One omission in your process is to check if the red laser beam is in line with its body. Every single laser I have tried (of about 30 from various sources) does not emit in a direction co-axial with the holder. They alway shine off to one side (or up or down) by quite a large angle. Just roll it on a flat surface to see the rod draw a circle where it hits a metre or so away. The first thing to do with that holder you made is to align the beam with the holder by adjusting the angle. Then you can start your alignment. If you don’t do this the third mirror will be out of alignment and the beam may hit the side of the air assist cone. If you have only the original lens holder you won’t notice the effect.
Seems like a good idea to reverse align to get the laser head in the right location. I had a problem with ghosting on my bottom right area similar to your issues. 👌
I think your backward alignment is a very good way to set up the alignment! As a last step you should have done the alignment of the tube to shoot in the same direction as your red dot came from. I think if you had changed the position of the tube everything would have been good.
I forgot to mention that another possible option of reverse aligning would be to tape the laser tube, give it a short burst and adjust the red laser dot to the burn mark 🤔
focal position is your problem but its not something you can change on that machine you would have to alter the height of the bed and the drop of the z axis, if alignment was out all radius edges would be rough where as straight edges would be clean, the same rules that apply to larger industrial co2 lasers such as bystronics and lvds apply here.
I'm having a very very hard time aligning...I've tried aligning from mirror 1-3 and 3-1 and still no luck. where can I purchase the laser tool? maybe the laser alignment light will help me...please help!
Reverse calibration seems like a good Idea! That would have been helpful in the past. My mirrors are aligned so that they are hit right in the middle. It was a complete pain in the ass to get this done and I wasn't able to achieve it before I got new mounts for the Mirrors. Because of that I dont mind the edges getting scratched a little. I've still got the original K40 mirrors. The mounts, and their capability to be adjusted in every direction, where what made the biggest difference for me. I also got a Laserhead which is adjustable in the height, what makes it super easy to get the right focus for different material size.
The K40 definately lags some height adjustable mirror brackets. Where did you got these from? So with your laser head you can adjust the lens height? Interesting!...
I think that due to the fact that they use the cheapest 35w laser tube imaginable the output of the tube is not 100% centric. That causes the whole operation to fail. Maybe one day when i replace the tube with something better it may work. At least thats my theory.
your entire machine is not level that will cause the alignment to go wacky and when you realign the optics and move the head its out of aligniment again.
this was a good video but then you fast forwarded the actual part of getting it to align manually. :( had to give you a thumbs down for that. but then since you handed out the .obj file i had to give you a thumbs up again.
I like the way you are going about the alignment .
The eccentric nut on the rollers is a factor that I have not seen on other videos on allignment.
One omission in your process is to check if the red laser beam is in line with its body. Every single laser I have tried (of about 30 from various sources) does not emit in a direction co-axial with the holder. They alway shine off to one side (or up or down) by quite a large angle. Just roll it on a flat surface to see the rod draw a circle where it hits a metre or so away. The first thing to do with that holder you made is to align the beam with the holder by adjusting the angle. Then you can start your alignment. If you don’t do this the third mirror will be out of alignment and the beam may hit the side of the air assist cone. If you have only the original lens holder you won’t notice the effect.
Wow.. good.. i am facing allignment prblm.. you teach me with cheap way.. love you.
Seems like a good idea to reverse align to get the laser head in the right location. I had a problem with ghosting on my bottom right area similar to your issues. 👌
I think your backward alignment is a very good way to set up the alignment! As a last step you should have done the alignment of the tube to shoot in the same direction as your red dot came from. I think if you had changed the position of the tube everything would have been good.
I forgot to mention that another possible option of reverse aligning would be to tape the laser tube, give it a short burst and adjust the red laser dot to the burn mark 🤔
I have the exact same issue with my k40, just haven't had the opportunity to investigate the cause (causes?)... Your video will certainly help!
If you have questions, the community here and i will try to help you.
focal position is your problem but its not something you can change on that machine you would have to alter the height of the bed and the drop of the z axis, if alignment was out all radius edges would be rough where as straight edges would be clean, the same rules that apply to larger industrial co2 lasers such as bystronics and lvds apply here.
I'm having a very very hard time aligning...I've tried aligning from mirror 1-3 and 3-1 and still no luck. where can I purchase the laser tool? maybe the laser alignment light will help me...please help!
Did you buy the mirrors in Europe?? Where?
Yes i did, i added the Amazon link in the description.
try vinegar and brasso metal polish on the mirrors
Nice reference to Steve1989 MRE Info - nice hiss !
Love his videos, great channel!
Reverse calibration seems like a good Idea! That would have been helpful in the past.
My mirrors are aligned so that they are hit right in the middle. It was a complete pain in the ass to get this done and I wasn't able to achieve it before I got new mounts for the Mirrors. Because of that I dont mind the edges getting scratched a little. I've still got the original K40 mirrors. The mounts, and their capability to be adjusted in every direction, where what made the biggest difference for me.
I also got a Laserhead which is adjustable in the height, what makes it super easy to get the right focus for different material size.
The K40 definately lags some height adjustable mirror brackets. Where did you got these from? So with your laser head you can adjust the lens height? Interesting!...
@@MancaveEffects I'll send you a Dm
video begins @10:53
Why do you think the reverse alignment failed to work correctly?
I think that due to the fact that they use the cheapest 35w laser tube imaginable the output of the tube is not 100% centric. That causes the whole operation to fail. Maybe one day when i replace the tube with something better it may work. At least thats my theory.
your entire machine is not level that will cause the alignment to go wacky and when you realign the optics and move the head its out of aligniment again.
This is like balancing rim, then tire, then putting rim on tire and balancing again. As experiments, its ok, but nothing more.
this was a good video but then you fast forwarded the actual part of getting it to align manually. :( had to give you a thumbs down for that. but then since you handed out the .obj file i had to give you a thumbs up again.