It has been a bit slow on the progress so far, but we wanted to make sure everything was correct when dealing with expensive item from a foreign country.
We have paid the deposit on the laser, and the order has been placed. I will let you know when it has shipped. Now we need to do the prep work for the installation.
I will update you on the build progress and when it has shipped. We are looking at a minimum 30 days for production and shipping by container ship, so we are looking at mid May time frame to have it running.
I am willing to help where I can, but it seems #1 is getting the studios cleaned out. Then we can figure out electrical placement and needs. If we give members a month to clear out the studios, that would put us at May 1st before we would be able to run electrical. David had brought up the idea of all studios going away. So we need a plan in place for that as well. I would assume Christian is in charge of that.
Unless RDWorks sucks more than laserweb it is the plan to switch the controller and software to RDWorks once we have working laser cutter. The only thing stopping us from switching it over is taking the current working laser down long enough to switch the controller and retraining everyone for the new software.
Since I am not confident to say how long that will take to switch out the controller, and what problems will happen along the way it is better to stay with the devil you know then reconfigure the existing laser.
If you have any addition things you would like to discuss please let me know tom.bloommakeict.org.
For those of you that have not been down to the space. They second laser is in the building. Thank you Zac/Paul M, and all that helped move it in. I am sorry I was not able to help while I was out of town.
There are a few things that still need to be done. In the process of moving and installing the laser there are/were some binding issues on the z axis. I have worked on it tonight, and it seem to be better, so we should be able to proceeded with the setup and commissioning. If we can address the dual venting for both of the lasers this weekend we should have some test cuts soon.
FYI, There was some work done for changes to the laser venting. I am sorry I was not able to connect the new laser. The new blower fan is mounted to the wall, and the sheet metal work is done for the most part. It is dry fitted without being screwed and taped together. It was a bit hot and dirty. On top of all that there were people Cleaning while I was trying to work.
Thank you guys/gals for cleaning and organizing the space. It looks 1000% better.
It looks even awesomer with the temporary flex pipe connecting the Rabbit to the new vent.
There were a few hurdles splicing both lasers together. Thank you Zac/Devin/Christian/Steve T/Mike B for lending a hand with the duct work, and moving the pile of stuff over.
Even through I tried to get everything cut correctly the first time I had to make some last minute changes, so the new laser is not connected yet. It will only require a small section of ductwork to be added. I hope to have the laser connected this weekend, so we can start testing.
If you notice any for of extra heavy smell while using the rabbit laser please stop using it. And tell someone, and send an email to fablab@makeict.org. I would hate to gas the space with combustion fumes.
What’s the status on the new laser? Every time I’m down there, it looks about the same, but it has always looked like a work in progress. Is it up and usable yet?
the work is narrowing in. I’ve used it, but it’s got some opportunities and it’s got some alignment/autofocus things I was going to work on in the next week or two. and like any new tool we’ll have to do some learning together, I know how to do 50 things on the old laser and like two things on the new laser and I still get lots of weird errors then find ways around them, that sort of thing. So we’ll have to bring some tech savvy folks on board first who don’t need as well charted of a path through the software.
I’m also kind of tired of calling it “new laser”, anyone want to suggest clever names for them?
