Lasercutter questions from UK

Hi from a UK hackspace.

It appears we have the same laser cutter as you (thanks for the info on your page) and wondered if someone there may have a moment for a few questions please.

  1. It’s installation predates my involvement but the Y-axis endstop is far enough forward to stop the back portion of the bed being used.

Is that the same for yours?

Photos
bed limit
endstop position

  1. I’m also about to do some well needed maintenance on it and was just wondering what you used in terms of lubrication for the leadscrews and rails.

Many thanks in advance,

Andy

https://richmondmakerlabs.uk/

From the photos this looks to be about the same location as our end stop is mounted. I’ll try to remember to put a ruler on it tomorrow to get a more exact answer.

We’re probably not as reliable about maintaining the rails as we should be, but when we’ve lubricated, I believe it’s been sewing machine oil or 3-and-1. @jody or @RealCarlRaymond can you confirm?

Lens/mirror cleaning we do more frequently, details of our procedure are here:

Looks like ours is ~42mm from the back wall. (Pic below)

We have used sewing machine oil or 3-in-1 oil a couple of times previously. Then we used a lithium grease the last time after we noticed the screw holes on the rail had some of the original grease in them.

I think anything that isn’t too viscous that would put a drag on the motor would be good.

Thanks so much for measuring Brian, I’ll do the same later. (Nice ruler by the way)

Yours looks to align with the edge of the bed, which makes sense. Our is probably around the 12cm mark. I’ll look again but if you didn’t drill new holes for it then something mysterious has gone on there. You don’t have any other holes in that rail hiding behind the ruler do you?

Thanks both for the oiling tips. Much appreciated. Fair to assume you also uses lithium grease for the lead screws then?

Just reading through your docs on it and already learned a few things, much more organised that us!

Did someone there add the air assist? I’m tempted?

I don’t believe so. This is certainly where it was mounted from the factory. (These are factory, btw. I think an earlier email from Mike might have indicated we ordered and installed them ourselves—we did not)

Nope, it came with air assist. We’re considering making the air assist controllable by software, but that’s not exactly a top priority. I’m surprised yours doesn’t have it as it’s primarily there to protect the lens from smoke / detritus with positive pressure air.

If you haven’t yet, check out SarbarMultimedia’s YouTube channel. The machine he started playing with early on is just a color variant of this laser. I think he’s somewhere in your neck of the woods too.