Hi Guys,
It has been amazing busy since we brought our new machine to the workshop. I started this thread with the good intentions of logging any issues and how we dealt with them whilst commissioning this machine. I guess I will back track and share some of the problems from the beginning:
We unloaded the machine and of course the first worry was any damage especially to the sensitive mechanics, alignment or tube. Chris had kindly uncrated the machine but left the pallet in place so he could forklift load into the back of our van.
Point One. If you are collecting one of these machines be sure that the distance between the wheel box arches is sufficient to allow the pallet between them, Chris advised me the std wheelbase transit I had was good to go and he was right with 8 inches to spare. Chris was kind enough to offer some spare sheets of polystyrene packaging to brace the machine and we were done.
After we had unloaded and removed the machine from the pallet, I walked right around it to check for damage after it's 200 mile journey, all was well, not even a scratch. Then I turned to all the bits and bobs located in bags in a side compartment that Chris had indicated when he demonstrated the machine at his unit/showroom. There was a bag of cd's and a user manual, another bag of nuts and bolts, a box containing the air pump, the aquarium type powerhead water pump and the extraction unit. under the lid Chris had kindly given me an extra length or two of large blue hoses as we had a little distance from the machine to the outside vent to deal with the fume extraction. I lifted the lid to be sure the laser tube was undamaged and it was in one piece. We couldn't test anything electrical at this stage until at least the cooling system was running.
Point Two, With hindsight it may have been better to have removed the tube from the machine completely for transit. I realise this would have meant aligning the tube and optics again during set up but on balance I winched at every sleeping policeman and cursed the general state of British roads all the way home.
First problem - The cooling system requires two things not supplied, one a tank and the second distilled water. Because every machine install is different and every working situation is also different it would be impossible for HPC to supply these items as standard equipment.
The Resolution:
This machine was going to be used on and off during the day, we don't need a production machine as such (never say never though) and I will be buying a chiller unit at some stage but budget didn't allow this right now. Chris had told me that the tank was important as it needed to be big enough to act as a heat exchanger as well as a actual container so the bigger the better. I used a 60 litre fish tank complete with a hood and light, not so big as to take too much room, but a big enough volume of water to do the job. Another advantage was being able to see the level before each days work and top up if needed. One of my colleagues suggested adding anti-freeze to the water to prevent it turning to ice and cracking the laser tube, it seemed like a good idea but I was uncertain. So a quick call to Chris confirmed it was actually a bad idea as it would interfere with the laser generation due to the change of colour, he did suggest using pure glycol which I will try to find from a local supplier. Until then I will add an aquarium heater and will leave the pump running during colder weather if needed. The water pump had no instructions that I could find and it seemed to only have an outlet tube, this meant I had left something behind or the whole pump could be submerged in the tank. I looked at the mains lead (water and main electricity) and decided to check with the manufacturer on the internet, sure enough it was submersible model so in it went. I seemed to remember afterwards that Chris had this pump in a bucket for the demonstration, amazing what details can be forgotten in all the excitement! I asked around local chemists to price up and arrange supply of a large amount of distilled water and was shocked at how expensive it was. I remembered my local aquarium shop selling something called RO water, basically this is water which has almost all impurities removed by passing it through several layers of semi- permeable membranes each finer than the last to remove all chemicals and hard water solids, at £3.85 per 25 litres it was just the ticket.
Once the plumbing was sorted, I started up the pump and we checked for any leaks or trapped air in the tube. Charlotte had recommended leaving the system to run for 15 minutes prior to using the laser. We did this and the system had a good throughput with no bubbles I could see. Another plus to using a fish tank, you can see the output hose to be sure all is well. Then came the moment we turned the power on the the machine itself. I had a few sets of keys for the locks around the machine so it took me a few mins while I found one that operated the interlock and actually provided power, everything seemed fine. I found some scrap Perspex noted that the last test job Chris had run was still in memory, hit the test button to check material position and then started the job. In just a minute I had a new 41 mm acrylic square complete with it's dimension engraved on the face. This is a tool to set the laser focus height and Chris had given me a couple but a spare was always going to be handy so a double bonus.
Whist one of my colleagues installed the software onto the laptop I decided to look over the users manual. I have to say it is the most polite manual I have ever read but either made leaps I didn't understand or was a bit thin on detail to a novice like myself.
We have an unusual set up as we primarily use Apple Mac equipment in the office, I would say that none of us had much CAD experience either. We managed to get the Laser to respond to it's own keypad but couldn't seem to send a job to it via the software. This really did hold things up for an hour until I noticed that not all the screen option were visible on my laptop screen, some scrolling to the right revealed other controls - AHA!! Some fiddling around and a few practical experiments soon brought results and I studied the manual further. I drew some simple shapes and we spent the next hour just turning good material into assorted shapes as test jobs, in other words playing...! So we had the thing running and could cut to a resonable degree simple shapes. Everything else would have to wait until the next day as we were out of time. I did feel pleased that everything seemed in order and relieved nothing was broken or problematic.
The next day, we decided to examine the software in detail to be sure we had at least a grip on the concepts of sending a job to the laser for cutting. I was confident, but using the software on the laptop was not ideal so we decided to reinstate an old PC we had and loaded the software onto that. This was easier and we could make more complex jobs and more of them. The software included a few very handy features such as instant zoom to the table dimension, good to check where the laser will be expecting to find the material to cut. There is a short coming here though as there didn't seem to be a way of referencing the material to the table in the same place everytime. It would have been helpful to have included rulers on each side plus a square corners to locate the sheet stock. I will make some and install myself at a later point. I am uncertain how to set a new datum point too but I am still reading and digesting the manual so not a complaint as yet as it may be obvious.
I didn't install the fume extraction as yet, we need to finally site the machine in the workshop. that's the next job, finishing the installation of all the other services and connecting up the rotary unit.
I will continue to post when I can, this was just the first few days and we have had the machine almost two weeks now. I would be pleased to learn how others handled their set up and find someone who is a little more clued up with the software than me, I am a quick learner though so no worries.
Tonight's bedtime reading is the rather thick tome entitled: TurboCAD Pro for MAC V3
Bernie (CPE)
Best regards.
Bernie_of_CPE (Custom Product Engineering)
