Today was the turn of Glowforge number 2 to see if it had survived the train and boat rides from Calgary to Yorkshire.
Bullwinkle, the machine we tried previously, has still got a problem with his air assist fan which the machine will not skip past. I superglued the idler wheel which apparently are notorious for splitting and it went back on with no complaints but that doesn't mean it will last.
Rocky on the other hand just needed a little persuasion. The laser tube gantry, as with Bullwinkle, was skewed, but a bit of brute force pushed it into position. Other than that it just needed to warm up and a touch of isopropyl for the button to go from angry red to white and ready to rock.
This meant next we needed a quick test cut just to see if it was booting, connecting to wifi, and able to laser. Surprisingly it just worked.
Could I cut something for real?
Rather than 3D print 70 Gaslands billboards, Piotr suggested we laser cut instead and he designed a quick SVG. On Rocky we can cut one in 5:25. Contrast that to two hours on the 3D printer and I think this is a win, even with added assembly and gluing time.
Without modifying the design, I can fit four on my laser bed. Piotr has a larger 80 watt machine that has a bigger 60cm x 40cm so can do a couple extra per run.
I imagine if we both cut in MDF it will be both faster AND cheaper than 3D print, a win-win.
Here are the unassembled pieces still with the masking tape on. For actual production we won't use papeer backing because these guys will all be assembled, glued, and painted before distribution. I just happend to have handy some Glowforge material that comes with masking tape pre-applied.
The tape does give a real clean look, but for gluing it is an added piece of the assmebly to remove the tape before things can be stuck together.
On the original that I designed for 3D printing, I had pillars holding the sign up. Seeing as we are cutting 3mm material here we have to recreate that look in slices. Kind of 2.5D design instead of 3D, but it works.
We might need a jig to make it so the pieces align properly, and might is a little unsteady, but cool how they turn out!
That's a cool tool. I've some people around Hive using CNC machines as well as plenty of 3d printers. That's stuff I've never played with. I'm more of a software guy.