Flying head!

Today I finished the laser head. It was my first time doing threads internally and I'm delighted with the results!(don't forget you can do a slide show by clicking on the images)

The beginnings of this piece can be seen in an earlier post, so this is the continuation.
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I'm going to test the ZNSE focal point with a red laser. I wonder if it is different from the focal point of the IR from the Co2 laser? Yes, I would say.
I think the images do a good job of explaining what i'm up to here so I'll keep this short.
The air assist fitting is 8mm tube diameter on a 1/8 bsp thread. Drilled and tapped.

Its difficult to see in this picture but the end of the middle tube is threaded externally at the end.

The thread I used is 24mm X 1mm. I learned how to thread off a video on youtube.(search "tublicain")
I decided to do air assist while I was at it.
I got a lovely 50.8mm focal lenght ZNSE lens off ebay. It is 20mm dia', so I cut a little sholder for it to sit on inside the nozzle.I'll put a thin washer/seal under it so as to protect the lens and seal the pressurised air from comming out the wrong place

The outlet for the air/laser is 2mm dia. I have no idea if this is too big or not. If anybody reading this has more information about what size it should be please leave a comment.

Clamping plates 15 3m.

In this post, clamping plates and gantry assembly and other very very interesting things.
Lets start with blurry picture.

 The point I was trying to illustrate was the bevelling of the edges of the slots. I wanted the belt to sit in as deeply as possible, so the corners had to go. The piece of Al. above 10x10x50mm with the slots being 1.6mm wide 1.5 deep and 19mm long. On 3mm centres to match the belt...
I cut it on my CNC. I cut at .6mm per pass 100mm/min with 3in1 as cutting fluid.
Once I was happy that it was working I went ahead and cut the other 5.

I'll chop them up with a slot saw on the lathe.
Here is the slide on the gantry. The linear bearing arrived! I did notice that you must tighten the two grub screws in them to fix the bearing into the mount.

The belt clamp on the left is fixed and on the right is adjustable to tighten the belt.

Not another project!

I have been thinking about making a CNC laser cutter for a while now and was inspired to start when I saw this laser cutter XY set up.
Its simplicity of design is what struck me and the fact that its made of fairly standard components.
So thats the design I'm going to follow morealess.
I'm keeping this blog as a record for myself as much as for anyone else who might want to look in!

On my shopping list so far are:

3X16mm open linear bearings (Ebay, china.)
3m 16mm round rod/shaft to suit above.( Reliance bearings JFK Ind Est, Dublin.)
4m 50X50X3mm Aluminium box section. (Miko Metals, Cork)
500mm 80X80X8 L angle.(Miko Metals, Cork)
2m 25X50X3mm Aluminium box section.(Healey's JFK Ind Est, Dublin)
6 3m24-15 timing pulleys (Rotate Ltd, Dublin Ind Est)
3 1800mm 3m-15 Timing belts (Poly-belt, USA, Internet)
4 flexable shaft couplers (Ebay, China)
2 Steppers(1 I have from a photocopier, 1 probably from Hobbycnc, USA)
Misc bolts!
Laser 40watt plus power supply (Ebay no doubt)
Mirrors (Dont know yet)
Mirror mounts (Dont know yet)
Cutter head (Dont know yet)

There will be plenty of photos along the way too...