Search found 13 matches

by David
Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:54 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Cooling Water
Replies: 25
Views: 26966

Re: Cooling Water

Hi Bill We've had ours in school for nearly two years, changed the water on principle about a year ago, it still looks ok - no obvious particles or things growing in it, and hasn't needed topping up. We used deionised water from the science department still (given the size of the cooling water tank ...
by David
Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:48 pm
Forum: Projects and Plans
Topic: School project work
Replies: 31
Views: 46425

Re: School project work

Replies to several questions... We've had our 6040 for something like 18 months - given regular cleaning, no problems with the laser itself, but the XCL fume extractor consumes filters at an alarming rate. Part of the reason is that most of our school work is cutting rather than engraving, which gen...
by David
Fri Oct 09, 2009 5:47 pm
Forum: Projects and Plans
Topic: School project work
Replies: 31
Views: 46425

more...

The Art Department also make use of our 6040, cutting a lot of card stencils, printing blocks in lino or softwood, leather work at a level of detail difficult to acheive by the hand of a teenager, and a wall display. The wall panels were sponsored by one of the Worshipful Companies promoting stained...
by David
Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:46 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: 6090 New install
Replies: 9
Views: 16930

Re: cutting foam

We've have some success with depron models, as profile models, box structures, and combining depron with vac formed parts for compound curved surfaces (photo shows some examples, used in a school club flying round-the-pole) Regarding the usual bead raising issue: try high speed / low power multiple ...
by David
Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:38 pm
Forum: Projects and Plans
Topic: School project work
Replies: 31
Views: 46425

School project work

Still adding photos... A few years ago, we ran an after school club making low cost (less than £1 !) slot cars with a laser cut chassis, guide, wheels etc and a vacuum formed body. Our county advisor liked the look of it, and last autumn it rolled out nationally as http://www.scalextric4schools.org ...
by David
Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:22 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: lasercut software
Replies: 15
Views: 22430

Re: lasercut software

The cars originate as an early effort using laser cut gearboxes for battery powered toys at school level - it evolved later into slot cars (scalextric) as a school club, which was in turn taken up by Tim Brotherhood, county advisor for D&T Staffordshire, who used the idea for the Scalextric4scho...
by David
Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:16 am
Forum: Projects and Plans
Topic: School project work
Replies: 31
Views: 46425

Re: School project work

We use Corel Draw (12) for most things - younger pupils are usually given a starting point such as motor mount profiles and gear spacing, but most of the creative stuff is independent design work. Snapping to a 1mm grid sorts out joints in 3 mm thick MDF, but acrylic thicknesses seem to be nominal, ...
by David
Tue Sep 29, 2009 5:54 pm
Forum: Projects and Plans
Topic: School project work
Replies: 31
Views: 46425

School project work

Using the 'contour' effect in Corel Draw allows parts to be nested: the entire design only uses 360 60x6mm softwood. Sails are laser cut polyester - the edges become welded thus avoiding issues with fraying or hemming.
by David
Tue Sep 29, 2009 5:35 pm
Forum: Projects and Plans
Topic: School project work
Replies: 31
Views: 46425

School project work

Activities week again - 20 year 8 students making cameras, using photographic paper for negatives and either scanning the result or making contact prints
by David
Tue Sep 29, 2009 1:23 pm
Forum: Projects and Plans
Topic: School project work
Replies: 31
Views: 46425

School project work

Given the wide range of possible applications, I thought I'd share a few. Mostly we use our laser for cutting rather than engraving with whole classes - in particular, joints in frames and holes for gearboxes. This allows pupils to make things that would largely fail if marked out and cut by hand, a...