Since I’m replacing the RF tube with a Chinese glass tube, I’ll have to fabricate the mounting brackets. The buildlog 2.0 laser uses plastic brackets cut out of HDPE on a CNC router. I’ve cut HDPE before and it’s great stuff to work with on the router and I even have enough left over from…
Tag: laser
Laser Rebuild – Part 3 (Panel)
The old panel had an LCD display and a few controls specific to the original electronics. It went away with the rest of the antiques. I made a new panel from a chunk of 1/8″ steel cut to the same dimensions as the original. I consider this a temporary job to get the machine up…
Laser Rebuild – Part 2 (control)
I started looking around for a board to replace the original controller electronics. My priorities: Has to work with EMC2. That’s actually pretty easy to do since EMC2 is so flexibile, but I was looking for something a little more “off the shelf” compatible. I’m not afraid to hack on an EMC2 configuration, but it’s…
Laser Rebuild – Part 1 (Research)
My first step in resurrecting this machine is research. Less than 5 minutes of hunting around on Google has uncovered a couple of incredibly useful sources: I don’t have any experience with lasers and I’m rather fond of my ability to see so I started by reading A LOT on the grandaddy of all internet…
Sliptonic has a (frickin) laser!
Well, not quite….yet. I found an old Universal Laser Systems model 25A for sale at a surplus auction. It looked to be in good shape and went cheap. After I got it home and cleaned up, I found that I couldn’t get the laser head to fire. I called in some expert assistance from Columbia…