Adventures in cleaning up the residue from laser cutting.
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Malcolm Napier
Aug 30, 2016, 5:05:00 PM8/30/16
to Reading Hackspace
As some of you may know, I have (with a lot of help from Richard and Ryan) been working on a (blue) A3 laser cutter donated by Richmond MakerLabs. This beast is destined for Surrey & Hampshire Hackspace now that they have got a new home (or will have on 1 Sept with any luck).
The main body of work is reported on another thread but I am creating a separate post on my attempts to clean up the (heavy) residue from laser cutting on this machine because I recall similar threads previously - particularly regrding the blades on the Pirhana bed.
A few weeks ago I googled (well stricly speaking DuckDuckGo'd) "how to clean laser cutter residue" and was directed to this article, which recommended using a pumice liquid soap. So I bought some Gojo.
And today I tried it out on the blue laser cutter. I found the result quite impressive.
This is a picture of part of the bed before I started and this is a picture after around forty-five minutes of work, using Gojo and paper towel (I had forgotten to bring a toothbrush). Sadly these are not taken from an identical position because I didn't expect the results to be so striking. However look at the "side" bar. The lead screw is the same and the "top" bar remains uncleaned in both images.
And this is an area where the residue was caked on quite thickly.
I plan on cleaning the parts that I have "Gojo-ed" with IPA to remove any residue from the Gojo before doing any laser cutting.
Likewise (and out of curiousity) I spent five minutes working on the ceramic tile that has been used to protect the steel bed. This is before and this is after. And that tile is coated with the residue and has a more absorbent surface (as it is the "back" of the tile).
Finally, for those of you who are interested in what the effect are like on laser cut plywood, here is an image of the cut edges of two identical pieces of laser-cut birch ply. I tried cleaning one with Gojo when I got home.
This made me wonder, how do people feel about (me) trying Gojo on the blades of the bed of the Pirhana? To see if it works as well. If folks think that it is worth a try, it will need to be towards the end of September - once I have returned from holiday.
The main body of work is reported on another thread but I am creating a separate post on my attempts to clean up the (heavy) residue from laser cutting on this machine because I recall similar threads previously - particularly regrding the blades on the Pirhana bed.
A few weeks ago I googled (well stricly speaking DuckDuckGo'd) "how to clean laser cutter residue" and was directed to this article, which recommended using a pumice liquid soap. So I bought some Gojo.
And today I tried it out on the blue laser cutter. I found the result quite impressive.
This is a picture of part of the bed before I started and this is a picture after around forty-five minutes of work, using Gojo and paper towel (I had forgotten to bring a toothbrush). Sadly these are not taken from an identical position because I didn't expect the results to be so striking. However look at the "side" bar. The lead screw is the same and the "top" bar remains uncleaned in both images.
And this is an area where the residue was caked on quite thickly.
I plan on cleaning the parts that I have "Gojo-ed" with IPA to remove any residue from the Gojo before doing any laser cutting.
Likewise (and out of curiousity) I spent five minutes working on the ceramic tile that has been used to protect the steel bed. This is before and this is after. And that tile is coated with the residue and has a more absorbent surface (as it is the "back" of the tile).
Finally, for those of you who are interested in what the effect are like on laser cut plywood, here is an image of the cut edges of two identical pieces of laser-cut birch ply. I tried cleaning one with Gojo when I got home.
This made me wonder, how do people feel about (me) trying Gojo on the blades of the bed of the Pirhana? To see if it works as well. If folks think that it is worth a try, it will need to be towards the end of September - once I have returned from holiday.
Mark Hanford
Sep 8, 2016, 8:51:10 AM9/8/16
to Reading Hackspace
I've started a bit of cleanup on it too now - I took off the guides and they cleaned up nicely,and so has the bed, just with a bit of elbow-grease. I'm going to attack it a bit later with something to clean up the remnants of some sticky pads that are on there.
Tony Short
Sep 8, 2016, 11:52:11 AM9/8/16
to Reading Hackspace
I've been using Wonder Wipes on the large rLab laser cutter which cuts through most stuff without much effort. They are pretty clean at the moment as Ie been cleaning them almost daily.
T
T
On Tuesday, 30 August 2016 22:05:00 UTC+1, Malcolm Napier wrote:
Mark Hanford
Sep 9, 2016, 3:47:09 AM9/9/16
to Reading Hackspace
That was a good shout. As a house with a young toddler in it, we have no shortage of various types of wet-wipes :)
A bit of white-spirit to get the remnants of some sticky pads and tape off the bed, and then a pile of Domestos Wipes, cleaned it up nicely. The wipes got rid of all the greasy orange smoke staining on the cabinet very easily too.
Mark Hanford
Sep 9, 2016, 7:03:11 PM9/9/16
to Reading Hackspace
We've managed to get everything hooked up now, and mechanically things seem sound. Does anyone have any idea if the control panel should give an indication if the water flow sensor is stuck? We're not getting any life out of the "pulse" button, regardless of power levels, but the 'test' button on the PSU does generate a pulse. I think the alignment may be slightly off, as we are getting a crescent-shaped hole in the test piece. Here's a picture of the test firing results http://i.imgur.com/PM3mT8w.jpg
If anyone is interested, I'm documenting as we go on the forum: https://shm-forum.org.uk/t/laser-cutter-refurbishment/254
Mark
Malcolm Napier
Sep 10, 2016, 8:40:29 AM9/10/16
to Reading Hackspace
Hi Mark,
I suggest you post questions about the blue laser on the "This one's for Malcolm" thread.
This thread was intended as a discussion about ways of keeping laser cutters (and rLab laser cutters in particular) clean.
The people who you need to answer blue laser questions may not be monitoring this thread.
Regards,
Malcolm
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