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Showing posts from February 23, 2014

Failing tubes

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One of the issues with the laser cutter is that most modes of failure have the same result. If the power supply fails, the magnet sensor fails, the water pump fails, the tube arcs to the case the laser simply stops cutting. It's then a process of elimination to discover what the problem is but it's not always obvious. Last week my tube started dying, it was a bit sudden since the last tube but if failed in a very obvious and distinct way so I thought it was worth documenting. On all of these cuts you can see that the laser started the cut perfectly but by the time it gets to the other end of the item it barely managed to mark the surface. So now if you ever see this happening on your own machine you'll know that the tube is on it's way out.

Workshops and dead tubes

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So my laser has been out of action for a week longer than it should have been while I waited for Parcel Force to tell me they had received my new laser tube and that it required customs payment. Now that it's in and my laser is working again I'm building up stock of kits for some upcoming workshops. I always like to take a mix of kits regardless of the workshop because people like to take things away with them afterwards. So if you're in Cambridge or Leicester over the next two weeks and you want to build a marble machine with my help then come along to one of these workshops. The kits are actually cheaper and I'm wandering around to actually help you build them Cambridge Makespace - 2nd March, 2pm Leicester Hackspace - 8th March, 10am or 2.30pm