LaserCutter/Maintenance

ToDo

Title	Description (one or two sentences)	Skills needed	Contact person	Status
Reed sensor mounting	The reed sensor on the left hand side needs to be mounted lower so the 135° bracket fit in its position on the lid. CAD design a bracket to hold it in place (to get rid of the hot glue solution) and mount the 135° bracket.	CAD	Phier	Ongoing
Circuit Diagram	Make a circuit diagram of the current Laser Cutter circuit to get an overview on how it works.	Understanding electrical wiring	Phier/Chris B.	ToDo
Clean up wiring	After the circuit diagram was made, remove all cables/wires which are not needed anymore. Ground every component properly and also the shield of the cables.	Electrical wiring	Phier	ToDo
Replace mirrors	The mirrors are pretty old and absorb the power of the laser. Replace them with new ones and check if the mirror holders need also to be replaced	-	Phier	ToDo

2025

Date	User	State	Notes
November 25	Ludwig, Phier	✅	Pressure sensor showed issues. Air Venting Filter was clogged and got replaced by fresh one. Details
November 01	Chris B, Korbinian	✅	Cleaned the head of the Laser Cutter. The head itself was full of dust/particles and also apparently the lens was installed upside down. We can now cut everything under 5mm no problem (and with a nice cutting edge too!). The things to buy section will feature a new lense as the old one does have a hot spot and some other permanently burned in stuff that sadly can't be fixed otherwise. Plenum and Details
October 16	Adrian, Chris B, Aaron, Brian	✅	New chiller (CW 5000, 215€, Aliexpress) installed. Details
June 8	Alex	✅	gave the laser cutter lens a polish and it's definitely increased the efficiency of the cut, i looked at the pappel and mdf cut params and they reduced power requirements by 10-20%. Details
May 7	David, Bira, Phier	✅	Lid: Both damper are now replaced with new ones. New 135° brackets on the outside of the alu profile were mounted as well as some new inner brackets.
April 5	Phier, Chris B	✅	Laser Controller replaced with Trocen AWC 7813 (186€ Aliexpress; similar as old one Trocen AWC7824). Details

2021

Date	User	State	Notes
Jul 18	Robert and various	🛑	Disassembly and cleanup. Preparations for new laser Tube

2020

Date	User	State	Notes
Jul 10	PeterF and various	✅	Laser cutter was setup, calibrated, the exhaust system was modified and the Laser PC was reinstalled with Win10

2019

Date	User	State	Notes
Dec 21	AdrianM	🛑	We're moving currently, so the Laser is packed up in the corner.
Feb 10	Bernhard	✅	Bernhard realigned the tube (again) and it should work as desired
Feb 3rd	Severin	🛑	Laser out of order, not to be used. No real power observed by Bernhard when trying to cut things. The last object (woodern spatula) engraved when the laser broke is hanging on the pegboard next to the vending machine.

2018

Date	User	State	Notes
Dec 29th	David	✅	Beam Combiner installed and calibration of tube, mirrors and combiner done. Working fine on the whole cutting area. Installed lens: 75mm
Dec 27th	David	🛑	DO NOT USE! Complete recalibration necessary! In the course of this recalibration a complete rework of the rear laser-combiner-mirror assembly is planned.
May 11th	David	✅	Laser was calibrated and filters were replaced. Working for now, but a complete overhaul is necessary. Installed lens: 75mm
Mar 28th	Severin	🛑	Can't cut through 5mm MDF; 3mm MDF needs way to much power -> probably needs recalibration. Do not use until then.
Jan 28th	Eax	✅	Installed the 75mm lens. Put a sign indicating the installed lens on the top cover of the Cutter.
Jan 14th	Eax	✅	Laser IN order! Housing was closed, replacement part were cut for future maintenance.
Jan 9th	Eax	🛑	Laser out of order, not to be used. Laser mirrors are adjusted and calibrated. Housing needs to be closed. Beam combiner needs to be mounted and positioned correctly.

2017

Date	User	State	Notes
Dec 23rd	Eax	🛑	Laser out of order, not to be used. The drift has been corrected by balancing the position of the mirrors and the linear rails. What still remains to be done is the *angular* alignment of the mirrors and the laser tube. The positional alignment of the mirrors has been corrected at this time. The first mirror was assembled 8mm to high for the first linear rail, and there was a misalignment of 3mm in the horizontal direction.
Dec 1st	Eax	🛑	Laser out of order, not to be used. Mirror cover on the laser tube itself was loose, because presumably s.o. tried to attach a too tight pilot laser holding assembly. Fixed the mirror cover to its place by using glue.
Nov 29	Eax	🛑	Laser out of order, not to be used. Replaced all three mirrors with the new batch of mirrors. Determined that the position of the 1st mirror is not aligned with the linear axis of the 2nd mirror (X axis movement). This leads to a drift of the spot on the 2nd mirror. The position of the first mirror needs correction. For this a pilot laser (red visible) would be ideal.
Nov 2nd	Tiefpunkt	🛑	Laser out of order, not to be used. Mirror 2 was loose again, after retightning not really alligned. Before realigning, mirrors should be switched for the now ones, which should fit the mirror mounts much better. Peter tried some calibration, but one of the screws of mirror 2 was too tight and the plastic handle on it broke. Reattached with superglue.
Oct 19th	Siedi	✅	Replaced SSR for the exhaust air. The switch is working again.
Oct 18th	Eax	✅	Laser cutter is operable. Air compressor was removed from the frame. Water protect issue not reproducible. 75mm lens assembled. 50mm lens is missing.
Oct 14th	Eax	✅	Laser is calibrated. BUT: Air compressor not working AND "Water protect" triggered every now and then.
Oct 7th	Tiefpunkt (talk)	⚠️	SSR of exhaust broken, won't turn exhaust off. Severin will get a replacement part.
Oct 5th	Tiefpunkt (talk)	🛑	Laser out of alignment again after longer laser job. Mirror assembly no. 2 gets warm, and loosens screw again. Repeated hot-cold cycles will make it the screw loose and the mirror wiggle out of position. Laser deemed not usable until realignment incl. mirror no. 1 as well. We'll look for a replacement mirror as well.
Sep 30th	Tiefpunkt (talk)	✅	Laser out of alignment again. Mirror No. 2 loose inside its holder. Mirror assembly screwed out of holder, mirror cleaned, and put back into assembly. Assembly holds 25mm mirrors, but the mirror seems slightly bigger, thus does not sit flush in the assembly, just jammed in there as tight as possible. Mirror put back in, and mirror no. 2 realigned, works fairly well for now.
Sep 28th	Tiefpunkt (talk)	✅	Laser aligned by Peter