The Lightblade Learning Lab with Russ Sadler
The Lightblade Learning Lab is a series of videos that Russ did for Thinklaser Limited based on using the Lightblade 4060 Laser Cutting and Engraving Machine. Thinklasers Lightblade 4060 has a 400 x 600mm bed size and was supplied with a 60W EFR laser tube. In this video, Russ provides an overview relating to his Laser Beam Alignment guide and explains the key component parts of the laser machine that affect the beam path. He also gives a demonstration of setting up the mirrors for improved laser beam alignment procedure.

Contents
- (Making a beam-setting jig)
- Introduction – don’t invalidate your warranty by trying the following on your machine!
- Parts of the machine – floor, gantry, X and Y bearing rails, head.
- Plan view of beam path and the various possibilities for adjustment
- Detailed look at the head mirror, elliptical profile of mirror as seen by the beam as it approaches
- Beam diameter and why it must be centred on the mirror
- Issues with the design of the head and why some power was being lost in the tests in the previous video.
- Issues with the design of the Beam Target made in Video 05.
- Side view of beam path
- Beam coaxial to glass of tube
- Set the laser parallel to the floor of the machine
- Making the beam-setting jig
- Making a 30mm extension to the tube cover on the machine
- Explanation of the beam-setting jig
- Loosening the mirror assemblies
- Lining up and setting the mirrors
- Using a tube setting jig
- Testing the alignment with a beam target
- Putting the mirrors back (mirror 2 installation not covered on video)
- Checking laser beam alignment at the ends of the machine’s movement
- Using the beam checker made in Video 09
My thanks go out to Tom at Thinklaser for giving permission to embed these videos on this site. If you are looking for a new laser machine from a quality supplier, then I would suggest you check out their website: www.thinklaser.com.
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Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare
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00:22
well welcome to my warm and comfy easy
00:25
suite I’ve just completed the Edit of my
00:32
benches in laser beam alignment and now as a
00:36
thinklaser customer what I’m just about
00:38
to show you in the following video is
00:42
not something that you need to do the
00:46
machine that you have bought is a very
00:49
good machine I know because I’ve had a
00:52
go at pulling it to pieces
00:53
I love the machine but if I see
00:57
something that isn’t quite to my liking
01:00
I’m not in the least bit worried about
01:02
pulling it to pieces and doing something
01:04
about it now I came across a small
01:06
problem with laser beam alignment which piqued
01:10
my interest the system of
01:14
beam alignment on this machine is no
01:17
different than that of thousands of
01:19
other machines that come out of China I
01:21
had to have a different machine with a
01:25
different beam alignment system that
01:27
I’ve been used to so I found ourselves
01:30
in a certain amount of deep water when I
01:34
started fiddling with the beam alignment
01:37
system on this machine
01:38
now the beam alignment system is not
01:40
something that you will have to fiddle
01:42
with and then every day user if there’s
01:46
a problem you will call in your service
01:48
tech I have a responsibility to you as I
01:51
think later customer to make sure that
01:54
you don’t invalidate the warranty on
01:56
this machine what you see me do is not
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
02:00
something that you necessarily need to
02:02
do want to do or have to do I’m afraid
02:06
of old school engineer and warranty plan
02:08
warranties don’t mean much to me if I
02:11
see a problem and I see a solution
02:13
I’ll go about fixing it sometimes it
02:19
gets me into trouble sometimes it leads
02:22
me into new and green pastures now what
02:28
are you going to see today is a
02:30
completely different approach to
02:32
aligning and setting up the Machine the
02:35
flexible standard kit that mounts the
02:38
mirrors on these machines is a piece of
02:40
kit that’s used on all sorts of machine
02:43
design and as such it has to be flexible
02:47
now that flexibility comes at a cost and
02:52
that’s complexity of set up now
02:56
complexity of setup is not something
02:58
that you will ever encounter because the
03:01
mirrors are already factory preset the
03:05
most you will have to do is probably
03:07
just tweak the mirrors a little bit but
03:10
even then I would suggest you probably
03:12
don’t because there is no reason why the
03:15
beam will guide an alignment
03:17
unless you start thrashing the machine
03:18
around so you’re going to join me in a
03:20
session where I will explain what
03:23
beam alignments all about now it’s your
03:26
interest rather than for your doing what
03:29
it has done for me as made me realize
03:33
that I think there’s an even better way
03:37
that maybe another adventure that you
03:39
watch me and it take or maybe it’s
03:42
something I should do behind closed
03:44
doors and you’ll never know it really
03:47
things on how to glaze a view my
03:50
reengineering approach so sit back relax
03:56
and enjoy but don’t do thanks very much
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
04:02
let’s get on with the video well welcome
04:08
to another lightblade learning lab I
04:11
think you get the impression this might
04:13
be a quite a relaxed session I think
04:17
you’ve got that wrong
04:19
it’s going to start off in a very casual
04:22
way it’s all about beam alignment today
04:26
now beam alignment is actually a very
04:30
simple subject but it’s a bit like
04:35
entering a jungle without a map you can
04:40
very quickly get lost and not understand
04:43
which way to turn
04:45
you need a compass you need a map and
04:47
you can find your way through the jungle
04:49
what I’m going to do to start with is
04:51
give you an outline basically provides
04:54
you with the map before we enter into
04:57
this jungle I’m not going to touch this
04:59
machine myself again because already I
05:02
wouldn’t say burned my fingers but I
05:05
learned the hard way that this machine
05:07
is not the same as my other Chinese
05:11
machine over there and that it requires
05:13
a completely different strategy to set
05:16
this one up although I shall be focusing
05:19
on this machine anybody with a red sail
05:22
clone will have similar problems because
05:26
this is the style of machine that you
05:28
will have but anybody with the China
05:30
blue machine like I have over there well
05:33
I’ve already got well documented
05:34
procedures for calibrating and setting
05:37
the beam on that but these procedures
05:41
the basic principles this road map will
05:45
help you as well to understand how you
05:47
should go about and why you go about
05:50
things in a certain way in a certain
05:52
order I just want to lay down a few
05:54
ground rules before we start this piece
05:58
here all around the outside it is what I
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
06:02
would classes on this on this drawing
06:06
I’ve got here it’s called the light
06:07
blade floor and that is this flat
06:11
surface here upon which everything is
06:13
mounted then we got the top surface of
06:17
the gantry which is this piece here now
06:20
on this top surface we’ve got a bearing
06:22
rail and the head runs backwards and
06:25
forwards on this bearing rail and then
06:27
we’ve got the Y bearing rails down the
06:31
side here now the other key
06:33
here is that this bearing rail is 90
06:37
degrees to these two wine bearing rails
06:41
where we’re going to start off with a
06:43
plan view of the machine this is typical
06:45
of any of these small laces we’ve got a
06:47
later two we’ve got our two 45-degree
06:50
bending mirrors another 45-degree mirror
06:53
to bend the beam down towards the head
06:56
and the other key thing here whenever we
07:00
bend the corner we’ve got to finish up
07:03
with the beam running parallel to the X
07:06
or the Y bearing row that’s a that’s an
07:10
absolute fact we cannot deviate from
07:13
that what’s the problem well the problem
07:17
is on this machine with all sorts of
07:21
degrees of adjustment and non adjustment
07:26
for example the head mirror itself it
07:30
totally non adjustable it is what it is
07:33
it’s fixed and all it does it moves
07:36
backwards and forwards along this x axis
07:39
it’s angle can be adjusted very slightly
07:43
but it can’t be adjusted that way and it
07:46
can’t be adjusted in and out we’ve got
07:49
one mirror which is absolutely fixed in
07:52
space we’ve got this second mirror here
07:56
which is at the end of the beam you can
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
08:00
move it in X you can move it in Y you
08:02
can rotate it a little bit and you
08:05
certainly got adjustment on the mirror
08:07
to just tweak the mirror in addition to
08:10
that there’s a further plane of
08:12
adjustment which is up and down which I
08:15
haven’t shown on that picture and then
08:18
we’ve got mirror number one which is the
08:21
one that turns the laser as it comes out
08:23
of the tube now that’s only got
08:25
basically two degrees of freedom on it
08:28
it can move this way across the plane of
08:31
the beam it’s got a lot of twist
08:32
adjustment on it and it’s also got some
08:35
minor adjustment on it for just tweaking
08:38
the mirror the lace of itself had got
08:40
horrendous amounts of adjustment on it
08:42
you can swing it around you can lift it
08:44
up and down
08:45
you can twist it from end to end you can
08:48
twist it from side to side you can
08:49
basically swing the hold of that beam
08:51
around in space like that this is what
08:53
we’ve got to finish up with but how do
08:56
we get there that’s the problem ideally
08:59
we’d like to finish up with this beam
09:00
here running parallel to that bearing
09:04
rail there is it absolutely essential as
09:07
I kick the two round by five degrees you
09:09
can see what happens it misses the
09:11
mirror it’s got to hit the central point
09:13
of the mirror otherwise it won’t reflect
09:15
okay let’s look at the next picture
09:17
we’ve corrected that problem now we’ve
09:19
moved the mirror in that direction there
09:21
and we caught the beam on the center of
09:26
the mirror but because the laser is
09:28
tipped over at five degrees and this is
09:31
45 degrees we get a reflection off of
09:34
that surface which is there you could
09:37
say that we just move this mirror over
09:39
this way and catch the beam well and
09:43
then we can steer it back towards this
09:46
one that is true we could if there was
09:48
enough adjustment on there but the
09:51
problem is we’ve broken golden rule
09:54
number one we are no longer parallel to
09:57
the bearing row so we can’t do that what
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
10:00
we’ve got to do is adjust this mirror
10:03
here let’s see what happens when we
10:05
adjust this mirror fine but we can we
10:08
can put two and a half degrees of
10:10
rotation on this mirror and we can make
10:13
that beam round parallel here again
10:15
brilliant so we’ve got a degree of
10:19
freedom here and we have got some
10:21
ability to fix the problem that’s caused
10:25
by misaligning a plain view of the laser
10:28
tube and we’re back in back on plan
10:32
again so now this is running parallel
10:35
what can we do here so I leave my
10:38
biscuit to come into play now this makes
10:42
a great mirror doesn’t it until I eat it
10:44
we’ve already agreed that we can’t move
10:46
the mirror out of position because if we
10:49
do the beam will be non parallel to the
10:52
Royal so that technically means there’s
10:54
only one position in if you like the x
10:58
axis
10:59
direction for this mirror to be sitting
11:02
and that is absolutely in line with this
11:06
mirror so that it can pick up a parallel
11:09
beam on its center that’s parallel to
11:12
the bearing row we already said this
11:16
mirror has got zero degrees of freedom
11:19
on it
11:19
we need a beam to hit the center of that
11:22
mirror and it’s got to run parallel to
11:24
this bearing row
11:27
therefore we cannot have although that
11:32
was moving this mirror this way would
11:35
satisfy the parallelism in this plane if
11:38
it bounced off the mirror here it would
11:41
not be parallel in this plane so by
11:45
default there is literally only one
11:48
position for that mirror to be in so you
11:52
cannot mess around with these mirrors
11:53
very much and I’m very surprised that
11:55
this mirror on this machine has got so
11:59
many degrees of freedom it doesn’t need
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
12:03
them and it doesn’t need them because
12:05
the head is fixed okay so this is the
12:09
fixed head and underneath this
12:12
adjustable plate at the top here we’ve
12:14
got a gap this head here and this piece
12:19
are completely solid and fixed they’re
12:22
fixed to the bearing and the bearing
12:23
rail underneath so there’s zero
12:26
adjustment on there except for a small
12:28
amount of Swing on this plate just to
12:31
guide the beam okay so you see what it
12:33
looks like in reality here’s what it
12:35
looks like in detail now I’ve done a
12:37
fairly careful drawing and analysis of
12:40
this machine I’ve looked at it in great
12:43
detail and I’ve done all sorts of
12:44
measurements on it and I’ve done a good
12:46
detailed analysis of the actual head
12:49
assembly itself and what’s inside here
12:51
the rate is obviously the path the ideal
12:54
path of the laser beam now when I say
12:57
the ideal path of the laser beam I’m
13:01
going to explain that a little bit more
13:03
detail in a few seconds what I want you
13:06
to do is look at this drawing to start
13:08
with now here
13:11
is the mirror so allow a 25 millimeter
13:17
mirror it’s set inside a recess and the
13:22
exposed part of the mirror is only 20
13:25
3.1 millimeters diameter well I say 23.1
13:32
millimeters diameter if you were a laser
13:34
beam coming at this here’s what you
13:38
would see you’ve got a hole in the front
13:41
which is there and I’ll just put those
13:42
two dots there to show you how they
13:44
tally up and that’s the first thing I’ve
13:49
got to see I will see the entry to the
13:51
hate but then hiding behind that I’ve
13:54
got a mirror but because the mirror is
13:57
slanted back at 45 degrees it’s no
14:00
longer 23.1 diameter in fact it becomes
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
14:04
an ellipse but of course I can’t if I
14:10
was the laser beam I can’t see the four
14:12
mirror so that’s what the laser beam
14:14
will actually see by way of a mirror
14:17
it’s a very strange shape and I’ve drawn
14:21
this laser beam at 10 millimetres
14:23
diameter now most people are going to
14:26
say well the beam is only five or four
14:28
or five millimeters diameter well I
14:31
think we demonstrated the last time we
14:34
looked at mirrors that that beam is
14:36
something other than what most people
14:38
think it’s influenced its power its heat
14:43
extends way out beyond maybe the point
14:46
where it can do any damage but that heat
14:50
is still part of the power output of the
14:53
beam itself so we’re going to
14:57
investigate that a little bit further
14:58
later on but for the moment just assume
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
15:01
that we’ve got a 10 millimeter beam here
15:03
let’s be a little bit cautious and you
15:06
can see that we really don’t have much
15:08
room for error on either side to get our
15:13
beam onto the center point of that
15:15
mirror now if we aim at the center point
15:20
of the mirror which is this
15:22
point just here and look there’s the
15:25
centerline of the mirror through here
15:27
and there’s the mirror face just there
15:30
and we’re aiming specifically for that
15:34
point the bad news is the design of this
15:39
head is such that the center point of
15:43
the the center point of the beam does
15:47
not run down the center point of the
15:49
bore this is one of the lens tubes that
15:54
goes into the bottom of the machine what
15:56
we’ve got down the inside there is a 17
15:59
millimeter ball and what we’re hoping to
16:02
do is to aim that we’re trying to aim
16:07
this beam at the lens which is in the
16:10
bottom there we really want to be on the
16:13
centerline or the axis of the actual
16:16
lens itself but at the moment we’re not
16:19
and we cannot be even if I remove this
16:23
one millimeter gap here which will still
16:26
be slightly off-center so there’s a
16:29
fundamental design issue with this head
16:33
the other fundamental design issue with
16:36
this head is exactly the same issue that
16:38
I found with my China blue machine and
16:41
that is that if we take a look here
16:44
you’ll see that the center line of the
16:47
true mirror center point is not the same
16:51
as the port entry ie
16:55
the hole in the front here does not
16:58
represent the true center line of the
17:00
mirror so I think that my little targets
17:03
that I made are probably inaccurate and
17:07
need remaking a mistake I made I didn’t
17:11
check the position of the mirror it
17:12
looked nearly right so I I designed my
17:14
target to sit on the front there and
17:16
assume that the design was right but now
17:19
that I look at it in detail I think you
17:21
can clearly say look we’re 1.3
17:23
millimeters high so there’s several
17:29
sorts of design issues with this head
17:33
small details
17:36
but annoyingly important especially when
17:41
we’ve got a very small amount of error
17:45
here I mean that’s what 1.3 millimeters
17:48
looks like hey that’s nearly what we’ve
17:52
got here look so I’ve only got to be a
17:54
little bit out with my settings and I
17:57
can easily clip the bottom of the beam
17:59
or the top of the beam as I found out in
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
18:02
the previous session the beam was
18:04
somehow clipping the bottom here and
18:05
some of the power was being lost because
18:08
it was never getting through okay that’s
18:11
a detailed look at the head itself and
18:13
it’s quite important that you understand
18:14
that but what we’re going to do is let’s
18:16
assume for a minute that the head is
18:18
good enough which it probably is to
18:22
allow me to set to its center point
18:25
which is here the main reason I’m just
18:30
showing you this drawing here is the
18:32
fact that the the bore is 17.2 and the
18:36
difference between the beam centreline
18:39
and the true center line of that bore is
18:42
1.1 millimeters okay now this is this is
18:48
probably the most important drawing with
18:51
the least amount of information on it
18:53
okay
18:54
so now we’re on a completely different
18:56
plane instead of looking from above we
19:00
are now looking in from the side of the
19:03
machine and the same rules apply when we
19:08
look in this way as they do when we
19:10
looked in from above and that is this
19:13
beam must run parallel to the bearing
19:17
rails now the bearing rail for Y is more
19:21
or less fixed to the floor of the light
19:23
blade and the X bearing rail runs across
19:26
the gantry that runs across the machine
19:29
so the gantry is set parallel to the
19:32
floor the bearing rail is set parallel
19:35
to the floor this bearing rail is
19:37
parallel to the floor and therefore the
19:40
actual laser beam must be parallel to
19:43
the floor as well if it isn’t it ain’t
19:47
going to work
19:48
so how do we achieve that well we have
19:53
got a fixed head the head might be very
19:57
slightly out but if it is very slightly
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
20:00
out position wise there’s this little
20:03
plate on the top here which allows us to
20:05
direct the beam downwards and correct
20:08
for slight very slight manufacturing
20:12
errors on the head itself but in essence
20:16
what we’ve got to do is make sure that
20:19
the laser is outputting its beam
20:24
parallel to these rails and this as
20:29
simple as that so we cannot have this
20:32
tube sitting like this or can we well
20:39
let’s have a look at that because this
20:43
is the most critical part of
20:46
understanding about a laser beams path
20:50
people ignore this axis they concentrate
20:54
on the plan view which is actually easy
20:56
this is the bit that’s going to screw
20:59
you trust me okay so very crudely we’ve
21:07
got our straight laser beam that’s
21:10
coming out of the laser and into the
21:14
hate the laser tube itself is a very
21:17
long tube and the fact that it relies on
21:22
this surface here there is a part
21:26
reflecting mirror and right at the other
21:28
end of the tube
21:29
there is another reflecting mirror now
21:33
those surfaces are absolutely parallel
21:37
and normal to each other so that the
21:40
light can pass backwards and forwards
21:42
between them now that’s that’s a
21:45
mechanical fact so that beam has to come
21:49
out of there in a straight line that
21:51
beam can’t come out of here an angle
21:54
it’s coaxial with the basic construction
21:57
of the laser itself now even if this
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
22:00
tube is very slightly
22:02
eccentric because the tube is so long
22:04
you can still probably assume that the
22:08
external glass work will still give you
22:11
a very good representation of the axis
22:14
of the beam itself so let’s assume that
22:18
we set the laser tube itself parallel to
22:24
the floor that’s a good starting point
22:27
because everything on this machine is
22:29
fixed to this ground point this floor
22:32
okay so we’ve now got our laser beam
22:36
traveling in a horizontal direction but
22:40
just in case we didn’t do that let’s
22:44
just do this for a minute let’s make it
22:47
slightly wrong how do we do with that
22:49
well we could raise this mirror here
22:55
because this mirror is adjustable so we
22:57
can raise that mirror up so that it
23:01
catches the beam but then we got to make
23:04
sure that it still runs parallel beyond
23:07
there which we can do because we can
23:10
swing the beam so that it sits parallel
23:15
with this bearing row but then it means
23:18
we’ve got to move this mirror up to
23:20
catch that beam so we can move that
23:25
mirror up to catch that beam but the
23:29
head is not adjustable
23:31
so therefore the beam has got to run
23:34
downhill to get to the to get to the
23:38
head and we can’t allow that because
23:40
that means this part of the beam is now
23:43
totally unable to sit parallel with the
23:46
X rail so we may well have satisfied
23:48
this condition here but we can’t satisfy
23:50
it here now on my blue machine I don’t
23:53
have to worry about that because I have
23:55
made a bracket which allows me to move
23:59
my head into line and catch the beam
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
24:03
this machine has got a fixed head and I
24:06
don’t have that option so we’ve got to
24:08
deal with it in a completely different
24:10
way that’s why I’m saying this through
24:12
me because I don’t have the flexibility
24:14
this machine to play with so everything
24:17
has got to work from the centerline of
24:18
the head which brings us back to this
24:21
first picture here that’s what we’re
24:24
trying to achieve parallel to the
24:27
bearings and straight into the
24:29
centerline of the heap as I said it’s
24:31
very very simple to see on a piece of
24:33
paper how do we do it in practice my
24:37
background in design and production
24:38
engineering says spend the time and make
24:43
it simple don’t struggle so what I’ve
24:46
done having spent the time and measured
24:48
the machine up very carefully to
24:50
establish what the problems are I’ve
24:53
also checked and found out why my beam
24:57
is not correct by using a very laborious
24:59
iteration method my axis did not pass
25:03
through completely flat and at this
25:06
point I was only one point three
25:08
millimeters high so yeah I got there but
25:16
it was a bit of a struggle and I
25:18
wouldn’t want anybody else to go through
25:20
that same pain so I’m looking to try and
25:22
make it a lot simpler and a lot easier
25:25
by design it would be a lot easier by
25:30
design if the head was adjustable into
25:33
planes it’s not at the moment and I say
25:36
at the moment because if my first
25:39
attempt at setting this machine doesn’t
25:42
come out too good and you’re going to
25:45
witness that you’re going to see me go
25:48
down in a blaze of glory or be a hero
25:52
yet to be decided but I always know that
25:56
there’s a back-up plan
25:57
as I mentioned turning yesterday I’m a
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
26:00
bit of a wrecker I’m very happy to take
26:02
this head apart here and I’ll make this
26:04
adjustable that way I can catch the beam
26:07
just as I can on my other machine and
26:09
all of a sudden beam setting becomes a
26:11
doddle but I’m going to persevere with
26:14
this machine because not everybody has
26:16
the ability to go in and modify this
26:18
head so I’ll stay with as it is and see
26:22
if we can generate a jig that people can
26:26
emulate
26:28
maybe they can’t copy it directly
26:30
because it depends on the layout of the
26:32
various bits of the machine but the
26:34
principle you probably can copy or you
26:36
can modify the jig that I’m going to
26:38
manufacture let me despite the despite
26:47
the approximate setup that I use for
26:49
FEMA linemen it’s cutting reasonably
26:52
well
26:58
here we’ve got various pieces to our 3d
27:00
jigsaw puzzle hopefully this will make
27:04
the setting up of the beam and mirrors
27:08
on this new light blade machine an
27:11
absolute dream when as I dream I mean
27:15
maybe as little as 10 or 15 minutes who
27:18
knows but let’s make a start we’ve got a
27:25
base plate and on the base plate we’re
27:30
going to put this piece which sadly is
27:32
not quite a match for the other pieces
27:35
but hey the material was free so and we
27:38
had to use the material that would fit
27:40
the job so I think the first thing that
27:42
we’ll do and we just run some glue I
27:47
would like to work on kitchen roll
27:49
because if this stuff that goes through
27:50
then it just hold it upright and solid
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
28:01
okay what’s the basic frame the base
28:04
frame done well that’s just hardening
28:08
off a little bit let’s just do this one
28:11
now I could really do with how you keep
28:13
making sure that this stays although
28:16
this there’s nothing that kids do
28:17
anything I don’t think no so but I will
28:20
try and take it up right I’ll use that
28:23
one cell phone put my glue
28:38
we’ll pop this on next
28:50
turn it upside down there so that we can
28:52
just know the glue along the edges there
29:01
we put the brackets on first then this
29:06
piece just glue down these edges here
29:13
and we do the same thing on this end
29:19
we’ll put our brackets on there is our
29:25
finished cute now I’m going to take the
29:31
machine to pieces I thought I might as
29:33
well and put a case extension on because
29:36
I could do with a bit more space between
29:39
the later head and the first mirror so
29:42
I’ve got three pieces of ten millimeter
29:44
thick acrylic nail which I didn’t really
29:47
have the right size pieces so what I’ve
29:49
done I’ve just made myself a little
29:51
jigsaw piece to make the frames up so
29:53
I’ve put three frames on there ten
29:54
millimeters and that will give me a 13
29:57
millimeter extension which will be
29:58
plenty enough and there we go there’s
30:02
our little 30 millimeter extents have
30:03
already started to do some destruction
30:05
but let’s just explain what we’re trying
30:07
to do what we’ve got here we’ve got two
30:10
mirror reference points now these
30:13
mirrors are set the correct height from
30:16
the base to match the centerline of this
30:20
mirror here not the centre line the hole
30:21
that the calculated centre line of the
30:23
mirror itself and these two holes
30:29
represent the front edge of these two
30:31
holes have to be roughly where the
30:33
mirror faces are and they will tell us
30:35
the correct position in space
30:38
45 degrees each and the correct height
30:41
so which I’ll hopefully have three
30:43
mirrors which are one two three mirrors
30:45
all fixed and they will be fixed at 45
30:49
degrees so that we know that they’re in
30:51
the right positions to start with and
30:55
then all we’ve got to do is hopefully
30:56
tweak the mirrors mainly in the XY
30:59
direction because
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
31:00
can’t play with the Z so we’ll offer
31:05
this up and you’ll see what we’re trying
31:06
to achieve well okay we’ve now arrived
31:09
at the moment of truth the gate start
31:11
wrecking the machine and undoing all the
31:14
good work I did one new are removed the
31:18
thing is when I look at this there’s a
31:21
lot of adjustment on there but there is
31:24
no adjustment it’s right at the top of
31:26
the stroke already well we’ve removed
31:28
the mirror and I don’t think we could
31:31
have made it any more sloppy than happy
31:34
so we need to remove the y-axis cable we
31:39
slide our jig in to start with and then
31:41
we hook it over the end of the gantry
31:44
here and just move it forward so that
31:48
slips over the socket that’s in there
31:51
the Y drive socket now we’ve got a
31:54
certain amount of movement in Y not much
31:59
of a little bit hopefully that’s going
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
32:01
to be enough to allow us to make sure we
32:03
line all the mirrors up okay now it’s
32:06
very important that the first thing that
32:07
we do to both these mirrors this one and
32:10
this one is to set the gap behind the
32:13
mirror plate so that it’s exactly one
32:17
millimeter when we doing that with a hex
32:21
or blade and that’s a millimeter it just
32:24
happens to be a millimeter so we undo
32:26
the screw until it grips the hacksaw
32:28
blade you can fail because the screw
32:30
goes loose and then just take the
32:32
slightest amount of tension back on the
32:34
screw and the axle blade comes out okay
32:38
so we do that for all six positions on
32:41
these mirrors I’ve already loosened the
32:45
screws on the base plate here so that I
32:47
can slide this slide it around a bit
32:52
like this okay because what I want to do
32:54
is to slide it around in a minute but
32:58
before we do any movement of things now
33:00
we’ve got everything loose everything’s
33:02
upset we’ve got to set the beam to a
33:04
known position and the beam itself
33:07
should push against it and stop
33:11
that’s the known position where I
33:13
measured everything from when I designed
33:16
the jig so we push that against the end
33:18
stock the beam no longer moves and
33:21
because that’s our reference that we’re
33:23
going to work from now and the first
33:24
thing we’re going to try and do is to
33:25
get this set nicely so that it sits
33:27
snugly against that plate as you can see
33:30
at the moment this mirror plate does not
33:33
line up with this perspective plate so
33:36
it’s set approximately to the right
33:37
height now and it’s not too bad for
33:42
position so I just tighten up the screws
33:46
on the bottom there I think you can see
33:48
there that’s pretty good match those
33:52
holes and they will repeat the same
33:55
exercise on the back end look we’ve got
33:57
this thing all nice and floppy let me
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
34:00
just put my key I need to do two things
34:04
first of all I need to put then
34:06
approximately the right position and
34:08
just put a little bit of tension on
34:10
these screws just a little bit because
34:14
you can see the brackets in the
34:15
background are all floppy so what I’ve
34:17
got to do I’ve got to push this against
34:19
the plate now in approximately the right
34:22
position let’s just see if we can get it
34:23
into approximately the right position
34:25
and tighten up the screws I’ve already
34:29
got one screw that I can tighten up on
34:31
both of the brackets so there’s two
34:34
brackets and four screws and I can only
34:36
tighten up two of the four screws one on
34:38
each bracket now we’ve tightened it up
34:41
this way and see how much it moves now
34:44
you’re slightly out of line so you’re
34:46
seeing a little bit of perspective there
34:48
but from dead-on it looks pretty well
34:52
aligned up
34:55
so I can take that jig out now we’ve
34:59
removed the jig and I’ll just now
35:01
tighten up all the screws to make sure
35:04
that nothing is going to move and
35:06
technically what we’ve now done we set
35:09
this mirror and that mirror at 45
35:11
degrees to each other they’re the same
35:13
height and they’re also the same height
35:16
as the mirror down at the other end
35:19
there so we should have technically a
35:21
nice straight line beam that runs
35:23
through all the center line of these
35:25
we’re gonna push the beam forward again
35:28
we’re going to lug it up just now we’ve
35:31
got one more thing to do okay now here
35:34
we are at the back of the machine I’ve
35:36
got two pieces of kit but I’m going to
35:38
be using now this piece here what it’s
35:41
designed to do is to take the later tube
35:44
so it’s designed to set the laser beam
35:47
which sits in here the correct height
35:49
from the base from the floor and also
35:52
the correct position from the beam the
35:55
correct Center from the beam and as you
35:57
could see they’re loose they’re not in
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
36:01
the right position for moment so I just
36:03
laid it in there this one you’ll see the
36:07
reason why we’ve got this big notch in
36:08
here now and that’s because we’ve got
36:11
this water tube underneath here I’m also
36:13
loosening the fixings for the later
36:15
tubes itself okay I think you’ll see
36:21
that that’s rather loose right so that
36:24
one’s loose as well we will loosen this
36:26
one off and there are some screw
36:31
adjusters on the top here we’re going to
36:33
let those down or we’re going to wind
36:35
them up so that the beam can sag and
36:39
drop down onto the Vblock we do the same
36:46
with this one
36:46
whine the adjusting screw up the collar
36:51
and then we’ll put this
36:56
on – it’s very block and we’ll push it
36:59
back against make sure that is sitting
37:03
back yet we’re pushing it back there we
37:09
go
37:09
push it down bend it back and now I’ll
37:15
tighten up these screws on this one
37:22
again if I just lift that up and let it
37:26
fall down into the bracket there we go
37:31
now I’ll just lock that up there like
37:34
that I’m gonna tighten up – diagonally
37:40
up screws now we need our target and
37:48
this is the moment of truth before I
37:51
start I must remember to put the y-axis
37:55
plug on set my beam power to 15% we’ll
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
38:05
try a false
38:08
and what didn’t get surprise surprise
38:11
Wow look at that we’re just a smidge
38:16
off-center and how do we get it back
38:20
onto center to be honest I think it
38:23
would be very easy to just set that back
38:27
another milliliter and how I’m going to
38:32
do that I’m going to cheat I’m going to
38:35
stick a piece of masking tape across the
38:38
back of that bracket like that
38:46
the piece of masking tape across the
38:48
other fractal and we’re about just a
38:51
millimetre off-centre so what I’m now
38:54
going to do is to just gently slacken
38:58
off these screws and tap it a Military
39:01
Cross I just slipped the laser being
39:03
across after their leader or a
39:06
millimeter
39:14
that’s looking pretty damn good I just
39:18
put a couple of pieces of masking tape
39:20
on the back of the bracket here and I
39:23
slipped the bracket forward to give
39:25
myself a 1 millimeter gap on here so
39:28
it’s quite important that we put the
39:30
mirrors back in before we have a an
39:32
interesting accident
39:51
well there’s our target at the far end
39:53
of the stroke
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
40:00
is largely off-centre
40:06
and now we’ll check it close in
40:12
I think it might be good because there’s
40:14
a really strange characteristic coming
40:16
into the beam if we look the beam is not
40:19
even it’s just do that test first so
40:26
that’s pretty central height wise and
40:29
slightly to the right so we just check
40:33
it at the other end of the stroke
40:34
[Music]
40:39
you see and that looks absolutely
40:41
spot-on maybe it’s not spot on Center
40:47
perfect in that way which is what we
40:49
need that’s the most crucial direction
40:51
the up-and-down direction we’ve got a
40:53
little bit more latitude left and right
40:56
so I’m pretty damn smug about that now
41:03
suppose there’s one final check that we
41:04
ought to carry out well the good news is
41:08
we’ve got a perfect set of incorrect
41:10
marks and by that I mean I think you can
41:12
see that they’re all sitting down around
41:15
about six o’clock and there’s our final
41:17
set of results not bad they’re all
41:22
comfortably inside the target they’re
41:24
nice round holes there’s nothing clipped
41:26
there at all so we’ve got a full beam
41:28
that’s passing through the nozzle well
41:31
there’s the end result of our endeavors
41:33
I hope that you’ve learned something
41:36
from this exercise
41:37
I ain’t it with actually a great deal of
41:41
confidence because once I understood the
41:44
principles behind setting this machine I
41:47
felt very confident that it would all
41:50
work out well in the end and to be
41:52
honest it has it took about half an hour
41:56
maybe two mechanically set the Machine
41:58
and then it took about another half an
Transcript For Laser Beam Alignment Setting – Dream or Nightmare (Cont…)
42:00
hour to physically tweak the machine
42:02
just through the mirrors to get it into
42:05
a very good shape
42:08
and I hope that you won’t have any fear
42:10
in the future if you need to do the same
42:12
thing yourself obviously if this is the
42:16
think placer machine that you’re worried
42:18
about and you can see that you’ve got a
42:19
problem I suspect that you’re calling
42:21
the servers engineer but maybe you would
42:25
be brave enough to have a go on your own
42:27
good luck to you and wish you see it in
42:31
the next session
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