Lasercutter down

[Charles Yarnold]

Hello all,

tl;dr

The tube has reached the end of its life. Replacement tube and optics are on order and will be replaced asap. The fix works, but *PLEASE NOTE* due to the fix the recommended corner power is now 60% of your full power, not the old 25%.

Long version:

During the training last night the tube finally died. To prevent harm coming to the cutter I have removed the key and disabled the internals, please leave it unplugged and don't try to use it.

The fix of scaling the power supply to the correct level for our tube has meant we have had the longest life from this tube than any of its predecessors. I hope the next one will reach 500 hours if its shown love and care!

Please remember to clean out off cuts from the cutter after use and hover the bed to remove any bits that fell down the holes. Also make sure that you understand how to set the bed height correctly, the wiki has been updated to show this more clearly, some members have been giving out bad information about how to set it.

When I have an idea of when the cutter will be back up and running I will give a reply to this thread.

Hugs

Sol

[Kimball Johnson]

On 14 October 2012 14:19, Charles Yarnold <charles...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> tl;dr
>
> The tube has reached the end of its life. Replacement tube and optics are on
> order and will be replaced asap. The fix works, but *PLEASE NOTE* due to the
> fix the recommended corner power is now 60% of your full power, not the old

As we can now better predict the death time of the tube, are we able
to have a new tube ordered in advance of the death of the old one?
Also are there other people than you trained in it's replacement to
take some strain of you?

Kimball

[Charles Yarnold]

It would be nice, but it would also partially require more of its users actually paying for its use.

Others are trained in maintenance, but as changing the tube is an event that has only happened 4 times in its life its not at the top of my list as chores to unload :)

[phil jones]

Perhaps we should always keep one backup tube "in stock" ... and order
another backup whenever we have to switch it into use. How much do
they cost?

phil

[Adrian Godwin]

That seems a bit OTT for something like the laser cutter. Should we
hold spares of all the commonly failing parts too ? What about less
commonly failing parts ?

I accept it's inconvenient for people who want to use it, but if
you're reliant on it for critical projects you probably want to use
somewhere more expensive with guaranteed service.

-adrian

[Charles Yarnold]

I refer you to my previous answer. About £250

[Nick Johnson]

On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 3:53 PM, Adrian Godwin <artg...@gmail.com> wrote:

That seems a bit OTT for something like the laser cutter.

It gets heavily used - and the tube is more a consumable than a failing part. Keeping a spare seems completely reasonable to me.

 

Should we
hold spares of all the commonly failing parts too ?

Yes.

 

What about less
commonly failing parts ?

Depends how uncommonly they fail and how hard they are to procure, I suppose.

 

I accept it's inconvenient for people who want to use it, but if
you're reliant on it for critical projects you probably want to use
somewhere more expensive with guaranteed service.

There's a big gulf between 'critical' and 'eh, whatever', though. Personally, access to the laser cutter is a significant part of why I pay to be a member.

-Nick

[Aden]

If we kept a spare it's likely it could get damaged before it's
fitted, or some bright spark would decide any laser cutter problem was
a broken tube and try to swap it out.

[Adrian Godwin]

On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 5:43 PM, Nick Johnson <arac...@notdot.net> wrote:
>
>

> There's a big gulf between 'critical' and 'eh, whatever', though.
> Personally, access to the laser cutter is a significant part of why I pay to
> be a member.
>
> -Nick

Fair enough. This is probably pledge territory : if there are a few
other people who feel it's that important, you could get together and
pledge the money to get the spare parts. Then they'd be replaced using
usage fees when needed.

-adrian

[Nick Johnson]

I'm sure the collective wisdom of the hackspace can come up with a way to store a valuable tool so it doesn't get damaged. Holding people responsible for their actions seems like a good social mechanism to me.

-Nick

[Samuel Keating-Fry]

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I'm in favour of keeping a spare. Or at least ordering the replacement
a fair while before the old one dies.
As we know it will inevitably need replacing then we may as well have
the new one waiting.
It should probably be kept safe by someone who knows what they're
doing to avoid people trying to change it unnecessarily as Aden says.

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[Adrian Godwin]

I've created a pledge page at
http://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/Pledges/Laser_Cutter_Spares

If minimal downtime is important to you, please help pay for necessary
spares stock.

The page needs some more work - I've made a guess but I don't know
all the parts or costs involved. Please edit appropriately.

-adrian

[jt]

A couple of fairly random questions, purely because I'm curious.

How long do the new parts take to arrive once ordered?

Do the costs of the laser cutter get put aside for replacements, or do we just get replacements regardless?

[Charles]

good social mechanism but what about accountability?

[Peter "Sci" Turpin]

Wasn't it being considered to get a better laser cutter at some point,
rather than keep replacing the parts on the cheap one? Just wondering
how often this is being factored into these rolling costs.

[Charles Yarnold]

Define "better".

Most of the faults with the cutter occur from user error, that doesn't go away with a different lasercutter. With a higher end lasercutter the parts for it go drastically up in price too.

If you think we should get a different one, feel free to start a pledge to raise the cash! :)

Sol  

[Paddy Duncan]

IMO "better" = y axis accuracy < 1.5mm (by a lot)

I don't see why this lasercutter can't be "better" though, if it's possible to work out what actually occurs, because apart from that it is fine.

Paddy

No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
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[Tom Parker]

Pledged. Detailed there, but as I don't look at the list that much
please prod me offlist to get the cash.

Tom

[Charles Yarnold]

On 14 October 2012 14:19, Charles Yarnold <charles...@gmail.com> wrote:

The tube has reached the end of its life. Replacement tube and optics are on order and will be replaced asap. The fix works, but *PLEASE NOTE* due to the fix the recommended corner power is now 60% of your full power, not the old 25%.

Update: Clare and I popped up to HPCLaser last Friday and collected a new tube and optics. I came in today to change it out, but sadly hit a snag while swapping out the tube, optics and water.

The tube from the cooling was very manky, sadly layland near the space was sold out of the tubing we need, so I was unable to connect the cooling to the tube, so abandoned the replacement once I had removed the old lasertube and cleaned out the cooling system. I will try and get us new tubing tomorrow!

Sadly the lens we received is slightly too big, I will talk to HPC tomorrow and see whats up. Luckily this wont stop 90% of getting the lasercutter back up and running, we will have to see what results we get with the old lens until we get a replacement one. (Its very very manky so I'm not sure how well it will preform)

Hugs

Sol

[Filthy hipster scum]

lameeeeeee lol

 

[Charles Yarnold]

On 23 October 2012 23:05, Charles Yarnold <charles...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 14 October 2012 14:19, Charles Yarnold <charles...@gmail.com> wrote:

The tube has reached the end of its life. Replacement tube and optics are on order and will be replaced asap. The fix works, but *PLEASE NOTE* due to the fix the recommended corner power is now 60% of your full power, not the old 25%.

Update: Clare and I popped up to HPCLaser last Friday and collected a new tube and optics. I came in today to change it out, but sadly hit a snag while swapping out the tube, optics and water.

 Update:

Lasercutter fixed \o/ BUT:

We are awaiting a new lens and need a new bed, this means that if your using wood in the cutter you may not get full cuts in the diagonal opposite corner to the origin.

ALSO, PLEASE NOTE:

During alignment of the new the tube the focus point has now changed, there is a note explaining it on the cutter so you can set it to the new correct height (higher than before)

Corner power has now doubled, so where as before you would use 1/4 of you main power for corner power, its now recommended you use 1/2. i.e. Was: 25%, Now: 50%

Please remember to use the log book, pay for your usage and keep the lasercutter happy and clean.

Enjoy making all those xmass prezzies!

Sol

[Dario]

Thanks a million for all the work Sol... Any chance of training soon-ish? ;-)

Cheers
Dario

[Akki]

On Thursday, 25 October 2012 10:45:59 UTC+1, Solexious wrote:

ALSO, PLEASE NOTE:

During alignment of the new the tube the focus point has now changed, there is a note explaining it on the cutter so you can set it to the new correct height (higher than before)

So... Wiki needs a new picture showing where the new focus point is. I'll see if I can come in any time soon to do that.

~Akki

[Sam Kelly]

On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 10:45 AM, Charles Yarnold

Fantastic work, thank you so much!

--
Sam Kelly, http://www.eithin.co.uk/

That's it. We're not messing around anymore, we're buying a bigger
dictionary. - Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang.

[Mike Pountney]

Hey Charles,

We have a couple of lenses kicking about from when we bought the wrong ones for our laser.  They may be suitable for your HPC.

What diameter and focal length do you need? Happy to loan them if they work.