Autofokus laser head on a K40? oooh yes
Is it needed? nah
Is it fun to have - of course
Powered by a Arduino trinket/micro and A4988 stepper driver.
Code not done yet, neither the hardware - but time to design a laser nozzle to fit this design.
If anyone has any input, let me know, driving blind right now
Doing the part holding the lens on my 3D printer now, will use copper or alu later when the design is done.
IĀ“m neither a awsome arduino programmer, nor a good mechanical designer, so tips and tricks is welcome
As seen in the pictures below, my 3rd mirror is mounted at top, the movable part will be below this one, with a bl-touch sensor or limit switch sensing the material.
Wooow not bad, that looks pretty sexy, Iām thinking it will be fun, ofc this is a great solution if your bed isināt movable Looking forward to see this in a video. Working ofcā¦
Thanks! I tried making the bed movable first, but getting 4 corners aligned at the same height in the K40 was alot of work
Easier to move the head, and it gives me more space below for bigger objects, as i still have the complete depth untouched.
And another truth is - i canĀ“t do the same thing others do, i have to try new stuff, maybe there is some medication for that
My only worry would be the added stress and inertia from the weight of all that and itās effect on the mechanism to move the head. I can see it limiting the speed and requiring a settling down period of time from the extra inertia.
Probably will go with the 28-BYJ48 steppers instead of that Nema8, smaller height.
And their weight + the parts has less wight than the big nozzle that comes with the other types of K40Ā“s, not sure it will be a issue.
On the other hand, the carriage itself is alot bulkier than the other K40Ā“s with nylon wheels and thin metal.
But may be a issue, iĀ“ll have to test what it can do
Everything will be mounted to the right of the mirror and the stepper on top of the carriage part, only the lens moving.
Prototype of the moving part in the printer now, the round hole holds the lead screw, and the slot is to align the lens left<->right if needed.
@donkjr This version of K40D doesnt have a āheadā, its just a piece of metal holding the lens. See pic.
IĀ“m doing it similar this time, but adding laser pointer, air assist and a fan to the head too. So i have to design it from zero, but i have been running with my own design movable head for 6 months already so i gained some knowledge how to optimize it
Open optics is no problem at all, as a matter of fact there is no difference at all between the open and closed one in powerā¦
Atleast at cutting, i did a test with Light Objects nozzle and the open one i have, no differnce, it was just a pain in the rear to clean the lens
And taking 2 seconds to clean the lens with a open lens i throwed away the LO-nozzle.
But if i would wait the same amount of time to clean my lens as i would do with a closed one, it would be dirty yes
The closed nozzles mostly used for machines where you add other gasses than air to help the cut. China people looked at them machines and made own solutions without knowing why.
But if itĀ“s already on the machine, heck i would use it too. But never in my mind i would install one
If you look at some of the smaller lasers like Epilog, they donĀ“t have a closed nozzle and it works perfect
Much in our K40Ā“s arenĀ“t real science, itĀ“s just China manufacturers guessing
And thereĀ“s as many opinions about it as there is users out there
In the end iĀ“m happy if my machine does what i wanĀ“t it to do.
Slider iĀ“m using is a MR7 slider, grabbed from Aliexpress for cheap
DonĀ“t go with the dvd-drive steppers/motors, i bought one and it has alot of backlash and almost no holding torque.
Check out 28-BYJ48 or smaller NemaĀ“s instead .
I do think your gantry and rail is much better that the standard K40, i also agree that this open optics is used widely in major Laser machine manufacturers. I will also go with the motorized bed aka 3d printer and will do the auto level
I do think your gantry and rail is much better that the standard K40, i also agree that this open optics is used widely in major Laser machine manufacturers. I will also go with the motorized bed aka 3d printer and will do the auto level
@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty Oh yeah, i had a machine before with the old gantry. The new one is so good i would never go back, even if i got paid to do it.
No matter how i bend it, it doesnt move, no backlash, no vibrations, just solid as heck
There should be a slider-upgrade for the older type of gantrys, would probably sell good.
Re-using the original mount to get everything correct before i make one from copper or aluminium.
Step 1 is proof-of-concept, get the darn thing to work
Black part is 3D-printed, pretty solid and no wobble, but will not use it in the final version
Yeah, motor is moving the black piece up/down. The gold part holding the lens will be in a solid part with the black in final version.
Thats why iĀ“m using the small slider, to always have it 100% vertical aligned.
Mirror is always still, never moves.
To the right of the trapezoidal screw iĀ“ll mount the BL-touch sensor and red dot.
Air-assist will be a pipe from behind/below the ālaser headā.
Looking forward to see this in a video. Working ofcā¦ 
Looking forward to you final Solution 
