Hello from North West
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:06 am
Hi,
I got an LS3020 a few years ago. Had to change a mirror, extend the gantry mirror to align the laser beam, set up extraction etc. I need to replace a switch on the front, maybe get some better extraction to stop the room smelling of smoke, so I'm looking for little bits of advice like that. I don't use it for long periods so cooling isn't an issue at the moment, but I might need to consider that soon - or get a larger tank of water.
Not sure what else to say. It's a lovely piece of equipment, possibilities are numerous, would like to cut some thin veneer and layer those up to make some intricate designs. I heard about a plugin that split 3D Sketchup models into slices and laid them out on a single page so you can make slot together 3D objects, that'd be great to do.
The obvious acrylic necklaces and custom greetings cards would be fun and useful, and I also got a small letterpress recently so I may cut some custom blocks for printing on that, maybe make some more type.
In terms of setup, I tried to run XP in VirtualBox on my Macbook Pro, and for a time that seemed to work, but the USB port shut down whenever the LS3020 had finished a cut, so I had to reinstate it each time, a bit odd and slightly tedious. I use NewlyDraw 1.5, and it would often crash, needed a full Macbook restart and also a full laser cutter shutdown before it would fire again. I suspect swapping my dxf files from Mac to XP isn't ideal and I need to stick to one format. They open anywhere because it's the same file, but they're very temperamental.
So for reliability I use an 8 year old tower PC running Windows XP, which isn't ideal, but it works. I tried a very old Dell laptop (with an A:/ floppy drive!) and that wouldn't do it, and a slim newer Samsung Netbook a while ago but that wouldn't control the laser either. So I'm stuck with the tower PC for the time being, hopefully get something smaller to save on desktop space.
So yes, any sagely wisdom is welcome, and tips for general running, but at the moment I'm in the honeymoon period and I'm generally very pleased and impressed with it all.
Thanks.
I got an LS3020 a few years ago. Had to change a mirror, extend the gantry mirror to align the laser beam, set up extraction etc. I need to replace a switch on the front, maybe get some better extraction to stop the room smelling of smoke, so I'm looking for little bits of advice like that. I don't use it for long periods so cooling isn't an issue at the moment, but I might need to consider that soon - or get a larger tank of water.
Not sure what else to say. It's a lovely piece of equipment, possibilities are numerous, would like to cut some thin veneer and layer those up to make some intricate designs. I heard about a plugin that split 3D Sketchup models into slices and laid them out on a single page so you can make slot together 3D objects, that'd be great to do.
The obvious acrylic necklaces and custom greetings cards would be fun and useful, and I also got a small letterpress recently so I may cut some custom blocks for printing on that, maybe make some more type.
In terms of setup, I tried to run XP in VirtualBox on my Macbook Pro, and for a time that seemed to work, but the USB port shut down whenever the LS3020 had finished a cut, so I had to reinstate it each time, a bit odd and slightly tedious. I use NewlyDraw 1.5, and it would often crash, needed a full Macbook restart and also a full laser cutter shutdown before it would fire again. I suspect swapping my dxf files from Mac to XP isn't ideal and I need to stick to one format. They open anywhere because it's the same file, but they're very temperamental.
So for reliability I use an 8 year old tower PC running Windows XP, which isn't ideal, but it works. I tried a very old Dell laptop (with an A:/ floppy drive!) and that wouldn't do it, and a slim newer Samsung Netbook a while ago but that wouldn't control the laser either. So I'm stuck with the tower PC for the time being, hopefully get something smaller to save on desktop space.
So yes, any sagely wisdom is welcome, and tips for general running, but at the moment I'm in the honeymoon period and I'm generally very pleased and impressed with it all.
Thanks.