So like most folks on here, I'm in the process of building the 2.0 laser. I'm nearly done, and I've taken quite a few notes during the build process, and figured now is as good a time as ever to come do a brain dump.
I purchased all of the kits from Bart, but cut my own 1/2" and 1/4" plastic pieces on my mill. Everything assembled great, and there are a few tips I can hopefully pass along to get others rocking and rolling with their lasers.
First - the electronics need mounting hardware. This isn't supplied in the kits. I used M4 socket head bolts to secure the Kelling power supply to the electronics enclosure. The 4020 drivers are no longer available from Kelling, so you have to drill your own holes for the 4030's. They're a little bit bigger, and if you upgrade to the Z-axis stepper you'll have to definitely drill some new holes for that driver. I used some packaged screws and nuts from Home Depot to secure the drivers, power supply, and DIN rail to the electronics platform, and used slightly longer ones to secure the break out board. This was all pretty simple. I also used a couple of brass wood screws to secure the power connector to the back panel since the connector itself didn't come with mounting screws, which was a little odd. The 120v socket attached easiest for me by removing the bottom screw that would normally go into the box in your wall, and just screwing it through the middle hole that would normally attach the cover plate to the socket assembly. It's nice and tight for me, and seems to be working very well.
I still haven't come up with a solution for running a parallel cable from the rear of the electronics assembly to the break out board, but I am also not going to spend too much time on it as I have a v2.0 Pololu driver board that I am making a custom back plate similar to the one that Bart showed the other day. Should take a couple of minutes on the mill and I'll be done. Since it will be directly plugged in at that point, there will be no need for a parallel extension.
The electronics assembly itself was pretty easy, and fairly self-explanatory. I purchased a Syil SX3 mill a few years ago, and it's given me enough headaches because of the inferior electronics that I'm fairly familiar with Mach3 setup and pins and ports and stepper drivers and ARRRRRRGH! CHINESE ELECTRONICS ARE CRAP. At least the Syil ones are. Chalk that up to a major learning experience which made this assembly pretty simple. I spent a little extra time when I was assembling everything to run the wires in sleeves. That's just me being OCD, and probably unnecessary.
The frame assembly is fairly self explanatory as well. I wanted to start before I received the kits from Bart, so I ordered everything on the BOM from Mitsumi, and went to town. If you're looking to go this route, you'll need a ton of M5 10mm socket head screws for all the angle brackets, and M5 12mm socket head screws for attaching the 1/4" plastic parts to the frame. Don't forget to purchase a lot of M5 washers if you're going this route as well. Order a shit-ton of extra T-Nuts too, both the pre and post assembly. You'll need them. Trust me. You will. Just get them. And put extras EVERYWHERE.
I didn't really have any issues with the frame assembly, other than attaching the stepper motors to some of the mounting plates. I can only assume that my plastic pieces are a little thicker than the ones that Bart supplies, because the screws supplied in the hardware kits were slightly too small. I believe they were 8mm long, and I had to purchase some 10mm long screws, which fit the drivers perfectly. This was actually only an issue on the Z stepper, the others were fine, as they were longer.
Once the frame and electronics were assembled, the rest was really straight forward. Put the skins on in the order suggested in the instructions. Mount the laser, mount the mirrors, align everything, and burn away. Oh wait, that's a total lie, it was another fun learning experience. I can honestly say that I had more fun assembling this laser than I have doing just about anything short of playing with my kids over the last couple of months. Seeing it all come together is rewarding. And, my kids loved watching it go through the various stages of assembly.
Here's some interesting things I ran across that will hopefully make someone else's assembly much less frustrating when they get to these parts.
My hardware kit only came with 3 spacers to fir the mirror mount next to the laser. I can only assume this is an error on the BOM, as I noticed in the Trogdor build, he's got the exact same thing going on. I put two of them on the bolts directly below the mirror, and one furthest away from the mirror. Worked great.
My mirror assemblies from Lightobject were both different. I about chucked some beer bottles at the wall when I was initially trying to align the mirror on the gantry to the head. After spending about 3 hours going crazy, I took a day off, cooled off, and really examined what was going on. The easiest way to describe what was different is that the threaded mounting holes were on different sides, if you look at the trogdor build, his mirror mounts are exactly the same, the ones I was sent are mirror images of each other. Once I noticed this, it became clear that there was no real way I was going to align them the way I had them installed... basically an error on my part for not picking that up before. So, I swapped them around, re-squared everything up, and 10 minutes later I had a perfectly aligned laser.
My power supply from Lovehappyshopping was shipped with AC110 markings on it, leading me to believe it was a 110v power supply. Nope. It's 220v. What a pain in the ass, but I had two circuits in the same room that I was able to combine to make a 220v circuit. I've got the second leg running through a 24v relay that closes when the 24v electronics power supply is energized, so I don't ever forget to turn one of the phases off to the laser power supply. I went back and read the auction after I found out what my problem was, and you are supposed to specify what voltage power supply you want. Mea culpa.
Getting the tygon tubing on the fittings with the small gaps between them on the laser tube was a challenge.... until I read that you can just heat the tygon up in some hot water, and it slips right on. Well, guess what, the directions were right. It went on super easy after I heated the tube in some boiling water for like 4 or 5 seconds. Too simple.
I'm using a fountain pump I purchased from Harbor Freight as my water pump. I also have a GEMS water flow sensor that I purchased off of e-bay for 10 bucks, and it works like a champ. Other than the fact that the threaded connections on the sensor body aren't standard, and I couldn't find anything to fit it, so I've currently got the water flow switch jumpered out on the break out board. I've ordered some 1/4" barbed fittings from GEMS, and when they get in, I'll mount the sensor in my machine and wire it up. I milled a mounting bracket out of 1/2" HPDE for it, and it works great.
I'm using the 660 CFM Dust Collector from Harbor Freight for my exhaust fan. Can't smell a thing in the room when the cutter is in operation, and it's surprisingly quiet. I'm very happy with it. It's enough airflow to keep the smell and smoke out of the unit, but not so much it's whipping things around inside the housing.
I'm using the 70 lpm airbrush compressor from Harbor Freight for my air assist. Works great, super quiet, no complaints there. Fairly steady output, but it does pulse slightly. A receiver would totally alleviate this, but I'm not even sure it's necessary.
One weird issue I thought I was having was due to me using the incorrect inputs for the Step Resolution Calculator on the site. I ended up using 200 Steps per Revolution, 20 pulley teeth, and .08 belt pitch. It then spit out the correct values for me based on the micro stepping. It's another one of those things where I was just being a bonehead, and the information was readily available.
That's about all I can write for now, I've got a lot going on here, and can't wait to cut some stuff tonight.
One thing I did want to ask though, is the acrylic that I can buy at Hone Depot really acryllic? I tried cutting it, and it basically just melted, It's not like the acryllic I cut on my buddies laser cutter a while ago, that stuff seemed to cut like butter. This stuff just kinda blobbed up, like folks said they noticed with PVC and whatnot.
- The frame, coming together.
Edit : If you're looking at where to purchase the Cable Carriers, there's a post here that give the details on which ones you need to order. I ordered them locally from Motion Industries, and they shipped directly to my house. It was $20.00 for the X carrier, and $14.00 for the Y carrier. I purchased a few extra of each just in case, so if you need one in a pinch, shoot me a PM, and we can work something out.