K40 Laser Cutter Potentiometer Upgrade

I decide to Upgrade my K40 Laser Potentiometer to an better one.
The pot is the uxcell (A14111100Ux0695)www.amazon.com/Uxcell-a141111...
Hey everyone, my name is jay and welcome back to notion lab.
I’ve had my k40 laser for a few months and it’s been a lot of fun.
At the average price point of 350 dollars its the most affordable means of getting into CO2 lasers...... but it’s not without its flaws. With a few modifications and upgrades I plan on making it the best machine that it can be.
First upgrade is the potentiometer. Some machines have a digital panel that make fine adjustments to the laser power output really easy and some have an analog potentiometer with no concrete way of knowing your power levels.
After some research a found a great replacement. It’s a 10 turn pot made by uxcell (A14111100Ux0695) and It’s packed with features such as a gauge, 1 percent increment of power levels and a locking lever to prevent movement after your levels are set.
Removing the old pot is straight forward by de soldering the three wires and removing the top cap.
I did it off camera but It’s a good idea to tin the pads of the new one beforehand, it makes soldering the wires much easier.
The pads on the new pot is at an difficult angle so it’s has to be soldered before installation. What worked best for me is holding the pot upside down and aligning the wires with the contact pads with one hand.
With the pot upside down solder the red wire to the pad closest to you....green wire to the middle and the blue wire to the last pad.
Now fit the potentiometer in. It should fit but may require a bit of pressure to fit flush.
Installing the cap is very specific. There is a small notch on the cap that work with a black spacer to prevent it from spinning any further when it reaches 100 percent. First I decided I like the placement of the number readout in this orientation Which puts the black spacer roughly in this location, the smooth washer goes on next, then the locking washer followed by the nut. When Tightening everything together the black washer did spin but I roughly placed it back to its original location. I used an 11 mm wrench to secure the nut.
Finally the cap can be installed by aligning the notch to the black spacer. There is a small grub screw on the cap to secure it to the shaft of the potentiometer with an 1.5 mm Allen wrench.
I do plan on making an separate test video along with a few other mods so stay tuned and make sure to subscribe for future videos.
Thats all for now, thank you for watching and until next time.....Later days.

[@1800Supreme]

I love the way you did your bed level I wish i had seen yours before I made mine with pillow bearings and such.

[@bobbyboy75uk]

Awesome vid, thanks.

[@vanduraful]

Was readjusting the mirrors and all this crap only to finally see the potentiometer was failing. Thanks for the video!

[@quarlow1215]

Nice upgrade. I have that dial coming and don't even have my laser yet. LOL

[@pixelsmaster5452]

Finally a clear and concise explanation for replacing the the K40's pot. I thank you for this. Is it possible to use a 10K Ohm version. It appears your video caused a shortage of stock for 5K Ohm version on Amazon.LOL

[@danielannetta3982]

I'm trying to replace the potentiometer. SO the current one on there just like yours was a 1k 2W. If I replaced it with a 1K 3W would it still work fine with out causing any damage?

[@andrewgarcia5458]

So if you put in a Ma meter do you have to put in a potentiometer?

[@Yourapplicationbuilder_com]

Jay. Great video. Where did you find the z bed?

[@thenotionlab]

Thank you, The bed is a design i worked on but never finished so i never published it.

[@Yourapplicationbuilder_com]

@@thenotionlab to bad. Looks really good