Fantastic video! I would have never dreamed to go back to mirror 1 for that final adjustment for fear of throwing everything else out. But it now makes total sense- this save’s an infinite amount of frustration for me! Thank you!
Hi Malcolm I never stop learning or stop searching for better ways to do things. In a more recent video I have found there is a logical flaw in the way we have all been taugh to set machines. I modified my machines many yeats ago to make the heads adjustable in Y and Z. The principle I demonstarte in this video works for all machines , however if you do not have the adjustments that I have it will be more difficult to achieve. see ua-cam.com/video/tvNfAg-cOLA/v-deo.html
Can't test this right now, but if this indeed solves the issue that's tormented me for over a year, how would you like my first-born to be delivered to you, since it'd be yours? Thanks for your continued research, and investment into the world of lasers. It's been a pleasure to watch, as well as educational. Keep it up, please!
@@kristiebobbish8199 it didn't for me, as my problem turned out to be mechanical misalignment of the Y rails; they weren't co-planar. It was a DIY build, so my bad. What did fix it was getting a 360 line laser so I could see the head being hit in all corners simultaneously. Then just raise the rails so the head gets hit at the same place in those 4 corners. Much more practical to do with the line laser than with anything else I've tried 😬
If you have gold plated mirrors then yes, because that layer of gold is atomically thin and gold is very soft. After a few wipes such as I was doing, I'm afraid you will destroy your mirror. On the other hand, Molybdenum mirrors are solid polished metal and are basically bullet proof. They are mirrors for life and as you see I am very blase about them, with 6 years of experience doing many thing that normal users would not be doing with them. I have even reconditioned them on occasions with silver polish.. They are almost the cheapest at about $4 each and about 97% efficient. I would recommend nothing else. Best wishes Russ
I hoped this method would've worked for me. I still have the same problem. Super focused in 1 corner, off by 2mm in the opposite corner. I've measured the rails and put them on the same plane. They're square. Still nothing 😥 Thanks for sharing though, I bet this will help many people.
Hi Bradl Just like every axis setting this diagonal setting is not a a one hit solution. You need to go through the process 3 or 4 times to get closer and closer to your goal because the every beam alignment process is one of iteration. As you adjust the beam to align with the target burn you are also moving the target burn you produced at "near to mirror 1". So you start again with a "new" target. Because the root cause of this error is the reflection from mirror 2. you may need to slightly tweek the X axis alignment (mirror 2) as you get close to your goal. Trust me, it is nothing to do with the alignment plane of your rails. Your rails can be skewed and it will have no effect on you beam hitting mirror 3 because the reflection is from mirror 2 and the will always tip to compensate for the skew.. NO, this is purely a compounding reflection problem. I spent more than 2 years chasing this issue before understanding it. I absolutelely knew that mirror2 was the root cause but but failed to see that mirror 2 was at the middle of a "light lever". So please persevere and go around a few times and watch the error getting smaller to assure yourself that you are doing the correct thing. I recently setup a 200x 300 K40 machine that was so small that i imagined it impossible to have a 4th corner issue. I was wrong. It took just as long to fix that as the bigger machunes. Good luck Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia I’ve nearly fixed the issue! I didn’t realize I shouldn’t touch Mirror 2 when I line up the 4 corners. So step 1 is get Mirror 1 centered to the laser, Step 2 is to get the beam shooting at the same point on Mirror 2, Step 3 is adjust Mirror 1 to match all 4 corners of the machine on Mirror 3. Phew. Takes lots of adjustments if you have a 1200x600mm table like mine. I still have more adjustments to make but I’m getting close. Thank you!
@@br88dy Hi Brady I appreciate your trust enough to devote time to my method. Once you begin to appreciate what is actually happening with mirror 2 you can see how bypassing it temporarily allows you to gradually creep closer and closer to perfection.. I know it sounds odd but although you get much bigger "leverage" errors on a big machine when setting mirrors the conventional 1,2,3 way, it's actually easier to correct them because the reflection "levers" are long and sensitive. On that silly 300x200 machine I did recently ,the errors were small and its easy create errors as you try to correct them. Congratulations on your near success ......and not packing up the rails. I have seen 6 mm packing on the end of some rails!!!!! Best wishes Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia I did it. I spent the day tuning in the alignment and boy was it difficult. But the hours spent working on it were worth it. My laser is aligned and all 4 corners make a tight circle. It's finally time to start cutting and I wanted to come back and thank you once more. You've more than earned my subscription.
Hi Abraham There is some sort of issue with the beam itself because when I do a mode burn in front of mirror 3 there is a bit of distortion on one side of the cone. It's not going to get in the way of me exploring the things that this machine can do but when I pulse it at low power ( I think It was using 15%) I have noticed this distortion. It's not there at 100%. Unless it starts affecting the higher power I am not too worried at present. I will be keeping an eye on it with fairly regular mode burns.. I think I will be looking a how this machine can use grayscale next. but I am already perceiving logical problems that stand in the way of achieving excellent results with photo engraving.. Muddy fuzzy results is my expectation. I have seen Kerns getting good crisp results with their 3D engraving , so that looks a more interesting application of grayscale. Best wishes Russ
Hi Farouqi It may not appear that way, but this channel is a VERY selfish activity for ME. I am the student here that, although old, grey, fat ugly and retired, just loves learning as a form of mental exercise for my two remaining grey cells. In addition to engineering, my other long term hobby is video and editing so to have a camera looking over my shoulder while I am enjoying myself and letting my thoughts escape from my mouth, is a great way for me to generate video material. It is WIN, WIN for me. The fact that I post the videos allows those that are interested to see what I am doing. There will be two types of viewers. Those that just want to know WHAT I have done/learnt and those that additionally are learning from my approach to problem solving. I regard this second group as my invisible apprentices. As I said this is all accidental just because I am sharing my learning journeys. I am not sure there is too much more to uncover because I feel I have shone a light on most of this previous dark art. Best wishes Russ
@@russsadler3471 I respect that fully and understand. I'm under the problem solving group and truly appreciate the content. You have alot of energy to accomplish what your doing. I was wondering if you can check something out for me its from a website called bell-laser.com, they sell a Beam Alignment Visualization tool. Is this something that seems engineered to work almost as plug and play for a near perfect pin point alignment?
Hi Farouqi Diagrams make technical things look very plausible. Until recently I would have believed the offset beam diagram myself. However there are flaws in the diagram that make me suspicious. The supposed horizontal beam centreline is NOT central to the beam they are showing. The whole point of a lens is to focus the rays to a single focus point. That focus point will be on the AXIS of the lens regardless of where the rays enter the lens. Provided the beam remains axially parallel (as in their diagram) then the focus point will NOT be offset as shown or the lens will not be doing its job. I demonstrate in this video what happens AFTER the focal point. See this video from about 36minutes ua-cam.com/video/6aNwKhTRnd8/v-deo.html Several things to consider 1) They cannot change the principle method of alignment as shown in this video. They seem to be purely making the laser beam visible on some sort of ceramic material. Is that any different to making a scorch mark on a card target. 2) $300 sounds like a lot of money to spend on something that you may use only 2 or three in the lifetime of your machine. Once set mirrors are very stable 3) The Chinglish description does not inspire much confidence. Beam alignment is pretty simple when you understand the basic principles. Just spend that money on a new handbag for your wife!! Best wishes Russ
Fantastic video! I would have never dreamed to go back to mirror 1 for that final adjustment for fear of throwing everything else out. But it now makes total sense- this save’s an infinite amount of frustration for me! Thank you!
when do we use no1 glass to align the laser? when glass number 2 goes to glass number 3 in a far condition? Please explain... thank you
What can I say? Another mistery solved! Absolutely brilliant! Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!
Wow! Thank you Sir! I'm very grateful for every one of your videos.
Excellent tutorial, thanks for posting!
Hi Malcolm
I never stop learning or stop searching for better ways to do things. In a more recent video I have found there is a logical flaw in the way we have all been taugh to set machines. I modified my machines many yeats ago to make the heads adjustable in Y and Z. The principle I demonstarte in this video works for all machines , however if you do not have the adjustments that I have it will be more difficult to achieve. see ua-cam.com/video/tvNfAg-cOLA/v-deo.html
Can't test this right now, but if this indeed solves the issue that's tormented me for over a year, how would you like my first-born to be delivered to you, since it'd be yours?
Thanks for your continued research, and investment into the world of lasers. It's been a pleasure to watch, as well as educational. Keep it up, please!
I am in the same boat. I can't wait to get out to the laser and try it as well.
Did it work?
@@kristiebobbish8199 it didn't for me, as my problem turned out to be mechanical misalignment of the Y rails; they weren't co-planar. It was a DIY build, so my bad. What did fix it was getting a 360 line laser so I could see the head being hit in all corners simultaneously. Then just raise the rails so the head gets hit at the same place in those 4 corners. Much more practical to do with the line laser than with anything else I've tried 😬
Hi russ, May I kindly ask you to share your new pattern for the beam setting
Would it help if you added a layer of metal foil between the test target and mirror to keep the condensation off the mirror?
If you have gold plated mirrors then yes, because that layer of gold is atomically thin and gold is very soft. After a few wipes such as I was doing, I'm afraid you will destroy your mirror. On the other hand, Molybdenum mirrors are solid polished metal and are basically bullet proof. They are mirrors for life and as you see I am very blase about them, with 6 years of experience doing many thing that normal users would not be doing with them. I have even reconditioned them on occasions with silver polish.. They are almost the cheapest at about $4 each and about 97% efficient. I would recommend nothing else.
Best wishes
Russ
I hoped this method would've worked for me. I still have the same problem. Super focused in 1 corner, off by 2mm in the opposite corner. I've measured the rails and put them on the same plane. They're square. Still nothing 😥 Thanks for sharing though, I bet this will help many people.
Hi Bradl
Just like every axis setting this diagonal setting is not a a one hit solution. You need to go through the process 3 or 4 times to get closer and closer to your goal because the every beam alignment process is one of iteration. As you adjust the beam to align with the target burn you are also moving the target burn you produced at "near to mirror 1". So you start again with a "new" target. Because the root cause of this error is the reflection from mirror 2. you may need to slightly tweek the X axis alignment (mirror 2) as you get close to your goal.
Trust me, it is nothing to do with the alignment plane of your rails. Your rails can be skewed and it will have no effect on you beam hitting mirror 3 because the reflection is from mirror 2 and the will always tip to compensate for the skew.. NO, this is purely a compounding reflection problem. I spent more than 2 years chasing this issue before understanding it. I absolutelely knew that mirror2 was the root cause but but failed to see that mirror 2 was at the middle of a "light lever". So please persevere and go around a few times and watch the error getting smaller to assure yourself that you are doing the correct thing.
I recently setup a 200x 300 K40 machine that was so small that i imagined it impossible to have a 4th corner issue. I was wrong. It took just as long to fix that as the bigger machunes.
Good luck
Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia thank you for the reply and words of encouragement, Russ. I'll be spending all day today working on it and I will persist!
@@SarbarMultimedia I’ve nearly fixed the issue! I didn’t realize I shouldn’t touch Mirror 2 when I line up the 4 corners. So step 1 is get Mirror 1 centered to the laser, Step 2 is to get the beam shooting at the same point on Mirror 2, Step 3 is adjust Mirror 1 to match all 4 corners of the machine on Mirror 3. Phew. Takes lots of adjustments if you have a 1200x600mm table like mine.
I still have more adjustments to make but I’m getting close. Thank you!
@@br88dy
Hi Brady
I appreciate your trust enough to devote time to my method. Once you begin to appreciate what is actually happening with mirror 2 you can see how bypassing it temporarily allows you to gradually creep closer and closer to perfection.. I know it sounds odd but although you get much bigger "leverage" errors on a big machine when setting mirrors the conventional 1,2,3 way, it's actually easier to correct them because the reflection "levers" are long and sensitive. On that silly 300x200 machine I did recently ,the errors were small and its easy create errors as you try to correct them.
Congratulations on your near success ......and not packing up the rails. I have seen 6 mm packing on the end of some rails!!!!!
Best wishes
Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia I did it. I spent the day tuning in the alignment and boy was it difficult. But the hours spent working on it were worth it. My laser is aligned and all 4 corners make a tight circle. It's finally time to start cutting and I wanted to come back and thank you once more. You've more than earned my subscription.
If I do this the right rear corner get misaligned while I'm aligning the right front corner.
H
There is a slightky different and better explained video here
ua-cam.com/video/tvNfAg-cOLA/v-deo.html
Is that beam shape normal for the RF Tube? Does the frequency has anything to do with it?.
Hi Abraham
There is some sort of issue with the beam itself because when I do a mode burn in front of mirror 3 there is a bit of distortion on one side of the cone. It's not going to get in the way of me exploring the things that this machine can do but when I pulse it at low power ( I think It was using 15%) I have noticed this distortion. It's not there at 100%. Unless it starts affecting the higher power I am not too worried at present. I will be keeping an eye on it with fairly regular mode burns..
I think I will be looking a how this machine can use grayscale next. but I am already perceiving logical problems that stand in the way of achieving excellent results with photo engraving.. Muddy fuzzy results is my expectation. I have seen Kerns getting good crisp results with their 3D engraving , so that looks a more interesting application of grayscale.
Best wishes
Russ
@@SarbarMultimedia Thanks Ross, seems you are going to be able to ride the Tiger after all, but still a wild animal :D
the left y rail is not in the same plane as the right y rail
It would be nice if you had an apprentice to learn directly from you to carry on this legacy.
Hi Farouqi
It may not appear that way, but this channel is a VERY selfish activity for ME. I am the student here that, although old, grey, fat ugly and retired, just loves learning as a form of mental exercise for my two remaining grey cells. In addition to engineering, my other long term hobby is video and editing so to have a camera looking over my shoulder while I am enjoying myself and letting my thoughts escape from my mouth, is a great way for me to generate video material. It is WIN, WIN for me. The fact that I post the videos allows those that are interested to see what I am doing. There will be two types of viewers. Those that just want to know WHAT I have done/learnt and those that additionally are learning from my approach to problem solving. I regard this second group as my invisible apprentices. As I said this is all accidental just because I am sharing my learning journeys. I am not sure there is too much more to uncover because I feel I have shone a light on most of this previous dark art.
Best wishes
Russ
@@russsadler3471 I respect that fully and understand. I'm under the problem solving group and truly appreciate the content. You have alot of energy to accomplish what your doing. I was wondering if you can check something out for me its from a website called bell-laser.com, they sell a Beam Alignment Visualization tool. Is this something that seems engineered to work almost as plug and play for a near perfect pin point alignment?
Hi Farouqi
Diagrams make technical things look very plausible. Until recently I would have believed the offset beam diagram myself. However there are flaws in the diagram that make me suspicious. The supposed horizontal beam centreline is NOT central to the beam they are showing. The whole point of a lens is to focus the rays to a single focus point. That focus point will be on the AXIS of the lens regardless of where the rays enter the lens. Provided the beam remains axially parallel (as in their diagram) then the focus point will NOT be offset as shown or the lens will not be doing its job. I demonstrate in this video what happens AFTER the focal point. See this video from about 36minutes ua-cam.com/video/6aNwKhTRnd8/v-deo.html Several things to consider 1) They cannot change the principle method of alignment as shown in this video. They seem to be purely making the laser beam visible on some sort of ceramic material. Is that any different to making a scorch mark on a card target. 2) $300 sounds like a lot of money to spend on something that you may use only 2 or three in the lifetime of your machine. Once set mirrors are very stable 3) The Chinglish description does not inspire much confidence. Beam alignment is pretty simple when you understand the basic principles. Just spend that money on a new handbag for your wife!!
Best wishes Russ