0:09Welcome to another Lightblade Learning
0:15Lab, now the plan today was to jump onto
0:19the machine and do a benchmarking set of
0:21tests
0:23sadly I realized that i was a tool short
0:27and so we’re going to have to make that
0:30tool. When I say I’m a tool short
0:33I actually do have a tool for doing the
0:35job but it’s not told you can use for
0:38doing the job
0:39my tool requires me to have the lid open
0:41and you won’t be able to do that but i
0:44think it’s a sufficiently important
0:46piece of kit that I have redesigned it
0:49so that you can use it hands-free with
0:53the cover closed. I’m very politely
0:55calling it a laser beam health checker, that
1:01isn’t what I really call it and i will
1:04explain that when we get down to the
1:06machine. In the meantime what we’ve got
1:09here on this page is two pieces of kit
1:13we’ve got some acrylic two millimetres
1:16thick and we’ve got some card 200 gram
1:19which is about half or three-quarters of
1:21millimeter thick if you don’t have any
1:24200 gram white card cut the back off a
1:27cereal box and use the plain side of the
1:30cardboard it would do the job just as
1:32well. First off we’re going to delete
1:35that bit because I always bring the
1:38whole of the job in on one .dxf file and
1:41then I just program them separately
1:43because obviously we can’t program card
1:46and acrylic on the same job
1:49so we don’t need the words acrylic on
1:51there and just for your reference the
1:56text that comes in here you might not
1:59find text coming in on your .dxf
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment GuideTool (Cont…)
2:01file
2:02well if you go up here to config and
2:06look at file parameter setting one of
2:09the things that ticked up here on mine
2:11which may not be ticked by default on
2:13yours is import DX text information now
2:18it is quite important that maybe you
2:20have that set, because on a lot of the
2:22drawing files that I do i do add text
2:24information about where you can get
2:26things from and it would be very
2:28convenient to probably see those on this
2:30screen if you have no other means of
2:32reading dxf files
2:33ok that’s just an aside so we should
2:37delete the acrylic and there we are we’re
2:41left with a clean file now as I said to
2:44you
2:44you’re welcome to come up here and use
2:46the first technique with cut optimized
2:48handles I don’t go down that route so
2:51I’m afraid you’re going to follow me
2:52so first of all I’m going to capture all
2:55of the holes here
2:58and then I’m going to pop down the shift
3:00key and catch all the holes just here so
3:04that’s all the holes, I’m going to put
3:05them into one group now the outsides are
3:08easy because all I’m gonna do is go
3:09across the whole lot in that much
3:12hold down the shift key and do the other
3:14bits and pieces, there we go that’s all
3:17the outside captured group organize
3:21them, two groups dead easy isn’t it and so we just
3:25click on the click on the holes and put
3:29them in a group and then we’ll put that
3:30lock their across in another group done
3:34so that’s most of the programming done
3:37all we’ve got to do is double-click on the
3:38black layer up here to open up the
3:41cutting parameters themselves now
3:44remember this is 2 millimetre acrylic
3:46speed for 2 millimetre acrylic on this
3:49machine I’m still not fully confident
3:52with it because I’m not familiar with
3:54all its capability at the moment plus
3:57the fact that it’s got a 2-inch lens in
3:59it which I’m not used to so I’m going to
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment GuideTool (Cont…)
4:01have to play safe. Speeds I think I’m
4:05going to reduce that to something like
4:06maybe 15 millimetres a second just to
4:12play safe and then we put the power up
4:14as high as I can which if you remember
4:15on this machine is sixty-seven percent
4:18that’s the maximum i can program into
4:21the machine
4:22ok save that to a U-file
4:26ok now I’ve finish with this file. I could
4:28either load the file in again or a quick
4:34and simple way a trick
4:36is to press controls Z a few times
4:37carefully 1 2 3 4 and there we go we’ve
4:42brought them all back into life and this
4:45is the A4 card that we were using and
4:49the only reason it’s there so that you
4:51can see how I’ve laid them out on a
4:52piece of a4 card so we can delete that
4:55as well
4:56whoops so we need to hold down the shift
4:58key delete that bit delete that bit and
5:05there we go
5:05we’ve cleaned that up, we don’t need that we
5:08delete that bit and now we’ll program
5:10this bit. Now this bits easy because all
5:13we’ve got are these holes in here which are
5:16not actually holes these little things
5:19they’re going to be scorch marks we
5:22don’t want them to cut through we want the
5:24outside shape to cut through and again
5:26if we look closely the outside shape has
5:30not been completed its purposely been
5:32left with a little gap there so that
5:34these pieces stay tagged into the sheet
5:36so we’re going to mark these little circles to
5:39start with because they’re targets and
5:42because they’re going to be scorched
5:43they can’t be on the same layer as the
5:46cuts because they’re completely
5:48different cutting parameters so we’ll
5:50first of all go around and we’ll collect
5:51all those little holes hold down the
5:54shift key and we keep the shift key held
5:57and we’ll go down these one block at a
5:59time and we’ll collect them
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Guide Tool (Cont…)
6:07ok we’ve collected all the holes and we’ve
6:10collected none of the outside shapes
6:12we’re going to put those into a group
6:14and now it looks as though we’re gonna
6:18have a lot of trouble collecting all of
6:20these outside shapes
6:21no we’re not all we do is this we go
6:24across to the last but one hold down the
6:28shift key and then collect the last one
6:31and there we go all the shapes done in a
6:35group and then we’re going to order them
6:38well we’ve got two items to order again
6:40so we got the scorch marks and we’ve got
6:43the outside shape
6:45ok now what we haven’t done at the
6:49moment is put them on a different layer
6:51but it’s easy because now that we’ve put
6:53these into a group we’ve only got click
6:55on one of these holes click and we’ve
7:00collected all of the holes and we can
7:02pop them onto a blue layer which we’ve now
7:04done
7:05technically the blue layer should be
7:08above the black layer if it’s going to
7:11cut first but it’s not going to worry us
7:13because we’ve specified how we want
7:15these things cut so we’ll just go and
7:18check what settings we’ve got for the
7:20blue layer and the blue layer is a bit
7:24of an interesting one because oh it’s
7:28okay 200 millimetres a second
7:30the problem I remember, I remember
7:32telling you this before because we’ve
7:33got very small shapes here
7:36the machine is never going to get to any
7:38maximum speed so really what we put in
7:41here is immaterial provided it’s fast enough
7:44to keep the machine going as fast as it
7:46can go
7:47because we want these marks to burn
7:49rather than cut and then we need to put
7:52the power probably as low as we can
7:54possibly get it just above where the
7:57machine will actually fire
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Guide Tool (Cont…)
8:00and probably ten percent might be it
8:03it might be eight percent it might be
8:04twelve percent will try ten percent and see
8:06how it goes okay
8:14so we’ll save that for file and we’ll go
8:16out to the machine. For these first few
8:18sessions I’m going to keep repeating
8:21some of the stuff that already
8:22demonstrated just to try and hammer it home
8:24because some of these things are very
8:26important and one of the most important is the
8:28autofocus we’ve got some two-millimetre
8:31acrylic here check is the head fully
8:34up. OK so we just make sure that the
8:36probe is over the workpiece and that
8:39the head is fully up which it is and now we
8:42can press our autofocus enter
8:46and it doesn’t want to get there
8:58wait till it’s settled to it safe position and
9:02then we can manually set the probe down
9:10onto the work and lift it up just a
9:12shade, down and up about half a mil
9:24and there we go, now we can press the auto
9:26focus button again
9:37we’ve got the program loaded and we need to
9:39first of all move this to the
9:41appropriate corner of the job which will
9:44always be there
9:47move it away from that magnet support
9:50because I think I’ve got enough material
9:51at the end there i can press the origin
9:53point there and now frame
9:58there we go we’re staying within the
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Guide Tool (Cont…)
10:00material. Right, now we have the
10:02extraction on we’re ready to go
10:20that’s cut quite cleanly
10:24its that watery
10:26substance that I was telling you about
10:28the sticky substance that gets produced
10:32when you cut
10:37yeah it’s all on the back here as well
10:39which is good that it’s settled on the
10:41back of the product because it means
10:42it’s not settling in the filter system
10:50This honeycomb bed has one great advantage for
10:53cutting cards and paper if you’re not
10:56worried about marks on the back and that
10:58is in fact the airflow that’s passing
11:00through here has got like a suction
11:02effect which flattens the paper out onto the
11:04table, just press the origin again to reset
11:06the origin and away we go
11:22the machine is moving around very nicely
11:24it’s quiet doesn’t rattle and
11:26rock’n’roll
11:29it’s a very smooth action
11:34I think those cuts are still too thick
11:44but that may well be because it’s a 2″ lens and I’m always used to
11:47looking at one and a half inch lens line which
11:50is very very fine
11:56okay just for comparison I’ve run the
11:59same program on my other machine but with the
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Guide Tool (Cont…)
12:01one-and-a-half inch lens and
12:05I know this is nothing to do with this
12:06particular job but it’s all part of the
12:09learning process you can see that it’s a
12:12much much finer cut than we’re
12:15currently getting with this particular
12:17lens now I don’t know whether this thick
12:21cut is because of the lens which I know
12:23will have a different cut width but I
12:26didn’t think it would probably be quite
12:28as big a difference is this
12:31but we should find out when we do a
12:33little bit more investigation work
12:34further into the series
12:37now because it’s nice and convenient
12:39and light I’m going to be using the
12:43machine as a workbench now, this is a
12:45little workshop em now these are the
12:48pieces that we’ve just cut and I’m going
12:51to make them up into a very simple
12:53little assembly we’ve got long pieces
12:55and we’ve got short pieces we want
12:57the four long pieces to start with we
13:00should find these with like two slots
13:02pointing up away from these tongues drop
13:06those into that square first like that
13:10stand them up in the square, we should find
13:14the other ones which have got slots
13:15along the bottom each and they’re good
13:19they will go together and make a little
13:21little square assembly like that and now
13:25that we’ve got them together we’re going
13:26to use some of our cement we’re going to
13:29just to run the bead of cement along the
13:32bottom of each edge. What we will do is turn
13:40it upside down and we’ll just apply pressure to
13:45the bottom of it for about half a minute
13:48okay
13:50and having done that we can put that
13:51aside now the one that we want to work
13:54on is the one with the curved slots in it
13:59and you’ll find that there’s two with
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Guide Tool (Cont…)
14:02slots that stick up in the air so the
14:05slot, ones with slots up go on opposite
14:08sides first and then you’ll find there,
14:11the other remaining pair have of got slots
14:14pointing downwards and they cross lap
14:17into there like that, to make another
14:21little box assembly and we’ve got to do the
14:23same with that one
14:24we’re gonna have to put some glue along
14:26the edges and again we’ll try and turn that over
14:28we’ll hold that upside down for another
14:3530 seconds or so we’re missing one vital
14:37part i’m sure that somewhere around your
14:40promises you will have i’m sure you’ll
14:42have some elastic bands now they don’t
14:45need to be very big elastic bands but I
14:48don’t know what size I want
14:50so I’m gonna try the small ones to start
14:52with
14:53they may or may not work oh yes they
14:57will work
14:59look we’re going to thread two elastic bands, we’re going to thread an elastic
15:07band through that way and an elastic band
15:11through that way and we’ve just made a
15:19little trampoline
15:19look. Because we’re going now to add to the
15:25trampoline one of these little targets
15:27that you made and we pop the target in
15:32there like that and this last piece sits
15:38on top of the target like that and I can
15:43hear you saying, what sort of worms are in
15:47that guy’s brain
15:49what the hell is that? I did promise you
15:53I’d tell you what all this was about
15:54when we got back to the Machine and I’ve
15:57now turned the machine on and i’m just
15:59going to drop the table a little bit
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Guide Tool (Cont…)
16:01here I’ve got something which I’ve
16:06always affectionately called the laser
16:09world’s answer to an Anal thermometer
16:11the only way you can tell it’s an anal
16:13thermometer as opposed to an oral
16:14thermometer is probably the taste! This
16:17particular little piece of kit is the same sort
16:20of thing that your mum used to use when
16:22you said “ahh I’ve got a headache mom”, “I’ve got a
16:25stomach ache mom, I can’t go to school
16:26today” and the first thing she’d do is get
16:29the thermometer out and she’d put it in
16:31your mouth and very quickly she says
16:34″there’s nothing wrong with you, off you go”
16:35well this is the same sort of technique
16:38that I’m going to be using here and it’s
16:41a very quick and dirty way of checking
16:43whether or not the machine is in ill
16:47health
16:47now the normal use for this, is you put a
16:51piece of masking tape on the back like
16:53that and then at each corner of the machine
16:58in the back corner and in the middle of
17:00the Machine and I will just pop this
17:02into the middle of the machine, doesn’t
17:03matter where it is at the moment to be
17:05honest, but you pop that into the middle
17:07of the Machine you would set the pulse
17:10power in other words the maximum power
17:13on the machine button you’d set that to
17:15fifteen percent so that it’s fairly low
17:17power the holes in here just neatly fit
17:21over and snuggle onto the end of the
17:23nozzle there so that the hole centres
17:25on the nozzle and then you can just do
17:28beep which is a pulse and there we go
17:33look you get a beautiful hole and if you
17:38put that around the machine in five
17:40positions you would expect to get.
17:43I’ve got a pattern a perfect pattern
17:45there where all the holes are
17:46exactly the same because obviously i’ve
17:49used it in the same position but if you
17:51move it around the Machine those holes
17:53should be like that, all in the same
17:55position, if they’re all out of position
17:57it means your beam is totally incorrect
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Guide Tool (Cont…)
18:00but the problem is I can’t ask you to do
18:05this because I need the cover open to
18:08hold it under the nozzle but this is
18:11such a powerful test that i have
18:13reinvented this device to something that
18:16you can use for yourself and its this little
18:20trampoline. What we’re going to do we’re
18:24going to raise the table now so there’s
18:27about maybe an eighth of an inch overlap
18:30between this and the end of the nozzle
18:32what I can then do is this is the
18:35central position look I can just pop
18:37that on there like that and it’s held up
18:41against the nozzle and now i can just go
18:43pulse
18:49and if we look carefully at that, we can now
18:51see, hmmm it’s not very central is it? That’s
18:56another interesting point it’s all over
18:59to one edge, that’s what this piece of kit is
19:03and we should be using that in the next
19:06session to find out just what the
19:09benchmarking data is for this machine
19:11and we’ll if necessary will give the
19:15Machine a tune-up so I think we’re all
19:18now kitted out ready to start and the
19:21next session will be all about finding
19:22out just what we’ve got here
