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well welcome to another light blade
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learning lab today we’re going to do
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another very important initiative
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session before you go flying off on this
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machine and try and do all sorts of
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wonderful things there are still a few
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basics that you must grab hold off as i
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pointed out to you guys when I first
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started these sessions off i’m learning
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this machine the same as you
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I’ve not been used to this system here
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which is an autofocus system to me I’ve
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always has
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if i want to lay the table i press the
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button and the table comes up now my
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table doesn’t do that
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this table has got a lot of over right
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now that you noticed stop the button and
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it carries on for another two seconds i
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use the button
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two seconds it takes two seconds to stop
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unless ok this might switch here
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stop that table a lot quicker than the
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manual shift button so if we look just
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under here you’ll see that we’ve got a
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microswitch that microswitch there is in
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fact detecting the top of this table
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stroke and there is an interplay between
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that switch and this which here which
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sets up the autofocus system what we do
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want to know is how to make sure that we
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don’t damage this micro switch system
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called a pen and for obvious reasons you
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can see what’s called a pen
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I’ve already had a Gallic trying to wipe
01:54
this pin out because of my stupid he
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might experience
01:57
ok so i had been stupid but i’d like to
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
02:00
pass on the experience that I gained
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from that stupid t to you so that you
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don’t run the same risk of wiping out
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this pen microswitch so what I’m going
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to demonstrate to you is a standard way
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that you should approach autofocus
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setting is going to change the thickness
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of your material and all the way in
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which your bed is configured at the
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moment we’ve got it configured with
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that’s on it and a few moments time
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we’ll put that he counted on and we’ll
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start off with a honeycomb be okay we’ll
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start by looking at the control panel
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itself and if you remember the last time
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to control the bay going up and down you
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press the blue button and at the top
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there we’ve got that move which allows
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you to make the table go down
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or raise the table up they can do that
02:44
manually and you can get it me where you
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want it you don’t have to you can just
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leave it where ever it last time and we
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can start from there
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so if we jump down to autofocus but
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before I press the enter button i’m
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going to focus on the job so that we can
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
03:01
see what’s gonna happen know what I got
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to do first of all it’s partly sunny San
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been no I could be wanting to mark
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something like that
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now obviously that was going to their so
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what I would have to do would be to
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press the down key to start with to even
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get it under there so i have to drift
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look drop the table to start with but
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under the user much worse case than that
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which is going to test the machine to
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its list and that’s have been facing
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material that make it easier to see
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what’s going on we can bring the tech
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bring the hate towards us now I’ve set
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the Machine up before i press the auto
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focus button stop and think always stop
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and think what haven’t I done well the
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one thing I haven’t done and I want to
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make a big point of this because this is
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most important
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now I’ve got a little extension handle
03:59
on here which we’ll talk about in a
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
04:00
minute but I want you to first of all
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undo the hate and slide it right up to
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the top of its stroke and lock it up
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that is the most important lesson that
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you will ever learn about autofocus and
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now we can go and we compress the
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autofocus button enter
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now you notice the noble heavy touched
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the table is doing a bit of farm dunk
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let’s play game right leg out and now
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it’s backed off your dimension that is
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about eight millimeters below the nozzle
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I say about
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it’s a dimension that has been decided
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and set for the focus of that lens now
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all lenses are set to the same clearance
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here and we’ll talk about that in a
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completely separate session about lenses
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at the moment this is autofocus day so
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we have now set the auto focus up
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successfully and we can go away and we
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could cut a job without touching
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anything
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now the important thing here is and i’m
05:29
going to show you this we can drive this
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state to the extremities and it touches
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nothing we can drive it to the back
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extremity and it touches nothing
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we can drive over here and it touches
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nothing i will show you something about
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that position in a few minutes time
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which is why I want you to understand
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the first and most important lesson is
05:57
lift the head up will check the last
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
06:00
position
06:01
there’s nothing airport to hit scenario
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number two we successfully complete that
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job using the honey contains we’re not
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going to remove that ago table i’m going
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to be going to use the flat instincts
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and will now ask it to reset the
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autofocus
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think think think this is already at the
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top of its stroke so i don’t have to do
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that again
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oh yeah
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the table is basically gone up to the
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microswitch tested the microswitch
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position two or three times backed off
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to a position a safe position now only
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now can we do this now what we’re going
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to do now is we’re going to drop this
06:55
pen down by the way at all times you can
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
07:01
undo these screws and this will
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got these diner finger tight because I
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know when I don’t want to run the risk
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of stripping the trades at all stages
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look this thing can be loose the correct
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setting position for this it down on its
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collar
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ok that’s now secure is not moving
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around be beat but we’re going to try
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and do now is we’re going to drop this
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down to get the to get the sensor to
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just about touch and service
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we’re not trying to make the switch we
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just try to get it within half a meal or
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a millimeter of the surface and then
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we’ll tighten up and lock in that
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position
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now we’ll go back and we’ll try the
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autofocus
07:59
Walter focused into
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
08:18
now bear in mind that i’ve got one and a
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half millimeter material on there at the
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moment you couldn’t get much done in
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that except card but what I’m now going
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to do is to demonstrate some way that
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you can easily make a mistake if you
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don’t follow these rules will drive the
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head to the back and we can see that the
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sensor is well clear of this surface
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because it’s a 16 plus whatever gap you
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can see there now on this side of the
08:50
machine here there is no way the sensor
08:55
can ever get to this back point here
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because it’s always sitting forward of
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it so there’s no way that sensor can
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touch even if it’s set wrongly can
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attach this back face here or this age
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and it can’t get to this edge because
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it’s on the wrong side and not always
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clear this surface
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let’s see what happens when we get to
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the other end of the stroke now at that
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point there
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the sensor is becoming at risk
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we’re not at the end of the stroke yet
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but the center is still well clear of
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this surface here there we are now at
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the end of the stroke that the sensor
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goes beyond the extremity of the stroke
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of the Machine and that’s why it’s most
09:45
important that you go through this
09:47
correct setting procedure
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otherwise you will like this essentially
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if ever you drive over to this H
09:53
position so i mentioned in a previous
09:54
session about moving them hate around
09:57
with the XY buttons i want to just
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
10:00
notice how quickly hate stops when I
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lift my finger though it move move the
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point I want to make there is if you run
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it 200 you’ll get an overrun and you’ve
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got to anticipate the end of the stroke
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with a hundred millimeters per second
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it’s completely snapped responses and
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it’s still fast enough to move around
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the job really quickly
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you have got to be that patient to wait
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for it we’re going to change to another
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table format now and this is a table
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format that I have designed for myself
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this is not anything to do we think
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later they may decide to adopt this is
10:42
an alternative but if not you can make
10:46
one yourself
10:48
now is this is a pin table for cutting
10:53
card particularly for card not have is a
10:58
series of dolls which dropped show this
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to show the table
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and they locate on the steel surface
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underneath so all the pins for the same
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length and by the time we finish up with
11:10
a series of pins on here we should
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finish up with effectively a pin
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projections of this flat surface like
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this
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ok now
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I’m not going to go too far with this
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other than the fact that one of the
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problems is gonna have it because we
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want to cut paper and we also focus on
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paper could be a little tricky card
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well card is generally around about half
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a millimeter thick and so we got to half
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millimeter thick stainless steel there
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and that’s what i should use for setting
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up Mike autofocus let’s go through the
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same routine again the more we do it the
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safe would be because it’ll be ingrained
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into our brain to get the procedure
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right so before I press the auto focus
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
12:03
button
12:03
have I got my head raised right up yes
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autofocus check check check again
12:10
yes
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ok now
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the fact that i’ve got the head right up
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means that there’s no chance ever so
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that’s going to get anywhere near any of
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these external surfaces so when you see
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that
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hi you’re completely safe so now i can
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go ahead like put my card or paper on
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there and it would be company in focus
12:53
now something else that I regularly use
12:57
particularly for cutting acrylic I don’t
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have a honeycomb paid on my other
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machine and so in general what I try to
13:05
do is when cutting acrylic are usually
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little things still play magnets
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fantastic and what that allows me to do
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is to raise the acrylic off the surface
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so that i can get airflow underneath and
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quite often I we used to
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rather than you can have whatever
13:33
thickness you like it’s a space this is
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my approach is another cheat approach to
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the same problem
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get yourself a set of matched donuts and
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they would do the job just as well i
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personally wouldn’t use donut or
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anything like that all magnets for
13:53
supporting card which reducing card work
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in a future session and i’ll show you
13:59
the importance of a pin beach and just
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
14:02
ride the lesson home
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with one last attempt
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so we’re going to set the auto focus on
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this job this time
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that’s five millimeter acrylic is packed
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up who knows too white
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it doesn’t matter so we go to the
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autofocus and before we push the
14:28
autofocus enter button check check check
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are we at the top of the stroke yes
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so now we’re doing the barn down we’re
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not in quite the right position so we
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have to let this down let it down onto
14:55
and lifted up from the half a mil
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so now we can try the autofocus again
15:08
for the last time
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autofocus yes everything’s okay
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there we go
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so I hope after half a dozen uses of the
15:37
autofocus in different positions the
15:40
message is sticky now just before we
15:43
close this session i did say earlier on
15:45
that I would have a quick talk about
15:48
this as you can see the not that
15:50
supplied with the machine has got
15:52
something to grips on it here but to be
15:55
honest I found it very difficult to find
15:59
it on my day off I mean I never have to
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
16:01
touch this on my chinese machine that
16:04
I’ve got over there because it hasn’t
16:05
got also focus on it but this has become
16:08
quite an important feature for an
16:10
autofocus machine to be able to quickly
16:12
and easily undo this nut and i found it
16:16
difficult to undo it
16:18
so I’ve made myself an eight-millimeter
16:21
acrylic adapter
16:27
and you can see it works wonderfully
16:32
well required for it let’s do a nice
16:39
solid lock on there and I’m sure that
16:43
they will be a copy of this file sync
16:45
later if you do need
16:52
now although i have made you don’t not
16:55
as being a reasonable alternative to
16:58
make it something I must reiterate that
17:01
this steel plate is not something that
17:03
comes as part of the inflator kit so if
17:08
you don’t have the facilities to make a
17:11
flat steel plate that will fit on here
17:14
and you want to use the existing
17:16
honeycomb page you can use the donut
17:22
again as I described to you earlier or
17:26
you could use small ball bearings say
17:31
six or eight millimeter ball bearings
17:33
will get more sit in the honey co now
17:36
both of these options are certainly
17:40
cheaper than making a pin base for
17:42
yourself
17:43
the only problem is that anything that
17:47
is much more than a pinprick if the
17:51
laser beam part is over it it’s going to
17:53
produce a reflection mark and so you’ve
17:56
got to be very careful about how you
17:58
place these under your job must again
Transcript For Understanding Your Laser Cutter Autofocus (Cont…)
18:01
stress i’m not think later employee this
18:04
is not a things like the machine this is
18:06
my machine which are personalizing but I
18:09
am trying to produce a series of videos
18:12
you guys to follow using a standard
18:15
think laser machine which is why i’m
18:16
giving you all the options in the
18:18
alternatives but thanks very much for
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your attention
18:22
I think you’ll probably soon be able to
18:23
swim without your arm bands on and we’ve
18:26
got one or two more little more
18:29
important sessions to do with that will
18:31
make you more efficient at programming
18:34
and giving you a a wider understanding
18:36
of how this machine works or how the
18:38
software works so thanks for watching
18:42
and I’ll see you at the next decision