Category: Making Stuff

Posted on

Happy New Year to all my supporters out there in cyberspace.

Well back from Christmas brake well for a few week now but day job has been keeping me busy. I have have been playing with wiring and relays and arduino uno and other little ideas. I am currently sell off some stuff it make some money to buy my new laser for workshop. I am going to start to play with my cnc machine time allowing as got some great ideas for some future projects.

keep watching this space for some fun projects that are coming up soon.

will make 2019 great year. had a little bit of a tidy up before leaving for Christmas.

Did manage to do some Christmas gifts. next year i will do them directly on their boxes as the new laser will have a bigger bed.

Christmas eve boxes for family will do direct engraving on the boxes next year this was just a mock up.
Gift tags i put together for some pressens
Beer holder for brother inlaw (Not my design)
Voucher for Nice’s day out using someone else artwork traced and modified for a gift.
Posted on

New Laser coming soon bit of Prep work

I have decided that i need a bigger laser now before I bite the bullet press the buy it now button on eBay. I have been doing my homework as a 50watt laser may look the same but are definitely not equal.

I have been looking at about 5 or 6 they are all around the £1200 pound mark they all look like a Chinese laser blue and cream paintwork. But when you look closely they are very different machines. things I have noticed.

DSP early Ruda  controller / newer Ruda controllers there are  the early monochrome display model or the newer colour display  look identical on the panel.

Ethernet connection or not this is dependent on DSP from what i understand might be a earlier model or it could be different variation of DSP

Manual bed compared to the manual electric bed. I am going for manual electric bed as looking at the model I want there is a Z-axis that I might be able to tap in to make allow it to adjust bed hight automatically.

Now this is a beast of a machine size wise it 1020 x 650 x 630 mm and 102 kg apparently so going to have to call a mate to help transport it to the cave. 

I have just knocked together in fusion 360 a workbench that will be 710 high time I have added castors to the bottom of it as want to be able to move the machine around,  as this makes the ajustment of lenses easier to perform. 

 As I hate doing woodwork I am going to get someone to cut all the lengths of wood for me so I can put it together.

I have made a shopping list of wood to make my life easy

50×47 timber Qty
50x47x650 8
50x47x550 2
50x47x920 4
MDF Sheet  
12x1020x650 1
12x1020x650 ( 100 mm Sq notched out of each corner) 1
Hardware  
90 Degree corner Bracket 8
50 x 50 Casters 2
50 x 50 Casters with brakes 2
A lot of screws.  

I wont be buying this till the new year as I need to get some money together the joys of not being a YouTube celebrity. I have to fund it my self so will be selling off my games collection for arcade machines to fund this new adventure.

Posted on

New Safety Panel for K40 Co2 Laser part 3

Been a couple of days I know since I posted last part. been fitting in bits between doing other stuff as having a nearly 14-month-old who is just about starting to walk keeping me busy as ever.  I also do not want to disable the laser for long periods of time. as got some gifts to get run up before I head off to Wales for holiday period.

I Started off by cutting wooden panel as will cut perspex one after the system is up and running as easy to swap over. also a learning curve as not cut perspex using the C3D mini board. so will need to runs some testing.

temporary panel for the control panel.
fitted all components bar one of the temperature gauges as was waiting on it to be delivered

after mock assembling the panel. I decided to put cutting disc to metal, so armed with Marker pen I marked holes and inner cutout box. I then centre punched holes before drilling.

ready for drilling and cutting.

I then drilled the 4 x 3.5mm holes and started the cutting process it took 3 discs to cut the cut out.

nearly cut out.

 I then realised As had made it to small as the standoffs for the main control panel and the bolts for the new one were not away enough so going to have to notch the other control panel to fit the nuts but trimmed down the bolts with Dremel so it fits.

now to mount back to the machine.

I fitted the other control panel to make sure it looks right in the machine. i started on the wiring last night by joining the positives and negatives for temperature gauges and running them both off 5v pin off the original power supply. as I have separate power supplies for controller board 24v  and 5v one for my machine lighting, my factory one is not overloaded. I will post a picture of them in action later on this evening as forgot to take camera down the man cave with me last night.  Tonight I will wire the LED’s and the flow switch in. and if i get time i will wire up the emergency stop button as well. will cover all this in a later post. 

Its alive! only issue is the 12v LED’s are too much power drain i might have to swap them out for 5v ones just he E-Stop to wire up now.

need to figure out what to do with LEDs

Posted on

New Safety Panel for K40 Co2 Laser part 2

Ok Back to the drawing board as someone burnt though memory card ribbon when soldering up a powerless USB plug. (Doh) as i have been having some brownouts I decided to install this kit. will review it soon.

https://www.tindie.com/products/brianlough/power-blough-r/

Never mind so time for safety panel Mk2. just going to order a second temp sensor as then ill have water input and output readings.  Jumped on to Lightburn and just adjusted will post SVG once I have finalised it all.

So tonight little operation on the k40 is to first of all cut another test panel as my 13mm led bezels were a little tight. Will then cut a template panel for cutting the hole in the metal work. before drilling fixing holes and taking a Dremel cutting disk to the panel.  I will be doing this off the machine. vibrations love to mess with mirror alignment.

The wiring of the system:

Wiring up the emergency stop:

The emergency stop is 4 terminal so will have both Live and neutral running through it on each side of the switch. then to the power switch on the main panel.

Wiring up the LED’s

Pump active LED will be wired in line before the laser on/off switch but after the water pump switch.

I will splice the laser active LED to its switch. so when on its lit when off its not will take some images and add them later.

Water flow switch

After looking on Amazon found a cheap one from China will give it a test drive. as will be open when water is running through it going to fit it to return pipe to the bucket.

will wire this before the laser active switch so will cut output if pump or water fail will shut off the laser form firing causing any damage.

Argh, amazon prime was out of stock of second digital temp gauge so have had to order off eBay now waiting on bits before I start cutting up the machine, so there will be a part 3 to follow soon as I have all the bits in.

probably Monday Tuesday next week.

Posted on

New Safety Panel for K40 Co2 Laser part 1

As I have had some mishaps over the last few months. 2 minor fires as I was not paying attencion.

One resulting in damage to my perspex window. that and a water issue when my outlet pipe came out of the water bucket.

I have decided to add the following.

  • Water Flow switch which will cut if there is no water running through it.
  • LED’s to show laser is active and flow is active.
  • Temperature gauge to show the temperature of the water in the bucket.
  • Emergency stop switch.
  • SD Card slot (This May Change if it doesn’t work I will replace it with inlet water temp outlet water temp gauges)

I have done my first draft run of the panel and have also marked out where i am going to place the panel.

Next job is to cut out the metal so I can put the panel in and drill holes for fixing panel in place.

I have wired up the temp gauge to the 5v output of the laser supply as I no longer use it due to have C3D mini installed. That way when the laser is switched on the temp gauge goes on.  I will get into the wiring of the emergency stop switch and led later on as I do it.

As I am off to Wales for a few days I will resume the project on my return next week.

Looking to buy a bigger laser in the new year for more fun projects hopefully will be then able to do more stuff on the youtube channel.

will be looking to open an online shop for commissions and goods as on my downtime have been designing some cool stuff that I will be sharing soon.

Posted on

K40 Upgrade Part 2 Control panel final cut and wiring & Installing new controller board and other mods.

This is going to be a mammoth Post. Have been buying in bits for the last few weeks to get this machine all upgraded to the speck that I wanted for a while.

was just going to be the controller board upgrade but me being me anyway enjoy the post feel free to comment.

I have designed a new control panel few posts ago. I will be adding it, In this post and taking care of a few mods at the same time.

As my time is limited has taken me a week or so to do all this with an hour here an hour there when the son was sleeping.

Parts list:

  • 1 x Custom Control Panel.
  • 1 x C-13  Custom Panel.
  • 3 x C-13 connectors female.
  • 3 x C-13 connectors male.
  • 3 x Power Led Buttons 240v rated. (Power on, Air assist and lighting)
  • 1 x mA meter from the original machine.
  • 1 x mA pot from the original machine.
  • 1 x 16mm push button latching switch LED 12v. (Laser On/Off Switch)
  • 1 x 16mm push button momentary switch LED 12v. (Laser Test Switch)
  • 4 x M3 x 25mm screws and M3 nuts.
  • 1 x 5v  3amp power supply.
  • 1 x 24v 10amp power supply.
  • 1 x  External Stepper driver 4 amp
  • Mains wiring Live Neutral and earth I have allowed 3m of each.
  • 1 x Cohesion3D Mini K40 Upgrade kit (including screen and lightburn software licence).
  • 1 x 3d printed bracket for side mounting laser power supply.
  • 8 x 3d printed spacer discs
  • 5 x 3d Printed bed adapters.
  • 1 x 3d Printed laser holder.
  • 1 x 12mm Laser diode with a cross adapter.
  • Updated laser mount plate.
  • Steel wire mesh for a new bed.
  • Bunch of m3 and m4 nuts and bolts

As I now have all parts in the mancave let’s kick this project off with printed parts

3D printed parts for a build:

I have printed sideways power supply mount,  I sliced and printed on my Prusa i3 Mk3 took  5hr 12mins to print.

I will need to move the installed power supply sideways so I can add additional power supplies for the extra 24v and 5v power supplies I will be installing on my machine.

Link on Thingiverse

Bed adapter for wire mesh bed.

Next up on the printer was some bed adapters I printed five as that’s how many screws held down the alloy plate to my machine. The Thingiverse file can be found here.

Bed spacer discs for bed.

I also printed some bed spacers so I can hold materials off the bed. This mod requires some m3 nuts and m3 hex bolts I had some kicking around I printed 8 for good measure might print some more. I measured 6mm off base for cutting 3mm material as I know that’s where my focal is set on cutting head. Link for spacer discs on Thingiverse. These took around 1hr to print.

Update printing a box load as see image laser cuts them like butter but for the sake of 1hr print for 8 I don’t mind just run 16 spares.

Laser Sight adapter.

I took used two designs and combined them to make my laser sight. So the ball holder and bracket links below.. and the ball for 12mm laser diode.. you will also need an m3 x 30mm and m3 nut t tighten ball in place once in position. You will need 2 x 25mm m3 bolts and 2 x m3 nuts to hold it to plate. This was around 30 mins for the ball and think 1:40 for bracket all done with no supports.

Link for bracket

Link for laser ball (only use ball)

Cutting laminated acrylic to size:

Next up to cut out the final control panel I will need to cut down the material I ordered from 903 ltd it’s a laminated acrylic so white on the outside black in the middle.

I have made cutting jig using two hand clamps and a spirit level. I will score the acrylic and then snap it. I have done this to allow it to fit in cutter note to self-order small bits next time.

worked well now have a piece of acrylic around A4 size perfect for the panel.

Final Prototyping of control panel:

I then did a final prototype in plywood as had adjusted the holes locations and sizes and make sure all fitted correctly as cannot afford to waste material.

Good job I did one more test as I will have to do one more test cut panel mounts are 5mm out and laser on-off switch text gets covered by the top panel so will move that across at the same time.

This is why you do have to prototype again and again till its right

So what started off as some simple changes I decided to change the font of digits around the power gauge and align all text make two holes bigger on the control display knob and brightness adjustment holes, I then enlarge the panel mount holes as well. To make sure all fits. Version 5.2f Final Version. I will upload the design to Thingiverse  Link Here

The Final cut in laminated acrylic 

After reading the material guide on cutting and engraving which is based on 30watt or 50watt helpful when I own a 40watt laser I did do some experiment using a small offcut as I had a big board cut down to make smaller pieces.

My findings were.

 

Cutting the Acrylic, I found that 15 mA and speed of 4 mm/s cut through the acrylic like butter I probably could have dropped the mA might do some more testing on this at some point

Engraving the Acrylic, I found that 10 mA and speed of 100 mm/s I did run at 70 there was a little more scorch marks on my test see above image.

The Process I did cut pass first of all with the protective layer on I used double-sided tape to hold the acrylic in place on the bed on edges after the cut I removed the protective tape and cut parts. Then placed the cut piece back in cutout see images below. And run the engraving process. I also added furniture polish to the top layer this will help with cleaning after the process is completed.

I then uninstalled all switches and screen dial etc and moved them to the final resting before reinstalling control panel back in the machine.

I also cut a new back Panel for C13 Connectors that I had remixed to be labelled for the different outputs of the machine. this was test project so a lot more scorching but for the back of my machine, it’s perfect as won’t really be seen.

The Wiring:

Now the fun part wiring up the panel before I do the final cut in acrylic.

First off I re-install the mA meter, followed by mA pot,

Now to the additional two power switches and original switch. Using some crimps and mains wire I wired up a jumper cable that supplies power to all three switches

next came the two switches for the laser on and off and laser test wich.

These are very different to the originals. As five pins instead of 2 pins as you have NC, NO, C, +12 and  Ground.

  • NC = Normally Closed
  • NO = Normally Open
  • C = Common
  • +12 = + 12 volts in this case using 5v
  • Ground = ground side of swtich.

Now to wire these up, I to the two red wires for the on and off made a jumper cable so +12 and NC are wired to red cable one side and ground and common are wired to the other side of the switch. For the test button, I used the +12 and ground off the on/off switch to light the button when it’s on I then used the two original black wires on NO and C.

Adding the screen, this is held in by 4 x m3 x 25 mm screws I fed the screws through the panel and added 2 x m3 nuts behind it to act as spacers on each screw. I then fitted the panel and held it in place with further 4 x m3 nuts. 2 ribbon cables were then installed in ports exp1 and exp2 this I will connect to new controller board shortly.

Rotation of the Power supply I removed the four screws holding the existing power supply in place. I then attached the new bracket in place then using original fixing holes bolted power supply back to the bracket. I then aligned it and marked where I would need to drill then drilled 2 x 4.5 mm holes and mounted the bracket tightened down with bolts and butterfly nuts.

I then wired in 5v & 24v Power supply for lighting and laser sight. In a previous post, I had added LED tape to the inside of the cutting area and control panel area of the laser machine.  I soldered some more wiring on to get it to reach the newly installed power supply I also added the two wires for the laser sight they are both switched on using the light switch on the control panel.

 

Instaling the laser sight:

You will need an upgraded cutting head fixing plate. You will need to unscrew the three screws that hold the plate to the laser carriage. Remove cutting head from the plate and install into the new one. Then reinstall back on the laser carriage. After that placed two bolts through the bracket and aligned the laser with test mark, I had made on the material. I tightened bracket to stop movement I then unplugged laser and threaded wiring thought cable chain and plugged into 5v power supply job done.

Note: my eBay brought plate only let me fit 2 screws back in will have to modify the slot to fit the 3rd screw as out by 1 mm.

Installing C13 Panel for the rear of machine:

As requested here’s the link to my remixed c-13 panel get it here

I have decided to remove the 2 plug sockets from the rear of the machine as they are positioned badly the bottom one is very hard to plug in to. after looking through Thingiverse I found this simple C13 panel I remixed it slightly by adding some text for the aux equipment I wanted to run out of it. the air-assist is connected to a switch on the control panel whereas the water pump and fan vent run when the machine is switched on.

I started off by removing the 2 plugs I then got my tin snips and removed the metal connecting the plug holes I then fitted the plate and using an m3.5 drill bit I drilled the holes on either side of the c13 connector.

After that using terminal block connected the wires to the back of the c13 connectors.  I also added power for the additional 24v power supply for the stepper drivers and new controller board as the 2 sockets power on with power switch.

I then screwed the panel down using 6 x m3 screws and nuts.

Installing wire temp mesh bed:

I went to a local DIY shop and picked up some 50×50 cm fine diamond mesh. I used the original alloy bed to make measurements I then cut the sheet down to the same size using side cutters. I used 3d printed adapters on the top of each fixing point before installing the bed I then used original screws to reattach it to the bed.

as I know my optimal focus point is approximately 8mm off the bed I inserted spacer discs that I have printed to a hight of 8mm so my 3mm materials cut like a hot knife through butter.

Installing the Cohesion3D Mini K40 Upgrade kit:

Now that all upgrades have been installed to my printer and I am happy everything is working. I am going to go ahead with installing the Cohesion mini board and install the screen for time being I will be doing more upgrades for adjustable bed and rotary tool in the future but for now the board and the screen will do.

First of all, I removed the 3 nuts and bolts holding control board plate in place,

I then unplugged the 3 connections from the board 1 ribbon cable two Molex connectors I then undid the nuts holding M2nano board in place after this I installed new board redid up the nuts.

I also added holes and fixings for the 2 stepper drivers so I can add rotary attachment and z table at a later date. I will only wire up the for the rotary attachment atm as still unsure if I will use my light object z table.

I then added additional wiring for stepper driver and connected up to the  24v power supply and doe the control board.

I connected the screen connector and plugged in the first exp2 then esp1 as the guide explains. I inserted the micro sd card as well I then reconnected all cables.

I am having issues with the screen I have ordered a replacement. I am receiving support from C3D hopefully have it up and running soon.

need to tidy up the wiring at some point soon but for the moment I want to test.

time to test, I have already installed Lightburn on my pc.  to turn on my machine and see that it works. right all powers on and test button works.

It’s alive.

 

Next project for the k40:

Making a 3d printed Z hight adjustable bed off Thingiverse as the electric one I have brought is too small for my liking.

3d printing has begun about 20hrs to go.

Parts have been ordered so once they all come in I will be building this. will be adding a rotary attachment for doing round projects.

Rotary Attachment incoming from China via aliexpress.(currently in Germany should be with me by Wednesday according to FedEx) Now in part 1 of review is up now link here.

after that is done will be the end of my mods on the k40 for the time being.

Next Website Project CNC machine Enclosure:

This has been started Link Here

 

 

 

Posted on

Been a productive week in the man cave.

Well, I have managed to do so bits in my spare five minutes here and there, Between looking after son and trying to get him into a routine. So we can have some time to do things we would like. so far it’s working but just a bit erratic.

I have built a PC to run the CNC controller software out of an old HP computer I had kicking in my office its nothing fancy will be running windows 7 and mach3 software provided with the machine. will cover this more when I do a review and set up a blog post soon. Already working on a waste board will be the first project I will run with the milling machine once all set up.

Have been running upgraded printed parts on my Prusa Mk3:

  • Printed K40 laser pointer printed for 12mm laser crosshair diode to be added.
  • Printed Dust extraction addon for my CNC machine.
  • Printed Camara mount for Mk3 so can record some live-action / time lapses for future videos once I have some time to do some. family first.

Ordered parts:

  • MDF for enclosure of my CNC machine and for a Waste board.
  • Laminated Acrylic for the control panel for K40 Laser. (going to have to cut it down as size is a little larger than I thought. )
  • 12mm Laser diode crosshair.
  • New extraction fan for K40 laser exhaust as other one is less than strong enough and when I start cutting and engraving acrylic I don’t want to be breathing the fumes.

Parts I need to order in the near future:

  • Perspex sheet for the front of the enclosure of CNC machine.
  • rare earth magnets to hold the front door in place.
  • A hinging mechanism for the front door of the enclosure.
  • dust cyclone extractor for a vacuum system for CNC machine
  • Water container for CNC machine cooler
  • Vacuum cleaner to run the system

Upcoming projects:

CNC Enclosure will be using my racking and some MDF to make an enclosure with a perspex door.

Wast board  for CNC machine this will allow me to clamp and grip parts for milling it will also be a damaged board so I can cut out pieces without damaging CNC bed,

K40 Cohesion3D Mini Upgrade, as you might have seen I have been designing a new control panel for this upgrade will be doing this around easter I would think as next period of time that I will have some free time.

Posted on

Designing a new Control panel for my K40 Laser cutter. Part one design and layout.

As I have been modifying my machine as I go. I will be implementing the upgrade of the controller board this board will have an LCD screen output it’s going to need a new control panel.

so I have put this together using Inkscape and some parts of other peoples designs.

this is version 5.2c yes I have been working on this for a while as toying with different ideas and controllers was going to you push button style laser controller but decided against it. 5.2d as some of the holes were off and undersized. so have resized them.

I have cut this to start off with plywood as prototyping will be made of acrylic once I get it perfected will be making up the wiring loom shorty.

Just waiting on come crimps. will be adding 24 power supply and lighting 5v PSU to power internal lights when done. I will be also removing the 2 back plugs from the machine and replacing them with IEC C-13 connectors panel I have seen, this will make it easier to have external air assist pump and have the water pump and exhaust fan as well. going to use this design off Thingiverse.  IEC C-13 Connector Panel.

I will post more on the wiring of this as make up the wiring loom.

This is mains voltage so all being done right and not to be attempted if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Posted on

Hyper PI Bar Top Retro Arcade. Part 2 Wiring part assembly

Right, a little later than advertised in a prior post. didn’t get wrapped up till the early hours and still waiting on perspex so I can mount the monitor in the box.

started off wiring up all the buttons using the quick wiring loom

you have 4 wires to connect yellow and black are on the actual button on and off. the red and the black wires are for the led power they will only light if connected the right way around there are no markings.  So I would connect the USB board to a laptop and plug Molex into the connector board and loosely connect the red and the black if it doesn’t light first-way swap it over to get the button to light.

After wiring, all the buttons and joystick switches make sure all right if using a windows pc to check to open up joystick settings then can test all buttons and make sure the joystick is set up right as can reverse up, down, left and right.

After wiring all the buttons time to build the frame.

I brought a 100mm set of speakers that were not designed to be installed in this type of cabinet as universal I wanted to make some standoffs so I fired up fusion 360 designed the standoffs and then exported them to STL file which I then sliced and printed.

I then screwed these to the enclosure. I then started to slot the enclosure together as I am still missing the perspex I did not install. hoping that I can do that today.  the joysticks were a tight fit as the screws I used were a little longer than needed so I cut down the support bracket to get them to fit.

was fiddly but i manage to get it all together hoping for a delivery of perspex today so i can mount the monitor.

I decided as I am screwing all components to the baseboard I would print myself a raspberry pi 3 case to screw to the baseboard.

found a nice nettfab case on thingiverse.com and will install this tonight.

was getting very late so I decided to bolt down the joystick PCBs and call it a night.

will post more later today depending on the parts arriving today. will post some final shots of it fully working.

Posted on

Hyper PI Bar Top Retro Arcade. Part 1. Applying Graphics and Starting the Cabinet Build.

First of all the why am i doing this. well i used to collect arcade machines and hack mulit board systems. due to now running family business and life being a lot more hectic i had to shut down my xxxx-in-1.com site after it was taken down by hackers. i sold the office that was housing my collection. but miss my arcades machines so decided to build a small one for the man cave.

will cover full size arcade machines soon as will have 2 that i will be modifying in the future to build the ultimate PC driven full size machines.

Back to the build.

i ordered a flat pack kit off ebay. form http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/arcade_flat_pack

i went with a 24″ cabinet design as had a spare monitor kicking around in storage.

I then ordered a cheep set of red and blue led buttons with zippy joysticks can be found on ebay from http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/extreme-hardware  i ordered some extra buttons as the kit could support more than supplied went with white buttons for player 1 and 2 start

they come with usb encoders designed for raspberry pi as low voltage leds instead of the more voltage hungry 12v ones for main stream machines will cover them in other build.

For cabinet graphics i asked mark from arcade flat pack he recommended rockstarprint.co.uk  ended up buy some side art and 3d carbon fiber for other panels.

there are some other bits you will need. amps and speakers whent with 100mm speakers and some 12mm t-molding. from: https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/

You will also need a raspberry pi 3 micro sd card again size is up to how big a image your going to build  and 2 usb memory sticks or powered hard drive depending on how big of a install you want to do as its quite modular.

Recommend getting the pi 3 from http://www.thepihut.com

Sd cards and usb keys are available every ware

tools:

  • Craft knife
  • Screwdriver set
  • some 200 grit sand paper
  • Hex key set

Starting the build i have already test assembled the cabinet to make sure all parts fitted. there was a issue with perspex that is being replaced as 20″ perspex was sent by mistake.  its in transit as i type.  as the wife is out for a few hours thought i would apply artwork and make a start of installing all the buttons.

disassembled kit

removed parts  that i will cover in graphics and vinyl wrap sanded to scratch up the faces that the vinyl is going to cover and removed dust.

ruffly cut the vinyl to shape then started to peel.

Then start in one corner to peel the vinyl and wipe with a cloth.

now trim off over hangs using sharp craft knife position blade at angel cut out any holes and features.

sides done

Insert t-molding and cut to length then tap in to slot using back of a screw driver handle.

now for other panels.

Part 2  Wiring up the buttons and installing speakers and all pcbs coming Monday the 8th time allowing.

Please note all links are people i have brought off and i am not affiliated with all my views are mine and not sponsored.