03 – More China Blue Catch Up

0:00welcome to another session with my

0:03tangerine tiger yes i’ve been pimping it

0:07up unnecessarily

0:08but hey i thought it deserved it

0:11somebody described this as a pretty

0:13woman in an orange dress

0:17okay everybody has their taste in women

0:20so today

0:21while we’re waiting for pieces to be

0:23manufactured so we can get on with the

0:25guts of the machine

0:26we’re going to start working around the

0:28machine and doing a few other bits and

0:29pieces

0:30now for instance there are pieces in the

0:33electrical cabinet that we don’t need

0:35let’s just have a look this is the high

0:37voltage power supply

0:39for the tube which is no longer in there

0:42so

0:43we can immediately take that out this is

0:45mains power

0:47which we don’t need well we should do

0:51we do need the mains power but not for

0:54not for this power supply

1:01so where are we connected to

1:04let’s just work out that one that one’s

1:06probably the

1:07water it’s a rather old style of power

1:09supply i think that’s probably a k-40

1:12power supply because that link there

1:14shouldn’t be there that well

1:15it should be there for that particular

1:17power supply but that’s not the standard

1:19power supply

1:20so glad we’re getting rid of this this

1:23is cn5

1:24and that’s water protect which we don’t

1:27need because we’ve got no water on this

1:29machine

1:31so we can afford to take that out

1:35and lose the water protect so we really

1:37don’t need

1:38any of those cables i think the only one

1:41that was you’ll need

1:42out of here is ground and

1:46power with modular modulation which is

1:48pin number three so we’re only going to

1:50want pin and one

1:51pin one and three to control this rf

1:53unit

1:54so we’ve got a big space here which

1:58could be used

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

2:04so i don’t think it’s a sensible move to

2:06try and squeeze that in there when we’ve

2:07got plenty of room

2:08at the top we’ve got lots of things that

2:10we can put in this space here

2:13two things in particular one of them

2:16is a timing relay

2:20a delay timer which will

2:24turn the fan off 10 or 15 seconds after

2:27the cycle is finished so we don’t keep

2:29running the fan

2:30very annoying we’ve also got this kit

2:34here

2:35from cloud ray which is the

2:40ultimate air assist kit which i will

2:43show you how to install

2:45on this machine a couple of years ago

2:48i bought this very cheap little

2:51board which is a delay relay board

2:54it’s got four little relays on there

2:56which carry something like about

2:58i think 15 10 amps we could delay the

3:01turning off of the fan

3:02if we really wanted to we could delay

3:05the turning off

3:06of the air assist pump i thought this

3:09was a superb

3:10piece of kit four time delay relays

3:13for 12 pound and yet i’m paying

3:16something like about 50 pound

3:18for that unit there now i’ve got to be

3:21very careful when i say that i bought

3:22myself a piece of rubbish because i

3:23didn’t

3:24it does exactly what it says on the tin

3:27but not what i expected it to do

3:29so therefore this is a perfectly good

3:32piece of kit

3:33for the right application let me just

3:35explain to you

3:37where i went wrong with this piece of

3:38kit and where you might be tempted to go

3:40wrong as well if you decide to buy this

3:42as a delay

3:43relay what i’ve got on the other machine

3:45is this

3:46i’ve got when the laser cycle starts

3:48when the program starts

3:49it automatically starts the fan okay so

3:52the fan

3:53actual extraction might be four or five

3:55seconds

3:56after the start of the cycle but that’s

3:58usually not a problem because very

3:59quickly with the large fan

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

4:01the suction catches up and you draw all

4:03the fumes away

4:04but what we don’t really want is it

4:06running forever and ever in between

4:08cycles

4:08so i’ve got the other one set so that

4:10after the cycle stops

4:13the fan stops as well but there’s maybe

4:15a 10 or 15 second delay it’s a variable

4:17time that i can set on this time delay

4:19relay

4:20not so with this little circuit board

4:24it does exactly what it says on the tin

4:26when you trigger it

4:28and any on signal triggers

4:31the circuits mode one it switches on

4:35and off and on and off and on and off

4:37and on and off for as long as you want

4:41now these other cycles can also switch

4:44on and off and on and off

4:46like this cyclically and you can count

4:48there are modes which enable you to

4:50count the number of cycles that it turns

4:52on and off

4:52you can turn the cycling completely off

4:54as i’ve done here

4:56or you can leave it on permanently so

4:58there are three modes of cycling

5:00none permanently or a counted number of

5:02cycles

5:04excellent you can see here look we’ve

5:06got relay coil

5:07off on off on off on those are the start

5:10conditions

5:12so you can either choose to have the

5:14power on the coil to start with

5:16or off i mean the instructions say

5:19just on or off but because this is a

5:22changeover relay you’ve got no idea what

5:24on or off means

5:25so i’ve just defined it against the

5:28relay coil itself so when the coil is

5:30not energized it’s low and when it’s

5:32energized it’s high

5:34okay so we can start with the energized

5:36coil high so we can get a delay

5:38off for x amount of seconds

5:43minutes hours i think up to about 100

5:46hours

5:48and then we turn it on and that’s it so

5:51we just get one delay cycle

5:54and that’s all we get so each one of

5:57these

5:57is a delay cycle this one starts with it

6:00off

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

6:01and then it turns on then after a period

6:03of time it turns off

6:05and remains off

6:09so as you can see each one of these is

6:11only

6:12triggering a cycle at the beginning

6:15of the laser switch on cycle and we want

6:18the delay

6:19triggered on the off-site it is possible

6:21to use this device

6:24with a separate relay which we are going

6:26to do anyway

6:28for the air assist kit

6:32but i decided that it was much easier to

6:34just have a completely separate timer

6:37rather than go through the complication

6:38of linking up relays

6:41because i’ve got to put a 24 volt supply

6:43on this as well

6:44i decided to bypass that unit now the

6:47other thing that we’re going to be doing

6:48is getting rid of these horrible

6:51multi-function

6:52sockets um i’ve had no end of complaints

6:56about those

6:57and at the end of the day people would

7:00much prefer to have

7:01iec sockets like that i mean we’ve got a

7:04nice iec

7:05socket there which is fused if i can see

7:07correctly yeah i think it’s fused

7:09i’m sure if i look in there

7:14come on there you come

7:18there we go china blue didn’t have

7:20anything this sophisticated but at least

7:22this one has got a fuse in it

7:23and there is just in case you do blow

7:26the fuse

7:27there is a spare fuse tucked in the back

7:29there

7:30all right so let’s just have a look to

7:32see what this fuse actually is what

7:34rating it is i’m expecting it to be

7:35at least 10 amps so i’m going to remove

7:39this panel and replace it with my own

7:41switch panel so i’m just going to take

7:43the earth

7:46off of here

7:51and i’m half expecting

7:56to not be surprised let me explain

8:01i’m not surprised that’s an absolutely

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

8:05useless earth

8:06earth isn’t it it’s not earth now this

8:08chassis might be powder coated

8:10which is in itself insulation it should

8:13be connected to bare metal

8:14it’s not the earth is not connected to

8:17bare metal technically parts of this

8:18frame could easily go live if something

8:20goes wrong so we’re going to have to fix

8:22that problem and put a different earth

8:23system on

8:24so i think our first task is to decide

8:26what we’re going to do about these

8:27switches

8:28what’s going to operate what and what’s

8:30going to happen on this panel here

8:32now when you’re running this machine on

8:34110 volts which quite a lot of americans

8:36do

8:37there is a wire that goes to this switch

8:41which is probably not suitable for

8:45taking

8:46huge amounts of current it’s a piece of

8:4810 amp rated cable

8:49which is what this emergency stop switch

8:52is

8:52but of course 10 amps is fine for

8:56for all the places in the world that use

8:58220 volts because this machine doesn’t

8:59take more

9:00than probably five or six amps but if

9:03you decide to plug the fan

9:04into one of these sockets here the fan

9:08in itself could take two or three amps

9:09at 220 volts

9:11which means it’s going to take six amps

9:12at 110 volts

9:15you’ve already you’ve almost used up all

9:17of your capacity

9:18on this switch before you start putting

9:21any other current through it

9:22so these switches i’ve had many more

9:25than that number of reports

9:27about these switches melting from guys

9:29in the states that happen to be using

9:31110 volts

9:32the standard us domestic mains is 110

9:35but

9:36you know you can get 220 volts if you’ve

9:38got a workshop so what i would prefer to

9:40do

9:41is to keep all the

9:44external devices particularly the air

9:47pump

9:48and the fan on a completely separate

9:51mains supply that does not run through

9:55this emergency shop switch so i’ve made

9:57myself a new

9:59mains input plate here and basically

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

10:02what we’ve got

10:03is a single control for the machine

10:05power in and that machine power will

10:07power what’s in here

10:09and then we’ve got a separate ancillary

10:12power in with a fuse on it the same as

10:14this one

10:15and these two here one is for the air

10:18compressor which will be running

10:20instantly on and off with the cycle

10:23and this one which is the extraction fan

10:25which will come on instantly with the

10:26cycle

10:27but there will be delay off on this

10:29socket

10:30so we can put 5 10 15 20 second delay

10:33on the fan we’re gradually just taking

10:36things off this machine that we don’t

10:37need

10:38like we don’t need that we don’t need

10:40these water pipes

10:42and i always thought it was a silly idea

10:43to put the air on the door

10:46so i’ve got to get the air assist system

10:48in here somewhere

10:50we’ve got to strip quite lots of bits of

10:52cable out for instance up this

10:54this one here that’s the earth cable

10:55that came back from the end of the tube

10:57the cathode end of the tube

10:58and these are the two cables here which

11:00go to the um

11:02the led strip light that’s in the front

11:04there now i’m still debating whether i

11:06should use that

11:07maybe use this thing or at least the

11:10power to it

11:12and put the strip light underneath the

11:14gantry

11:15so quite a few little decisions to be

11:17made which i’ll i’ll

11:18sort out as i can get your air assist

11:20kit you’ll find that it comes in pieces

11:22like this

11:24now the valve was marked up

11:27p r and

11:30a for the three ports but when you look

11:33at the drawing

11:34you’ll find that it’s marked up one

11:37three

11:38and two now you probably can work it out

11:41for yourself but two

11:42is a one is p

11:45and three is r we’re going to put the

11:47mains air

11:49in at a and we’re going to put that

11:52straight forward simple fitting in

11:56there okay now we’re just spreading

11:58finger tight for the moment

12:01into p which is on the other side we’re

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

12:03going to put this so-called

12:05running tee so that screws into

12:09there

12:12right so we’ve got a straight through

12:14run here now

12:15which is what happens when the valve is

12:17on the air goes straight through there

12:20now when the valve is off like it is at

12:22the moment

12:25the air is connected between here

12:28and here and so into there what we’re

12:31going to do is put the remaining fitting

12:33which is this one

12:34an elbow with a restrictor on it you can

12:37wind them in a couple of turns but don’t

12:39don’t wind them in really hard because

12:42they don’t have to be

12:43completely leak-proof because we’re only

12:45using four psi air

12:47just do them up so that they’re snug

12:48you’re given a piece of pipe here but

12:52really you don’t need

12:53much of that pipe at all what you’ve got

12:55to do you’ve got to join this

12:58here push that in

13:01and it’s got a loop over and it’s got to

13:03go into there

13:05and it’s as simple as that so we just

13:07cut off a piece about that long

13:10and plug that into there

13:15okay so now we’ve got all this tube here

13:18to play with we can plug it in the back

13:19end

13:20there right and we can now move this

13:24where we want inside the machine so

13:27that’s my connection to

13:30the head and this is my connection to

13:34the door or wherever i’m going to

13:35connect it up here somewhere that gives

13:37me lots of cable

13:39to decide where i can put this and i’m

13:42going to take that right across to the

13:43front of the machine

13:45i think we’ve got plenty of blue blue

13:47tube there

13:49so we can afford to have this probably

13:52somewhere like this

13:54i’ve got to sit it flat

13:57because there are screws on the back

14:00there

14:00and i’ve got a little template that i’ve

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

14:04made

14:04with two holes in it which hopefully

14:08match the holes in the bottom there

14:11which they do

14:13okay so i’ll just keep that the same way

14:16and that’s got to go on the outside so

14:18i’ll just roughly position this

14:20where i want it about there

14:26and i’ll stack my template on the

14:28outside of the machine here

14:30roughly where i need it

14:37there’s our two pilot holes

14:42there we go two holes

14:48so that’s the air assist valve fitted

14:51into the machine

14:55we’ll take the cap off

14:58ready to wire it up

15:02now these are funny little caps these

15:04things you have to take the screws right

15:10out

15:12[Music]

15:14so we should be able to take that valve

15:17cap off

15:19because there is actually a an

15:21additional vent valve on the top here as

15:23well

15:24which we don’t use just take that and be

15:27careful we’re going to use that spring

15:28washer

15:29so there’s the cap there’s a spring

15:31washer

15:34and then you can take that off to make

15:35it easy to

15:37connect the wiring it’s taking very

15:40little load so i’ve got some fairly

15:42lightweight

15:42three core cable here and there’s no

15:44plus and minus so we can just connect

15:46the two wires

15:47so we just put the two wires in the top

15:49two connections

15:51now the one thing we’ve got to do is to

15:54put the cables

15:55over that central pip there like that

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

16:01because that’s where our screw fits and

16:03that’s as complicated as that i’m afraid

16:07except i’ve put it on the wrong way

16:09around look that’s the top

16:11this is the bottom and it won’t fit over

16:13the bottom

16:14i don’t think so i’ve got to reverse the

16:17cap

16:18so now we don’t have to worry about that

16:20um cable going past that pip

16:24now we can put this back on doesn’t

16:25matter which way it goes if it’s

16:27convenient to have it upwards then

16:29or that way it really doesn’t matter i

16:32think it’s convenient to have it

16:34this way because then i’m going to bring

16:36my cable down here

16:38[Music]

16:41so we put our spring washer back on

16:43there

16:45and then screw the cap back on and it

16:46very conveniently at the other end of

16:48the machine

16:51i have a hole to get into the cabinet

16:55sadly i don’t have a piece of din rail

16:58the great advantage of having a little

17:00workshop like this with a few basic

17:02tools in i can make my own din rail

17:05because i thought you might be

17:06interested

17:06how efficient you can be with very crude

17:08equipment

17:09so here i’ve got a piece of a three

17:11millimeter thick material which i’m

17:13going to put onto a steel plate

17:16i’m going to put a piece of copper on

17:18top

17:20and then i’m going to put another piece

17:23of three millimeter material

17:25on top of the copper like that

17:29okay so we’ve got two pieces of three

17:32millimeter material

17:35sitting on top of the copper

17:38delicately balanced there and lined up

17:43fairly well

17:46by eye then we’re going to put a third

17:49piece of metal on top

17:50and make a sandwich

17:55then we’re going to offer the sandwich

17:56up into the fly press

18:01and we’re going to give it a gentle kiss

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

18:10and there’s our din rail well not quite

18:12it’s a little bit wide at the moment but

18:14hey that’s going to be easy enough to

18:16put that in my guillotine and just trim

18:17it down

18:19and here we go i think we’ve got it

18:20nearly right so we just check

18:24all i’ve got to do is put a couple of

18:25holes in it to fix it to the back plate

18:28and we’re ready to rock and roll so i

18:30might want those power cables a little

18:31bit longer

18:32so just take the end one out which is

18:34the ground return from the tube

18:37i can pull that one out now something

18:40else jointed in with it as well

18:42[Music]

18:44crude isn’t it i think we’ll sort that

18:48out later

18:49let’s pull that out completely

18:52and work out what we’re going to do with

18:54that because that’s uh

18:57for a bit 240 volt stuff that’s not very

19:00good

19:03[Music]

19:07i think it’s just a piece of pvc to be

19:09honest

19:16[Music]

19:19now the numbers are on this relay do not

19:22agree with the numbers on this diagram

19:25here

19:26which is a little bit confusing to say

19:29the least

19:34one and five

19:39what i’m going to do is to give it to

19:40give myself a quick drawing

19:42of what they look like that will enable

19:44me to quickly

19:46see what’s going on so i have a couple

19:48of clamps for the din rail as well just

19:50end clamps the clamps don’t really fit

19:53the din rail because

19:56the din rail is not deep enough i

19:58suppose i could grind the bottoms off a

20:00little bit couldn’t i yeah

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

20:01i think it might make them fit now just

20:03about there we go they now fit just a

20:06little bit of persuasion with the

20:07grinder

20:09there we go that’s nice and solid now

20:13i’m not going to come off this was the

20:15mains 2 the power supply

20:17and i want to pick that up to send it to

20:19the mains to

20:21my power supply on the surface the

20:23wiring looks quite neat

20:25but when you dig a little bit deeper

20:26it’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast

20:28couple of hours have passed

20:32and things can move on quite quickly in

20:33my world

20:39[Music]

20:41and here we have something i hope

20:45i’m going to be able to squeeze in here

20:47it may will be a little bit of a

20:49struggle

21:00now i already knew that i was likely to

21:03have to take this corner off

21:05but how much i don’t know

21:09we can’t wiggle that piece of metal in

21:11there because the bracket

21:12that holds it is in the way so what i’m

21:15going to do is i’m going to drill a

21:16couple of holes in here

21:17to fix the bracket back on and then i’m

21:19going to grind

21:20the welds to take the bracket off

21:26i’ve got to get in there to grind the

21:28welds off

21:30[Music]

21:37just shows you how difficult worlds are

21:39to get off doesn’t it

22:02we’ve got the bracket off

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

22:06now can we wiggle this thing in that’s

22:08the question

22:09because we couldn’t before

22:24oh

22:26almost maybe just a little bit here

22:30just a little bit i’ve just made these

22:33little spacing pillars

22:36which will actually be screwed through

22:38the base plate there

22:40or the sliding bait the sliding plate

22:44i just want to see roughly where they go

22:47in fact what i should be doing

22:49i should be using the back face of this

22:52as the reference when i slide it

22:56backwards and forwards now when i mount

22:58the mirror on here

23:03it’s quite difficult to get to that

23:05adjusting screw under there

23:07so that i can set the mirror onto this

23:09beam center

23:11so what i’ve got to do is to make sure i

23:13put a hexagon

23:15head under there so i can get to it with

23:17the spanner

23:20now ultimately i’ve got to put a hole

23:21through here

23:23but i don’t know where and i’ve got no

23:25idea what size but i’m not going to make

23:27the hole

23:27much bigger than the beam so instead of

23:30having something like a

23:31an inch diameter or inch and a half

23:33diameter hole like they normally have

23:35i’m going to eventually put a target on

23:37there fire the beam at it

23:39and then i’m going to drill a hole maybe

23:41six or eight millimeters diameter for

23:43the beam to go through

23:44so we’ve got a drawing here for the

23:46centers of the holes which i’m going to

23:48make a jig

23:49out of a piece of acrylic and spot those

23:52dimensions through

23:54onto here for the pillars

23:57and then here we’ve got a sketch of

24:00all the dimensions that we found earlier

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

24:02the relationship between the rails

24:04the top of the bracket then we’ve got

24:07this angle here which is

24:08this piece of material here there’s a

24:10two millipiece two millimeter piece of

24:12material here

24:13which is the piece that’s mounted on

24:16this is the mounting face of the rf

24:18unit and this is the ideal height to get

24:20the center of the mirror lined up with

24:22the center of the beam

24:23at the moment the mirror is sitting at

24:2520 millimeters

24:26when we come to set things up i may have

24:28to put a packing piece

24:30under the mirror but this is a very very

24:32small beam

24:33and it probably doesn’t need to be on

24:34the true center of the mirror

24:37well forever look there’s little teeny

24:38weeny problems there’s another one just

24:40here

24:41there’s a big lump of weld here where

24:42they’ve joined up

24:45across here it’s all been sanded off

24:46there because they didn’t know that i

24:48wanted to fit something tightly under

24:50there

24:58something’s not very level is it look it

24:59runs from nothing to

25:01about two millimeters there right so

25:04with those pillars underneath there

25:06we’ve got a nice air gap air going in

25:10the end here between the pillars so

25:12everything’s nice and vented

25:14and we shall probably take this end

25:16panel out and i might see if i can fit a

25:18fan in there as well so there it is

25:19mounted on its

25:21channel ready to adjust

25:24backwards and forwards the 48 volts from

25:26there goes into there so that’s no big

25:28deal

25:29we’ve got a cable that comes from here

25:31which is the pwm

25:33that can run along the back here and go

25:35down to the electrical cabinet

25:38well i think that’s about as far as

25:39we’re going to go today

25:41next time it really depends how long the

25:43laser cutter

25:44is going to take producing my parts i

25:47was hoped that they might be available

25:48by the end of this week but um

25:50yeah it’s got a very busy time on at the

25:52moment and my uh

25:53my pieces are in a fairly long queue

25:56early next week i hope that we should be

25:58in a position to finish off the

25:59internals of the machine

26:00in the meantime we can do this and we

Transcript for Laser Machine Upgrade: China Blue Catch Up (Cont…)

26:02can do sort the wiring out

26:04so yeah there’s still a lot to do but

26:07we can see an end to it so thanks for

26:09your patience and time

26:10and i’ll catch up with you in the next

26:12session