Project: Switching Beds for a Better Cut

Dilan Tuff-Overes
August 9, 2018

We laser lots of wood and acrylic... like seriously, it's hundreds if not thousands of sheets per year. This volume of throughput tends to cause the lasers to build up a lot of gunk and debris that needs to be cleaned on a regular basis. Besides being safer, it reduces the "flash" marks which are little black marks on the bottom of the material where the laser has burned through the material and reflected off the support table back to the underside of what was being cut.

Selecting the best surface used to support your lasered material comes down to a few options to which you need to ask:

  1. Is my project super heavy, or do I not care about table damage, scorching and just want a flat worksurface surface? (Use a flat metal tabletop)
  2. Are my parts small or risk being lost after being cut? (Use honeycomb)
  3. Do I want to minimize flash marks on my part? (Use slat)
  4. Am I doing the same thing over and over again and want best performance? (Use custom pin-table)

We've used all four methods at Solarbotics (five, if you include the rotary attachment for engraving ...pop bottles), with the honeycomb being the often used solution, but after our last laser cleanup, we've revisited the slat system.

Our latest designs are larger and better tabbed so they stay together. The slat system is ideal for these jobs, with its better managing of debris build-up, and vastly reduced flashing. Less support material below the cut means there's less to get in the way. For comparison, this is what a traditional honeycomb table looks like after a few months of cutting MDF (ug!). Look at that old and crufty thing... and the honeycomb too.

Now take a look at our new cleaned and re-slatted table! It's almost too clean...

As nice as it is, this bed of slats has no indexable edge for us to register our material against. Finding a common origin point on the bed crucial in production, so we used the laser to create our own registration edge!

Using the laser to laser parts for the laser... for better lasering...

Here are the results:

With this in place, we're ready for even higher quality laser cutting.

MORE POSTS

June 6, 2003
Sandwich PCB Parts Bundle!

We are finally stocking the complete parts bundle (with PCB) to compliment David Cook's Robot Building for Beginners book. Check out our kits section, and take a look at the Sandwich parts bundle which contains everything, including a nice set of documentation, to build your very own Sandwich bot.

January 9, 2001
We are Back

We are back, ready to take your orders. Not only are we back but we are ready for a new year with many things to serve you better. We have brought back the SCPD solar cells. Future enhancements and improvements in the online web ordering. Expect future enhancements such as more videos, more data on […]

January 11, 2016
Monday New Product: Solder and Grove

Lead-free Solder Spool (100g) $9.55 Solder, without lead! Adapter, 9VDC @ 1A $6.79 This Adapter, 9V @ 1A is a economical power transformer. Grove - Universal 4 Pin 20cm Unbuckled Cable (5 PCs Pack) $3.78 Extra cables for Grove modules. Seeed Grove - 3-Axis Digital Accelerometer $35.75 The H3LIS331DL is a low power high performance […]

November 18, 2004
Book Project Parts Bundles

We've had many requests to sell the parts needed to build the robots described in the books that we carry. You are now able to purchase the individual components needed to build your bot, but you're not required to take them all(Sorry, no instructions -- that's what the book is for!). If you've got resistors […]

1 22 23 24 25 26 253
Solarbotics Ltd Logo
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.

cart