In this video, I explain the proper approach one should take when aligning mirrors on a CO2 laser. It runs a bit long, but eventually gets to the point.
Excellent. Its great UNEDITED to show trials and tribulations of an experienced K40 owner doing mirror alignment. Thanks you for the details you shared. I have watched your short version, and this is better as it really details all the steps needed in an everyday K40.....
Should be an official tutorial for this laser alignment. It's long, but worth every second. Finally made a cut in 3 months. Looked at the other 100 tutorials before. This is the only one you need. Thank you Sir big time. Oh and your voice is very soothing.
Best Guide on sorting the dreaded mirrors on the K40!!! sorted my frame/gantry squareness out 1st, then it made sense moving the mirror mounts "into" the beam once aligned using the paper trick. I removed each mirror that was having the masking tape stuck over it so it wasnt getting glue residue on it, then pop mirror back in & move onto the next (be patient with it). Ive watched lots of guides & tried to align the normal mirror to mirror method which i think is impossible with the cheap mirror mounts. Best the K40 has ever worked!!!+++++
I spent a couple hours with my dots going back and forth and not getting anywhere. After watching this video I went in and had it pretty close to perfect in about 30 minutes. I needed the idea of getting the beam straight and then getting the mirror in the way of beam to make it make sense to me. Thanks for saving me a lot of time and frustration.
Definitely the best video on how to align thank the stars someone is smart enough to tell people that the BLESSED FRAME NEEDS to be adjusted as well. My gods so many videos on how to mess it up with mirrors.. TY for a great video.
Well this makes a lot of Sense. A great laser allignment 101got a second hand k40 and watching this I AM pretty confident to get allignment right thank you very much
Thank you so much for making this - I've literally sat here taking notes with little pictures! 😂 I'm trying to get clued up before buying a K40 and this has really given me some confidence that I could tackle the mirrors! Thank you!!! I'll let you know how I get on!! x
thank you thank you thank you. New K40, no sign of anything burning at #2. We thought it had to go back until I watched this. Your explanation had me testing out past the mirrors where I was able to see the beam and then I was able to get it all aligned following your guide. Really appreciate your time and trouble.
Great stuff - the first (and maybe ONLY) video I've seen that covers all of the adjustments one might have to make to get everything aligned properly. I watched the short version of this first but was glad I watched this long version also - actually seeing the shims, gantry adjustments, live mirror adjustments was definitely worth going through (I watched at 2X speed and it was pretty easy to follow). Maybe an edited version of this video would be the perfect balance of detail, instruction and brevity. Thanks a bunch, I hope your method becomes more widely known, John!
The best video I've seen, so far, on laser mirror alignment! In Particular what screws on the mirror affect the placement of the dots. Thank you so much!!
Absolutely fantastic video. I never comment on videos usually but I just could not get my machine aligned right. Watched this last night and it took me half an hour this morning to get the machine spot on. Just for anyone else in future I also had to raise the rear of the gantry by the height of 2 M8 washers to get it aligned. I also had to square the gantry. It was totally twisted/skewed. Placed on a flat surface the gantry had a front right to rear left "rock" of about 13mm
Thank John Got my laser sorted within a hour... havnt been this good since I bought it almost a year ago. not even the supplier gave me this information
It also came to me in his day with a blow in the same place and the broken tube, I had to disassemble the entire frame of the X and Y axes because it was not square and had variations in the length of the route.
Check out the bed from lightobject.com It's expensive, but about as good as they come. I have a 3D printed bed design on thingiverse if you have access to a printer.
John, I really wanted to say thank you for posting this video. I ran across it looking for an adjustable bed idea for the K40 I just ordered and then looked at your other videos. Your perspective is one that I have not ran across in the "DIY" forum in regards to beam alignment. It makes complete sense however, and honestly I'm surprised its not disseminated more. I will definitely be following you to get any other bits of knowledge you feel like passing along.
Man, i have been fighting alignment for a few days now. I am close but just cant get it spot on. I am going to try this method out and hopefully it works!
Wish I had come across this video months ago, would have saved me a lot of wasted time. I also came to the conclusion through lots of painful attempts at alignment (I had a badly warped bed, the took a lot of work to shim correctly), that all the guides are wrong. Get the beam parallel, then move the mirror. Not half arsing the beam and mirror back and forth multiple times until it aligns. It saves a LOT of time aligning.
Great video it has helped loads.. my last problem although i have the dots in the centre of the last mirror and pretty darn central, now when i turn the power up and hit the button I'm getting an arc burn as well as the laser dot.. I have turned the final mirror to try that but still get an arc.. any ideas? I'm guessing the last mirror is maybe not at 45 degrees and not exiting through the lens centrally?
struggled for over an hour and couldn't get the dots inline, so what I did the piece of metal that holds the 2nd mirror I undid the 2 screws and slightly moved it and now the dot's line up perfectly, now onto the next step.
Any way of making a summary video with strictly the steps and no extra fluff? I really want to do this but it's very tough sitting and watching this for an hour and a half. My attention span doesn't last long enough lol Either way, thanks for taking the time to make this!
Timothy Armstrong ditto! I looked at the video length and was in total shock that anyone could possibly talk about laser alignment for the same amount of time as Star Wars.
A bit lengthy but at the end worth every minute. Thank you John. I'm new to this K40 business but will definitely give a try according to your video. One last question: How to correctly align the laser head once it was unscrewed from the holding plate?
I have a new method for head alignment which I need to shoot a video for. Essentially I use a piece of EVA foam sheet which can be marked at very low power, even when the laser is way out of focus. The sheet is placed under the head, and a quick push of the fire button will mark a dot and a crescent shape to the side if misaligned. As you rotate the head, the crescent will move closer to the dot until there is only the dot. Lock it there.
@@johncabrer2328 Glad I stumbled on this video! Nice job. I haven't ever aligned mine, but I have suffered from some areas of the bed surface cutting as well as others. Typically, two more passes at a given power level are required beyond what was required to cut clean through on the "sweet" part of surface. So, I'm hoping getting the beams colinear with the gantries will help that. I removed the head to drill holes for drag chain bracket. Now, the beam doesn't make it to the surface--it's probably hitting the sides of the air assist module. I'll go through the entire alignment process as you show, but what about the twist of the head? How do I align that (or do I need to wait for your new video?)
Just as a by the by when I was chasing my tail trying to align my mirrors until it dawned on me that I had to square up my frame and make it run parallel to the beam. I had to raise the back end of my frame the end closest to the tube by nearly 6mm. Once I had done that it literally only took 5 minutes to adjust my mirrors. The other thing that is often overlooked is Mirror 3. Once I had aligned mirrors 1/2. Mirror 3 the dot was going into the center BUT.. when I started cutting I was seeing ghosting/double lines on the cut. What I did there was I took out the lens put some tape on the bottom did a test fire and found the beam was hitting the corner of the lens and was reflecting off the aluminium. I had to shim mirror three so I could get the beam to fire in the middle of the lens. I really don't understand why so many insist that you can allow for everything a crooked frame etc etc and fix it all by adjusting mirrors only. I know of a few people who have sold their machines cheaply because they couldn't align the mirrors. I will be referencing this video to a lot of people that are having difficulties and if they are smart they will pay attention. Once again thank you for a common sense tutorial. I would have made a video a long time ago but I swear a lot so all you'd get is lots of ancestry being mentioned and not a lot of how to fix it.
Top notch and well explained compared to other "So-called" pros in the field on laser alignment. They should learn a few lessons about it here. Makes a way lot more sense. The others never explained which adjuster did what in that direction, as if it was top secret and was for you to find out! One thing i probably wouldn't do is use 3d printed parts for the mirrors though. Wont they have the tendency over time to misalignment of the mirrors as not being a metal fixture?
I've used a 3D printed base on my 100 Watt laser for several years with no problem. It's not exposed to residual heat, so I suspect this is why. Certainly would not use 3DP to hold the actual mirror.
@@johncabrer2328 Ive done everything in the video. Got laser centered on first and second mirror. When I go to center the 3rd, it's on when it's close to the 2nd and I can get it on when it's far from 2nd but, it won't go both ways. It's either on close and and off far or vice versa. I really am about to take an M16 to it! One and two are good, 3rd is an asshole.
@@ruffledfeathersquailfarm1092 Hi Benjamin, this problem you describe is caused by twist in the gantry. Look for my video on that topic. You will need lots of patience since it requires taking the gantry out. I suggest you lock up the M16 before attempting.
Good video, helped correct my techique I got from other videos. My adjustment is good now. Question, I have 3mm baltic birch plywood, it takes about 6 passes at 8mm feed full power to fully get through, does that seem right?
8mm/s is too fast, at least on my machine, but speed and power are not the only things to consider. Your water temperature must be maintained at or below 20°C. Above this temperature, the gasses in the tube do not recombine quickly enough to generate sufficient cutting photons (infrared light).
8 passes is way too much as well. You should be able to cut in a single slow pass. It could be that your lens is flipped, or you are not at the focal distance from lens to center of the wood. That distance must be 50.8mm.
Thank you! I can now cut in 2 passes at 7mm/s setting the power to about 12ma (what feed and power ma do you use?).. So it is definitely getting better. I found a couple of things wrong, 1. I was getting a double beam because my mirror #2 was hitting high and spitting beam some how 2. used ice blocks in bath , I was at 25 C before.
Nice know. I will try 20%. I am now using 29% or so with much better results. Full current does not help! But the lower it does work better! You can hear the difference too, the laser sounds different!
Hello John, I have the same machine as you and I'm new to this whole thing. I'm having extreme trouble getting my machine to cut acryl and wood. I can't get trough 4mm acryl or plywood no matter what I do. I've been trying to find someone who can guide me and help me pinpoint the problem. I would really appreciate the help. I'm so close to giving up the whole thing even though I really would love to be creative with the laser. Thank you, cheers.
quick question,I have not watched this video yet. I have lots of programed files I use everyday to engrave,will they be off if I align the mirrors? for the past 1+ years this has worked great, I have never checked mirror alignment ever, worked right out of the box :) thx
Checking the alignment won't change anything as long as you dont move the kinematic mount adjust screws. If you can engrave over the entire 320mm x 220mm area and it looks uniform, then there is no need .
thank you! yes all looks good. I do notice however if I engrave a row of words, say 10 words in line, the letters start to shift , like an L will lean, get distorted. so I have been breaking up into sections, same if 2 words come out overlapping heights, will get wiggly too. guessing it's a cheap k40 & must be a reason for the problem, but no idea what it could be. had this over a year & still learning. want to upgrade to bigger area or do a conversion, would like a 12" x 24" area, so far I have 14.25" x 9" stock thx again
You will need to loosen the tube support slightly on the output side, and then perform a new realignment on 1 2 and 3. Loosening will raise the beam angle, which you will then correct on mirror 1.
Hi John, I bought my K40 a few weeks back now. Still haven’t done (engraved or cut) anything with it yet. I tried but had so many issues from the start. Long story short, I’m almost done rebuilding it. In doing that I’ve made a few changes and also added a few things. One of those being a tube mount for the laser. One of the mounts on mine was broken and I wanted to be able to adjust my tube, just like you mentioned. Here are two mounts on thingiverse for that. I have the second one and it’s amazing, once you figure out how to install it. It’s a pain in the butt installing it; however works well! With the adjustable mount I able to align my laser easier! I also added springs to the mount so I wouldn’t have to push/pull it, the springs provide that tension to allow the tube mount to be adjusted to the frame mount. www.thingiverse.com/thing:2305604 And www.thingiverse.com/thing:2259794
I've been meaning to print some adjustable mounts if only to be able to recommend them to others, but never got around to it. I will check these out. Seems like it would make for interesting video topics.
10mm wrench. Just sayin'. My gantry holes were too small to get any king of movement. I need to take it back out and use a step bit to enlarge them just a little. Put flat washers on your 3rd mirror mount. I use Lightburn. Damn, you had to bring up "not pro gun".
CO2 laser light is absorbed by glass, acrylic, and lexan, so for burn protection, any pair of safety glasses will work. The visible light that is emitted can be a problem, so avoid staring at the burn point.
Like you said its not about hitting the center of the mirrors, shouldn't you check where the beam hits the lens and not where the beam goes into the head? In a better machine this might be the same but at least for my K40 I have to hit the 3rd mirror pretty high for the laser to hit the center of the lens.
The ultimate goal is in fact to be in the center, but beam alignment is not to the mirrors but to the rails of the gantry AND the tube under mirror 3. Since stock K40 heads do not have kinematic mounts on mirror 3, if the dot id low you have to raise the tube so it hits mirror # 1 a little higher. It is possible to shim the head up, but not down.
@@johncabrer2328 Thanks, yea my problem is that I would have to lower the head. I got it as close to the center as I could with the terrible tube mounting on the K40. (Half the threads are broken from factory)
I know I know. Thing is I was live streaming in facebook when I did this and FB won't let you go into landscape. I plan on remaking this video shorter and more organized soon.
@@johncabrer2328 it wasn't criticism , it really was a good video and you have a good narration style, i'm just a photographer and videographer so you get to see things in 16/9 , ignore facebook, they are the lowest of the low for posting video , just hang it on youtube and a link to facebook as facebook will just trash your work by compression, youtube is a lot better but there are better sites but you have to pay. keep up the good work. this link might help, I have never tried it as I dont have windows and only use final cut pro www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Convert-Portrait-Video-to-Landscape/. cheers
Excellent. Its great UNEDITED to show trials and tribulations of an experienced K40 owner doing mirror alignment. Thanks you for the details you shared. I have watched your short version, and this is better as it really details all the steps needed in an everyday K40.....
This is the best Mirror Alignment video on TH-cam by far... great video
Should be an official tutorial for this laser alignment. It's long, but worth every second. Finally made a cut in 3 months. Looked at the other 100 tutorials before. This is the only one you need. Thank you Sir big time. Oh and your voice is very soothing.
Hands down the best alignment video I've seen yet. I just finished aligning my K40 and I couldn't be happier. Thanks for sharing.
Best Guide on sorting the dreaded mirrors on the K40!!! sorted my frame/gantry squareness out 1st, then it made sense moving the mirror mounts "into" the beam once aligned using the paper trick. I removed each mirror that was having the masking tape stuck over it so it wasnt getting glue residue on it, then pop mirror back in & move onto the next (be patient with it). Ive watched lots of guides & tried to align the normal mirror to mirror method which i think is impossible with the cheap mirror mounts. Best the K40 has ever worked!!!+++++
I spent a couple hours with my dots going back and forth and not getting anywhere. After watching this video I went in and had it pretty close to perfect in about 30 minutes. I needed the idea of getting the beam straight and then getting the mirror in the way of beam to make it make sense to me. Thanks for saving me a lot of time and frustration.
Definitely the best video on how to align thank the stars someone is smart enough to tell people that the BLESSED FRAME NEEDS to be adjusted as well. My gods so many videos on how to mess it up with mirrors.. TY for a great video.
Thank you thank you thank you this was the first video that made sense and I am finally cutting something with my laser !!!!!
Thank you buddy 🤙🏻 Greetings from Sicily
Well this makes a lot of Sense. A great laser allignment 101got a second hand k40 and watching this I AM pretty confident to get allignment right thank you very much
Very long video, but VERY helpful. Really wish I would’ve seen this when I first got my machine
Thank you for this tutorial. Easy to follow and thorough explanations. My K40 is back up and running now. Definitely worth the watch!
Thank you so much for making this - I've literally sat here taking notes with little pictures! 😂 I'm trying to get clued up before buying a K40 and this has really given me some confidence that I could tackle the mirrors! Thank you!!! I'll let you know how I get on!! x
How did you get on?
thank you thank you thank you. New K40, no sign of anything burning at #2. We thought it had to go back until I watched this. Your explanation had me testing out past the mirrors where I was able to see the beam and then I was able to get it all aligned following your guide. Really appreciate your time and trouble.
Glad to be of help.
Thank You, John, You show way more than anyone else has as far as the issues one might have with an out of square machine, which they ALL are.
Great stuff - the first (and maybe ONLY) video I've seen that covers all of the adjustments one might have to make to get everything aligned properly. I watched the short version of this first but was glad I watched this long version also - actually seeing the shims, gantry adjustments, live mirror adjustments was definitely worth going through (I watched at 2X speed and it was pretty easy to follow). Maybe an edited version of this video would be the perfect balance of detail, instruction and brevity.
Thanks a bunch, I hope your method becomes more widely known, John!
Just wanted to say thank you for this detailed walk-through. This made it very easy to get my laser aligned.
The best video I've seen, so far, on laser mirror alignment! In Particular what screws on the mirror affect the placement of the dots. Thank you so much!!
Thanks! I'm so glad it helped.
Absolutely fantastic video. I never comment on videos usually but I just could not get my machine aligned right. Watched this last night and it took me half an hour this morning to get the machine spot on. Just for anyone else in future I also had to raise the rear of the gantry by the height of 2 M8 washers to get it aligned. I also had to square the gantry. It was totally twisted/skewed. Placed on a flat surface the gantry had a front right to rear left "rock" of about 13mm
Thank you John for this great video. Best so far.
Thank John
Got my laser sorted within a hour... havnt been this good since I bought it almost a year ago. not even the supplier gave me this information
That's what I like to hear. Glad I could help.
It also came to me in his day with a blow in the same place and the broken tube, I had to disassemble the entire frame of the X and Y axes because it was not square and had variations in the length of the route.
Thank you this has been very helpful and logical.
Thanks man. You helped me out and got me aligned. Now onto finding a decent bed setup👍
Check out the bed from lightobject.com It's expensive, but about as good as they come. I have a 3D printed bed design on thingiverse if you have access to a printer.
been struggling to set up for ages, just managed my first cut (of cardboard, nothing else on hand atm) after watching this, thanks for the help :)
Thank you for video it's been driving me nuts. I will give it a go
John, I really wanted to say thank you for posting this video. I ran across it looking for an adjustable bed idea for the K40 I just ordered and then looked at your other videos. Your perspective is one that I have not ran across in the "DIY" forum in regards to beam alignment. It makes complete sense however, and honestly I'm surprised its not disseminated more. I will definitely be following you to get any other bits of knowledge you feel like passing along.
Thanks for the feedback Justing. I will be remaking this video in a more concise format, so look out for that in the near future.
really helpful video, thank you for this.
Man, i have been fighting alignment for a few days now. I am close but just cant get it spot on. I am going to try this method out and hopefully it works!
Thank you for this video my laser is working perfect now :-)
the best video ofthe laser world!!! You help me a lot every day. Thank you very much
Wish I had come across this video months ago, would have saved me a lot of wasted time. I also came to the conclusion through lots of painful attempts at alignment (I had a badly warped bed, the took a lot of work to shim correctly), that all the guides are wrong. Get the beam parallel, then move the mirror. Not half arsing the beam and mirror back and forth multiple times until it aligns. It saves a LOT of time aligning.
Thanks for the video!
Great video it has helped loads.. my last problem although i have the dots in the centre of the last mirror and pretty darn central, now when i turn the power up and hit the button I'm getting an arc burn as well as the laser dot.. I have turned the final mirror to try that but still get an arc.. any ideas? I'm guessing the last mirror is maybe not at 45 degrees and not exiting through the lens centrally?
struggled for over an hour and couldn't get the dots inline, so what I did the piece of metal that holds the 2nd mirror I undid the 2 screws and slightly moved it and now the dot's line up perfectly, now onto the next step.
Any way of making a summary video with strictly the steps and no extra fluff? I really want to do this but it's very tough sitting and watching this for an hour and a half. My attention span doesn't last long enough lol Either way, thanks for taking the time to make this!
I'm planning on it, but finding time when the wife ain't nagging about one thing or another is difficult.
Timothy Armstrong ditto! I looked at the video length and was in total shock that anyone could possibly talk about laser alignment for the same amount of time as Star Wars.
A bit lengthy but at the end worth every minute. Thank you John. I'm new to this K40 business but will definitely give a try according to your video. One last question: How to correctly align the laser head once it was unscrewed from the holding plate?
I have a new method for head alignment which I need to shoot a video for. Essentially I use a piece of EVA foam sheet which can be marked at very low power, even when the laser is way out of focus. The sheet is placed under the head, and a quick push of the fire button will mark a dot and a crescent shape to the side if misaligned. As you rotate the head, the crescent will move closer to the dot until there is only the dot. Lock it there.
@@johncabrer2328 Thanks for your swift reply. Guess you should shoot a video on this topic very soon ;-)
@@johncabrer2328 Glad I stumbled on this video! Nice job. I haven't ever aligned mine, but I have suffered from some areas of the bed surface cutting as well as others. Typically, two more passes at a given power level are required beyond what was required to cut clean through on the "sweet" part of surface. So, I'm hoping getting the beams colinear with the gantries will help that.
I removed the head to drill holes for drag chain bracket. Now, the beam doesn't make it to the surface--it's probably hitting the sides of the air assist module. I'll go through the entire alignment process as you show, but what about the twist of the head? How do I align that (or do I need to wait for your new video?)
Just as a by the by when I was chasing my tail trying to align my mirrors until it dawned on me that I had to square up my frame and make it run parallel to the beam. I had to raise the back end of my frame the end closest to the tube by nearly 6mm. Once I had done that it literally only took 5 minutes to adjust my mirrors. The other thing that is often overlooked is Mirror 3. Once I had aligned mirrors 1/2. Mirror 3 the dot was going into the center BUT.. when I started cutting I was seeing ghosting/double lines on the cut. What I did there was I took out the lens put some tape on the bottom did a test fire and found the beam was hitting the corner of the lens and was reflecting off the aluminium. I had to shim mirror three so I could get the beam to fire in the middle of the lens.
I really don't understand why so many insist that you can allow for everything a crooked frame etc etc and fix it all by adjusting mirrors only. I know of a few people who have sold their machines cheaply because they couldn't align the mirrors. I will be referencing this video to a lot of people that are having difficulties and if they are smart they will pay attention. Once again thank you for a common sense tutorial. I would have made a video a long time ago but I swear a lot so all you'd get is lots of ancestry being mentioned and not a lot of how to fix it.
Top notch and well explained compared to other "So-called" pros in the field on laser alignment. They should learn a few lessons about it here. Makes a way lot more sense. The others never explained which adjuster did what in that direction, as if it was top secret and was for you to find out!
One thing i probably wouldn't do is use 3d printed parts for the mirrors though. Wont they have the tendency over time to misalignment of the mirrors as not being a metal fixture?
I've used a 3D printed base on my 100 Watt laser for several years with no problem. It's not exposed to residual heat, so I suspect this is why. Certainly would not use 3DP to hold the actual mirror.
@@johncabrer2328 Ive done everything in the video. Got laser centered on first and second mirror. When I go to center the 3rd, it's on when it's close to the 2nd and I can get it on when it's far from 2nd but, it won't go both ways. It's either on close and and off far or vice versa. I really am about to take an M16 to it! One and two are good, 3rd is an asshole.
@@ruffledfeathersquailfarm1092 Hi Benjamin, this problem you describe is caused by twist in the gantry. Look for my video on that topic. You will need lots of patience since it requires taking the gantry out. I suggest you lock up the M16 before attempting.
@@johncabrer2328 I finally got it but I took me darn near all day. Thank you for the reply.
Good video, helped correct my techique I got from other videos. My adjustment is good now. Question, I have 3mm baltic birch plywood, it takes about 6 passes at 8mm feed full power to fully get through, does that seem right?
8mm/s is too fast, at least on my machine, but speed and power are not the only things to consider. Your water temperature must be maintained at or below 20°C. Above this temperature, the gasses in the tube do not recombine quickly enough to generate sufficient cutting photons (infrared light).
8 passes is way too much as well. You should be able to cut in a single slow pass. It could be that your lens is flipped, or you are not at the focal distance from lens to center of the wood. That distance must be 50.8mm.
Thank you! I can now cut in 2 passes at 7mm/s setting the power to about 12ma (what feed and power ma do you use?).. So it is definitely getting better. I found a couple of things wrong, 1. I was getting a double beam because my mirror #2 was hitting high and spitting beam some how 2. used ice blocks in bath , I was at 25 C before.
@@mrxenon68 3mm ply 10mm/sec at about 8 - 9ma 20% on my machine
Nice know. I will try 20%. I am now using 29% or so with much better results. Full current does not help! But the lower it does work better! You can hear the difference too, the laser sounds different!
There are screws underneath the second mirror mount. You don't have to move whole thing..
Hello John,
I have the same machine as you and I'm new to this whole thing.
I'm having extreme trouble getting my machine to cut acryl and wood. I can't get trough 4mm acryl or plywood no matter what I do.
I've been trying to find someone who can guide me and help me pinpoint the problem.
I would really appreciate the help. I'm so close to giving up the whole thing even though I really would love to be creative with the laser.
Thank you, cheers.
Send me an invite on FB messenger and I will find some time this weekend for you.
quick question,I have not watched this video yet. I have lots of programed files I use everyday to engrave,will they be off if I align the mirrors? for the past 1+ years this has worked great, I have never checked mirror alignment ever, worked right out of the box :)
thx
Checking the alignment won't change anything as long as you dont move the kinematic mount adjust screws. If you can engrave over the entire 320mm x 220mm area and it looks uniform, then there is no need .
thank you! yes all looks good. I do notice however if I engrave a row of words, say 10 words in line, the letters start to shift , like an L will lean, get distorted. so I have been breaking up into sections, same if 2 words come out overlapping heights, will get wiggly too. guessing it's a cheap k40 & must be a reason for the problem, but no idea what it could be. had this over a year & still learning. want to upgrade to bigger area or do a conversion, would like a 12" x 24" area, so far I have 14.25" x 9" stock
thx again
Nice video, as for not being Pro-Gun, come take my CCW class and you will be a convert.
Nothing like having the tools and the skill to protect you and yours when troubles strike!
What would you do if mirror 2 was aligned ok, but after getting mirror 3 dots aligned the beam is hitting 3 low.
You will need to loosen the tube support slightly on the output side, and then perform a new realignment on 1 2 and 3. Loosening will raise the beam angle, which you will then correct on mirror 1.
@@johncabrer2328 thanks I will give it a try
Excellent content, but damn, hold the phone horizontally. Nothing like watching a video through a keyhole.
Yeah, that was facebook forcing me to use portrait mode. This video was a live broadcast, and unscripted, so not really my best work in that respect.
Hi John,
I bought my K40 a few weeks back now. Still haven’t done (engraved or cut) anything with it yet. I tried but had so many issues from the start. Long story short, I’m almost done rebuilding it. In doing that I’ve made a few changes and also added a few things. One of those being a tube mount for the laser. One of the mounts on mine was broken and I wanted to be able to adjust my tube, just like you mentioned. Here are two mounts on thingiverse for that. I have the second one and it’s amazing, once you figure out how to install it. It’s a pain in the butt installing it; however works well! With the adjustable mount I able to align my laser easier! I also added springs to the mount so I wouldn’t have to push/pull it, the springs provide that tension to allow the tube mount to be adjusted to the frame mount.
www.thingiverse.com/thing:2305604 And
www.thingiverse.com/thing:2259794
I've been meaning to print some adjustable mounts if only to be able to recommend them to others, but never got around to it. I will check these out. Seems like it would make for interesting video topics.
on mirror number 2, when the two dots hit the same spot the alignment should be correct given how sines work
This is only true if the frame is square as well. The real test requires marking dots in all four corners on mirror #3.
10mm wrench. Just sayin'. My gantry holes were too small to get any king of movement. I need to take it back out and use a step bit to enlarge them just a little. Put flat washers on your 3rd mirror mount. I use Lightburn. Damn, you had to bring up "not pro gun".
Do you have a recommended laser glasses to use with the k40 laser.like the video very informative.
CO2 laser light is absorbed by glass, acrylic, and lexan, so for burn protection, any pair of safety glasses will work. The visible light that is emitted can be a problem, so avoid staring at the burn point.
John Cabrer thank you for your help.
Like you said its not about hitting the center of the mirrors, shouldn't you check where the beam hits the lens and not where the beam goes into the head? In a better machine this might be the same but at least for my K40 I have to hit the 3rd mirror pretty high for the laser to hit the center of the lens.
The ultimate goal is in fact to be in the center, but beam alignment is not to the mirrors but to the rails of the gantry AND the tube under mirror 3. Since stock K40 heads do not have kinematic mounts on mirror 3, if the dot id low you have to raise the tube so it hits mirror # 1 a little higher. It is possible to shim the head up, but not down.
@@johncabrer2328 Thanks, yea my problem is that I would have to lower the head. I got it as close to the center as I could with the terrible tube mounting on the K40. (Half the threads are broken from factory)
its a great video but just wished you filmed it sideways
I know I know. Thing is I was live streaming in facebook when I did this and FB won't let you go into landscape. I plan on remaking this video shorter and more organized soon.
@@johncabrer2328 it wasn't criticism , it really was a good video and you have a good narration style, i'm just a photographer and videographer so you get to see things in 16/9 , ignore facebook, they are the lowest of the low for posting video , just hang it on youtube and a link to facebook as facebook will just trash your work by compression, youtube is a lot better but there are better sites but you have to pay. keep up the good work. this link might help, I have never tried it as I dont have windows and only use final cut pro
www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Convert-Portrait-Video-to-Landscape/. cheers
Good but very wordy.
You need some washers.