As some of you will know im a complete newbie to these things…
well my “ridgeway” k40 arrived, got my cooling set up and the exhaust fan etc (venting up a bedroom fireplace seems to work well). did some small cuts on some 3mm irocho hardwood, the thing punches through it no problem at all, scary power !! only thing is at the right hand side of the original sprung bed im getting a double line appearing like its creating a secondary beam after the gantry is about halfway across ?? any simple suggestions? all the alignment screws are locked in place with some weird white paint
had an attempt at aligning but then noticed when the tube u is during I can see a yellow circle on the frame of mirror 2 and the same circle appears just down wind of the spot on my wood…
I hope this shows, i didnt want to leave my phone in the enclosure too long…
this pictures shows it too, i used the 10mm jog on k40 whisp to manually step out a grid and fired single dots onto the board as shown by the allen key end… you can see the “ghosts”
Ghosts are often caused by mirror contamination, cracks etc.
Also reflection inside the objective lens from the beam hitting the side of the enclosure, contamination cracks, etc.
was hoping to avoid it as all the mirror adjustment screws are locked in place with some weird white crap, but guess I know what I’m up to over Christmas
The path that the laser takes along three mirrors and the lens needs to be precisely aligned. Here are three resources that may help you understand how to do this.
Note that if the third mirror does not align the beam with the middle of the lens, the beam will not be focused correctly and will not be aligned with the hole in the nozzle. You may wish to use a device that helps you align using a red visible laser. One kind uses a “beam combiner” that slightly reduces beam power, and the other is a tool used only while performing alignment .
did an alignment to the best of j Jr ability and all seemed well but on higher settings in still getting the ghost spot, so will try again and report back, it was working well f though to complete a couple of jobs though
i cut the blanks with my little cnc as the 5mm birch won’t cut as I’ve not got air assist yet, i can get it through with multiple passes but they are blackened edges
Remove the nozzle, put tape on the bottom of the tube, mark the circumference of the tube with a pen, and do a test fire. Then remove the tape and check the mark. If it’s not in the center of the tube, you are likely getting reflections from the inside of the nozzle.
