Thanks
Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 12:28 pm
Proud owner of a LS3040 Pro here.
Been having what i imagine is a fairly common issue, laser power diminishing, alignment issues etc etc. Realised i wasnt doing enough maintenance and so got to grips with my cotton buds and IPA and really went for it.
Damn things got worse! Before hand it would take upto 3 passes 4mm/s at 100% to cut through simple 3mm Acrylic (yeah thats bad i know, didnt realise how badly aligned things were until i really started reading this forum) Now i cant even get a cut through no matter how many passes i try, i just get a 1mm deep groove and thats it.
So I decided to go for it, after reading most of this boards various forums and a good chunk of Oplaser's i finally unscrewed my lens cap, cleaned the lens (and yes its curved side down) and reset all my mirrors.
Needless to say i discovered that aligning mirrors is a really thankless task, and those bolts and nuts on the 3040 mirror mounts are just the wrong thing for the job. I ended up removing them and using my wifes hair scrunchies to hold the mirror snugly whilst i tweaked the alignment. Half a roll of masking tape and a day later i finally have a nice tightly focused pinprick of a laser. I was always under the impression that HPC had sold me some duff mirrors (they were covered in brown crud), i guess it was just the residue from the alignment process and they had forgotten to clean it off. Some fairly vigorous cleaning and buffing and they are good as new.
Anyway, just a huge thanks to all the advice you guys have provided - albeit indirectly. Just reading through it gave me the confidence to try and do it myself, i was close to ringing Chris at HPC and see how much a callout to Surrey was going to cost.
btw if anyone has suggestions for replacing the mirror mounts with some kind of spring loaded bolts (i see that Rabbit lasers have something along those lines) id appreciate a nudge in the right direction. Also if anyone has the dimensions for the focusing tool? I accidentally threw mine out, must have thought it was a scrap piece.
Been having what i imagine is a fairly common issue, laser power diminishing, alignment issues etc etc. Realised i wasnt doing enough maintenance and so got to grips with my cotton buds and IPA and really went for it.
Damn things got worse! Before hand it would take upto 3 passes 4mm/s at 100% to cut through simple 3mm Acrylic (yeah thats bad i know, didnt realise how badly aligned things were until i really started reading this forum) Now i cant even get a cut through no matter how many passes i try, i just get a 1mm deep groove and thats it.
So I decided to go for it, after reading most of this boards various forums and a good chunk of Oplaser's i finally unscrewed my lens cap, cleaned the lens (and yes its curved side down) and reset all my mirrors.
Needless to say i discovered that aligning mirrors is a really thankless task, and those bolts and nuts on the 3040 mirror mounts are just the wrong thing for the job. I ended up removing them and using my wifes hair scrunchies to hold the mirror snugly whilst i tweaked the alignment. Half a roll of masking tape and a day later i finally have a nice tightly focused pinprick of a laser. I was always under the impression that HPC had sold me some duff mirrors (they were covered in brown crud), i guess it was just the residue from the alignment process and they had forgotten to clean it off. Some fairly vigorous cleaning and buffing and they are good as new.
Anyway, just a huge thanks to all the advice you guys have provided - albeit indirectly. Just reading through it gave me the confidence to try and do it myself, i was close to ringing Chris at HPC and see how much a callout to Surrey was going to cost.
btw if anyone has suggestions for replacing the mirror mounts with some kind of spring loaded bolts (i see that Rabbit lasers have something along those lines) id appreciate a nudge in the right direction. Also if anyone has the dimensions for the focusing tool? I accidentally threw mine out, must have thought it was a scrap piece.
expensive!!