Laser Engraver/ Cutter

[Lesgold]

It was then a simple task to cut and solder the wires together and build a container to hold the battery pack and the laser. I used the engraver to make this component. Double sided tape was then used to hold the laser bracket to the laser module. The photograph shows the laser before it was focussed.

[Lesgold]

As this laser beam was situated about 30mm from the actual cutting beam, I needed to measure the offset in both the X andY directions and then use a feature in the software to tell the laser to move to a new spot before starting its program. After a couple of tests and minor adjustments, I was able to get the starting point to within a mm. A bit more tweaking could get things very close but this is more accurate than what I require at this stage. For really accurate jobs I would construct jigs.

[Lesgold]

The software package that is used with the laser comes with a feature that allows you to engrave or cut out pieces that are larger than the bed of the machine. The maximum size that can be cut in one go is approximately 400x 400mm which makes it difficult to cut equipment that is the length of a bee box. A feature called ?Print And Cut? allows this to happen. In theory, the design space on the screen is infinite in size so it is possible to draw up anything that you want. The trick with this feature is the break the project down into a number of components and cut each one individually. The design must include a couple of reference points in the form of cross hairs a bit like what you would see on a rifle scope. One part of the project is engraved or cut (including the cross hairs) and then the project is slid through so that the next part can be cut. The laser is told where the reference points are and the next part of the project is completed. A beam of light from the laser is used to line up with the reference points. Unfortunately with my type of laser, lining up reference points was difficult due to the protective cover that shields the laser beam. Dark and reflected light made it impossible to get things extremely accurate. Below is a picture of my first attempt. I have designed a plywood frame cage made entirely of plywood. As you can see from the photos, I was way out on aligning the two halves of the excluder. If I can resolve the issue, I will make a cage today and post it up. I have a couple of ideas that may help to solve the problem.

[Lesgold]

Shining a torch through the orange window of the laser gets rid of any reflection and shows up alignment marks clearly. This solves the problem and allows for accurate positioning of the laser beam.

[BeeMaster2]

Les,
I?m not sure what you are saying. Please explain what shining a light through the orange filter. I have not seen anything about alignment marks. Is it in LightBurn?
Jim Altmiller

[Lesgold]

Hi Jim,

If you have a look in the ?Laser Tools? drop down menu in Light burn, you will see a feature called ?Print and Cut?. It allows you to engrave objects that are larger than the table area of the engraver. For example, if you wanted to engrave a long banner you could do so in sections. As part of the design, you would add a series of alignment marks along the banner which would be used as reference points to align the laser beam to. The test fire button on the laser is used to align to these marks. A low powered beam of light is produced and the laser is toggled so that the beam is aligned with that mark. On our laser, there is a small orange window near the bottom of the laser module that you can look through to see the beam. Unfortunately, any marks on your work piece are hard to see as the area directly below the laser is quite dark and often light is also reflected off the orange window. Shining a torch through this window gives the detail required. If I get a chance later, I will take a picture of what I?m talking about. Print and cut is an amazing feature that I?ll be using more often.

[BeeMaster2]

Thanks Les. I will check this out this morning when I get on my computer.
I have never tried to line up the laser to an existing burn. I have only used frame to line it up. Learn something new every day.
Jim Altmiller

[Ben Framed]

This is a neat Laser. In this clip, the user is cleaning rust from a metal object. Amazing.

https://youtube.com/shorts/JlxPOEiwnyw?si=azxRyaVLwjiHdtAb

[Lesgold]

Just updated the software for the laser. As per usual, there are a few new and interesting features. One is the ability to design and make bar codes. Just had a play a few minutes ago. Might make one with my contact details for the markets. People will be able to scan the bar code and my details will come up on their phone. Another option for the honey lovers out there who don?t want to hold a business card. Try scanning this one to see what happens.

[Terri Yaki]

It gives me phone contact for john doe with a gmail address.

[Lesgold]

Sweet. This image can be burnt onto plywood etc. It?s quite an interesting feature.

[Terri Yaki]

This modern technology is impressive

[BeeMaster2]

Les,
That same update also added a nice trim function, scissors. You can place over lapping boxes, circles and shapes and then use the trim function to delete sections out. It is nice addition to Lightburn. They also updated the line function, if you hit S, it switches the straight line function to smooth line. Smooth line makes lines bend and you can control the shape. Hitting S turns it on and off.
Jim Altmiller

[Lesgold]

They are both definite improvements and cut down drawing time. It?s good that these updates occur as they are constantly refining and improving some of the clunky features of the software.

[Lesgold]

A few weeks ago Jim mentioned something about using the laser to make bee frames. I thought of that comment when I was in the local hardware store a couple of days ago. These days I tend to buy frames as they are so inexpensive and the time to make them doesn?t really add up. The cost of raw materials is the killer. When I saw a pallet of pine off cuts being sold for a good price, I thought I might put the idea into practice. Below is a pic. of a piece of pine that was purchased for $5. 140x35x 1.2m long. It was clear pine and had the right dimension for making frame end bars so I decided to rip it up to see what I could get out of it. The result was material for 2x top bars, 14x bottom bars and 25x end bars. They were all cut to perfect length except for the end bars which were a few mm over size. I should have purchased two of them to give me more top bars. It will be purchased tomorrow. The most important piece of the frame is the end bars. With shaped sides, two joints and four holes, they were the most time consuming parts to make using machines. If the laser would handle all of these operations, it would be a huge time saver. Deciding how to do this would be the next step.

[Lesgold]

Drawing up the end bar plan was the easy bit. Decided that a jig to hold components in place was the way to go. To save time, only the necessary parts would be cut out with the engraver. A jig was created with the engraver to accurately hold blanks that had been trimmed slightly over size. It was just a matter of dropping the timber pieces in the spaces and pressing start. 8 end bars could be cut in one operation. Approximately 25 minutes was required for the cycle to complete. While the machine was running, I was able to work on other projects in the workshop. This is what I enjoy about the engraver. A bit of time and thinking will have to go into top and bottom bar construction as they are larger than what the machine can hold. If I have to use normal machining processes for these components, that?s not a problem as it was the end bars that took the most time to make and drill.

[Terri Yaki]

Very nice Les, thanks for sharing. I am not a jealous person but I am envious of your skills and abilities. You do some neat things.

[Lesgold]

Thanks Terri,

I just love doing stuff. When the weather is lousy, I just need to be busy so I spend a lot of time in the workshop. The laser cutter has just sent the mind into overload in relation to beekeeping possibilities. It?s great to have Jim here as we share thoughts and ideas.

One of the biggest disadvantages of this laser cutter is the size of the work bed. It is narrower than a bee frame which requires a bit of ?out of the box? thinking. (Pardon the pun) X Tool now have a laser that has a work bed that is 600mm long which would simplify the situation but the cost is the issue. It?s just a matter of working around the problem and utilising the gear that you have.

Yesterday I came up with a system for cutting the joint work on the bottom bars. As the timber strips were longer than the work area of the laser, I had to attach the extension risers to lift the laser a bit higher. This would allow the bottom bars to protrude out past the table. A jig was cut to hold the timber in place and the joint work was cut on one end. The end bars were then rotated and the process was repeated. ((The pictures explain it better than I could) This process worked exceptionally well. I had to run a few test pieces to ensure that the joint work was going to fit well. The settings were tweaked until I achieved the desired result. The problem with cutting through thicker material is that the laser cut width tends to increase slightly and joint work tends to be a loose fit without making some changes.

Looks like a wet day tomorrow so I?ll be back in the workshop. The top bars may be too thick to cut with my laser but I do have a couple of ideas that I would like to try. I will attempt to use the same process as was used to construct the bottom bars but if that fails, I can still use machines to cut the lugs and bridle joint.

[Lesgold]

The weather was a little on the poor side so getting into the bees was out of the question. Went down to the workshop and started experimenting with ideas to make the top bars using the laser. Eventually, I came up with a process that utilised the machine for most of the operation. After ripping down some timber to the dimensions required, top bars were cut exactly to length. The profile of the end of the top bars were accurately drawn up and a jig was cut on the laser to hold the timber in exactly the right position. The profile was then cut on 6 top bars on one end only. To decrease the time needed, cut speed was increased which meant that the laser wasn?t going to cut all of the material away. The waste would fall away when the step was cut in the underside of the top bar. After both ends of the top bar were shaped, they were rotated so that a shoulder could be cut on the underside. The bandsaw was then used to complete the step. All waste fell away at this point.

[Lesgold]

I ended up using three of these pine off cuts to make enough components for 30 frames. Material cost was $15 so each frame cost 50 cents. Frames in my region cost about $1.70 each if you buy 100 at a time. We can buy them a bit cheaper than that but postage increases the cost. Assembly of the frames was as expected. Joint work was as good if not better than commercial frames and the wire holes were more accurately positioned that store bought ones. This was just a bit of fun on a couple of wet days. There was still a lot of labour involved in material prep so time is the biggest concern. If I was just getting into bees and looking at half a dozen hives or so, I would definitely make all the frames and boxes (as I did when I first started) but now, it?s easier to buy frames and spend a bit of time on assembly rather than going through the whole process. Now that the laser files are stored, it would be a simple task to make a few specialised frames as needed.