01 – Welcome To A NEW Learning Adventure

0:00 welcome to another,

0:03 another what my wife already thinks I’ve

0:08 got another woman out in this workshop

0:10 because I spend so much time here

0:14 I’m going to add another to my harem

0:22 um

0:26 I name the tangerine tiger

0:31 [Applause]

0:32 that’s a waste of a good packet of

0:34 crisps isn’t it yes

0:37 I was stupid enough to buy another one

0:41 I’ve just about got enough room to turn

0:42 around in this workshop now

0:45 with one two three four

0:48 laser machines in here how much trouble

0:50 does a man need

0:52 four laser machines and a wife

0:55 well I suppose I better explain myself

0:57 first of all this is not going to be an

0:59 RDWorks learning lab session

1:02 I’m going to rename this series

1:04 tangerine tiger

1:06 you can see why yeah it’s a vile colour

1:09 but hey I paid less for this

1:14 than i did for my blue my china blue

1:17 machine when i bought that nearly

1:19 five or six years ago I’m losing track

1:21 of time now

1:22 I have to say this is more or less

1:25 exactly the same

1:26 as my previous one things have not

1:29 changed very much at all

1:31 in some ways there are little bits of

1:33 this where the quality is better

1:35 it looks nice and clean everything’s

1:38 black as opposed to gold as it was

1:40 but look at this table

1:44 I mean it’s made of paper aluminium

1:46 paper

1:49 yeah there isn’t much flatness in that

1:52 table

1:52 I’m planning to upgrade this machine

1:55 with all the sort of goodies that i’ve

1:57 put onto the china blue machine

1:59 and take it into another universe

Transcript For A New Learning Adventure: Chinese Laser Cutter (Cont…)

2:04 this adventure is probably going to be a

2:06 lot shorter because i haven’t got to

2:07 learn

2:08 quite so much about the laser technology

2:11 there are parts of it that i have got to

2:13 learn about so don’t get worried there’s

2:14 going to be quite a few in this series

2:17 but again a bit like the fiber laser

2:20 this is going to be

2:21 a little bit niche although this machine

2:24 at about a thousand pounds

2:26 is cheap what I’m going to add to it is

2:29 not cheap seems silly to waste these

2:31 doesn’t it

2:32 oh my goodness me they’re not chips

2:34 they’re crumbs

2:37 [Applause]

2:38 i mean you can’t eat these one at a time

2:42 any longer

2:48 you really need a shovel

2:51 so what’s the plan

2:58 well apart from fixing that door because

3:00 [Applause]

3:02 if you push it over that way it doesn’t

3:05 close

3:06 but if you pull it over this way it

3:09 works fine

3:12 now i’ve got exactly what i was

3:14 expecting when i opened this lid

3:18 let’s take the lid off so that we can

3:21 see what’s going on

3:23 now there are a couple of things I’d

3:24 like you to make a note of first of all

3:27 this tube it’s exactly what i expected

3:29 to find in here

3:31 a piece of junk the company here

3:35 kh laser look as though they make this

3:38 tube

3:40 they put their label on it but it wasn’t

3:42 made by kh laser because kh

3:45 does not exist as a laser manufacturer

3:47 laser tube

3:48 producer it says on here manufactured by

3:51 shangdong ke hui laser equipment company

3:54 limited

3:55 wrong it really ought to say

3:58 labelled by and tested by

Transcript For A New Learning Adventure: Chinese Laser Cutter (Cont…)

4:03 poorly tested by um because

4:08 first of all this claims to be a 50 watt

4:11 tube

4:12 now that’s absolute rubbish because it’s

4:14 50 millimetres diameter oh it’s actually

4:16 not

4:18 oh it’s 54

4:21 normally if you’d get this at 50 mil

4:24 diameter

4:25 and 800 millimetres long which is what

4:27 this is 800 millimetres long

4:29 this would be an absolute certain 40

4:32 watt tube

4:33 the fact that is slightly bigger than 50

4:37 but still the same length still makes it

4:39 a 40 watt tube

4:42 now it says 50 watts peak power on here

4:47 and agreement power 40 watt 49 watts

4:51 why would it be 49 watts peak power is

4:54 normally at least

4:55 10 more than the

4:58 agreement power they don’t tell you what

5:01 the current is

5:02 to run this at this tube will be a

5:05 reject

5:06 a b grade reject that has not made the

5:08 quality grade

5:09 at the normal manufacturer k we have

5:12 come along

5:13 tested these tubes make sure they work

5:16 enough to fool you but not me

5:19 um into thinking that it’s a good tube

5:22 it might be nearly okay

5:24 or it might be nearly junk who can say

5:27 the fact that it hasn’t got metal ends

5:29 on it

5:31 is a good indication that this is

5:32 already a cheap tube before you start

5:34 when you open one of these machines up

5:37 don’t expect to get a good quality tube

5:39 this was bought for peanuts and sold to

5:42 you for a profit

5:43 so when you buy one of these machines it

5:46 will sort of work

5:47 but to get performance out of this

5:49 machine you’ll need to replace this with

5:51 a proper

5:52 a grade tube but the power supply may

5:55 also be a b

5:56 grade power supply it may well be that

5:59 it has got a poor

Transcript For A New Learning Adventure: Chinese Laser Cutter (Cont…)

6:00 response time and that failed the

6:03 response time

6:04 performance which should be ninety

6:07 percent of the demand power

6:08 in less than one millisecond well it’s

6:10 only got to be one and a half

6:11 milliseconds

6:13 and it fails and these codes come along

6:15 and scoop them up for next to nothing

6:16 and fit them into these machines

6:18 but if you go into that with your eyes

6:20 open as i did

6:22 then you’re not going to be disappointed

6:25 if you buy the machine cheap enough you

6:26 can afford to spend another 200

6:28 or 300 pounds on getting a decent tube

6:31 and then you finish up with a half

6:32 decent machine

6:35 now the first thing that I’m going to do

6:38 is to take this tube out of here oh my

6:41 goodness me i’ve just spotted

6:42 look we’ve got we’ve got a 12 volt cable

6:45 here which it might even be six volt

6:47 that goes up to the led strip along the

6:49 back there

6:50 um it’s taped in with the earth wire

6:53 that comes back from the cathode

6:55 and all of these wires run down beside

6:58 the hv cable we’ve got

7:02 a fantastic induction coil i mean it’s

7:05 just

7:06 unbelievable some of the things that

7:07 they get up to

7:11 now we’ve got these tubes here which

7:15 if you leave them as is look this has

7:18 got a great big kink in it

7:19 absolutely diabolical thing is look

7:23 they’ve put the outlet here at

7:26 nine o’clock three o’clock horizontal

7:29 air

7:30 does not find the median point

7:33 that outlet should be sitting at 12

7:36 o’clock

7:37 and so the air in this tube will

7:39 automatically flow up and go

7:40 out and be purged out the air will not

7:43 be purged

7:44 out of here it looks as though they put

7:45 lime juice in here

7:47 um i don’t know what this is but good

7:50 job

7:50 I’m actually not going to be using this

7:52 to you it looks as though they may well

7:54 have nicked

7:55 one of my ideas from a long time ago

7:58 because

7:59 they have this tube and this mirror

Transcript For A New Learning Adventure: Chinese Laser Cutter (Cont…)

8:03 mounted on this back plate this single

8:06 plane

8:07 but one thing that you will notice it’s

8:09 adjustable

8:11 back and forward so that you can get the

8:14 mirror number one lined up with

8:17 mirror number two so perhaps somebody

8:20 has been watching my videos in china

8:23 and they’ve decided that yeah fixing

8:25 mirror one relative to the tube

8:27 is a good idea although i’ve been able

8:29 to get china blue

8:30 running nice and fast the problem is

8:34 i can’t exploit it really to its fullest

8:36 extent

8:37 because i’ve also understood that i

8:40 cannot get

8:41 high speed photo engraving from it

8:44 because

8:44 the response time from the power supply

8:46 itself to produce single dots

8:48 is just not capable hence the reason why

8:52 I bought this machine as another

8:54 development machine

8:56 and what we’re planning to do we’re

8:58 going into the Trotec

9:00 epilogue and universal orchard to pinch

9:04 some of their apples this is a 30 watt

9:06 rf laser

9:08 and I’m going to strap that into into

9:10 here

9:11 and turn this into a rocket of some sort

9:14 so you’re going to follow me into a new

9:15 adventure

9:16 on laser machines i haven’t got a clue

9:19 how these things work

9:20 or how how they actually perform

9:24 now we shall find out and we should find

9:26 out not via menus

9:28 which is the way that the big companies

9:31 operate

9:31 they don’t allow you to see what’s

9:33 really going on

9:35 they don’t explain what’s really going

9:37 on they just tell you to press various

9:39 buttons and choose various menus to suit

9:41 various applications and materials

9:43 no no you know that’s not my style i

9:45 want to know how this thing works i want

9:47 to know how it performs with different

9:48 materials and why

9:50 so i hope you’ll join me in this new

9:53 adventure with

9:54 my beloved tangerine tiger

9:57 so welcome to the new woman in my life

Transcript For A New Learning Adventure: Chinese Laser Cutter (Cont…)

10:01and i hope you’re going to come along

10:02 with me and watch how we transform this

10:05 from ordinary to extraordinary

10:09 well i think while we’ve got the back

10:11 off the machine we might as well make a

10:12 pretty radical start and take the tube

10:16 out

10:18 let’s not bother to unwrap that should

10:20 be let’s just

10:23 slip that

10:29 we’ll snip this as we’re not going to be

10:30 using this tube

10:33 snip that off there a good quality long

10:37 life tube

10:38 will have a nice pink looking hue

10:42 to what they call the ionization tube in

10:44 the centre

10:46 yeah there’s no pink in there so this is

10:48 definitely a cheap

10:49 short life tube

11:04 and there we go now we can see the wood

11:08 for the trees there we go we can open up

11:10 the lid and

11:11 see what’s inside there the good news is

11:15 that it’s got a half decent solid

11:18 coupling on here

11:19 not one of these silly flexible wind-up

11:21 couplings

11:24 it’s quite a stiff mounting bracket on

11:26 the back here

11:28 that’s good pulleys are not stupidly

11:31 small they’re not large but they’re okay

11:34 so we’re not going to get any curtains

11:37 from

11:37 these but we certainly might get

11:38 curtains from pulleys that small

11:41 on the x drive but we’re going to sort

11:42 that out now this is really poor

11:44 practice this

11:45 look they’re using this sensor as

11:48 a means of stopping when it gets to

11:51 within a certain distance

11:53 but if you drive this y-axis fast enough

11:56 it will smack straight into here before

11:59 it has a chance to stop the inertia of

Transcript For A New Learning Adventure: Chinese Laser Cutter (Cont…)

12:00 this and we take it past

12:02 so this really ought to be mounted the

12:05 other way

12:06 so that it’s detecting underneath here

12:09 somewhere so we’re gonna have to fix

12:10 that at some stage before we actually

12:12 use this machine properly

12:14 generally speaking i have to say apart

12:17 from these little criticisms

12:19 it’s not bad the quality of the work on

12:22 here

12:23 it’s it’s pretty good one thing that is

12:25 a bit of a disaster

12:27are these two screws here which are the

12:29 belt tensioning screws

12:32 for the x-axis

12:35 there is nowhere first of all these are

12:38 these are cap head screws with an allen

12:40 key you cannot physically get

12:42 in there anywhere to adjust the tension

12:46 on the belt

12:47 at some point I’m going to have to put a

12:48 hole in the side wall here

12:50 so that i can get access with an allen

12:52 key to tension this belt up but on the

12:55 other hand it does show you that this

12:56 whole assembly here has been

12:58 pre-assembled before it’s been dropped

12:59 into the machine

13:00 the height of this mirror here which is

13:02 mirror number two

13:03 the centre of that mirror has actually

13:05 got to be the defining point

13:08 where I’m going to have to set the head

13:10 the centre of mirror

13:11 number one right what we’re going to

13:14 have to measure

13:16 we’re going to have to use this rail

13:18 here as a reference

13:20 because we can we can measure from here

13:22 to

13:23 somewhere here anywhere it doesn’t

13:25 matter where we measure to but once we

13:26 determine where the centre of that

13:28 mirror

13:28 is relative to this rail we’ve got the

13:31 problem solved

13:32 well the height of that platform to the

13:34 rail

13:38 40.7 so the mirror is 46

13:42 square but it’s off the deck 49

13:46 that’s about right so it’s about three

13:47 millimetre gap under there

13:52 so half of 46 is 23 plus the three is 26

13:56 is plus the 41 so centre height is about

13:59 67 above the rail

Transcript For A New Learning Adventure: Chinese Laser Cutter (Cont…)

14:01 and what i can do now just make sure

14:03 i’ve got my zero set properly

14:05 so the top of that bracket is 16 above

14:07 the rail

14:14okay so there’s our scenario now

14:18 we’ve got the centre of the mirror 67

14:19 above the rail

14:21and we’ve got the top surface of that

14:22 bracket 16 millimetres

14:25 above the rail so therefore the

14:28 centre of the mirror has got to be 51

14:31 above that bracket

14:32 but give or take a little bit roughly

14:36 that’s 28 mil 22 which is 7

14:408 okay so we’ve got to mount this unit

14:46 22 millimetres above the base

14:49 [Music]

14:51 and that’s it

14:54 that’s going to fit in there wonderfully

14:55 well isn’t it if I put the stiffness

14:58 underneath this tray I can put some

15:01 pillars up

15:02 onto these fixings here and

15:06 this whole thing will sit up in the air

15:07 and I should get plenty of air around it

15:10 and we’ll have lots of air holes in the

15:12 cover so the other thing that we’ve got

15:14 to fit in here is a 48 volt power supply

15:17 and look at that this is absolutely

15:20 perfect isn’t it but before we try and

15:23 fit all this lot in

15:25 I’m going to cut away the side of the

15:26 machine so that i can get access to the

15:29 stepper motor

15:30 well that’s a quick overview of the

15:31 adventure

15:33 next time we’ll start cutting holes in

15:35 the end panel

15:37 turning the belt over making a mirror

15:40 too

15:41 and then we start looking at the head we

15:43can fairly quickly

15:45 bash this machine into mechanical shape

15:47 much the same

15:49 as my china blue machine and then we can

15:52 start playing with the

15:53 actual lace unit itself so all exciting

15:56 times

15:57 I hope you kind of come along and join

15:58 me in this adventure because I’m getting

Transcript For A New Learning Adventure: Chinese Laser Cutter (Cont…)

16:00 quite excited about it but

16:01 I’m not forgetting the fact that a i’ve

16:04 still got lots more fiber laser stuff to

16:06 do and b

16:07 i’ve still got quite a bit to do with

16:09 the

16:10 laser technology itself especially long

16:12 focus

16:13 compound lenses so

16:16 until one of the sessions

16:19 thanks for your time and I’ll see you