for mods? I’d rather just make it right as soon as I get it than continually modify it. Should I put a raspberry pi to use for shtp?
I advise doing the conversion in steps. The problems experienced with these machine can be complex in nature. Troubleshooting multiple problems can be frustrating.
Sometimes the base machine has faults at arrival such as a bad tube, mirrors or LPS.
Its a good idea to make sure it all works in the stock configuration so that you can get remedies (maybe) from the seller. This also gives you a working starting point.
I have not found a beam combiner that is simple and low cost. Typically you add more complexity than it is worth.
Actually I have not found adding a laser diode beam into the optics for alignment to be that useful (if that is what you are thinking). The alignment of the laser diode is more onerous than the alignment of the CO2 Laser. K40 alignment is a skill and art and after a few times it will be pretty straightforward.
I have found that a wireless attached laptop next to my k40 using Dropbox as the storage and Lightburn as the K40 driver, to be simple and reliable.
For mechanical cad design I use F360 and export dxf to lightburn. For non-mechanical designs and engravings I use lightburn direct.
Whatever approach you use there is plenty of help here…
I would also recommend going ahead and upgrading the mirrors. The stock ones are typically kind of crap. I got moly mirrors from lightobject and 2+ years in they are still in great condition.
When I checked recently, I did not find MO Mirrors at Lightobject. I am using the same factory as Hakan and according to his testing these should be at least as good if not better than LO.
Will do. @raykholo can you combo the shipping now that I ordered the mirrors? Assuming the orders haven’t shipped yet. It’ll be my third order since last night. Last name is Hied.
@Christopher_Leger I got it all from several vendors.
Ebay for the laser and water chiller.
Cohesion 3d for the board, lcd, external stepper driver, adapters and mirrors.
Light object for the air assist head and 18mm lenses
Holgamods for the z table
Walmart for fire extinguisher…lol
Amazon for everything else including the additional power supplies, exhaust fan, switches, eye protection etc…
Also, I took a “mental health day” off work today to source everything.
Plan is to make sure everything functions properly this weekend. Align then beam.Then begin the mods as they arrive
Looks like I lucked out. It came double boxed, very clean. Connections were good, ground tested good, laser was tested prior to shipping, and it was aligned? I had assumed I would be putting in a ton of work…
Fantastic. It seems to be rare but mine was also delivered that way. Tested and verified and found everything a-OK. Then there were weeks of mod’ding the house for exhaust, setting up the cooling system and cooling system cooler(drinking water cooler) and then that laser beam combiner hack. Lots of fun to be had.
then wire in your logic board, to the controller, of the receptacle, and plug in you air compression. This will make it so your air compressor only runs when it is needed. Ill get the exact pins to connect in a minute, but my board has a plug right on it for that.
