Vancouver Hack Space - wiki:groups:lasercutter:maintenance_logs

2016_03_23

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2016-03-24T14:52:58+00:00

Written By: Logan Buchy Date: March 23, 2016 @KevMacD and I had a pretty successful evening with the laser cutter maintenance. Thanks to @JohnC and Science World, we were able to borrow a laser power meter. This was invaluable. We measured the optical power output before and after the optical components of the system. The measurement was performed on a Mahoney power meter calibrated to be accurate with a 35 second 'heat up' time. We found the following:

2017_01_22

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-07-22T02:12:10+00:00

Written By: Luke Cyca Water Chiller When I tried to remove the water chiller to clean it, it developed a leak. Jason Newton cleaned it and fixed the leak and it looks as good as new! Reinstalled it and it's working great. Laser Tube Test I performed a test cut at 60% power, and measured a current of 26.7mA through the tube.

2017_02_27

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2017-02-27T14:26:26+00:00

Written By: Thomas Hoff Incident Today the laser died in the middle of a cut after a loud “PTWWANGG” noise came from the back of the machine. The laser was pathing normally and was not obstructed by anything when this happened. The machine was paused then we did a visual inspection of the laser cutter and determined that the laser tube had fractured.

2017_03_21

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2017-03-22T22:57:59+00:00

Written by: Jake McIvor Laser Tube Replacement The laser cutter was unplugged and the non-functional tube was removed. In order to remove the tube, the electrodes were removed, the cooling hoses were disconnected, and the clamps were removed. A 3 mm hex key is required to remove the cap screws holding on the clamp.

2017_05_27

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2017-05-28T14:56:25+00:00

Written by: Jake McIvor Laser Cutter Maintenance Richard and I performed some preventative maintenance on the laser cutter: * Used windex to clean all the viewing ports * Vacuumed all debris out of the bed * Tightened up the head assembly belt and the set screws on the pulleys

2018_01_05

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2018-01-05T20:39:20+00:00

Laser PC replacement Date: Jan 5, 2018 By: Luke Cyca & Luke Searra Laser PC was not booting, so we put the spare one into service. Then: * Installed new LaserCAD from * Configured a second NIC on the PC with static IP 172.100.0.1 (mask 255.255.255.0) and connected the crossover cable to the laser cutter controller.

2018_02_06

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2018-02-07T06:23:46+00:00

Lid Repair Date: Jan 6, 2018 By: Jake McIvor Laser cutter lid not closing properly, no longer remains up on its own. Hinge Repair One of the nuts was missing from the left hinge, which was likely why the lid wasn't closing properly. Several of the nuts on the right hand side were loose as well.

2018_05_05

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2018-05-05T19:06:05+00:00

Laser down due to chiller problem Reported symptoms It was reported on May 1st by Aaron that a PCB in the cooler started smoking and the laser was non-functional (so the interlock works, yay!). The smoke was coming out of the bigger set of vents. It was thick and white. It subsided quickly after everything was turned off and the plug removed. Equipment looks cool and inert.