Russ Sadler’s Video journey trying to learn about Chinese laser

Cutting Technology
Introduction

This technically is a video diary of my mistakes and successes as I gradually come to terms with the
mysteries of owning one of this little Chinese dragons. It seems illogical that a diary should have an index.
That is something done by historians (after my passing) who have too much time on their hands waiting for
history to happen!!!

However, after being put into a pschycological headlock, I have relented and with the help of Gene Uselman
who has carefully created the skeleton of this index, I have added pertinent bullet points to each video to
help others find elements of interest.

This bullet point index has been made a year into my learning journey when I am older and wiser. It must be
remembered at all times that this is a video record of me learning about a technology that is very poorly
documented and in my naivety I make (what I can now see as) lots of silly mistakes. Where it is appropriate,
I warn of my error BUT in the spirit of leaving the work as an unedited record of discovery I leave you to
watch ahead to that point where I begin to realize and correct those errors
Thanks for your interest.
Russ July 2016
Chinese laser cutter tutorial
part 1... Intro and unpacking machine
https://youtu.be/YvrMeUUzaBo
• Introduction to the machine
• A look at what you get for your money
• The DIY water tank
• Tour of the machine
• A look at the engineering quality
• Doubts about the aluminium table

part 2... laser theory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF9nQHlvGkc
• Laser light theory
• Laser head description
• Laser focus point
• Absorptivity table for metals
• 3 main cutting mechanisms with the laser
• Hazardous fumes from cutting plastics and some woods
• Warning about VERY high voltage
part 3... Load RDworks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGD8BPZntxY
• Loading RDWorks
• Useless stuff on the CD.
• Not the latest version of RDWorks That can be found at
http://en.rd-acs.com/down_complex.aspx?FId=n14:14:14
• But a better source for a good stable well tried version with added items in the
cutting parameter library can be found at
http://www.thunderlaser.com/laser-download Download at least items 1,3 and 4
• Install the USB driver but put a USB stick into a USB port first or it may
complain (in Chinese that you wont understand). THEN press install to load
RDWorks.
• Configuring your work area to match your table size
• Quick first look at drawing a figure
• Use of Control key.
• Simple use of coordinates to align objects
• Quick look at layers and cutting parameters
• Cutting power…you are witnessing my ignorance. DO NOT FOLLOW IT. Set
your max/min power at 60% /60%
• UNTICK THROUGH POWER.
• Layer order.. regardless of order, SCAN always takes precedence over cut
layers

part 4... Early pin bed and laser setup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA1jM9hTk6s
• Nail bed mark1
• Fitting the water pump and tubing
• Powering up the machine in stages
• Using the focusing tool
• Red dot pointer
• Finding out where machine 0,0 is
• First test pulse
• Seeing the invisible laser beam
• First power down
part 5... cut, engrave tests, Display panel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcze9B0BmpA
• Dangerous materials you should not cut
• Places to go and find out about plastic materials
• Loading your first test program
• On machine parameter editing
• Exploring the machine keyboard
• Running first test program
• The effect of air assist……not a good idea to turn off air assist as there will be a
chance of fogging the lens.
• Note I am using 80 and 85% power BAD NEWS. I should not be using more
than 60%
• Why you need to set the focus correctly.

part 6... Focus guage and early mode burn depth tests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUdEUxJH2_o
• Making a focus setting gauge
• Testing beam power and size of beam with different focus distances
in a block of acrylic
• Depth of cut tests with different speeds and no air assist (not recommended as
there is a risk of fogging the lens)
• Depth of cut tests with different air assist pressures
• Beam penetration results (more air assist pressure=shallower cut) True for
acrylic but not all materials
• In my ignorance I mention using 100% power. I didn’t know at this point that
100% power was there but NOT to be used!!!!

RDworks Learning Lab

01... Basic vector tools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLSI-z-TdNQ
• Setting Config file to give a page size the same as your machine table
• Setting the blue arrows to match your machine 0,0
• Setting head position (the green square) At this point I did not understand the
datum scheme. See https://youtu.be/CWZvQXxbR_E
• Setting node menu
• Drawing a line and using the Ctrl key to fix ordinate positions
• Drawing Poly lines
• Drawing Circles and ovals
• Drawing squares and rectangles
• Using the Text tool
• Quick look at Bezier curve tool

02... Sizing and positioning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlUFg42u5xQ
• Drawing a marquee round objects
• The X and Y coordinate position of object centres
• The X and Y dimensions of an object
• Using the padlock tool
• Using the % scale windows
• Using the rotation tool
• Getting to rotation handles with a double click

03... Positioning and alignment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns8b28g80vk
• Move your object to work area corners
• Last drawn or selected object become the “anchor” object
• Use of EDGE alignment tools
• Last selected (using shift key)object become the “anchor” object
• Using mouse key to zoom in and out.
• Resizing and spacing objects tools.
• Moving an object’s location coordinate

04... First program setup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8npuHUO5sw
 • Draw simple test object
• Use of layers to separate scan and cut functions
• Setting layer parameters for cutting/etching
• Assessing depth of cut to guess cutting speed.
• Is Blowing? Is actually not relevant to our simple machine. It’s a feature of the
controller that allows you to program the extractor on and off so that it only
extracts when you are cutting if you answer Yes. You fan is NOT connected to
this system so the question and the answer are meaningless
• Through mode. I now know this to be not very important for our machine
Through Power should be used in conjunction with OPEN DELAY. Normally
the program starts cutting immediately. If you tick Through Power, specify a
Through Power % and set the OPEN delay to say 10ms. The head moves to
the start point, turns on the Through power % for 10ms. After 10ms the normal
power and program begins NOTE!!! Make sure you set OPEN DELAY back to
zero if you untick Through Power
• Error Don’t set power to 85% limit yourself to 65%
• Layer cut order. You can select cut order BUT machine will a ALWAYS do
scanning layers first
• Preview your program
• Save your drawing as a .RLD file
• Save your machine program via Ufile button as a .RD file.
• Load .RD file via a USB stick into the laser machine

05... First Cut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLBY8z_nRWw
• Look at different plastics you can and cannot cut
• Hammer test to identify safe ones
• Places to go to find out about material hazards
• How to edit parameters on the machine
• How to run your first program

06... Graphics Intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybnT3lECAqs
• First attempt at graphics in Photoshop (failed)
 • Importing graphic from internet
• Building a picture away from RDWorks
• Import into RDWorks
• Create final object
• Break object into 2 layers. One for cut and one for scan
• I set power to 85% power WRONG!!!!
• Use preview screen
• Connect PC to machine to transfer program
• Use of Track button
• Examine finished project

07... effect of dirty lens, method of testing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEtgIfFhIek
• Designing a cut test program
• Copy and paste duplicate objects
• Use even spacing tool
• Use horizontal alignment tool
• Put all objects on different layers
• Assign parameters to each layer
• Run the cut test to show results are now worse
• Some ignoramus mistreating a lens!!!!
• This is how to remove the anti-reflective coating. Ignorance is bliss. DON’T do
it this way.
• Despite my attempt at wrecking the lens, alls well that ends well

08... bitmap discussion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXPQw--q19A
• Import a BMP picture
• Using the bitmap handle
• Examine the picture in the Bitmap Handle window
• Experiment with lots of settings
• Add text to picture
• Add layers and assign parameters for each layer.
• Cutting at 90%??? WRONG!!!
09... Cutting a dithered bitmap grapic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq2A_2JVXvo
• Producing the horse graphic on acrylic using NET GRAPHIC.
 • Set the focus a little into the material
• Not the most successful graphics test

10...Bitmap Handle Dot graphics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9xR4hujtB4
• Reworking the horse picture as DOT GRAPHIC
• Produce 2 copies
• Zooming the screen to examine the finished dot picture
• Invert image to a negative for the second picture
• Examine both with preview.
• Cut both pictures and compare end results
• Examine pictures close up to look at the dotting
• Modify resolution to improve picture?

11p1...Rotary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyevrQXaGRo
• Disconnect Y axis plug and plug in rotary device
• Orienting the rotary device onto the machine table
• Discover direction of keyboard arrows
• Understanding 90 degree rotation of program
• Designing and programming a test program with 150mm reference lines
• Set rotary device true to table
• Power machine on and find the roller 0,0

11p2...Rotary ….Create a scaling factor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIlXSZhgbe4
• Align Head to work centre
• Understanding slippage
• Align work by using track test
 • Cut test program and measure reference distance (162mm)
• Don’t mess with vendor settings
• The maths off calculating a correction factor
• Designing another calibration check program
• Verifying Calibration number with a smaller tube.
12... early mirror adj (see session 51 for best method)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55qu_lCdKk
• Designing acrylic targets to aid with beam alignment
• Quick check of beam alignment at each mirror
• Check beam centre through nozzle in two axes
13... rotary glass engrave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2OnCcx9qZM
• Prepare bitmap for rotary engraving
• Set to negative and also modify y axis to 92.6%
• Someone suggested engraving through wet kitchen roll
• Repeat test with NO kitchen roll
• Be careful of glass shards
• Clean off glass shards
14p1... Design and cut Puzzle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pMHKLT8oDU
• Preparing a photo by mounting it to backboard
• Method of cut design
• Programming the cuts
• Cut optimise
• Preview cuts
• Order cuts by layer order.
• Test cuts to see how corrugated card does not cut well
• On-machine editing caution. Only one layer at a time
• Looks like cut success but in reality rubbish.

14p2...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbvMs0sM16Q
• Picture remounted on 2mm acrylic for 2nd attempt
• Maybe substitute tri wall card for honeycomb
 • 3rd attempt 95% power (NO!!!!!!!)
• Finally success
• Stupid test…… engraving sliced bread!!!

15... Design light sculpture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSu8jGLWJVk
• Preparing program
• Setting paramerets 95% power (NO!!!!!)
• Cutting the parts
• Assembling the sculpture (click together)
• Add some led illumination
• Final success

16... tests of tube power (failing tube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfRpa9Y5Woc
• Create some power loss test programs
• Run the test program
• Note. At the end of each sweep the beam cuts a groove in the piece of vertical
white acrylic
• Conclusion that power loss if from the laser itself.
• MODE burn tests prove varying laser output

17... more mode burns at tube- bad tube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJBRZ2J0Q9A
• Running program to produce test strips
• Finding out that power recovers quickly when beam switched off
• Mode burns at 1 minute intervals
• Examination of mode burns to show magnitude and speed of power loss

18... set cut properties

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXna2oBp-gE
• Realization that RDWorks is an INTERFACE program NOT a CAD or
 DRAWING program.
• A drawing with multiple parts that need cutting in a specified order.
• Discovery of the cut optimise list
• This is the tedious LONG way to order cuts (Its not until session 29 that I
discover the BEST way to use this tool)
• Assembling the acrylic construction
• This jig was a great vehicle for learning about cut control, sadly the jig itself was
useless

19... Xmas cards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Su7RZvKdQ
• General design of card.
• Edit cut property examination
• Cut optimse set up
• Struggle to find the correct order
• Cut optimise set as “inside to out”
• Examination of original nail bed. Binned
• Mk 2 pin bed…fully adjustable
• Cutting the Xmas card
• Assembling the finished card

20... cut optimise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wVGHLWHirM
• Explanation of the cut order I am looking for
• Cut optimise setting
• A different approach to SET CUTTING PROPERTY.
• Reversing the list
• Test with preview to check order….wrong.
• MUST remove tick from Path Optimise to allow ME to take control.
• Fix the Sue problem
• Further refinement of ordering the Set Cutting Property list
• Setting pin positions for good paper support
• The final personalised Christmas card

21... Fitting new tube prelude (DIY power meter ?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAWaqHFvRqk
* An attempt to use conventional calorimetry to measure tube output power

21p1... Fitting new 50w tube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzbqN8m7hGM
• Final testing of original rubbish tube prior to changing it.
• Introduction to my crude calorimeter
• Calorimeter calculations to establish power absorbed
• Results show lower average output form higher % power setting
• Conclusion. Yes, a rubbish tube. Needs to be replaced
21p2... Fitting new 50w tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hysBCC_ZwE
• Emptying the water from the old tube
• Removing the old tube
• Remove the HV connection. (Wire wrap connection!!!!)
• Modifying the brackets to suit new larger tube
• DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SOLDER THE WIRE ONTO THE POST like this. It will
NEVER work and will invalidate any warranty that may be on the tube. Stay
with the wire wrap method.
• Connect water and check air bubbles move out
• Mode burns to verify better output
• Quick check the beam is thro centre of nozzle
• New beam cut quality
• Quantitative assessment of power with mode tests
• Results hint at 65% power being max power output
• Calorimeter results assessment of power.
• No Power supply issues
• Grapical confirmation that you don’t run at more than 60% power setting
22... 50w fraud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQDCy-mPNqA
• Chinese laser advertising fraud
• Benchmark tests
• Design test program
• Run perfectly timed mode burns to see power characteristic of your tube.
• Confirmation that 60% power setting should not be exceeded.

23... Fine detail import issue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG376fzLHMI
 • Import artefacts as RDWorks brings in fine detail
• Solution is to export at 10 times full size
• Import and then scale down to 10%

24... Adding Ammeter and winterize

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDZmuxq5BEM
• A suitable temperature relay (with sensor) can be found at
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220V-Temperature-Controller-Sensor-2-Relay-Output-ST
C-1000-BT/281979653286?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D
111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D35377%26meid%3Ddc2e
9c371d8543e2bbdb11f35fe629ee%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D8%26
sd%3D330769086309

and the ammeter at

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/91C4-DC-0-30mA-Class-2-5-Accuracy-Analog-Ammeter-
Amperemeter-Gauge-/351749565079?hash=item51e5e86a97:g:HjsAAOSwmtJXUV
Fu.
• Wire in the ammeter and check polarity
• Check what %power is the allowed max drive current (75%)
• See efficiency of extraction system
• Test cut with 4mm plywood
• Fitting NTC probes to measure temperature of return water into the tank
• Revised max power is now 65%power
• Test cut in 4mm
• Demonstration of how the excess power puts marks on the acrylic base plate
25 Convert photo to sketch for engraving
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_EyCqNzVjk
• Bit maps revisited
• Photograph onto wood ….a failure
• Convert photo into a line drawing sketch
• Import as bitmap
• Use BitMap Handle to modify picture even further.
• Add a cut out feature
• Cut/engrave the coasters
• Finish them off with a wax polish

4 Month Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5k6YhNqfSw
 • My experiences and modifications so far

26... project- build acrylic knife holder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv-mEM2qMI
• Order the parts with reversing method
• 65% power cutting for 10mm acrylic at 2mm/sec
• Cutting 10mm acrylic with a 1.5” focal length lens
• Cutting 3mm acrylic
• Assembly of knife block
• Squareness of edge ……. A problem?

27... Simplified mode burn- disable Y axis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jgf0fPsPH0
• Draw a test program
• Remove the Y axis plug
• Auto run mode burn test
• Turn off power to reconnect Y axis

28... Cartesian co-ordinates explaination, plus datums and origin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWZvQXxbR_E

• Simple look at the CARTESIAN co-ordinate system

• Explain machine 0.0
• Explain program 0,0
• Explain position of OBJECT 0,0
• Explain machine ORIGIN button allows you to fix the program 0,0 at a position
of your choice in the workspace.

29... cut optimise- ( best method) with butterfly card project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3oUQ9gKjCk
 • A radically simple approach to controlling cut order
• Clear the CUT OPTIMIZE window
• Turn off PATH OPTIMISE
• Use of the SHIFT key to help with SELECTING separate elements into a
GROUP
• Press the GROUP button
• Review and order the SIMPLIFIED Edit Cut Property list
• Cutting the program
• Assembly of the finished card

30... cutting 10mm ply, tips tricks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt5R04vJPMc
• Cutting 10mm plywood…..very cleanly
• Keyboard wear observed
• Keyboard cover
• Fire hazard note
• Note about edge squareness

31p1... Mk1 laser polnter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RgbmAWgWxU
• Constructing a compact laser pointer
• Collimating the beam

31p2 Mk1 laser polnter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRizHrFSCwc
• Examine the positional error of the focus point when the laser beam is off
centre to the lens or off angle to the lens
• Fixing the laser pointer to the water jacket
• Steering the mirrors accurately
• Out of squareness found?
• REMOVE the laser pointer and check with the real beam
• Test cut to show resetting head to perpendicular has fixed the squareness
issue with cutting.
31p3 Mk1 laser polnter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KectEimG4jg
 • Using the laser pointer to set the mirrors
• Checking the dimensional accuracy of the CUT
• Understanding diagonal errors

31 p4 Mk1 laser polnter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUJgBcb2xnQ

• Making a target holder and targets for checking that beam is coming out of the
nozzle perpendicular to the table.
• Remove mirror 3 and modify holes to allow more float
• Move the head ONTO the beam centre and reset it square and true.
• Discovery that lens is fitted “wrong” way
• Now easier to get beam vertical

32... using laser power meter,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrbQdIAQl4s
• My power meter arrives!!!!
• Examination of what I got for my money
• Do I trust it? Yes
• Designing a test program to set the beam on for an EXACT period to fire at the
power meter
• Quick check of laser output …..37 watts!!!!!
• Check power after 3 mirrors …..31 watt !!!!
• Check after lens 30.5 watts !!!

33p1... LED edge lit sign( solar powered)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfk317JZE-w
• Design of edge lit sign….but solar powered
• Scanning ALWAYS happens first regardless of layer order.
• Engraving and cutting sign
• Quick test of “look” with temporary LEDs

33p2... LED edge lit sign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0kk4umA0BA
 • Making the aluminium base tube
• Fitting the sign to the base tube
• Testing the solar lights…..rubbish
• Testing a much higher price LED set…Looking good
• Fitting LEDs to sign
• Test of durability and “look” ……seems successful

33p3... LED edge lit sign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di1nmMHMTOI
• Last minute modification to make a mount for the solar collector integrated into
the sign mounting post

34… Mk1 fixed tube clamps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsVGSm1DkqQ
• Design a set of clamps for my 2nd laser tube to replace the dodgy modified
original clamps.
• Cutting the clamps
• Assembling the clamps
• Check clamps fit the tube

35p1... understanding a sealed CO2 laser tube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6onXMU08GzQ
• How does my laser tube work?
• Simple atomic stuff
• Pictorial description of how the tube works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN7_4h3nCZM
• Description of how the carbon dioxide depletes inn your tube.
• Final proof graph of why your tube dies.
 • Parallax confirms “dissociation” as the cause of death for a tube.
• Examination of my old tube to try and find out why it was so bad.
• Fit original tube back into machine for testing
• Add heat transfer grease to gap on mirror
• Did it improve its performance? Is it worth keeping?

35p3... Comparison of old and new tubes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GQQdHFgrLQ
• Fit 2nd tube back into machine
• Must seal HV terminal to prevent coronal leakage
• Fitting temperature probes to protect tube against freezing.
• Powering up the tube again
• Example of my new tube trying to strike at low current
• Example of my tube struggling to strike properly at full/mid range current
• Power characteristic for my 2nd tube
• Laser through mode ….possible work around?

36 Mk2 laser pointer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJRNbf1NbE
• Revised version of the laser pointer
• Different registration system
• Reference scorch mark
• Elastic band fixing method
• Checking mirror settings
• Cutting 10mm acrylic with 30 watts

37... Adjustable tube clamps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqwft4dmGos
• Assembly of Mk2 adjustable clamps.

38p1...-Mk3 laser adustable pointer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w9f8fZujlw
 • Another attempt at making a laser pointer
• Assembly of the pointer
• No collimation required
• Rubber band fix ….again
• Sausage shaped mark (not a sharp dot)
• The Y axis beam instability problem we noticed with the mk1 pointer is still
there

38p2...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcCBPiQXFrI
• Examination of the wandering beam and the effect it could have on the cutting
accuracy
• Mirror 2 mount seemed to be the root cause…very flimsy and being twisted by
torque from the cable guide chain
• Stiffen the bracket with additional screw
• Discovery that mirror mount limits bracket adjustment.
• 10mm plywood test cut at 6mm/sec.
• Check on power at cutting surface 27 watts!!!
• Quick look at the heating / anti-freeze system

39... tests on 1.5 ,2 ,2.5 lenses for cutting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbBPps42iHc
• Realization that my machine is fitted with a 1.5” focal length lens
• Comparing 3 lenses that we can fit to our machines
• Spot diameter is very important (energy density
• Longer focal length puts the nozzle further off the work. That degrades the
airflow into the cut area.
• For acrylic you do not need much airflow but for wood you need lots.
• Depth of cut changes with focal length
• Depth of cut in acrylic can be shown to decrease with excess air assist.

40... discuss cooling- not chiller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asM0s7wm4AM
 • How does temperature affect the power output of the tube.?
• Discussion of how my tank and tube are protected against sub zero weather
and how the DISTILLED water in the tank has remained pristine
• Examination of graph to verify the winterisation of the machine was a success
• Look at the graph to see the overall result. No significant loss with temperature
increase.

41p1...What is IR and how is it reflected off metals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJe16YQlIM0
• Infra Red ….what is it?
• Laser beam is IR “light” that we cannot see but we can feel it.
• How dangerous is IR
• How various metals react to IR light
• The dangers of reflectance
• Steel bed plate advantages
• Phenomenal copper reflectance
• Laser beam danger assessment
• Materials that absorb IR including human tissue.
• Safety glasses
http://www.hivis.net/132/Personal-Protection-Equipment/Safety-Spectacles/Cl
ear-Lens/

41p2... discuss mirrors and measure losses,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSDRQAkcPO0
• Power tests to check power losses across mirrors
• Important to set the power meter back to ROOM TEMPERATURE
• Summary of results for mirror losses
• Discussion of results
• Examination of my mirrors
• Difficulty getting access to mirror 2
• Mirror 2 needs a dramatic clean
• Recheck power losses
• Improvement after cleaning mirrors? NO.
• Decision to make copper mirrors.

41p3... Making Prototype Copper Mirror

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZApIOwIpeU
 • Check power loss with copper mirror and original mirror
• Making of a prototype set of copper mirrors
• Significant reduction in mirror losses by using copper mirrors
• Discovery that my mirrors are molybdenum

42... Power Loss Between mirrors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gUjIExQI64
• More mode burns to check power after each mirror
• A few hiccups with my “bipolar” tube performance.
• Understanding that mirrors are oval when the beam arrives/leaves. Must be
very accurate with beam alignment
• Modifications to mirror 2 screws
• Using the red beam pointer to aid mirror adjustment.
• Hacking the machine to access the mirror adjusting screws
• Relative power of mode burns A good checking method
• Decision to make better copper mirrors.
• Final test demo of cutting 15mm acrylic
43 Making improved Copper Mirrors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHagynL4zqs
• Death of the hard disk mirror myth
• Make a hard disk mirror
• Compare the hard disk mirror with the copper mirror
• Make a new mirror that also shows better performance.
• Further hacksaw work on the machine case.
44p1... line of sight mirror adj
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YvOqH44n6c
• Look at changes I have made to make beam setting simple
• Case changes
• Mirror 2 modifications
• Make an adjustable bracket for the head mount
• Modify mirror 2 mounting bracket
• Remove mirror 3 and set up a line of sight back to the laser.

44p2...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl6dAWOkksM
 • Burn mark misses mirror 3 Why?
• Adjust laser tube alignment, NOT a mirror
• Pulse test and align the mirrors
• Move the head onto beam centre, you may have to make your own bracket.

45... Pin Bed Mk2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMDRzBZTW9c
• Pin Bed manufacture (8mm acrylic)
• Setting pins to give edge location
• Setting a typical pin arrangement
• Cutting demo of a gift box using the pin bed 2mm stainless
dowels http://www.pts-uk.com/Products/Pins_Dowel_Pins_Metric_A2/A70232

46... Make and Test Ultimate Copper Mirrors & HQ lens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELeqP3tHlp0
• Even more copper mirrors!!! A different manufacturing method
• Making 3 mirrors at once
• Change the lens for a new HQ lens
• Do a scorch mark on mirror 3
• Turn the laser and add the laser pointer to the tube
• Replace 1 mirror at a time and use the laser pointer to reset each as you go
• Power checks good until mirror 3
• Mirror 3 has always been a problem Why?
• Detail drawing of the head shows mirror is not central to the entry hole
• Adjust the HEAD to catch the beam in the correct place.
• With all the new mirrors and HQ lens Examination and discussion of results

47... 8 month review of machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qy5cPZWGj4
• Quick tour of the machine to look at all the changes I have made
• Ammeter essential to maintain good tube life
 • Look at the way I have winterised the machine against freezing
• Distilled water still pristine
• Importance of my power meter in developing the machine.
• Head mount special adjustable bracket
• Mirror mount and adjustment modification
• Laser pointer.
• Dangers of the laser beam
• Hard disk mirror myth
• DIY copper mirrors …very, very good.
• Bad design of mirror 3 position.
• Demonstration of my “laser KISS” to get the machine run properly
• Run out of patience and have ordered a new 60watt tube and PSU
• Look at the new pin bed
48... Mk4 laser pointer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU3XxbT5hwc
• Yet another variation of the laser pointer to suit different machines
• This version s magnetically mounted on it’s own bracket and stands free of the
laser tube.
• Design. Cutting and assembly of parts
• Testing
49... Design case extension for 60w tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JqYUZ9wPp4
• Cutting and building the extension box parts
50... Fitting 60w tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCTrRT1C_eY
• Unpacking
• Removing the old tube and power supply
• Fitting the new 60 watt tube and power supply
• Move the position of the HV end end tube clamp to reduce unsupported length
• Powering up the tube
• Checking the power output. WOW 73watts!!!

51p1... Beam Alignment A Definitive Procedure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl6QKlwRKlk
• Must ensure that mirror mounts 1 and 2 are true 45 degrees and same distance
off the Y axis rail
 • Must set the laser tube parallel to the back and bottom face of the enclosure by
using packing blocks.
• Check entry into mirror 1 is central.
• These tedious setting will only need to be done once.
51p2... best align procedure(IMHO)- no led,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9v3Vs0Nbkw
• Check the beam onto mirror 2 until it is parallel to the Y axis rail
• Adjust the laser tube packing block to bring the beam to mirror 2 centre.
• Adjust the beam into mirror 3 until it is parallel to the Xaxis rail
• Adjust the head to put the beam into the correct centre position on mirror 3
• With mirror 3 steer the beam so that it is central and perpendicular to the table.
• Add the nozzle/lens and carry out test on 15mm acrylic using a 1.5” focal length
lens.
52... Checking table for flat, level
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLWa7GdbkQ8
• Examine the play in the table in all planes
• Adjust to remove the slack
• Measure the corner errors
• Set all corners to the same height
• Check the centre.
53... Power meters and doHICKY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO9rWlobLZU
• How does a power meter work? Why is it so useful?
• Demonstration of exactly how the meter works
• It is a comparator not an absolute device
• It has to be calibrated against a known standard.
• Can you make your own DIY power meter?
• Add a digital thermometer to a doHICky and with a calibration chart you can
make your own power meter
• How well does it work?
• Demonstration of its use and its accuracy.
• Opportunity to make one for yourself

54... beam drag & flame polish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYmT9yIjC4Q
• Explanation of and demonstration of Through Hole Power
 • What is beam drag?
• How do I get rid of it?
• Set focus onto surface and close air assist to almost off
• Modify the focus depth to 3mm below surface
• Great flame burnished edge
• Increase speed…….cut success
• Examination of cut characteristic
• Non-square faces explained.

55p1...MAX-MIN POWER-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38fBha5rqxI
• Observation of power overload at corners and finish of cut

55p2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsY1Ul7fBn0
• Rerun of test to examine effects by cutting acrylic with equal max/min power
• Change power to 65%/10%. No effect on corner depth

55p3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5iHjA7Hef8
• Review of my edit capabilities.
• This is what happens when I make a stupid mistake
55p4... summation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqQyhW4uSsM
• Narrowing the search area for a good setting
• Examination of results
• Very narrow zone of settings that work
• Test of observations
• Finding the “needle in the haystack”

56... Engraving History lesson and Greyscale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85gl9GadV8A
 • Engraving…definition of and origins
• Designing a greyscale test patch
• Investigating to see if we can see the machine changing power in response to
different shades of grey
57... 3D laser carving is it possible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctgvoLKWowA
• Can this grey scale capability be used to get 3D carving?
• Develop a picture using Photoshop
• Get picture to 10 levels of grey
• Import to RDWorks and set parameters
• First attempt at greyscale cutting
• Photo conversion is NOT the way to get 3D pictures

58... More 3D carving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xO1hiBQzBg
• Creating a “special” grey scale test picture with Photoshp
• Failure
• Special files that have been specifically prepared for 3D carving
• Test work with another picture and different cut parameters
• Modified picture in maple wood
• Modified picture in bamboo wood
• Modified picture in acrylic …….edge illuminated
59… Hi and Lo Cost Marking of Metal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_06laAjMPc
• Cannot etch or engrave metal with our low power
• Marking metal by heat bonding a chemical into the surface
• Quick test and scratching to show durability
• High cost of Cermark
• Low cost of Molybdenum Disulphide spray lubricant
• Breaking all the safety rules
• Running a matrix of tests
• Looking at hazards of using these products.
• Comparison of results

60...Explore lens orientation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yMAr75h5O8
 • Is there a right and wrong way to mount a lens?
• Design and cut a focus checking ramp
• Set the manual speeds and power
• Run tests with lens up and down
• Examination of results

61... Mk5 laser pointer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzcBapYhYuQ
• Very cheap and compact laser diode
• Yet another iteration of the laser pointer to suit my 60 watt tube
• Cutting the parts
• Assembling the parts
• Carry out a ref scorch mark to start with
• Fitting to the machine
• Laser switch safety precaution.
• Aligning the pointer to the reference scorch mark
• Using the pointer to readjust the laser tube

62... Energy density study

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61bGzWicRRk
• Can I use a longer focal length lens to cut thicker materials?
• Yes, provide you have a high enough power to maintain sufficient energy
density for the material / thickness being cut.
• Demonstration of various lenses, thicknesses and materials.

63... Design- coffee pod dispenser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muABTr04WjE
• Many requests to see how the process of designing something from just an
idea happens. A difficult subject because so much is happening in the mind
and only can be seen as it gets transferred into “lines on paper” Here is an
attempt at showing how I go about this simple task.

63(duplicated number….sorry)... 3D- Hi Freq Impact Engraving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXIDwQxhX3k
 • Examination of the 3D carving, taking note of the VERTICAL lines. What’s
causing it
• Testing the High Frequency Impulse Engraving region
• The High Frequency measures at 3.5kHz
• At 14% and above trace is dead smooth
• Examination of the beam during the tests (slow mo video)
• Look at straight cut and the edge marks that exist
Suspecting stepper motor causes these marks

64... Hi Speed video camera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2gVmH9wuk
• Quick look at my Chinese camera (a NoPro?)
• Capable of 240 frames per second
• Hopefully may be useful in solving laser machine questions

65... Rough Engraving study

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXJTSBeywHQ
• Still on the hunt for vertical engraving lines
• Is it the stepper motor or is it a pulsing laser beam?
• Review of how laser beam works
• Effect of too much current through your tube
• Pink beam does not mean output power
• Proof that laser will not produce visible pulsemarks
• Design of test program to compare the surface finish difference between
normal scan and grey scale scan
• Very unexpected results
• Stepper motor under suspicion
• However, 1 finally arrive a logical (but incorrect) deduction that the laser power
variation is to blame for the strange marks.

66... Stepper motor Causing Marks…Proved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOi8Mxg85vQ
 • Many more tests to try and track down cause of surface finish marks
• Although stepper motor has always been a suspect, I now go hunting for
dimensional facts to squarely prove that the stepper motor IS the culprit
• Explanation of how the strange tooth profile is generated by multi step
acceleration of the stepper
• Adding extra mass to the head to see how the stepper struggles to accelerate
it.

67 Etching on Slate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC26tA2D4J4

• Change of subject while I think more about what action to take on the stepper
issue
• Testing the engraving capability on SLATE
• Preparing a photo ready to engrave
• Import into RDWorks and set parameters
• Calculate the ideal INTERVAL
• Change to 2” focal length lens
• Test scan on substitute slate
• Finish design
• Leave outside shape and set cut to low %power so that it does not cut. This is
so that I can line up slate with image
• Change lens to 1.5” focal length
• Second test at higher speed 300mm/s

68... Keith forum advert :]-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xq95wM0C_k
• www.rdworkslab.com

69... Rotary jig design and marking glass-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu7xtKdXU90
 • Making a jig to help etch tapered objects on the rotary device
• Fitting the rotary table onto the machine
• Power the machine OFF and disconnect the Y axis and plug in the rotary
device
• Power ON and help the machine find a datum position
• Quick review of arrow movements
• Anti slip device
• Test etch
• Be careful of glass shards
• Does washing up liquid help the engraving quality? Maybe.
• Testing CERMARK “Tile and Glass
• Clean excess Cermark off with acetone
• Silly test with molybdenum disulphide
• Set tapered tumbler into support jig
• Test etching, again with washing up liquid.
70... Setting up Template for Repeat Engraving-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrTvxtaLNaw

• Repeat engraving, with accurate repeat pattern location

• Cut blank parts first
• Preparing the etch drawing in RDWorks
• Config head position to CENTRAL position.
• Make a nozzle location jig
• Material location against a reference
• Locate the head position by getting nozzle aligned with the setting piece
• A question about multiple origins
• My machine anti-shake system
• Test etch to prove registration
71 Glass etching…An in Depth Look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dqg4pchfTw

• New USB microscope

• Close up pictures of previous etching results
• RDWorks V8.01.18 download
• Immediate impressions of new version parameters and layers
• Etching of moly coated, Cermark coated and plain glass
• Immediate impressions
• Close examination of microscope pictures
• Summary of results

72 Is DOT mode Useful? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J6CxGd4Hkw

 • Creating a simple program to Test dot function
• Explaining the dotting parameters
• Testing it on tri-wall cardboard
• Adjusting parameters to get a good cut
• Use for tri-wall as an alternative to honeycomb
• DON’T set fire to your machine!!!!
• Testing dotting on 1mm polyester sheet
• Testing dotting on 1,5mm polycarbonate sheet

73 Defining a programmed START position for the Laser Head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9AYkPq-0AM

• Defining head START position

• Drawing a simple reference object
• Understanding difference between centre-of-object marker, program datum
(the green square) and the object reference handle.
• 4 programmable start positions for the laser head.
• CURRENT position works from MACINE stored data for the ORIGIN
• MACHINE ZERO works from machine datum 0,0
• ANCHOR work from an ORIGIN position stored in the PROGRAM
• ABSOLUTE works from the coordinates of the green as drawn on your
RDWorks work area.
• Tests to prove the 4 program positioning options
• OOPS!!!!
• ABSOLUTE and CURRENT work as described
• MACHINE ZERO and ANCHOR do NOT work as described
• Modifying USER settings to change the PARKING position for the head.

74 Disaster Recovery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9NCqTT3Sh8

• You CANNOT copy the Factory Default file

• China did not populate my recovery file with GOOD data
• Machine settings all messed up!!!
• Problems loading MY copies of recovery files
• Strange manner of loading the recovery files
• Successful restore
• How to save the USER and VENDOR settings files.

75 What have I learned from 1 year of owning a Chinese Laser Engraver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNV0JUJXdvk

• My early mistakes with ebay tubes

• My great experience of buying a new tube and power supply
• Chart of tube power characteristic sowing 70watt output.
• Non linearity of tube output.
• Understand your tube current limits and fit an ammeter to monitor it
• Summary explanation of how tube works
• Don’t use 100% power EVER. If no ammeter then stop at 65%
• Discussion of axis speeds
• Converting the machine into a “dream machine”
• Cheap temperature control relays
• Look at my ONE YEAR OLD distilled water. Still pristine.
• Look at the water temperature control system.
• Failed bouncy castle fan….motor burn out
• New fan very noisy. Needed a silencer.
• New air higher volume assist pump for future fitting
• Quick look at my home made copper mirrors
• I would not have learnt as much if the machine had been perfect

76 Laser Etched Tshirt Logo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA3wEGtYfFc

• Can we “scorch” a pattern on a flimsy T shirt?

• Programming the pattern
• Getting theT shirt onto a flat surface for “etching”
• Set the beam out of focus
• Failure 1
• Attempt 2 with different settings
• A quick trial on plywood
• And set the focus point to get the ideal power density
• Test 2…….sort of success
• Modelling the end result!!!!!

77 Vendor and User Files https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-tva0CSJao

• Have you messed up your machine settings?

 • Call up the Default Factory parameters with code HF8888
• All may not be good if your vendor has not saved the good settings!
• How do we start getting back to normal
• Must be done via a connected PC
• Vendor settings password is RD8888
• Deciding on a logical strategy for setting the parameters
• Must set the distances correct to start with
• Proving just how critical it is to have the dimensions calibrated correctly
• Experiment with other parameters to see what has been fixed
• Stepping through all the parameters to make sure they are realistic.
• Experimenting with the user parameters
• Saving the Vendor parameters out to a file and also storing your good settings
into the Set Factory Parameters with code CC8888
• Test the machine with a demanding program
• Go to www.rdworkslab.com to down load some typical vendor and user files.
• Quick look at air assist control valve modification.

78 How to Justify Text https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NluzdiikNg

• Standard text input appears to be only LEFT justified

• Text is actually GROUPED
• If you UNGROUP a block of text all letters and parts of letters become
moveable.
• Careful regrouping allows you to do positional control to get centre or right
justified control

79 Machine Health Check part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupSN8mXlus

• Using the laser world’s anal thermometer to quickly check your machine’s
 health
• Using the dohicky to check power out f the tube.
• Discussion of what “tube life” might mean
• Rerun the tube characterization tests to check for power loss after 6 months
• How to check mirror power losses
• Using the red dot pointer to set a reference beam BEFORE removing any
mirrors
• .Removing , polishing and resetting the copper mirrors.
• Finding serious mirror problems and lens issues.

79 Machine Health Check part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJahkB0zrms

• Doing some mode burn tests to discover that the beam shape and power is
changing between mirrors
• Explanation of why the problem exists (curved edge mirrors)
• Forced to change back to original Molybdenum mirrors to gte beam shape back
• Mode burns again to check beam shape remains constant
• Machine back to reasonable whilst awaiting proper copper mirrors and new
lens from China.
• Run a demanding test program to check performance.
• Final use of the anal thermometer to prove machine is back in good beam
condition even though not as good as it could/should be.

80 My Chinese Pizza Oven!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVuYyfJmfTs

• Experiments to look at the RAMP feature that is only available when SCAN is
selected.
• Examination of the results an comparing with 3 D engraving and standard
engraving.
• Observation of the “curtain effect”
• Discovering a FIRE in the machine.
 • Examination of the damage caused by the fire.
• Look at the wood that caught fire.

81 My Chinese Pizza Oven!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA7_-F0deLw

• New belt examination

• Cleaning the slide with abrasive 3M pad
• Re-greasing the slides
• Removing the head to discover belt fixing system
• Releasing the belt tension
• Fitting new belt through the cross beam
• Making new belt clamp plates
• Fitting new belt
• Discovering the drive pulley to be eccentric
• Cleaning mirrors to remove smoke damage
• Refitting the head
• Quick health check with anal thermometer

82 Intagilo and Rilievi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivnlXq_ZXAU

• Setting up the test program in RDWorks

• Discussion of what the expectations may be
• Discussion of the results and trying to discover why both results look the same
• Investigation into the CURTAIN effect
• Linking the effect to the belt pitch
• Observing that the pattern comes and goes cyclically and tie in with eccentric
pulley
• Concluding that the curtain effect may be caused by incorrect belt tension
• Tests to investigate effects of varying tension
• Setting tension to medium and testing the head stiffness with a complex
detailed pattern
• A demonstration of what INDEPENDENT OUTPUT does and how it’s not a fix
for all issues
83 Is this Curtains forEver?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFLq14vY2zQ

• A more in depth analysis of what the root cause of the curtain effect might be
• Lookat fundementals of toothed belts and pulleys
• Analysis of non-linear motion BETWEEN tooth pitches
• Proving that belt stretches every pitch
• 16 teeth is not really enough for smooth motion
• Conclusion is to live with the problem but mitigate it by finding an ideal medium
tension.
84 My New Adventure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTUJUkT9cxo

• A new addition to the learning lab “team” arrives

• Why a second machine?
• A quick look at what you get to make you jealous
• Waiting for the tube and engineer to arrive and commission the machine, all we
can do is look around it
• Some first impressions ( and critical observations)
• Poking into all the corners
• A opportunity to compare stepper technology with servos is a real possibility.

85 Acrylic Cut Marks Nailed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjTGrtnru0

• Using the new Lightblade machine to do a real job

• Not a honeycomb table fan but will use it for this job
• Marks on back of acrylic not as bad as expected
• Zero,zero in opposite corner
• Demo of auto focus……mixed initial impressions
• Despite the safety interlocked main lid.it IS a pass-through machine
• Removed the red dot pointer…..my choice
• Fighting with the focus tube nut!!!
• Note small nozzle hole…a great benefit
• Lenses not marked. Checking to establish focal length
• Using the machine manually to chop up some over length free material
• Cutting striations on the egde of acrylic DESPITE using a servo system.
• Comaparison of the cutting striations witnessed in laser cut mild steel with the
same patterns we see on acrylic edges.
• A diagrammatic explanation of how the striations are formed
• Modification to add a flow regulator to the air assist.
• Comparison of low air assist and high flow air assist on the edge finish of acrylic
86 Acrylic Cutting Slo Mo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29L-3TpL8ws

• Attempting to view acrylic striations actually happening.

• Using my crude No-Pro camera at 200 frames per second plus some special
Russ cheapskate modifications we go for the burn!!
• Viewing the slow mo footage
• Look at the reference material for steel laser cutting.
• Microscope pictures of the edge finishes
• Mapping the energy density systems (cutting)
• The effect of speed on the bottom finish of closed systems (engraving) as
opposed to through systems (cutting)
• Fast cutting smooths the bottom (so does anti-wrinkle cream)
• Does any of this read over to wood cutting?

87 Maximizing Air Assist Efficiency

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCVsMXw6yh4

• A new air assist pump (double the output). Is there any benefit to having it?
• Using a 2” FL lens to cut 10mm plywood
• 1.5” lens cuts at 15mm.sec That’s a starting benchmark
• 2” lens will NOT match that speed so drop speed right back to 5mm/sec
• Demonstration of the “tissue test” to check edge charring
• Analysis of the current air assist flow path.
• Identifying CHOKE points and fixing them
• Seeing the benefit of improved air FLOW
• Does the new pump provide better cutting? Yes 50% better.
• Make an extension nozzle to reduce the air gap
• Testing to show a 70% improvement with new pump
• Testing the small pump but with a reduced air gap gives 50% increase
• 1.5” lens shows no benefit from the large capacity pump.

88 Mk6 Pointer and Other Tools

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqv2nPm8QzU

• An apology for breaking two promises

• Work carried out as preparation for evaluating the Lightblade machine could
benefit many “red and black” machine owners.
• Detailed instructions for building the target holders
• Mk6 laser pointer. A set of detailed assembly instructions
• Demonstration of using the pointer in conjunction with the targets and holders
• Cutting a hands-free beam health checker and targets
• Observations of out of focus on Light blade machine?
• Assembly of the beam health checker.
• Demonstration of the old beam checker, and how the new design is hands-free
• All drawings are available but may need modification to suit your machine

89 Axis Squareness Issue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJg4dPtCro

• Demonstration of how I discovered the problem

• Using a square plate as a reference block to show the magnitude of the
problem
• Proposed method to fix issue
• Setting up a fixed datum to reset the beam square
• Identifying that one end of beam needs moving by about 4.5mm
• Removing the belt and the pulley blocks to access the fixings for the Y axis
bearing blocks
• Struggle to move the pulleys relative to each other
• Setting the beam square and checking it
• Reassemble everything
• I like the belt tensioning system.
• Oops. Mirror 2 is now changed relative to mirror 1 and so I have to reset the
mirrors.
• Beam setting not perfect but ok for testing
• Carry out a special squareness test
• Measuring to verify squareness is now perfect

90 Beam setting Christmas Special

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnvTG5WWzNs

• Father Christmas introduces this beam setting special

• Following on from the squareness issue where the beam on the Lightblade
required resetting, it was not a SIMPLE task even thogh I knew what I was
doing……..or so I thought
• A quick look at the principle of what we are trying to achieve
• I carefully measured many key machine dimensions.
• Design of the head is in error. Mirror 3 is not centrally lined up with the entry
hole and that results in the beam axis being offset about 1mm away from the
lens axis.
• Manufacturing a jig to aid beam alignment
 • Adding 30mm spacers to the extension box to allow a bigger space between
tube and mirror1
• Using the jig to set up Mirrors 1 and 2 to known 45 degree positions relative to
each other and at the correct vertical and horizontal centres
• Setting the laser tube to a true cente and a parallel alignment to the X axis
gantry.
• Burn test at mirror 1 looking good
• At Mirror 3 there is a slight horizontal offset
• I did discover after making the video that there was a small amount of
horizontal adjustment available if you loosen the 4 head bracket fixing screws. I
did successfully finish up with the beam on true cente.

91 Beam Targets and Holders plus Mirror Tool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1H71Zs2wxc

• The success of my paper targets for the Thinklaser machine has prompted me
to design similar items to fit this machine.
• Programming the parts (just a reminder)
• Assembling and gluing the parts

92 Fitting Ebay Copper Mirrors Part1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SaOo5nFGrU

• The copper mirrors are not what I ordered. They turned out to be gold flashed.
• Setting the laser pulse button to a fixed pulse time.
• Setting the red dot pointer to target 3
• Testing the power out of the tube (into mirror 1)
• Review of results for mirror 1 (a moly mirror)
• Fitting a new Ebay mirror to position 1
• Resetting the mirror using the red dot reference beam.
• REMOVE THE REFERENCE BEAM
• Checking the power output visually
• Use the power meter to gain efficiency figures. The gold mirror seems to be
 pretty poor. Why?
• Testing to see what size the 5 or 6mm claimed beam size actually is
• Check the beam size with an acrylic mode burn target
• Understanding the energy required and size of the mode burn hole.
• Look at the hole in the card where the scorch mark is as big as 9mm!!
• Using a thermocouple to find the real edge of the beam.
• Analysis of the available mirror width 12.6mm
• Maybe the edge of the beam is at 11mm diameter
• Realtime demo of a mirror swap using my special tools.
• Using MY copper mirror carry out a new efficiency test
• Review of lots of test results after resetting beam to correctly hit the mirror
centre.
• No conclusion yet

93 Oh No…Not a MK7!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfmlyMc8hJ4

• A quick test of my Ebay GOLD mirrors shows loss of 10% loss across 2
mirrorrs.
• Is it gold flashing or just something yellow and shiny?
• Using the gold mirrors to cut 2mm acrylic with my own design 1.5” lens.
• Tube extension allows me to make a common design for both my machines.
• Assembly and gluing of pieces.
• Using a rubber band instead of springs!!!!!
• Quick demo.

94 Copper Mirrors ----A Conclusion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55T_rDsj2go&spf

• Cutting copper discs on a fibrelaser

• Chinese gold flashed copper mirrors compared tomy professionally lapped
copper discs.
• Review of reflectivity of different materials
• Testing molybdenum mirrors efficiency as a reference
• 70 watts fired at water bath causes surface boiling
• Molybdenum mirrors checkout at 3.7% loss per mirror
• Change to lapped copper mirrors results in 5.5% loss per mirror.
• Polish flat copper mirrors to mirror finish
• Retest copper mirrors at 2.4%
• Is pure gold better?
95 Cutting Parameters DIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-buYn27MgU

• How valid are published process parameters

• Parameters are only valid for YOUR machine because your machine will be
unique for power, mirror efficiency, lens efficiency and beam alignment.
• Unique parameters required for every process (cutting, engraving
dotting,drawing etc) and for each material.
• The need to record your power settings as ACTUAL watts rather than %power
• Design a small square test program to keep in your machine
• Basic rule1 for getting to best cuttings speed is to set maximum allowable
power (for my tube that is 67%)
• Rule 2 is to start at slow speed and gradually increase speed until test square
does not “fall out”
• Rule 3. Always use maximum air assist
• Rule 4, Make sure you get extraction air flow BENEATH your job.

96 The Ultimate Air Assist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4Hh-8-9Tio

• Preview introducing my “wall of wind”

• Look at the horrid fumes that arise from cutting wood or mdf
• Examine the BROWNING that occurs when you engrave wood/mdf.
• Cleaning my steel plate table with acetone. Honeycomb bed difficult to clean.
• Extraction review and the closed circuit Purex extract/filter unit.
• Cutting engraving on the honeycomb bed with downward extraction
• Raising the work above the honeycomb bed with stand offs.
• Turning off the air assist….lots of fire!!
• Clean cut and clean engraving
• Alternative approach would be surface masking plus air assist
• Still brown marking of engraved section.
• Testing the “wall of wind” to kill the flame trail. 80% success
• Block off the honeycomb table to induce a CROSSFLOW extraction. With no
air assist you get lots of flame. So no air assist CUTTING is really a non-starter.
• An alternative extraction gizmo…………not entirely successful.
• Air assist required for cutting but NOT for engraving
• Methods of separating air assist for composite jobs
• The penny drops that there is a solution that has been staring me in the face!!!
• I modified the air assist system
• Demonstration of the ULTIMATE air assist
• Diagram of the modifications made to the Lightblade machine
• Fun demo to conclude

97 Understand your HV Power Supply via Florida

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CoTrLNUWTM

• Why am I in Florida?
• Danny Martinez is a US importer of Bodor Laser machines
• Quick review of some changes I made to Danny’s trial machine.
• Visit by Chuck Williams to discuss my worries about High Frequency Impact
Engraving
• Chuck discusses in some detail how the laser tube and the HV power supply
work with each other
• His discussion is about ionizing the nitrogen gas which is the DRIVING force
within the laser tube. This energized nitrogen is NOT the laser beam, that
interaction with CO2 is a completely separate process.
• Theoretical construction of a simple power supply….. not very inefficient and
not all that practical
• Discussion about how a real practical power supply is constructed.
• Various frequencies exist within the power supply
• Look at scope pictures of signals as cutting occurs.
• Look at High Frequency Impact Engraving signals and setting my mind at rest
that although the instantaneous currents may be VERY high, their duration is
so fleeting as to not cause damage to the tube

98 A beaming New World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVzCMIq8dlc

• Beam alignment was originally a daunting experience.

• I design a completely new approach to the mirror alignment problem
• All the pieces are made from 5mm acrylic and the video goes through the
assembly/gluing of all the parts.
• An interesting 3D part made by combining cutting and engraving.
• The new mirror holders arrive and get fitted
• I have integrated a red dot pointer into the assembly
• Pre discussion of beam combining

99 Beam Combiners Investigated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAFChFo0KE0
• I am not a lover of beam combining…..but I accepted a challenge of designing
something that worked and was easy to setup
• How beam combiners work and the need to understand how and where to aim
the laser beam.
• My design uses a 20 degree mirror angle instead of the usual 45 degree. Why?
Well, it gives more window real estate to aim the beam at without clipping the
window/mirror holder.
• I build a mini laser machine simulator to test and demo my design.
• I use the rig initially to test the existing beam combiner
• Negatives are- 4 point adjusting system for red dot pointer plus a VERY
unstable clamping system for the red dot pointer unit.
• Demonstration of difficulties setting the red and green beams coincident
• After a fruitless period, I again give up and make the new design that I have
conceived.
• Assembly and gluing of my new acrylic elements.
• Description of how this new gimbled mirror system works.
• Proof that 2 simple adjustments gets both beams coaxial

100 Etching Stainless Steel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP9ncWksEGw&t=1s

• Investigating an event I noticed whilst using the Bodor machine in Florida.

• Using high power and a less than normal speed I cut a piece of acrylic directly
onto a stainless plate
• The surface of the stainless holds a black copy of the cut
• Is it the acrylic condensate that is chemically etching or bonding to the surface?
• Acetone will not shift the mark. Only mechanical abrasion has some effect
• A test on just raw stainless Wow!
• Now a test on mirror polished stainless. Even more WOW!
• Analysis as to why this may be working …against all expectations.

101 The Importance of Scan Interval

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVzdOao-sKU
• Looking at dithered picture as opposed to a greyscale picture
• How does the laser work with both types of picture
• Design a special coarse resolution picture and set it to 64pixels per inch
• Calculate the ideal line spacing (interval) for this pitch.
• Test the pattern at several incorrect pitches to observe effects as well as the
perfect pitch.
• Now take into consideration the spot size capability of the lens you are using
• Calculate the best dot to dot resolution you can achieve with your lens.
• Draw a new test pattern to match the resolution of the lens
• Recalculate a new interval to suit.
• Stressing the importance of understanding what the smallest spot size your
lens is capable of achieving.
• Choice of material has an effect on the effective spot size

102 Laser Beam Diameter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRopWBf8XYc&t=1s

• Demonstration of how I go about checking the REAL rather than the claimed
beam diameter.
• IMPORTANT. Remove your lens before carrying out this test
• Start off using mid power about 40 watts and burn to a maximum hole.
• Set to full power and the burn gets even bigger, indicating that the beam size is
not a constant feature but power related.
• It was necessary to open the lens down tube to accommodate my beam
diameter.
• Examining the power profile within the beam by burning into a piece of thick
acrylic
• Discussion of the beam power profile
• Look at the result of the “mode burn” test

103 Gold Mirrors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYDXMHmKExU&spfreload=1
• An unanswered question about mirrors still remained. Real gold is supposed to
be naturally 99% reflective.
• A correspondent has kindly volunteered to coat a set of my lapped copper
mirrors with 24K gold so that we can do the FINAL setoff mirror tests.
• The results were showing about 97% efficiency which is on a par with my
polished raw copper mirrors.
• Final recommendation for mirrors is….. buy molybdenum. They are not very
expensive, they are very durable and about 95% efficient.

104 Dithered Graphics Not What They Seem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9KwuJh1RhA&t=377s

• Exploring Dithered graphics.

• There is a difference between ppi and dpi
• First you have to prepare your picture Photo) n an external program. I use
Photoshop
• Convert coloured pictures to grey scale and adjust tonal range.
• Change the image to a DITHERED bitmap where th picture is composed purely
of black dots of varying density This density variation fools the eye and brain
into seeing a grey scale image.
• Set the scan INTERVAL to match the picture resolution and set scanning
parameters
• I use white card as a nice simple test medium.
• This is a 600pixels per inch resolution and the scan interval was also set to 600
lines per inch.
• Run test at various powers and speeds and examine results.
• What can be causing the 3D effects because this looks like some sort of result
you may get from grey scale engraving.
• Grey scale engraving can only occur if you set the max ad min powers to
different values. These results were achieved with max and min equal.
• The dithered bitmap was run on an inkjet printer to show that the picture was
indeed a series of varying density black dots.
• Now we go into a very detailed analysis of the pictures, finding that we do NOT
 have a pattern of uniformly coloured dots., but many shades of brown dots and
lines.
• Now follows a long step by step analysis of what may be causing varying power
dots
• Conclusion is that it is all to do with the response time of the beam forming and
decaying
• These findings are a stepping stone into a whole new set of investigations.

105 How Shapely are Your Bitmap Dots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZdFZA8fBvM&t=4s

• As a consequence of the previous session, several people have commented

that the beam propagation time that I was assuming to be result of a cascade of
physiclal atomic interactions, may well be mainly due to the response capability
of the HV powersupply.
• To investigate this inmore detail I prepare a special set of pixel patterns at a
fairly coarse 100 pixels per inch ( easy to calculate with)
• I set the patterns at various grey levels to investigate the dithering effect when
we convert to black dots
• I am lucky enough to have two completely different machines. I ran these
patterns at various speeds on both machines to look at the performance of two
power supplies. The physics inside the tubes will be the same so any
differences in results must be the power supply performance.
• Examining the results under a microscope for both machines at extremes of
power and speed, shows the Lightblade producing much crisper “dots”
• It look as though the decay time is the more significant factor

106 Going Dotty Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0vUlOHjvkk&t=1s

• Continuing with my investigation into bitmap engraving I realize that I am just

scratching the surface of a very complex subject
• I can produce reasonable pictures onto most materials using luck and
experience. However I now realize that I do not understand exactly what is
going on
• I have created a list of all the factors that I think are important to mastering that
understanding A quick preview of this list…the next few sessions?
• In this session we will start by trying to find out the difference between
theoretical and practical lens spot size.
• My vital USB microscope and measuring graticule.
• Using white card, and a fixed power pulse I try to establish the smallest
practical spot burn for a 1.5” and a 2” focal length lens.
• Increasing power increases the spot size
• After tests on a static dot I design a special pixel pattern (100ppi) so that I can
run dynamic tests at various speeds and powers.
• All results show “sausages” rather than dots
• I plot the results graphically for each focal length to display how “sausage”
width and length varies with speed and power.

107 Going Dotty Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tw7Jg5zStc&t=28s

• Does RDWorks do something to my binary picture when it imports it

• Yes, it adds some grey pixels and can mess with the resolution if you resize the
picture.
• I have designed some special 100ppi special binary bitmaps
• When I import my pure patterns I find the same grey additions
• Carry out physical tests on clear acrylic at different speeds and powers to
check what effect that grey is having on dot depth/power
• First amazing observation is that black is NOT a solid line but still a series of dpi
dots
• There are no noticeable differences between dot depths despite the grey
colour of some key pixels. So we conclude that RDWorks is NOT messing with
the binary data
• Summary of photographic results
• Still more questions to be answered. The offset between left and right scan
lines gets bigger as speed increases. Is it the line start or the line end that is
being delayed?
• Back to my pixel pattern to add a shallow cut reference frame round the pattern
to act as a static reference to check what is moving as speed increases.
• It shows that it is the START of each line that is being delayed
• Experimenting with the USER Backlash setting caused a one sided offset.
• The lines can be aligned on one end but not the other….a strange problem. Yet
to be investigated further.
108 Going Dotty Part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vG8EOkhdBI&t=4s

• Look at the special 1.5” fl lens I use on the Lightblade machine so that I can do
comparative testing with a more responsive power supply
• My incorrect understanding and misuse of backlash User settings
• Using the REVERSE INTERVAL to correct scan offsets.
• Summary of all my dotting discoveries

109 Joining the Dots Part 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7vgmdPysA

• Review of REVERSE INTERVAL settings on my China Blue machine

• Using “beer mat” card as my drawing medium
• Turn air assist OFF for engraving
• Changing the picture resolution in RDWorks
• Using the RDWorks dithering system to get to a DOT picture.
• Head position set to bottom corner to give scanning UP the page
• Setting the parameters
• Slo mo video to see if beam switches off between dots
• 150 dpi picture turns out remarkably well
• Double resolution to 300dpi but leave interval at 150 dpi
• Under the microscope the 150dpi dots and lines look nice and even in tone and
good dot definition
• 300dpi ….not good…..too light.
• Analysis of different parameters and results
• The stupidity of trying to get 600dpi to work
• Testing high resolution asymmetric engraving 600dpi (x),150dpi interval (y)
and 400mm/s with 40%power
• The pseudo grey scale effect that this produces
• Slo mo of the pseudo gey scale beam intensity
• Microscope view of the reason why we call it pseudo grey scale It’s TIME
regulated greyscale not variable power greyscale
• Reminder of what the pink beam means
• Summary
110 3D Engraving. In depth revisit part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzropA_AcL8&t=448s

• The difference between bitmap and vector images

• Is the dotting information going to be helpful for 3D engraving
• Rapid control of machine power is the key to 3D engraving
• The problem of the tube’s non-linear power characteristic
• How I have linearized the output
• Generating a grey scale test pattern.
• Setting parameters for scanning greyscale
• Running the same greyscale tests on both my machines.
• Examination of the results
• Analysis of the results.
• Are my peaks due to pixel power?
• Not all the peaks match my pixel pattern Interesting question,,why not?
• Increase to 6 times the resolution but there is an exact replication of the pattern
Why?
• Rapidly beginning to conclude there is no relationship between pixels and the
peak pattern
• The same questions and patterns exist with Lightblade patterns.
• Are my peaks due to stepper motor ? Not sure at present.
• Trying to guess how 3D is working via RDWorks. Is there a software algorithm
that is averaging pixels?

111 3D Engraving. In depth revisit part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F32EjrQLDQ&t=210s

• Choosing a linear range from the tube power graph so that no correction will be
required.
• First test results seem to be showing too much power for the test speed.
• Reduced power seems to be better. Still lots of pixel peaks.
• What does defocussing do? It gets rid of the serious peaks
• Jump onto engraving a real 3D image
• 3 passes and the results are very good.
• Change the resolution from 300 or more down to 100dpi and changing to ash
wood
• Not a good result. Lots of burning
• Try without air assist. Oops lots of flame
• Can a fast cut clean it up? Not really. But it does change the background
texture from lines to pimples.
• Detail resolution does not appear to affected by setting the beam out of focus
• The suppressed power range seems to work well.
112 Checking those Dots with an Oscilloscope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0KEg5X6wlA&t=1s

• I plan to use my little USB PicoScope to see what signals are going into the HV
power supply to control the tube.
• The beam ON/OFF signal is NOT switching pixel pulses on solid black
engraving
• Look at beam switching AND the PWM signal that controls the current flow
through the tube
• No pulses there either!!!!!!
• OK ……I have to admit that all my thoughts about pixel pulses were completely
WRONG
• Lets check the 3D engraving swatch
• Wrong again. No pixel pulses.
• Import the checker board pattern into RDWorks and it shows as a mid grey
rectangle
• The scope pictures show discrete switching for isolated pixels
• A solid black pattern shows no sign of individual pixels .
• A dithered picture reveals variable ON/OFF beam switching but constant
power
• 3D engraving signals show beam ON/OFF at beginning/end of scan and
varying current throughout the scan caused by the grey scale level.
• Are we looking at stepper motor pulses causing my phantom pixels?
• That’s another whole investigation
113 What the FACULA is going on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F32EjrQLDQ&t=210s

• The controller talks to the tube via the HV power supply via just TWO wires.
• One to switch the beam ON/OFF and one to set/control the current level.
• Individual isolated dots can be seen to switch the tube on and off
• Greyscale can be seen to change the current level according to the grey scale
pixel shade
• What is FACULA?
• Design a simple grey scale test pattern and demonstrate it working the red and
blue wires.
• Set up the machine to SPECIAL mode and 50%
• The red signal shows 20khz PWM signal at a constant grey scale current value
and the blue signal (which would normally be ON during burning) is switching
on and off at 10khz with 50% on and 50% off
• Reset FACULA to 75%
• Now the 10khz blue signal is 25% off and 75% on
• Reset FACULA to 99%
• Yes, that proves that all FACULA setting is A) switching the normally constant
beam on and off automatically at a rate of 10khz. B) Adjusting the % setting
changes the ratio of beam on and off time
• How does this change the beam size?
• Explanation of how beam exposure TIME is important for determining beam
size.
• Can I replicate this effect with DOT mode?
• No. Although DOT mode promises dots at 1khz max, I was only able to achieve
750 hz at best.
114 Can we Dither Greyscale images
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwOY-U6BB8o

• This question arose from a dithered file that someone sent me which had also
been set for greyscale engraving. Was this someone just ticking all the boxes in
ignorance or was there a secret buried here worth investigating?
• Now that I can use the oscilloscope to view current levels and beam switching
we should be able to answer the question
• Import a colour picture to RDWorks and it automatically turn it to greyscale
• Dither the picture and close examination displays a picture with 6 grey levels
instead of the expected 2 (black and white)
• We are only running the program as a test, we are not actually engraving a
picture
• First test is normal dithered settings with max min power set the same.
• As expected, current was constant and beam on/off was switching to match
pixels and pixel groups.
• Reset power to 10% and 50% and set output direct to generate greyscale
engraving.
• Do we see grey levels in our dithered image? NO!!
• So it is confirmed that RDWorks is telling lies when it adds greys to our
displayed dithered picture.
• Starting again with the same picture but this time we dither with GREYSCALE
rather than DOTS
• Now we can see current changes for every pixel and we have therefore created
a greyscale image for engraving
• Examination of the trace for a speed of 50mm/sec and 120ppi clearly shows the
machine is cleanly changing current for EVERY pixel.
• What happens if we run at 200mm/sec (4 times speed) can the machine still
respond?
• Yes. We can see 1ms per pixel for small grey scale steps
• How about 400mm/sec
• Seems too fast, so check at300mm/sec
• Pixels just about discernable so we should not attempt greyscale at pixel times
of less than 0.75ms
• All looks good at the electronic signal level but I can only guess what the output
power from the tube will look like after those signals have passed through the
power supply and the gas physics of the tube
• After making some assumptions I do a real world test of a greyscale dithered
picture
• Conclusion. Rubbish ….stick to dot dithering for photo engraving

115 The Russ Formula for Photo Engraving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwo9hrVhpIw&t=888s

• This formulaic approach has been designed and tested for organic materials
such as wood, card, leather and low formaldehyde content MDF.. It may work
on mineral materials but that has yet to be researched.
• Choose the shortest focal length lens that your machine will take.
• Choose your material
• Important to understand the principles of binary dot engraving.
• The ratio between the dots and the background is paramount for a crisp picture
• Organic materials have a scorching colour range where as something like clear
acrylic does not. It’s a binary material that engraves white. This is the opposite
of burning and hence when working with acrylic you have to make the image a
negative before engraving .
• Set your lens to the ideal focal position
• I have designed a test pattern to help determine the smallest spot size.
• I use step gauges to set/test the best focus point.
• Use a magnifier to view your results
• How to decide on the dot size by using the test pattern.
• Converting that dot size back to a Pixels Per Inch resolution.
• Modifying the brightness and contrast of a picture
• Resizing and setting the resolution of the picture and dot dither.
• Setting the interval is very important
• CALCULATE the speed …...DONT guess it
• Reset the head position in the config system settings
• Explanation of what happens if you ignore the resolution rules.
• Testing to find the best power setting
• Cross flow of air and almost zero air assist is essential
• Examination of a very good end result.
• A look at another picture done on the Lightblade machine. One picture done
with a 2” lens and a second with a 1.5” lens. Big difference. 1.5” lens wins

116 Super Ultimate Air Assist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKC8Byc8y28

• Can we remove the pulses from the air assist

• Making a crude accumulator to act as a pulse killer
• Result seems successful but when compared to the undamped flow there
appears little difference.
• Look at the circuit diagram for the proposed air assist controller and all the
fittings required.
• A few sessions ago I demonstrated marking stainless steel WITHOUT
molybdenum disulphide so I make a label for my switch using the same
technique.
• Installation of switch, pneumatic pipes and wiring.
• Set the Vendor settings to enable the blowing solenoid
• Everything working correctly
• With the cycle paused. Set the restricted air flow
• Test the manual override.
• Oops I’ve damaged my lens by engraving the stainless label BE WARNED
• Test of system with a piece of engraving and cutting MDF

117 Hunting those Phantom Pixels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsSFVTAhng4
• How did my pattern of pixels get generated if not by pixel generated
power pulses?
• I do believe that the stepper motor is at the root of this issue but that
the patterns are a symptom of another problem interacting with the
stepper motor.
• Crude demonstration of stepper /servo motor principles
• The importance of removing elasticity from a drive system
• Detail look at the design of the head drive system
• Sponginess of the rubber timing belt teeth
• Accelerometer tests were unsuccessful at seeing resonance
• Can we see system resonance with my crude mechanical resonance
detector
• Back to using acrylic as a means of detecting beam velocity
• Carry out a series of reference tests before making changes to the
machine.
• Different belt material. Polyurethane with stiffer teeth and steel cords.
• Repeat and analysis of the acrylic reference tests
• Repeat of waggle meter tests and trying to relate stepper sound to the
acrylic head velocity patterns
• We have proved that a rubber belt was producing resonance and that
the new belt has narrowed those velocity spikes to a much narrower
range.
118 One Piece Tube and Mirror Mount Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X1aPY3czYY

• The design work has already been done for the Lightblade machine but for
various reasons has not been fitted
• This session is all about adapting that design to suit the China Blue machine
• Examining the various critical dimensions around the machine that will dictate
the design.
• Lots of boring CAD video with explanation for various design decisions.
• Programming the parts for cutting
• After doing lots of acrylic cutting of the parts the cooling water temperature is
around 41C. Not over worried about the high temperature because power has
not decreased.
• Assembly and gluing the parts together.
• Using one of the new mirror mounts for mirror 1
• Adding a red dot pointer to the assembly. (the mk7 design.)
• Assembly complete ready for installation and testing next session.

119 One Piece Tube and Mirror Mount INSTALL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuNZu1-BXuY

• Removal of the old clamps and mirror 1

• Jiggle the new tube mount into place without disconnecting the tube
• Make some in situ adjustments to miss tubes and wires
• Put fixing slots into machine
• Use the red dot pointer to test the alignment of the new mount
• Demonstration of how simple it is to align the beam onto mirror 2
• In an attempt to get the beam aligned onto mirror 3 my frustration at the
troublesome adjustment system on mirror 2 finally boils over
• I design and manufacture a new mirror mount for mirror 2
• Success at mirror 2 !!!!
• Remove the red dot pointer and set the beam properly with the scorch method
• Setting the X and Y axis is simple now
• The importance of setting mirror 3 onto it’s “sweet spot”
• Aligning the Z axis
• Summary of the project success.

120 Strange Properties of Acrylic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdupovEe9hA

• Demonstration of the light pipe principle using a laminar flow water stream to
show the beam being turned away from a straight line exactly like fibre optics.
• Discussion of what might happen when we fire a 60 watt beam through a 1.5”
FL lens at the surface of an 80mm block of acrylic
• Test 1, Wow. Explain what you are seeing. How is this possible?
• The same tests with a 2” FL lens
• Observation of the effect of lowering the focal point into the material
• Discussion about the hot gas cloud the happens as the acrylic evaporates.
• The gas cloud effect that causes cut striations on the edge of acrylic.
• The difference between static and dynamic effect on acrylic.

121 Is this CURTAINS for CURTAINS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B87ifTPKN8c

• Summary of what curtains are is there any way to get rid of them
• We concluded that the problem was a replication of the timing belt pattern
• Could it be that a lead screw fixes the problem. Too expensive and complex to
implement
• How about a rack and pinion drive system? No BUT this triggered a lightbulb
moment
• Let’s remove the timing belt
• Let’s reverse the timing belt ….Mad or not ????
• My temporary smooth roller bracket demonstrates the principle of using the
belt almost like a rack and pinion system. and showed that the belt was a
fraction too long
• The Mk2 design was made of steel and fixed a couple of problems identified
 with the temporary mk1 design.
• Because the belt has been reversed, the direction of motor drive has also
reversed so the vendor properties have to be changed to reverse the X motor.
• Various repeat tests of the curtain parameters demonstrates clearly that the
CURTAINS have gone!!!
• A smug summary of my success

122 Let’s Make a Rotary Engraver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uafUAX04G4&t=1s

• This project will be two sessions. The first will be the design and manufacture of
a motorless rotary engraver and the second will be testing it.
• I claim no credit for this design idea, I am just adapting the principle to a more
suitable design for my machines.
• Yet another plug for the benefits of a solid steel table
• Step by step assembly and gluing the parts together (with tips)
• Having assembled the frame we now discuss the design of the special wheels
that I am making myself.
• When assembled the wheels did not live up to expectations so I had to design a
mk2 design with 2 bearings to remove the wheel wobble.
• Discussion and step by step assembly of the mk2 wheels
• Assembly of the live end stops
• Demonstration of the simple principles of this design

123 Let’s Test our DIY Rotary Engraver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCQqn0kfvCo

• Our first test will be to engrave a biscuit making pattern on a rolling pin
• Creating the pattern in RDWorks
• We need a flat surface in the machine to make the device work
• Adding the pusher bar to the machine
• Why elastic bands?
• Understand the max size for your graphic
• Setting up the rolling pin in the fixture
• Setting the origin point
• Success 1 with wood
• Engraving a glass bottle.
• Principle of etching glass
• Tricks for glass engraving that people advocate.
• I use molybdenum disulphide spray as a heat moderator
• Choose a suitable photo image and modify it to a sensible resolution based on
 our previous photo engraving experience
• Set the rotary device to suit the bottle
• Set the origin and define the cutting parameters.
• Check the result. Reasonable 1st attempt
• Modify picture resolution and parameters for a much improved 2 nd attempt
• Great first step to exploring glass engraving along with the perfect proving trial
for the non-motorized rotary device

124 How can we get Smaller Dots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCQqn0kfvCo

• A simple test pattern

• Using acrylic to burn an unfocused beam track at different speeds
• Analysis of the results
• Examine the beam energy distribution.
• The effect of the beam depends on the absorption and damage threshold of
the material that it is fired at
• Explanation of why line width changes as speed increases
• What happens to the beam profile after it has been focused
• Can this be used to decrease dot size and improve photo engraving resolutions
for “harder” materials?
• We shall find out as we explore different materials in future sessions.

125 Hunting for my Sweet Spot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSjNsK2sjNo

• I know that the Lightblade machine has a cut squareness issue when working
with thicker materials such as 8,10 and 12mm materials
• Demonstration and analysis of the problem
• Rotating the air assist /lens through 90 degree increments shows that the
problem remains the in same direction regardless of the lens position
• Using a red dot laser pointer to show how the focused beam is VERY sensitive
to beam alignment
• What is the sweet spot?
• Having accurately measured the Lightblade head and drawn a detailed CAD
diagram of where the lens axis intersects the mirror, I know that the centre of
the inlet port is the correct aiming point to hit the sweet spot.
• A scorch test on the inlet port shows the beam to be about 1.5mm high.
• The only way to lower the beam by 1.5mm is to drop the tube down by that
amount. Possible, yes, but that runs the risk of upsetting the whole beam
alignment.
• With no vertical adjustment on this head mount I decide to shim the head UP by
1,5mm to catch the beam at the correct position.
• Using a centring jig I establish that the Z beam alignment is now central and
axially true
• Back to cutting a test square and evaluating the result
• Stressing the importance of understanding if the head design sets the sweet
spot at the centre of your inlet port. DO NOT ASSUME THE DESIGN IS
CORRECT.

126 RDWorks Learning Lab 126 3D Engraving Is this the FINAL Chapter Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E6VfQD9n2o

• Discussion of the strange links and discoveries that will eventually lead to 3D
engraving success
• Discussion of beam energy distribution.
• Our beam is NOT a beam of heat but is a beam of LIGHT
• Energy transfer mechanism…… VERY IMPORTANT
• Etching stainless with MoS2, then sulphur powder then engine oil
• Observe the bright white “flame”
• A chemical reaction is occurring between the stainless and sulphur at very high
temperatures
• White light is not for free . The Kelvin light scale says about 5000C
• Discussion of how wood burns, sublimating the carbon at something over
3000C
• Running a test matrix of varying power on MDF at different speeds
• Review of matrix results for 3 different lenses Trying to find. to determine how
we can get a burn free removal of material.
• Discussion of how to linearize the power characteristic so that we get linearized
power burn as we do our 3D engraving
• Source for 3D engraving images.
• How to use Photoshop to distort the greyscale levels to allow for the power non
linearity

127 3D Engraving is this the FINAL Chapter Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5cIFxGu_1g

• Discussion about the best resolution for the picture.

• Setting the SCAN parameters
• OUTPUT DIRECT switch must be set for greyscale engraving
• Multiple passes will be required. On this version of RDWorks as there is no
 option to run the program multiple times When you read this there may be an
updated version that does allow repeats
• We take a look at a small simplified matrix burn test pattern
• The first test with MDF. Pretty granular.
• Change to acrylic test material and run a matrix test
• Put the table down by 10mm to try and create a polished final cut.
• Did I get the calibration adjustment correct or could I make some fine
adjustments
• Matrix test with white maple
• White maple is still a bit granular
• I adjusted the calibration correction and the results are staggeringly better
• Back onto acrylic with the revised calibration settings
• Soft wood proved to be very unsuccessful
• When the woods are washed, the results are amazing.
• Admission that running slowly may not be the best parameter. Running faster
is actually better
• Review of what changes I made to get the better results in Photoshop. Ie
revised resolution and tweaked calibration graph.
• Final test with revised parameters.
• Comparison of 300 dpi and 600 dpi. With some great results

128 Are Acrylic Striations Stepper Driven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emMIOxVge84

• Making a crude mechanism to try and get steady (non step) motion for moving
acrylic under a fixed head/beam.
• The results are abysmal
• Despite the terrible results it does show up a sort of layering effect with
horizontal striations.
• The horizontal striations are also there for normal stepper motor cutting
• Restatement of the energy transfer principles yet again.
• Demonstration of water being boiled by a beam of light
• Understanding a scientific definition of temperature
• An explanation of the energy transfer mechanism
• Proposed explanation for horizontal layer evaporation process within acrylic
• Possible reason for better striations with the stepper motor.
• Still more work to do on this.

129 The Mechanics of Wood Cutting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgYIAA-uHU4

• Revisiting the burning matrix test with three different lenses

• Comparing colour and depth of burn.in white maple.
• Observed depth of cut more with a meniscus lens.
• Demonstration of wood burning with a blowtorch and that burning effect
reducing as the beam moves faster over the wood.ie the energy per unit of time
gets less so the damage to the wood gets less
• Using an unfocused laser beam we can demonstrate the destruction of
cellulose in wood to leave a film of carbon on the surface.
• The carbon film glows white hot as it’s temperature rises to 3600 before it turns
directly into gas
• Demonstration of wood removal without burning.
• Comparing burns prior to and after the lens.
• Speed and increment have significant effect on cuts.
• Possible explanation of why cutting with max power as fast as possible
produces the cleanest non-charred edge..

130 Engraving anodised Aluminium

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbHVI3aNIuw
• Anodized aluminium offers the prospect of high resolution engraving
• Description of the anodizing process.
• What happens to the matrix burn test on anodized aluminium
• White is caused by evaporating the dye.
• Testing various parameters and resolutions …not too successful
• Using SPECIAL MODE engraving seemed to work quite well
• Using oscilloscope picture to show what special mode is doing.
• Single dots may not get full power.
• Beware the dangers of overdriving your tube in special mode.
• Microscope view of dots done in special mode
• Comparison with common mode dots
• Dots done with different lenses
• To be honest no results looked good with my dot test.
• Picture comparisons for different modes, resolutions and powers.
• Running at 1000dpi seems to give a great result in special mode’
• A look at the numbers involved to create such an image.
• The scanning and resolution numbers don’t make sense when you examine
the microscope images.
• Checking the scanning step with a digital calliper.
• The numbers don’t match but the pictures seem reasonable quality
• Once the dye has been removed the dot colour is white. Even if you burn the
dot again it cannot get any whiter . Thus unlike organic materials where multiple
 burns cut deeper and blacker, anodized aluminium is impervious to the effect
and appears to be capable of 1000dpi images although in reality that cannot
be true.

131 Dohicky Power Meter Update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-3HdVLc7nI

• Review of power meters and how we measure watts

• The alternative DIY version
• The compromise you have to accept for the DIY version.
• A better K type alternative thermocouple
• Look at the original K type cable.
• How to modify an existing dohickys to take the new alternative probe
• Daniel Roberts Arduino version of the the e-dohicky.

132 Photo Engraving Mineral Materials Part1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nnDgJ8iY80

• Review of what minerals are and the properties required for successful
production of dots.
• Geology lesson….yawn!!!
• Starting with slate we use a 2” meniscus lens and run a test matrix
• Also run a matrix test with Special mode
• Wide range of parameters will work for slate
• Marble seems quite good
• Limestone OK but not brilliant
• Granite seems to produce glass in one of its constituents
• Quartz, a man made stone is bound together with some sort of polymer binder
and burns black. However the black brushes away . No good contrast.
• Cimstone, another quarts man made product needs further investigation under
the microscope.
• Review of each material to see if there is a good colour difference to produce a
binary image.
• Slate is the only obvious material that seems capable of picture work.
• Microscopic view of what happens when you engrave slate. It is not a sharding
mechanism but a glass conversion process.

133 Photo Engraving Mineral Materials Part2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwedMjh2kAU

• Before starting photo engraving on slate we must find the smallest dots
 possible by choosing the best speed and power
• Microscope pictures help us determine what size dots we have achieved
• We must set the resolution to match the dot size.
• Although, again, because this is a binary material you cannot get over burning
and it looks as though we can do hi res pictures when in reality we are fooling
ourselves.
• A look at different resolution results
• How a bigger picture at lower resolution appears to produce s better picture
• Testing with higher resolution but at slow speed
• Comparing hard Chinese slate to softer more expensive Italian slate
• A comparison with a fine granite. …a poor alternative
• We rejected man made quartz but there may be a way of exploiting its
properties for certain applications
• Block engraving on green slate and granite will be successful where phots will
fail.
• Photo engraving a piece of white man made quartz material we rejected
earlier. Wow what a surprise.

134 Max Min Power Revisited

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJX8X40T4VM

• This time of looking at Max/Min power I understand more about the way the
machine works and have my little USB oscilloscope to help me see what’s
going on.
• Look at the scope signals for cutting a normal square with max and min set
equal..
• Look at scope pictures for some “magic” numbers
• You can now see that there is a power ramping taking place which is
proportional to speed as squre drives in and out of each corner.
• As this first test shows, if the magic number for min power is too low thren
corners remain uncut
• Reset min to 10% and problems are almost solved
• Jump to 20% and all the benefits of min power a lost
• The range of setting for effective use of this min power is very narrow and will
always require you to experiment with the material and lens you are using at
the time.

135 Finding and Exploring Low Energy Density.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzWtQHNkWFU
• Quick review of matrix burn tests
• Can we get dark colour for organic engraving without charring
• Repeat of the wood burning mechanism by IR light
 • Understanding the difference caused by the high energy density core of the
focused beam and the low energy outer part of the beam.
• We are looking to just scorch the surface with delicate control of power.
• More matrix tests with 2” meniscus lens, concave side down.
• Matrix tests with lens flipped upside down and focus reset to 3mm more.
• Results show the flipped lens has “softer burn characteristic
• Can we get an even softer beam using special mode ?
• Demonstration of the surface charring mechanism of a deep cut.
• Defocusing along with special mode shows great improvement
• Back to common mode with an out of focus beam but at very low power 13%
• How to scorch the surface without material removal?
• Maybe a 2.5” lens flipped will give an even softer beam.
• More out of focus, decreased power and speed.
• Finding the optimum speed for scorching
• Works well for MDF but not for card
• Faster speed and more defocus for paper is a bit better
• Great results overall.
• Demo of almost black depthless logo engraving on MDFhi frank

136 Photo Engraving with Lightburn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IgYMp9Wrqc

• Quick review of how the machine creates single black engraving dots for
dithered images.
• Response time of power supply is key to rapid single dots
• Summary of what in store for this video
• Lightburnsoftware.com for 30 day trial
• Create a scanning offset test program
• Use this pattern to assess the response time of your HV power supply
• Step through the Russ Formula with small modifications to allow for the NEW
response speed of the power supply
• Close look at the dot test with 2.5” lens to get the best focus/power/speed.
• Microscope examination of results comparing different card types for testing
• Results just mediocre so change to 2” lens
• Microscope results better but still not good. Swap to 1.5” Lens
• Much better dots even at 200mm/s so the calculated response of the power
supply seems to be proven.
• Quick look at the Lightburn software and its great features, especially the photo
engraving features.
• Examination of the various dither options available in Lightburn
• Emphasis on getting the right DOT quality for the material you are using
BEFORE you attempt any photo engraving
• OOPS……Forgot to correct the scan line offset that we used to assess HV
power supply response speed. This MUST be corrected or the dots will be
 mis-registered line by line and creating a fuzzy image.
• It is important to set the test speed to that of the scanning speed you plan to use
for your image scanning
• You will need to go to Config, System setting to add the Scanning Reverse
Offset factor and then repeat the test until you get near perfection.
• First picture comparison is pretty good. Just the right tone
• Further review of factors in Russ Formula to test an increased resolution.
• Comparison with an RDWorks image.
• Close examination of all the dither types
• The magic effect of picture size
• Microscope examination of the dots for each dither system

137 Compound Lens Facts and Fiction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG5KsMw8fJY

• Hi res photo engraving relies on producing VERY small crisp black BURNT
dots with our laser technology.
• Single lenses seem to hit a brickwall at about 0.2mm ie 127dpi…..a fairly low
resolution
• A quick look at different lens mounting systems, ie in nozzle or tube
• A look at lens shapes and the reason why a meniscus lens may be the best for
producing small dots.
• Small dots may be produced by just kissing the very high density at the centre
of the focused beam but the chances are there will still be low energy around it
to produce a scorch halo.
• Certain materials cannot be over burnt or scorched.
• Thunder laser sell an expensive compound lens assembly claiming to be
capable of burning 1000dpi. but I have no idea of the lens combinations used.
or the internal spacing configuration
• I have designed my own special nozzle to experiment with combinations of two
different focal length lenses. The principle being to use a 4”l ens to reduce the
beam size before it passes through a second shorter focal length lens.
• We are now hunting for the smallest possible clean burnt dot.
• Using acrylic with my standard dot test to see if we can produce halo-free dots
• With experimentation with speed and power and also a meniscus 2” lens it
seems possible to get 0.1 dots (just)
• Can we find a better result with Special Mode?
• Yes it seems better so I use Lightburn to run a 254dpi picture
• Testing with cast and also extruded acrylic the results were disappointing
• Change to Newsprint dither pattern at 254dpi Results look good
• Then at 508dpi for pretty good results
• Move to wood for testing. At 508dpi
 • Slightly different woods and different grain directions create massive final
image differences
• Did I damage the 2nd lens by concentrating the power to a high energy spot?
• I have not been able to get anywhere near the Thunderlaser 1000dpi claim
• Challenge to Thunderlaser owners to make 0.025mm dots with their HR
lenses.

138 The Quest for 1000dpi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwP9ys3ggYg

• Trying to give some visual cues as to exactly what a 0.0254mm dot (1000dpi)
looks like.
• Review of some background tests that I had conducted changing lenses and
distances between lenses.. Shorter spacing gave better results.
• Testing the idea of obscuring the low energy part of the beam and only allowing
the higher energy central part to reach the lens.
• Quick and dirty results with various size orifices indicate the obscuration of any
sort does not help get better dots.. The smaller the orifice the worse the dot.
• More dot tests using acrylic. Results showing great 0.1mm dot consistency.
• A closer look at newsprint dithering and why it seems to work at twice the
predicted resolution for a given dot size.
• Comparison of picture on different card types. and different dithers and
different parameters.
• The promise of a owner’s Thunder laser lens loan may allow us to solve the
claim.

139 Designing a Compound lens System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp2O6komevw

• In my search for the smallest dot, my normal methodical approach seemed to

have been hijacked by progressive small successes.
• I recognised a pattern of decreasing dot size with decreasing distance
between lenses.
• Review of the Parallax Technology treatise on lenses forces me in another
direction .
• Demonstrating the refraction effect and how Snell had created a law to
calculate it. It is the basic principle of how rays pass through a lens.
• With zero previous experience, how hard can it be to calculate rays for different
compound lens configurations?
• After a few hours some interesting patterns begin to emerge
 • It requires another special nozzle design to house the revised lens
configuration.
• Trying to find the new focal distance and the best parameters by using the dit
pattern
• We are starting to get better dots real 0.1mm diameter or a bit less.
• Test this new lens with a more demanding picture.
• This is an amazing image at 254dpi and makes you wonder why you would
want 1000dpi?

140 I Forgot to Focus on the ELEPHANT in the ROOM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlT6aq9Ed6M

• Upon reflection, maybe there is another way to get a fine dot and that is to
filter out all the low energy fuzz at the focal point by grossly exaggerating
the spherical aberration rather than cancelling it.
• Stepping through the thought process and logic for my new direction.
• Using a meniscus lens as the second lens
• Lots of test patterns …..very boring but showing some great results.
• Testing again with the demanding image . Superb results at 363 dpi.
(0.7mm)
• Dot size is king and determines the resolution of the picture, however
different materials will give different dot sizes and require different
parameters
• Don’t attempt a picture until you have found the correct focus and
parameters with the dot test
• THE DOT SIZE DETERMINES THE PICTURE RESOLUTION
• Repeat the picture on acrylic so we need a negative image.
• Reason for reversing the image
• Amazing result for acrylic
• Now to test a piece of glass. Not bad
• The Mk2 compound lens pushes the dot size to 0.07mm
• We seem to have proved the principle of exaggerated spherical
aberration as a power filter.

141 Testing More Dotable materials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI9no9-X7BA

• You can make a 0.2mm dot on most materials but not all materials allow dots
as small as 0.1mm or less
 • Main aim is to see how well I can photo engrave on some foil covered PETG
and Acrylic
• The first sample failed it’s focus/dot size test and had to be abandoned.
• Second sample just a bit better so decided to run it at 127dpi
• A satin finished gold foil scored very highly as did a black woodgrain foil.
• Silver foil on a white background posed and interesting positive or negative
engraving question,
• Photoengraving test on Formica Wow. Superb at 245dpi
• Why do we need to chase 1000dpi?

142 Looking for the 0.05mm Dot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPgZyX86asU

• Recap on the disruptive principles I am pursuing to produce a halo-free dot

• Explanation of the reason why I would want to put a 1” focal length lens to guide
light into a meniscus lens
• Finding the new focus point and power settings.
• Measure the ramp line to characterise the lens
• Measuring the dot test looks as though we can achieve 0.05 dots on acrylic
• Now to test on anodized aluminium.
• In the absence of anodized aluminium I am trying to simulate with black painted
marble. Not too successful.
• Maybe it would perform better on my 1mm thick beer mat card
• Change of colour as the picture progresses would indicate that the lens is
becoming fogged.
• Lens examination proves that is so.
• Lens cleaned and colour restored. Comparing the 350dpiresults with our best
254dpi picture still leaves that lower resolution as the best compromise.
• One final lens configuration produces even better 254dpi results
• The new combination puts the meniscus lens and the plano convex touching
each other.
• In summary even though a 0.05 dot is achievable on certain materials it is so
weak that is is not of ant real benefit. 254dpiwith 0.1mm dots id the real
practical limit and cam produce stunning results..

143 Acrylic Fest Myths and Truths Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oYlWuEP9gc

• I have designed a temporary linear non-stepping drive system so that we can

create silky smooth head motion for test cutting acrylic
• The previous attempt was rather crude and misleading.
• Using a piece of acrylic I run a speed test. The power is constant so if we get a
 level bottom cut it proves that we have uniform speed.
• Breaking the front face of the cut away allows us to see inside that test depth
cut. There are obvious striations on the cut face but why when the speed was
absolutely constant?
• Demonstration of the energy density profile of the laser beam and how it is only
the low energy outer part of the beam where the liquid phase of acrylic can
exist.
• Demonstration of what appears to be an unexplained and weird property of
acrylic. Despite the beam expanding and losing it’s energy density below the
focal point it can drill a virtually parallel hole deeper and deeper into the acrylic
• It has been suggested that this phenomenon is due to the laser beam being
internally reflected (as in an optical fibre)
• Demonstration of how I think beam drag is generated. Done in discrete steps to
simulate the action of a stepper motor you can observe gas/liquid dynamics
happening within the cut and the settlement of and cooling of liquid on the wall
of the cut to form marks that may be the mysterious striations.
• Now a look at punching 20ms pulses into a block of acrylic at different
distances above and below the focal point.
• Using a piece of thin card we can see the high energy core of the beam at the
same 20ms pulse, create a 0.2mm diameter hole. That same 20mm pulse
creates a 0.5mm hole in the acrylic.
• Break for a physics summary about how light transfers its benign energy into
hear energy by stimulating molecular excitement in the material it impinges
upon.
• A reasonable explanation of the hole difference between burning card and
burning acrylic is a gas scouring that takes place around the beam to make the
acrylic hole oversize.
• When the beam moves there is no immediate solid to erode so the cutting
action is by definition intermittent. And it is the artefacts of this intermittent
NATURAL cutting action that leaves small striations.
• How do we “hide” these striations? Buy leaving heat in the cut.
• Lots of cutting tests on cast and extruded acrylic without and with air assist.
• To try and emulate the high frequency pulsing of “expensive” rf driven
machines I am running dot mode to produce pulse cutting.
• I now fool the machine into thinking it is engraving. That way I can invoke
Special Mode where I can use the PWM signal to turn the beam on and off at
20,000times each second. This is a close simulation of an RF driven tube.
• Looking at all the samples . All have the same fine pattern of striations despite
there being no stepper driven cause. There is little difference between with and
without air assist. There is a noticeable difference between cast and extruded
acrylic but all have these fine striation pattern.
• Summary: Those that insist that striations are stepper driven are partially
correct BUT take away the steppers and we have clearly demonstrated that
there are still natural striations .generated during the cutting of acrylic.
 144 New Laser Head
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=notUuB_G7X8

• Apologies for not continuing with acrylic fest part 2 but decided to remake the
head mounting bracket while it was off to refix the belt I had previously
removed.
• Never been in love with the existing head so I have designed my own Mk1
design made from ACRYLIC sheet!!
• Cutting and assembly of the pieces
• I even make a new mirror plate from acrylic
• I have made a set of preset lens tubes
• Mounting the new head
• Quick re-polish of my copper mirror
• Setting aids to ensure precision Z
• But first setting procedure for X axis ie mirror 2
• Having set X axis true to bearing rail we need to move the head (on its
adjustment bracket) so that it “catches” the beam onto the target centre.
• Now comes the VERY important Z axis setting procedure
• Having set the beam perpendicular to the table We can now adjust the whole
head to catch the beam onto the mirror 3 “sweet spot”
• It is crucial that we set the beam to pass through the axis of the lens.
• One final check at the 4 corners to sees us requiring small resets in X and Y
• That in turn requires a final adjustment in Z
• 1.5” lens cutting 10mm plywood for a final test.
• Sticky tar residue (condensed fumes) that would normally stick to your
honeycomb table
• Instant table cleaning with acetone
• Mk1 lens module demonstration
• Quick review of advantages of the new head design
• Is this it? Or will there be a mk2?

145 The 1000DPI Mystery Solved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUkBObChgLo

• I watched a Thunder laser video about how they claim to be making

1000dpi images with their 1000dpi HR lens system
• I choose a difficult image to process and load into RDWorks
• IMPORTANT!! A pixel appears on a computer screen and a dot is what
we burn onto a surface The first is defined as PPI and the second as
DPI.
• To get faithful reproduction of the NON OVERLAPPING pixels on the
screen, we must have NON-OVERLAPPING dots also
 • Therefore if the best dot size you can make is 0.2mm then the resolution
for your picture must be 25.4mm/0.2mm=127PPI
• Choosing dot graphic converts a greyscale image into a binary image
with various density dot patterns that fool the eye into mixing white and
black to simulate the greyscale that was there before.
• Now that it is a black dot pattern on a white background we only have to
copy the square pixels with same size round black dots
• Ok, lets reset the picture resolution to 1000PPI.. This time we will use
Net Graphic to process the picture into a binary image
• Playing with the conversion parameters as Thunder laser do. We arrive
at a picture that we cannot copy. Put simply the dots in this processing
system are various sizes and that cannot be copied by our “one size dot”
laser machine.
• Lots more analysis of the way the Net Graphic system works .
• We know we cannot burn much better than 0.1 dots on most materials
so lets see what Thunder laser are using for their lenses.
• They have 3 lenses 4” , Standard ( which turns out to be a 2” lens) and
HR.. The 2” claims a dot capability of 0.1mm which without overlapping
dots will give 254dpi.. They claim a capability of 500dpi. The HR lens
system claims a DOT size of 0.05mm (508dpi) for which they claim phot
engraving to 1000dpi (not ppi)
• Having created their 1500ppi image thunder laser dump you and do not
advise you how to set the scan interval because any attempt to scan at
other than 1500 lines per inch in Y will result in aliasing patterns
• This is clearly demonstrated with several pictures at different scan
intervals
• So the 1000dpi photo engraving claim is misleading and impossible.

146 If not 1000DPI is 500DPI achievable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJf0BLKXDEc

• Testing of LaserTiles
• The importance of having a responsive power supply before attempting dot
work
• Comparing typical response specs from top to bottom of the price range
• Quick calculation to show that ANY power supply cannot deliver 1000dpi
pulses unless you scan at very slow speeds
• The importance of using the right lens to achieve the smallest dot size, which in
turn relies on a critical combination of speed and low power.
• Microscope pictures of compound lens tests on the Laser Tile
• Examination of the first test picture at 300dpi to see what success my settings
had.
• Black areas were not as black as they could be more of a grey halo.
• Just change resolution to 500dpi
 • I draw your attention to the white light emitted during scanning, and indication
that the surface temperature is exceeding 2000C
• Thoughts on how these Laser Tiles are performing their magic. It’s all to do with
ceramic wizardry.
• Proof of the idea by heating the glaze to red hot without it turning black.
• Microscope pictures of the 508dpi image.
• Still not black enough, Really needs to run slower to allow more power per dot
and stay within the power supply response rules
• Sadly, running at 50mm/s means the stepper motor is setting the head into
resonance and .causing strange patterns.
• How do we unravel this puzzle? By making the lines wider and darker by
increasing the power.at 100mm/s from 14% to 16%?
• WOW!!!! LOST FOR WORDS
• So 508dpi IS achievable but under very special circumstances.
• This is truly the brick wall. So where does this leave the Thunder laser claim?

147 China Blue Head Transplant Part1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrClJTXiM8s

• Having used the MK1 head very successfully there were many requests for the
drawings. Upon reflection and with a 3D model in front of me to, I decided that
making special lens capsules was not the right way to proceed because
everything was bespoke.
• Mk2 was required but and would be based on standard lens tibe and nozzle
technology.
• Cutting and assembly of the Mk2
• Note. This design is only suitable for machines with an adjustable table
Although this design uses standard lens tubes it still requires a special nozzle and
modifications to the lens tube.

148 China Blue Head Transplant Part2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCoTdNJ53dw
• Fitting the MK2 head to the machine
• Demonstration of flex in the head mounting bracket
• Attempted acrylic replacement bracket turned out to be junk
• However, without this junk bracket the strange test pattern results I saw earlier
on my Mk1 head may have been harder to track down.
• Continue to set the MK2 head in Z as we have demonstrated with the Mk1
head
• We now carry out the focus test with the Mk2 head and get even worse wobbly
 test results
• The acrylic bracket and the new aluminium bracket are the culprits.
• Need to design a steel stiffer bracket system.
• While the bracket is being made I have remade the head so that it is projects a
little lower and also bodged a stiffening bracket for the original aluminium
system that runs a nice steady dot test.
• New bracket arrives and is fitted.
• Go through the Z setting procedure again
• 2 more days have passed and more thoughts about how you will be able to
make this for yourself have been troubling me.. Oh dear, I feel another change
is coming!!!
• Welcome to the Mk4!!!!!!
It uses a standard UNMODIFIED lens tube system.

149 Lets Zoom in on Lenses Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fgw5hnU8EY

• Review of a bit of lens and beam theory

• Different lens mounting systems and nozzles
• Where to buy lenses and what material should I choose?
• What are those materials used for lenses?
• Now lots of tests to look at what sort of dots each lens will produce
View some interesting results under microscope comparing each to an ideal
compound lens reference.

150 Lets Zoom in on Lenses Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeEdbd9YWAE

• This session is all about assessing the % power transmission trough the lensI
• Look at the method I am using
• Look at the calculation strategy I am using to assess transmission efficiency
• A close look at the gallium arsenide lens very shiny anti-reflective coating
makes you wonder if this can be true, surely something so shiny must reflect?
• An analysis of the results puts gallium arsenide as best performer and a few
other surprises.
.

151 Lets Zoom in on Lenses Part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LArKiymBry0&t=2427s

• Choosing a suitably demanding test material to cut

 • The lenses that I have for all of these tests are 38.1mm focal length
• Selecting 10mm plywood (albeit soft poplar) seems an unreasonable demand
for a 38mm lens.
• Let’s step back and look at my theory of woodcutting.
• Slow motion look at a unfocused beam pulse hitting the surface of wood.
• Yet again I go through the way light energy gets transferred to heat energy and
causes the carbon in wood to sublimate into gas at 3,500C
• Demonstration (in slow motion) of a pulse burning a hole through the wood
after the beam has been amplified by the lens.

• This one pulse at quite a long distance from the work was so explosive that
debris became deposited on the lens.. Reinforces the need for air assist
protection of the lens at all times
• The same pulse test but through 10mm plywood this time. .Burns a parallel
hole right through
• Importance of air assist and how the air assist need not be high pressure, just
efficient at getting air into the kerf.
• How is it possible for a diverging beam below the focus point to burn a parallel
hole through 10mm? a BIG unanswered question
• Small distance to work and small nozzle orifice jets the air assist efficiently into
the cut and leaves almost char-free edges
• We establish that a flow though the nozzle at 8l/min will be the air assist air flow
for all our tests because we have proved that air assist flow rate can affect cut
efficiency.
• After many hours of off camera work the results are here to be viewed.
Comparing just how fast we could run each of our 38mm lens. It was surprising
to find the cheapest Chinese PVD plano convex scored best.
• As an extra unscheduled test I used a 50.8mm GaAs and ZnSe PVD lens to
compare cutting performance against their 38.1mm brothers..
• Wow, they were several steps more efficient. But why?
• Logic says that if I put say 60watts into a 38mm spot size I get a certain energy
density to damage the material I am cutting. Move up to the next focal distance
50.8 and the spot size is twice the area . Thus the energy density is halved and
we should therefore do LESS damage to the material. Results do not support
that logic . The 2” lens cuts better but why?
• Still more understanding required……..but that’s another day after a lot more
research.

152 Are Our Nozzles Designed Correctly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdPh2G5H5OQ

• Did the Chinese put any real thought into the design of nozzles
• Test 1 is to see just what size the beam is that arrives at the lens. The answer is
 the same size as the tube window ie 12,7mm
• EFR claim this to be a 6mm beam.
• Equipment setup to establish the profile of the beam as it exits the lens
• Microscope look at the burn results
• Cad drawing to put those results into perspective for a 38mm lens
• Discussion of results.
• There is no information anywhere to say what lenses and what nozzles are
supposed to work together.
• Discussion about the defined spot size of the tube beam
• Run similar tests for 2 “ and 2.5” lenses with different nozzles
• Discussion about what size orifice would be beneficial.
• Did the designer specifically use the nozzle as a low power occlusion device?
• OR did they work from the tube manufacturers beam diameter data?
• I need to do some more research before jumping to any serious conclusions
about what we have discovered in this session.

153 Nozzle Analysis Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVt9tuZpRdw

• Discussion as to why there is such a difference between beam diameter

that I can prove exists and the tube makers specification.
• Is it all to do with FWHM?
• I think its more likely to be a NORMAL distribution definition because
our beam has a power distribution that is Gaussian (otherwise known a
NORMAL)
• When we realize that 2 standard deviations is about 8mm and that 95%
of the beam power is within that zone of the 12.7mm beam it begins to
make sense that we should not worry about obscuration at the
extremes
• All nozzle/beam combinations now will work without any noticeable
power loss or nozzle heating.
• The difference between the needs of cutting and engraving really
demand different nozzles
• Power tests before and after nozzle to see if there are any significant
power losses caused by the nozzle.
• The conclusion is less than 2% so not worth worrying about and no
reason to change the size of a CUTTING nozzle orifice.
• Demonstration of the many problems and principles of engraving when
using a CUTTING nozzle
• I have developed a dedicated engraving nozzle specifically for engraving
 • The explosive volcanic debris no longer gets near the nozzle because
the rapid CROSSFLOW of air is pulling it away before it can reach the
nozzle
• This nozzle ( and many other goodies) can be bought at
https://www.cloudraylaser.com/products/compound-universal-engravi
ng-nozzle?variant=13488869867571 Make sure you scroll down the
page for lots of useful data

154 Head Transplant Mk2A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVGByifge_Q

• Here we are at the final iteration of the new head design

• Cutting the parts for the new design with the old design head.
• Stepping through the assembly and cementing the parts
• I must stress that this design is suitable fir the China Blue machine with it’s front
mounted bearing rail
• Your table must be adjustable to use this system
• New switches fitted to allow small adjustments for focusing.
• Fit the new head and look at new target holder.
• Set initial head position to “catch the beam from mirror 2.
• Go through the Z setting procedure we are now very familiar with .
• With the machine set up we quickly go through the many NEW combination of
lenses and nozzles
• How to contact me about the drawings and the mounting bracket. The latter
can be bought or you can make it yourself.
• Discussion of the opposite requirements of cutting and engraving
• Look at all the all the possible combinations of lenses and nozzle and the fact
that you can use a clamp ring as a backstop instead so that you project your
focus point to a position that suits you beyond the nozzle.
• My rant about honeycomb tables. It’s the thing all makers supply but the
WORST possible thing for air flow management , cannot be cleaned, damages
the underside of your work and after a few months of use become a fire hazard

155 Oh Dear, What Nozzle and Lens do I choose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i6XrUIYwMQ

• The work I have done recently with the new head has forced me to look much
harder at the fixed design of lens tubes and nozzles that has not changed since
forever!!!
• Life was simple when the choice was just one of 3 main lenses j and just one
 nozzle
• With all the 3 possible nozzles , many lenses and different ideas for mounting
them in ways you had never imagined……..the matrix has exploded.
• Here step through all the new combinations
• At the time of the video the universal engraving nozzle was not existing. But
now you can go to
https://www.cloudraylaser.com/products/compound-universal-engraving-nozzl
e?variant=13488869867571
• Make sure you scroll down the web pages because they are full of useful data

156 The Holy Grail of Dots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxfC9jbX6PM

• I already have discovered the secret formula for a compound lens.

• People have questioned whether I had tried all possible combinations. The
answer is no and there are too many combinations to try in what precious time
I have left to breath……But I am going to explore lots more just in case there is
a pattern that will point me to something better..
• A demonstration of the methods I will be using to try and find the magic
combination.
• With so many lenses in my collection and they all look very sameish, I am often
asked how can you easily determine the local length of a lens.. Answer is that I
have made myself a “lens ladder”
• Most people cannot easily work out what a meniscus lens looks like. Here is a
simple fool proof way of sorting meniscus from plano convex.
• We will run all test at a standard power and speed.
• Let’s look at the microscope picture of our combinations. Most are rubbish but a
few standouts.
• Why do I get halo-free dots? Is it because of my power filtering theory where
exaggerating the spherical aberration sends the high density part of the beam
to a significantly different focal point or is it because there is a concentration of
everything through a perfect focus point?
• When we look at the 4 best halo-free results from 19 combinations there is one
obvious pattern, those 4 are all flat side down combinations.
• Back to the workshop to retest the two best combinations for repeatability
• Choice 1 is not repeatable but with some fiddling it come back to almost good.
• Test for the #1 choice to see if there is any lower power around the dot. Hmm.
Good but not perfect
• Now do the same test with our original best combination
• Wow. No dot growth or low power halo after continuous burns of several
seconds.. Absolute perfection.. ALL the power must be passing through that
 single point. Zero aberration effect.
• We have come full circle and learnt nothing other than how perfect the original
combination was.
• We now test this combination with and image on some VERY thin card . This is
a challenging test and to show that we are not burning though and that we have
delicate control of the power per dot.
• We test also on anodized aluminium.. We find that we can get smaller dots so
we set resolution to 318ppi and get a great result
• We repeat the picture test with MF and again get a great result.
• You can now buy this compound lens kit at
https://www.cloudraylaser.com/products/compound-universal-engraving-nozzl
e?variant=13488869965875
• Make sure you scroll down the page foe some greatdetails.

157 A short Break

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN29jRtQUlA

• I am trying some laser rehab, but I’m not sure it’s working!!!

158 Compound Lens and Universal Engraving Nozzle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATu-7EGZGMA

• The universal engraving nozzle /compound lens kit has arrived from Cloudray’
It is officially now a purchasable item
• https://www.cloudraylaser.com/products/compound-universal-engraving-nozzl
e?variant=13488869867571 make sure you scroll down the webpage for lots of
good data
• This is just a painbrush…….it will not make you a brilliant artist. There are many
basic rules I have laid out for you. This is not intended as a cutting system it is
designed for low power dithered engraving and may be of no use to those with
powerful 100 watt plus tubes if you cannot control low power in a precision
manner.
• Choose the card, wood, slate, etc carefully because not all materials react the
same ti IR light.
• Dot colour is the key thing to look for when you do your dot test.
• Here is what you get in a compound lens kit.
• And how to assemble it.
• The work table must be true to within better than 0.3mm
• Set the focus spot on with the dot test pattern so that you get sharp black dots
• You must have a picture with a natural resolution greater than the image you
are going to engrave. You can always down scale the resolution without detail
 loss but if you upscale you are degrading the picture.
• Always scale your picture in RDWorks before you set the output resolution.
• In the bitmap handle set the output resolution to match the size of your dots and
the dither with dot mode.
• Set the parameters for engraving especially the line interval.
• For card engraving I have made myself a little vacuum table (a future video
project) that hold the card perfectly flat.
• It is important that we engrave from the bottom of the image towards the back
of the table
• Demonstration CROSSFLOW air through the machine and how important it is
for nice clean engraving.
• Fantastic image at 245 dpi why would you want more?
• Now for Baltic birch plywood, a nice white fairly grainless material. The only
issue with it is flatness. The Mk1 vacuum table is not powerful enough to suck it
flat
• Now we see the advantage of a flat steel table as I use neodymium magnets
• Trying different parameters for the dot test seems to limit me to a 0.15 dot ie
170dpi
• The results was OK but obviously dotty
• Rerun at 254 dpi the result was just amazing
• So wood was not the problem I had anticipated, but this was an almost
grainless wood. Anything like bamboo or other grained woods may produce
some very strange results because the grain resin engraves differently to the
surrounding cellulose.
• Summary of what you will get when you order parts from Cloudray

159 The Chequerboard Challenge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iswn-R_mbck

• A light bulb moment a couple of months ago was going to allow me to produce
high quality dithered images at high speed ……or so I thought. Quick and dirty
testing at the time were a total flop.
• So in this session, after lots of thinking during my laser rehab, I am going to give
the idea another try. It may turn out to be a genius idea or a public
demonstration of my senility
• A look at the 254 dpi chequerboard pattern ie pixels and spaces are 0.1mm
• We set the parameters and specifically set the scan mode to X unilateralism
• I interrupt the test to CUT a special high resolution focus gauge specifically for
setting this compound nozzle This will answer questions about can this
compound lens cut?
• We established focus and power using the dot test and then run the chequer
pattern at the best focus distance
• Pretty good results, Nice clear 0.1mm dots on my test card
• Run on anodized aluminium and Laser Tile the results are equally good.
 • On wood the dots pattern is still there but the resin in the grain is “banding” the
pattern
• Final test on the beer mat card shows the 0.1mm dots or better pattern also
• Calculating the response speed of my power supply based on the fact that it
can burn single dots cleanly at 200mm/s, tells me it is 0.5ms response time or
better, which is twice as fast as the promised specification..
• Can we run at 400mm/s? Amazingly YES!!!!
• But I will still proceed to test my original genius idea
• Explanation of why an RF tube can run so much faster engraving than we can
with our DC controlled tubes.
• A diagram of how the tube is being switched on and off to produce the
chequerboard pattern The power is preset to a fixed value to create the right
amount of burn and then the tube switches on and off to burn the dots. Key
thing here is the tube is SWITCHING on and off.
• We are now going to walk through what greyscale engraving is that we
normally use for 3D engraving.
• So how will the tube now be controlled when the OUTPUT DIRECT switch is
enabled
• The tube now switches on for a whole scan line and then switches off. During
that scan the power is the feature that varies and it can vary from one power
level to another at almost instant speed.
• The problem is that if ever the controller detects true white (255) then it will
switch the tube OFF and now the tube has to restart at a relatively slow speed
before it can carry in with its rapid power variation.
• We must therefore modify the greyscale picture to remove any pure white
pixels. This will be done in Photoshop or some other image manipulation
program like GIMP.
• BUT, before we do this we must convert the picture into a binary dithered image
containing black pixels on a white background We must now convert this binary
bitmap back to a greyscale image and use the LEVELS feature to reset the
white 255 to say very nearly white 250. Doing this will fool the controller to
never switching off because it will never see 255 white pixels.
• Now the problem is to find the correct max and min power settings to print the
dot and running at a speed of 600mm/s
• The final result was pretty good but nowhere near as good as a normal dot
dithered picture.
• The genius idea was not an abject failure but for our machines it seem that slow
speed high quality it will have to be rather than high speed with a just about OK
quality

160 Adobe CS2 Legally Free

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOCy1VMkWeI
 • Although lots of websites point you to the Adobe.com download page and
advise that this version is now freeware, they are misleading, as I found out to
my embarrassment.
• I have had to re-edit this video assuming that you are in possession of a copy
of Photoshop, even old version will have the basic features I will be using. You
could also use GIMP which is an open source FREE variant of Photoshop
• I am NOT any sort of Photoshop expert I am just an ankle deep paddler,
however I know just enough to understand about creating the correct resolution
pictures to work with our laser machine.
• The first thing to understand is the resolution of the original picture. When you
look at its properties it will almost certainly display at a resolution of 72ppi. This
is the standard www format for transmitting and displaying images.
• Panic not, because if you look at the top of the properties box and see that your
image is several megabytes., then all the original detail is still there
somewhere.
• If you untick resample image and set the resolution to the best we can engrave
(254ppi) you will see the picture has resized. Now provided the size is bigger
than what you want to engrave then you can proceed..
• We leave the original image unchanged and create a NEW window. You can
now specify exactly the size and resolution of that window that you require for
your final image
• You can now drag your original image into the new window and start to shrink
and position it to suit.
• You can now convert to greyscale and play with your image using a myriad of
controls to adjust contrast brightness etc . One useful tip is to see what filter
unsharp mask does to make your picture “pop”. Use sparingly.
• Finally you can convert to a bitmap and chose a simple diffusion dither
• Save as a.bmp and import into RDWorks
• Set the parameters
• Before you start engraving you MUST make sure you have set your Scanning
Offset correction for the speed you plan to run your engraving at
• Need to satisfy myself that everything engraves ok so a quick test on beer mat
card and then on Baltic birch plywood.
• I take the opportunity to experiment again with my genius idea to greysacle
engrave a dithered picture
• Results are as before , about 90% quality when compared to ordinary dithered
engraving.

161 Christmas Special 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_0rczM5FDM

• Let’s get the party started!!!!

• Making my mince pie a little bit more festive
 • Making labels for your seasonal gifts
• Getting your Christmas cards ready for Xmas
• Embossing the card with snowflake pattern
• Now for the inner paper part of the card
• Inkjet print the inner sheets with a seasonal message and assemble the final
card.
• Special jig for A4 Baltic birch ply. Hold it flat and also the jig is fixed at a known
position so that I can program items in Absolute Mode
• First the card packing wrap for the coasters
• 3mm Baltic birch ply coasters.
• Transfer coasters to the engraving jig
• Creating an image for engraving using the VIRTUAL array method
• A pretty good Xmas gift?????
• A surprise present for my lovely wife!
• Not something I made at a mad price
• Christmas greetings.

162 Lens tests Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU5uT2XnuWU

• The “ironman” tests we did on lenses a few sessions ago was very thought
provoking because some of the results and effects that we take for granted
defy logical reasoning
• We think of focus as a fixed entity but practical experience tells me it’s not. It
can vary with speed and power
• First question is where is the manufacturers focal point?
• Diagram and measurements to find where the focal point is.
• Clear demonstration that the focal point is not where the manufacturer set it
and it changes with speed !!!
• Crude test to demonstrate the beam fanning out before and after the focal
point.
• A look at the results under microscope shows a curiously uniform diameter
hole where the material damage threshold has been exceeded. That hole is
not fanning in and out with the beam spread.. Curious??
• Carrying out more tests with constant pulse power per burn.
• Looking at microscope images and pointing out that I cannot produce a
static dot at 2ms whereas dynamically I can lay dots that happen in 0.5ms
Curious???2
• Difference in damage treshold for two different card types
• Microscope view of different focal length burn profiles
• Trying to find the best way to display the results
• Scale drawings of the various focal lengths show some surprising results.
• Lets try something ridiculous with a 2.5” GaAs lens. A block of 10mm thick
 acrylic set 9mm below the focal point using all the previous test parameters.
• Acrylic damage threshold is significantly different but we can still make a
small hole in the surface so even at this extreme distance there is still some
high central energy density
• By increasing the TIME only, we allow the available energy to act on the
acrylic. 1 second allows this DEFOCUSED beam to burn a virtually
PARALLEL hole through10mm material. Even more curious??
• One more test to see the shape of a 1 sec burn done with the material set at
the focal point and then 9mm above the focal point.
• The results are still almost parallel holes regardless of whether the beam is
converging or diverging
• Questions about this phenomenon have been asked of MANY expert and
learned establishments. No satisfactory explanations have been
forthcoming.
• The theory that this effect is due to the light pipe effect of total internal
energy reflection is logically dissembled.
• Conclusion is that there seems to be a thin core of high energy that is doing
this damage.

163 Lens Tests Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJjAr-TANQk

• It seem that lens theory is not quite the same as lens practice. There are
some interesting discoveries that do not appear in books. The beam’s
energy density does not just happen at the focal point
• We have a demonstration of the method used to map the energy density
within the beam both above and below the focal point.
• Each lens being tested is set to its perfect “dynamic” focal point and the
table is dropped 20mm below that focal point , The pulse power is set to 60
watts for a fixed 20ms pulse
• A “burn” is made in a piece of thin standard test card.
• The table is ten raised in predefined steps all the way to 20mm above the
focal point and “burns” are made at each step.
• We see the holes caused by the high energy part of the beam and the halo
around the hole where the out of focus lower energy has only been able to
scorch the card.
• The test is quite quick but measuring the result and converting it into a
meaningful graphical format is a laborious process.
• It’s necessary to collect this data before trying to work out why different
lenses cut the same material at different speeds and different cut profiles
AND why the same lens cuts different materials at different speeds.
• A detailed look at the many different lens materials, lens shapes,
orientations and powers used for the tests
• A detailed explanation of different lens types and the way they focus the
 energy
• Our Chinese lenses are not capable of achieving anywhere near the
published “spot” size
• That is clearly demonstrated when a comparison of the same lens tested 4
different ways is neither consistent or anywhere close to the generally
accepted spot size.
• Testing a special 4” lens configuration to find a “super” small spot size
• Disappointed at the cutting performance I created a density map to see
what was happening. Basically it was rubbish. But upon reading the small
print, the super small spot was claimed for a completely different
wavelength light.
• An explanation of how I arrived at selecting a 20ms pulse length and
comparing it with a 50ms pulse length

164 Honeycomb Alert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n54uNRs8Ydk

• As You will quickly discover, I hate the honeycomb table.

• A quick discussion about airflow management THROUGH the machine
• Understanding CROSSFLOW and how honeycomb circumvents it
• A demonstration of how there is almost zero extraction from under your cuts
and also the refection marls on the back/edge of your cuts.
• The cold condensing honeycomb is a fume trap.
• Watch the condensate build up beneath the work, the back reflection
flashes and the occasional orange glow in the background as the fumes
catch fire in the cells.
• Replacing the honeycomb with a mild steel sheet forces the air flow
ACROSS the table and out the rear grill
• Demonstration of acrylic cutting directly on the steel table to show the
fumes condensing on the cold surface (no back marking or combustion.)
• A demonstration of how easy it is to ignite acrylic once it is warm.
• View of damage done to the steel table by the excess energy (once the cut
is complete) . It is this excess that will ignite the condensate build up in the
honeycomb cells
• Introduction to the NEW machine that I have been gifted.
• Yes …this was an acrylic fire!!!!!
• Honeycomb and acrylic have been responsible for at least 5 other machine
fires that I have been notified of .
• NEVER walk away from a machine whilst it is CUTTING and keep a small
fire extinguisher by your machine.

165 Making a Vacuum Table

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6VTGRtFY-M
 • Apologies for long wait for this video
• Quickly skip over the cutting of pieces and on to assembly
• Removing the fans from the Mk1 vac table ready for reuse
• .Loose nuts means I must use nylock nuts for the MK2
• Assembly procedure and instructions for gluing.
• Wiring the fans into the MK2
• Explanation of why two fans ore stacked
• Make sure the power supply has enough current draw for all the fans
• A quick test shows all is working great.
• There is a modification in this Mk2 with a FRAME of screws to pull the
edges of Baltic birch plywood flat for engraving
• There is a 3 point levelling system that will allow you to achieve levels better
than 0.1mm
• Details of the design are available on the RDWorkslab forum

166 Lenses Part 3. Cutting Test Preview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV_BZ1US7vY

• Worried folks are reassured about my non-existent health problem because

it was a couple of week since my last video…. They were either genuinely
concerned or sarcastically telling.me to get my finger out. I advised them
that this was not a soap opera and it would continue at MY pace and that the
only thing I have to suffer is my wife!!!
• Introduction to the MASSIVE task of testing the many lenses I have now got
in my collection.
• Setting the focus on the test lens .Test with the 200mm/s speed (too fast)
and then slow down to cutting speed (25mm/s). Focus changes by about
1mm when running at the correct CUTTING speed
• A look at what happens beneath the material at different cutting speeds
and the efficient way in which my managed air flow removes the fumes.
• Analysis of the BACK of the cuts to choose the fastest reliable sample.
• I have purpose put a small cross cut into the sample so that I can examine
the profile of the beam path,
• To do that I grind about 2mm away so that I can examine a “clean” profile.
• Now a simple test on a piece of card to check the size of the beam on entry
to cutting the 10mm thick poplar plywood sample. Then a second burn on
the card with the table lowered by 10mm. This demonstrates the shape of
the beam at exit of the plywood,
• When measured , the card shows an entry burn of about 1mm and an exit
burn of about 5,5mm.
• So. how will this same 1,5” lens perform on 10mm acrylic?
• The 4mm/s sample was selected and the cross cut profile ground away’
• We now look at the entry profile of the plywood sample and it measures
0.5mm wide.
 • A measurement of the cut exit is 0,4mm wide
• The whole cut profile shows a slight barrelling.
• Now a look at the acrylic cut profile shows it to be almost parallel and 0.4mm
wide,
• Examining the results in picture form clearly shows the puzzling aspect of
cutting and lenses
• Conventional wisdom would suggest that an increasing beam profile below
the focal point will result in a tapered cut ie the cut edge will never be
square,
• Trotec peddle this myth as though it was scientific fact and that THEY know
the way to overcome it is with a longer focal length lens. Hmmmm
• Does this mean we can do much better cuts with our cheap Chinese
lenses?

167 Auto Focus Frustration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE

• A little Russ rant about the uselessness of the autofocus system.

• BUT,……now I have changed my lens test procedure to include another
feature that is the subject of MUCH debate. Will I get faster/deeper cuts if I
drop the focus into the material?
• I can now use the autofocus to automate this test procedure.
• Hmmmm . Problems, problems and more problems.
• A quick run through setting the autofocus pen (switch) and set the switch to
leave the nozzle on the work surface
• Upon initiating the autofocus cycle the table drops by about 3mm below the
nozzle, Why?
• A look into the vendor settings to see a feature called HOME OFFSET on
the Z axis is set to 3mm.. Change this to zero and then do a machine reset
• You would expect the nozzle to now sit on the work surface….NO!!! Why
not?
• The switch has 3 positions . If you set the sensor(switch) up incorrectly you
will damage the switch
• So How do |I set the nozzle to my required 7.5mm perfect focus distance?
• Back to the vendor settings and in the Z HOME OFFSET and set the
7.5-1.5=6mm
• Run the autofocus again and now the focus is perfect.
• Under non-demonstration mode that would take about 5 minutes to reset
the switch for a new/different lens.
• Now we start to program for the simple task of raising the table 3mm
between layers,
• There now follows a long and confusing set of steps as I try to decode the
Chinglish instructions for making the table move between layers,
• Eventually it becomes clear and simple and we see a demonstration of the
function in action.
 168 Bridges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOWvTq51HCMHYPERLINK
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE"

• A solid table means raising your work to get good airflow beneath the
material. In doing so there are two possible problems you create
• Any pieces that fall down start blocking the airflow and secondly those
pieces may fall out of line with the cut profile and land in a position to be
damaged by an adjacent cut.
• Bridges solve this issue.
• Bridges allow you to raise your work well above the zone where reflection
from the metal table damages the rear of your work.
• Although I have engraved simple outline letters on the acrylic job, I have left
the protective film on. This acts as a mask when I want to paint fill the
letters.
• We take a quick look into RDWorks to see where and how you can add
bridges to your objects.
• Removing the film and tidying up the filled letters.
• Finally a bit of housekeeping. Cleaning the condensed acrylic vapour from
the table with acetone.

169 Auto Focus Practical Alternative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki8bFEAcJG8HYPERLINK
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE"

• Confirmation that i am not a fan of the auto focus systems on these machines.
• I plan to show how you can use your Z stepper system to get auto focus
capability without using the vulnerable auto focus switch.
• In the USER tab set the AUTO HOME for Z ON.
• This only works if you have a top sensing micro switch.
• When you press RESET the Z table now resets to it's TOP position and sets
the keyboard display to ZERO.
• There is a risk of wiping out if you leave something on the table. You can
overcome this you must set your RETURN POSITION to absolue.
• Demonstration of the machine being confused about the work ORIGIN point
depending on running from machine memory or live from the PC.
• Choosing to use Absolute or Anchor Point positioning in RDWoks solves this
confusion.
• Demonstration of variation in focal distance as the lens orientation changes.
 • To find the best focus set the speed for the application you plan to run and with
a straight line find the thinnest drawn line.
• Check the settings in Vendor Settings (RD8888) and set the HOME OFFSET to
0
• Changing the speed appears to change the focus....Hmmmm
• Setting and using a program with varying Z positions.
• Never assume that the machine vendor has calibrated the Z axis.. Check it for
yourself and set the calibration as described.

170 Lert's Focus on Lernses Part 4 (First results)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO2TD_h8_nIHYPERLINK
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE"

• Despite. lots of hunting, I came across zero research work on how lenses
actually cut no-metallic material.. That means I have to find the answers myself.
• Thanks to Cloudray for supplying many different lens materials, focal lengths
and lens shapes that have enabled this comparative work to take place.
• Stepping through the methodology I use for my tests
• The key setting is focus for each lens. As we have seen before, the focus must
be set for the speed of testing.
• Demonstration of my program to quickly find the correct focus.
• Running one of my standard tests.
• Analysis of the test results.
• After many hours of testing, and result logging I have collected all my results
into a PDF file.
• My goal is to find out exactly what happens to a material when the laser beam
strikes it . I already know that standard lens theory is meaningless in answering
this question.
• Quick discussion of the 3 materials I chose to test, Plywood, acrylic and MDF.
• There are many myths and "old wives tales" that need to be examined
• A look at the summary page of the cutting results for all lenses and materials.
• Using the test data summary to confirm or debunk the myths.
• My favourite cutting lens is a 2" focal length gallium arsenide used flat face
down. Using PRACTiCAL results , I show just how wrong I have been!!!!
• The big question that is evident in all the pictures remains.... WHY if a lens
causes the beam to DEFOCUS after the focal point, do we get DEEP and
PARALLEL cuts?????

171 Lenses Part 5. Why are cuts Parallel?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqxG9z5MHnsHYPERLINK
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE"

• After much time and effort carrying out energy density profiling all the test
 lenses, I'm not sure that they help answer the "why parallel cuts " question.
• We can clearly see from tests that we get parallel sided cuts in 10mm thick
MDF with both 1.5" and 4" focal length lenses regardless of lens shape or lens
orientation, That is contrary to all we have been taught about lenses.
• Oh dear some of my infantile attempts at drawing!! I try to explain my theory of
how it is possible to get a parallel cut.
• I use some 10mm thick extruded acrylic to try and examine my theory.
• Using a fixed power but pulse lengths from 1 to 10ms we can begin to see the
"mode burn" of a focused beam as it penetrates into the acrylic.
• Carrying on beyond 10ms produces interesting results.
• The proposal that vapour is being reheated and scourging the side walls as it
exits is tested with a sandwich of thin acrylic sheets and air gaps to vent any
trapped vapour.
• During a short holiday in Greece , I had lots of time to think about this problem.
The sun, salty air, wine and too much food seemed to supercharge my two
remaining grey cells into connecting all the data dots I had created into a crystal
clear image of what was happening.

172 At LAST!!! How Lenses Work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOsVvz2zEBYHYPERLINK
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE"

• I cannot begin to bullet point this session because it contains so much data. You
are going to have to watch it (if you can stay awake).

173 Dead RDC6442 control panel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddecxYBRkrcHYPERLINK
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE"

• After 4 years the display screen has stopped working

• Remove some clamps to remove the panel
• Various suggested fixes from the internet all fail.
• Had to buy a new display box and yes that fixed the problem and I now have my
machine back
• During the intervening 2 weeks I was without a display panel I was forced to
control the machine from my PC..... a new experience for me.
• The TEST tab is limited and different way to manually move the head around the
work area.
• We have a quick demonstration of these features
•

174 Should I use an inert assist gas?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgRmYYCbw8sHYPERLINK
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE"
 • This is a VERY short session!
• I have often been asked if an inert assist gas will cure the charred edges that
happen when we cut an organic material such as wood ,leather or card.
• The atmosphere we breath is 80% inert anyway ( nitrogen) but about 20% is highly
reactive oxygen which is required for the chemical action of burning (oxidation)
• I have borrowed a bottle of argon gas (very inert) from a welder friend.
• I carry out a test cut with normal air assist on a piece of 10mm poplar plywood. The
result is alight brow but char free cut at 8mm/s with my 60 watt tube.
• I now change to argon assist gas and repeat the test exactly. having set the argon
pressure to about 4psi to match the normal air assist pressure
• Two surprises arise from this test.
• A) there appears to be no reduced cutting efficiency because we have hopefully
excluded oxygen
• B) There is ZERO difference in the cut edge colour.
• Thus I ask why would I use an expensive assist gas when normal FREE air will
achieve the same result?
• Hopefully this ends the speculation about the benefits of using and inert assist
gas. .

175 C Series Head adjustable bracket

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXda33tlO3kHYPERLINK
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE"

• This session begins with an unfocused beam MODE BURN. The purpose is to
show an imperfection with my beam. The cental "sharp" light intensity is missing.
• This makes it difficult fro me to get crisp dots and great detail in my photo
engraving. A change of tube is required.
• Changing the tube is not a difficult task but setting the beam perfectly is difficult
with the existing head because it has no Z axis adjustment.
• I now rip the head off the machine.
• Introduction to my stainless steel fully adjustable head mounting bracket
• The new bracket has been designed to completely copy the previous non
adjustable bracket
• Re build the head bracket so that you can see the assembly procedure
• You will see how the head is now easily adjustable in Z and Y
• We have not messed with the X or Y axis so it should just be a simple matter to
move the head so that the beam lands on the mirror 3 sweet spot.
• On turning the machine on the Z axis jams as it tries to home. The culprit is soon
identified as a small piece of acrylic waste that found its way into a lead screw
thread.
• We now step through the procedure for setting Z perfectly.
• Adjust the head in Z and Y to get the beam approximately on target centre
• With the power set to 15% (approx what is used for photo engraving) it is obvious
that the power at the centre of the beam is missing.
• This centring procedure does not have to be spot on because it is going to be
readjusted at a later stage.
• The next procedure shows how to set the Z axis perpendicular to the table.
• The next procedure uses a special fixture to hold a target on the AXIS of the lens
tube. A critical setting will now take place and that is to adjust the head position in
Z and Y so that the beam reflects off mirror three right onto the centre of the target.
• When you have achieved this you can be sure that the beam is passing through
the AXIS of the lens
• So that's the beam reset
• We now look at a different pin table support system. A series of fully independent
pins.
• we now make new targets for the Z alignment fixture that will be required when we
replace the tube.
• This adjustable bracket is not something I wish to manufacture so I am giving the
design to Cloudray to manufacture and sell at Chinese prices.
• See
https://www.cloudraylaser.com/collections/k-series-laser-head-parts-1/products/cloudray-
c-series-co2-adjustable-laser-head-bracket?variant=32936879947916
• This is designed to suit the 15mm bearing rail system. Be warned , many machines
have a 12mm rail system and at this stage cannot be used with such machines.

176 A New Tube for the Lightblade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_ehGE51rH4

• I cannot no longer do the same quality of photo engraving on this machine that I
can do on my old China Blue machine.
• We do mode burns on both machines to demonstrate th problem I have.
• I demonstrate that as a CUTTING tube it performs well but for engraving it lacks
detail.
• For most people it seems insane to change what looks like a perfectly good tube.
My needs and standards are well honed and tell me that this tube needs replacing.
• We look at the new Cloudray CR70 tube and discuss it SPT pedigree .
• We check that the tube will fit existing clamps and that the 60 watt power supply
will work with a 70 watt tube. Ideally I should buy an 80 watt power supply.
• We rip out the old tube and install the new tube, showing you how to make the
soldered high voltage cable joint.
• We take a look at how to clean molybdenum mirrors in extreme ways.
• Using my card targets we set the beam spot onto the centre of mirror 1
• We then go through the procedure for setting mirrors 1 and 2 to set the beam true
to the Y and X axes.
 • The more observant will note that my prototype bracket design,clashed with the
belt path. Panic not. it has been fixed.
• We now step through the same Z setting procedure that we covered in video #175
• In addition we also check beam alignment through the nozzle and make minor
adjustments to mirror 3
• We check the performance characteristic of the new tube against the tube we
removed. It delivers MUCH more than promised. This is a 70 watt tube delivering
85 watts!! That is typical for SPT. They are the only company I know of that
UNDERSPECIFY their tubes.
• We then compare mode burns and see an amazing improvement
• We then do a known photo engraving test to verify that we have detail back in the
results.

177 Christmas Special 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lguY9maMgyY

• After celebrating with stollen and red wine, should I be using this very dangerous
laser machine????
• First we are going to make some Xmas decorations called Plop Plops..
• Next we start on another project for that time after dinner on Xmas day.
• We are using bridges that we learnt about in an earlier session
• We make more interesting pieces but still no clue about the final item!!
• Finally we can see that its a 4x4x4 3D tic tac toe.
• We then make a nice box to pack it away.
• Finally we overcook the turkey!!

178 Another New Venture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_QBuN833F8HYPERLINK
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaGEu0ddrE"

• I have been loaned a fiber laser machine for about a year to "play with"
• Lotus Laser sounds Chinese but in reality they are very British and are only a few
miles away from where I live.
• These are not Chinese imports but UK designed and manufactured bespoke
machines.
• This machine is a rare and expensive breed of equipment called a MOPA fiber
laser.
• I know NOTHING about the technology so why do I have the luxury of borrowing
this machine
• Starting from nothing means I may learn many things about this machine that
Lotus Laser do not have time to discover for themselves
• I will not let this new venture interfere with my RDWorks series so I will call it a new
 name so those with no interest can pass it by.

179 Fitting the Cloudray C Series Adjustable head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76wW_uL-rOI

• I have received the prototype head bracket from Cloudray for approval before
they go into production with it
• To make sure that it all works perfectly I rip off MY original prototype and refit the
new design.
• All worked perfectly
• We then went through the Z setting procedure we have seen in previous sessions
• So now the product is available for sale at
https://www.cloudraylaser.com/collections/k-series-laser-head-parts-1/products/cloudray-
c-series-co2-adjustable-laser-head-bracket?variant=32936879947916

180 Axis switch not working

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAREAPt3lqs

• The Hall Effect proximity switches that are used to set the 0,0 position when you
first turn on the machine can cause some puzzling machine effects when they fail.
• We step through the controller start procedure to see how these sensors are used
to set the machine's work area.
• How to check if your sensors are working.
• Description of how the switch procedure operates
• Demonstration of how the switch is used to set the axis zero point.
• So what goes wrong with these switches?
• It will almost certainly be an X axis switch that fails because the copper wires are
not good at flexing and this cable flexes continuously.
• We talk about how where and why the cable will flex to destruction and how
intermittent connections of the break can fool a lot of people to look elsewhere for
a problem.
• Description of where and what to buy to replace the switch
• A little trick that allows you to use your machine whilst awaiting a replacement
switch
 181 Redsail Clone Upgraded Head
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziyqXxGJX_o

• My Lightblade machine is a Redsail clone. This is not a derogatory term but a

description of a basic machine design where gantry is kept square to the Y rails by
two synchronized toothed drive belts
• The Lightblade is built like a tank and has 15mm linear bearing rails.. Most red
and black machines have 12mm rails
• The mounting bracket I designed tor this machine is now available from Cloudray
https://www.cloudraylaser.com/collections/k-series-laser-head-parts-1/products/cl
oudray-c-series-co2-adjustable-laser-head-bracket?variant=32936879947916
• ,However, it is designed for the 15mm bearing system but I have designed an
adaptor plate which allows this head bracket to be used with 12 mm bearings.
• Cloudray is changing the design of their C series lens tubes to presumably make
them cheaper. They will be plain 24mm diameter in future,.
• This prompted me to consider a completely different strategy for the head design
based around using the amazing lens and nozzle flexibility of the C series lens
tube.
• Instead of the existing very heavy head I have designed a minimalist piece of
aluminium origami that weighs less than half of nothing!!!
• It employs many novel design features to improve stability and lens tube location
accuracy . A very simple "butterfly " clamp locks the tube solidly into a vee block
location. This allows quick and easy adjustment and removal of the lens tube.
• I now demonstrate how the head is manufactured in a few simple stages.
• The whole point of making a lightweight head is to improve the speed performance
of the machine.
• Shorter cycle times (mainly for engraving) are slightly dependant of linear speed
but much more influenced by acceleration. We only have a certain fixed power
available from the stepper motor so the lover the moving mass the greater we can
accelerate it with the available power.
• There is a brief explanation of how Newton's second law of motion is relevant to
this acceleration problem.
• There now follows a series of tests with the existing head and machine settings to
demonstrate the increasing overrun as speed increases
• 350 gms is the weight of the original head and 101 gms for the new design.
• The new head requires the bracket to be modified and the lit contains a drill jig to
add hole to existing brackets. NOTE New brackets from Cloudray now have these
holes
• I show the new head being fitted to the machine and the detailed setting procedure
for the Z axis
• At 500mm/s the overrrun was 22mm. Without changing any parameters the
overrun with the lightweight head becomes 17mm
• The acceleration limit specified in the Vendor Setting is 10,000mm/s/s .I cautiously
 raise this to 15,000mm/s/s and them go to the USER settings and find the
acceleration is set to 8,000mm/s/s.. I set it to 15,000mm/s/s.
• Testing at 500mm/s shows the overrun has now decreased to 13mm
• I raise the vendor setting again and set the acceleration to 20,000mm/s/s . This
results in an 11mm overrrun.
• I now examine what happens when I raise the speed to 1000mm/s . I find we are
running twice as fast but the overrun is now at 30mm
• Without hunting for optimum parameters we test at 400mm/s and get about 6mm
overrun. indicating the running slower with high acceleration factor creates a
shorter cycle time.
• Will this high speed /acceleration result in ringing of the new head bracket in the Y
direction. No. My little dot test program proves all is stable and stiff.
• Review of Newton's law showed that we could force the acceleration from
20,000mm/s/s to 30,000mm/s/s and not be loading the motor more than the
original head.
• That 30mm overrun at 1000mm/s has now reduced to 23mm but the cyle time is
14 seconds
• Drop the speed to 500mm/s and the cycle time becomes 14 seconds ---no
different
• Run at 600mm/s and the cycle time becomes 13 seconds and at 700mm/s the
result is 12 seconds
• So somewhere between 500 and 1000mm/s there is an optimum speed that
produces the fastest overall cycle time.
• We then review something obvious . That same 12 second portrait pattern is
rotated to landscape resulting in a cycle time of 10 seconds!!!!
•

182 Oh No! Not another new head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI3Xjb7PgkE

• Having designed and fitted a lightweight head to the Lightblade machine it seemed
a "no brainer" to find a way to make it fit the China blue machine also
• We look at the problems. Big Y axis alignment issue and also, despite the rigid
mounting opportunity straight onto the X axis bearing, there will only be Z
adjustment on the head.
• This forces me to review the design of the #2 mirror mount and design something
different that has precision Y adjustment to compensate for loss of Y adjustment
on the head itself,
• I manufacture and fit an acrylic no2 mirror mount
• I eventually get the new head fitted and the beam aligned in the Z axis ready to
use.
• With existing parameters at 500mm/s and an acceleration of 3,000mm/s/s there is
huge over travel of 37mm
• Changing the acceleration to 30,000mm/s/s reduces the overrun to 5mm!!
• Run a test pattern to check for loss of steps.....none.

183 New head results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSoQKdBAYlA
• Having previously run photo engraving at 200mm/s .I am now able to run at
400mm/s with no loss of quality.. The overrun is only 2 or 3mm and the cyle time
has reduced to less than 50% .
• This is a tube that is now nearly 5 years old and this is just a quick footnote to
verify a 120% successful head transplant
• We look at all the parts of the kit that will be supplied and sum up how they fit.

184 Lightweight head news

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W55YVMokjEM

• Just a quick session to inform that Cloudray will not be making this new
lightweight head people because with no news back from China, the demand for it
is increasing. I am therefore forced to make and sell a small batch myself. (not a
responsibility I wished to take on........BUT)
• We look at all the parts of the kit that will be supplied and sum up how they fit.

185 Lightweight head update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lZ2Ttdwrdc
• My small batch of lightweight heads was quickly overwhelmed by demand.
• A lot of demand was from people wanting to fit the head to 12mm bearings,
especially front mounted bearings.
• The head kit now includes a 12mm top bearing to 15mm mounting adaptor. that
allows you to use the Cloudray bracket. .
• I step through how the kit fits all types of machine
• The description text under the video lists all the necessary parts required for a
total upgrade
•

186 The 4th corner Puzzle and Red pointer Lies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV95IG1GyYc

• A common problem that many encounter is they can accurately align their ,X and
Y and X axes so that the scorch marks are perfect at left back, left front and right
front . However when the move the head to the right rear the scorch mark is
SIGNIFICANTLY in error. WHY?
• Many silly explanations have been suggested as to the cause of the problem.
 They are all fantasy and hope.
• First lets look at the main laser tube. Despite knowing lots of external dimensional
data I have never been able to perfectly know where the axis of the laser beam is.
• My latest and greatest red dot pointer was yet another "nearly ok" device that was
not a good enough replication of the beam path to dynamically set the mirrors .
However it has other uses.
• One use is to discount the idea that the level of the machine is the cause. .I
manhandle the machine and violently lift a corner to prove it had ZERO effect
• The real problem is at mirror 2. The flimsy mirror #2 mounting bracket distorts
between the fron and reat positions causing the beam to reflect at different angles.
• We create a scorch mark at mirror 3 in the front right position and set the red dot
pointer onto that scorch mark. . The red LED beam seems to indicate that mirror 2
is distorting between the back and front position because it is obviously moving.
• However When we check with scorch marks there is no difference ie the red beam
is not truthful......in fact misleading.
• I then discuss a common question that has arisen several times. "Can I set the
beam from the nozzle backwards?" My belief is "No" and I explain why

187 Through the lens red dot disappointment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHm_2RVrS4Y

• After the pervious examination of how you cannot make a trustworthy red dot
pointer I use diagrams to explain how the slightest amount of axial misalignment
robs the red beam if its usefulness for beam alignment.
• Any beam combining system suffers the same problem and must be considered
unreliable.
• There is an SPT tube that has a patented integrated red beam combiner that is
factory set to the beam.
• Discussion about "though the lens" red dot pointers.
• I have dreamed up my own version of a through the lens pointing system. using
steerable red LEDS
• Once designed I then go through the principle of the system I have designed and
it looks like I have designed something that is certain to fail.
• I go ahead and make it anyway
• I totally fail to align it and had to admit that it was the successful failure that I
predicted.. It demonstrated clearly that being off axis to the laser beam is always
going to end this way.

188 The 4 inch lens Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQa3UEwe94Y

• The 4" lens was something I mounted at the top of my lens tube in conjunction with
other low mounted lenses when I looking for ways to create the smallest dot.
• I am revisiting this 4" compound idea again ater being stimulated by by some
experiments done by another correspondent, where he was trying to increase the
focal range of lenses ie less sensitive to going out of focus by the same 4"
compound lens approach..
• Knowing more now about some of the rarely mentioned idiosyncrasies of lenses it
made me consider the exact opposite reason to play with long distance compound
lenses.. Does CONVERGING the beam through a 4 " lens onto a 2" or 2.5" focal
length lens improve its cutting capability?
• Cloudray have sent me several different types of 4" lens and two 7,5" focal length
lenses YES 7.5""!!!!
• This is just a quick pathfinder experiment to see if there is any value in pursuing
this direction.
• I set up a comp[ond lens configuration and use my focus program to determine the
best focus .
• I run a tests on 10mm p[ywood. 10mm acrylic and 9.5mm MDF to compare with
previous test data
• There was a 29% improvement with plywood , no improvement with acrylic and
37% improvement on MDF
• What was the magic lens combination? A 7.5" lens at the top of the tube and a 2.5"
lens at the bottom..
• The net effectof the combination was to SHORTEN the 2.5" focal length to 44mm
from the nominal 63.5mm.
• Was this just a lucky guess or are there better results to be had with other
combinations.?

189 Creating the Russ Spec machine part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHnJ2WxNo5Q

• My China blue machine is in essence a reasonably sound mechanical device. It

was cheap for a reason and that revolves around them being fitted with B grade
tubes and HV power supplies.
• I claim this is the beginning of the end of my learning journey with this machine
because I have made a few significant (but not expensive) design changes to
improve usability and performance.
• My final project performance has greatly interested Cloudray and they are very
keen to build and sell Russ Spec machines.
• This video is all about ripping the machine apart, yet again, to replace my acrylic
engineering with proper metal parts that Cloudray can manufacture and include
on the new machine.
• We start off with a metal adjustable #2 mirror holder that is integrated into a special
flexible rack and pinion bracket.
• There is a discussion of the curtains problem and why turning the timing belt
inside out solves the problem
• A big chunk of time is spent on modifying the machine to fit the new bracket
• The beam is then reset using the new adjustable #2 mirror adjuster
• With the machine back in working order I use my standard "Foxy" image at
400mm/s as opposed to 200mm/s
• I try running at 800mm/s . Result is a bit fuzzy because I failed to calibrate the
scanning offset for 800mm/s and the focus to suit this speed.
• I try running at 1000mm/s with full power and the result , once focused correctly is
giving 90% quality image at 12min 43 sec.
• A close up of the flexible rack and pinion working well.
• Atually finding that for some reason, 800mm/s produces worse results in 12min 12
sec. about 70%.
• Finally we test normal engraving at 1000mm/s Pretty good result. on my beer mat
card.

190 Creating the Russ Spec machine part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aErsmbYC4Bc

• As part of the Russ Spec machine we are building a unique one piece tube mount
that integrates a #1 mirror .
• The unit is a very simple laser cut 1.5mm stainless parts that wel together and then
assemble into a FIXED position tube holder
• A quick discussion of the design phiosophy
• I remove the one piece acrylic tube holder from the machine and fit the new holder
• We start to reset the beam and demonstrate why this tube mount is used as a
simple setting aid for beam alignment.
• Having gone through beam setting yet again I then look at other featiures I want to
see included on the machine
• Ultimate air assist
• Motorized table adjustment
• A tip on how to create your own motorized table for free if you have a manually
adjusted table.
• I also have a DELAY OFF timer that switches off the extract fan a few seconds
after the end of a program.
• I now unveil the MK2 lightweight head that I will be sending to Cloudray that
utilizes the standard 25mm diameter mirror . There are a few changes that I
discuss.
• I show how the Mk2 head is manufactured and assembled
• Everything I am designing is attempting to suit 12 or 15mm bearing machines.
• I show hoe simple Z axis adjustment can be.
• I then show an alternative (and preferred) mounting for the front mounted beariing
system.
• I try to run fast with high acceleration and fail but I balance speed and acceleration
and speed to get optimum performance.
• I need to write a full specification for my dream machine.
• I show how you can asses the performance of your HV power supply

191 Creating the Russ Spec machine part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgDHm-UOsPI

• I have had second thoughts about how I could make the "airflow management"
safe.
• I design and fit a simple steel air inlet duct that allows ducted air in whilst the lid is
closed.
• One final wish is to have a side access panel.

192 New parts now available and detailed explanation of beam setting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aNwKhTRnd8

• I have designed many parts for my two 300x500mm machines. Over time my
designs have evolved and there is a complex set of part combination that could be
used.
• I try to unravel that evolutionary story by combining it with a detailed description of
beam setting because simplifying that procedure has been one of the main drivers
for some of the designs
• A second driver has been to make the machine run faster. However, as I have
demonstrated in earlier sessions. short engraving cycle times rely more on rapid
acceleration than linear speed in many circumstances.
• I step through the alignment procedure explaining the need to separate beam
alignment from the position of the beam on the mirror/ Both are important but you
cannot combine them into one setting goal ... they must be set separately..
• After discussing all the various parts I have designed , particularly those that I will
be sending to China for the Russ Spec machine, I demonstrate how vital Z beam
alignment is
• I show how off angle cuts result from poor Z axis alignment with a practical
demonstration. .
• I go throrgh the design philosophy and reasons for developing the "flexible rack
and pinion" belt drive system
• I finally declare that as I was making parts for my two machines and for Cloudray, I
had made a few extras for those that were interested.
• I created an explanatory document with prices in and was also supplying a data
pack which included all the dxf files for the parts in case peoples wishe to modify or
make their own parts.

193 Beam setting footnote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aNwKhTRnd8

• I had second thoughts about the offset beam issue (puzzle) that was discussed at
the end of the previous video
• I have arranged a crude light bench to demonstrate exactly what is going on when
you offset a laser beam
• The answer is simple when you see it demonstrated like this.
• It clearly explains why the offset beam causes off angle cut edges. on thick
material.
• .

194 I seem to have lost my FOCUS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4GTIQwHuJ8

• Its coming up to Chrismas at the end of a depressing Covid year but I am happy to
be looking at one of my favourite sujects .....FOCUS
• I keep coming back to lenses because how they work in laser it is a very
mysterious subject surrounded by "facts" and myths
• Perfect focus is for visible light cameras and telescope technology. Focusing to a
point will be great fro engraving .... but for cutting?
• I have spent lots of sessions in my video series I'm trying to understand how
lenses actually work. I know that there are hundreds of years of lens theory
development but I can find no data or research on how lenses achieve the cutting
function whenn teamed up with a laser beam.
• A 2.5" ZnSe lens is used to carry out my auto focus finding test. at both cutting and
engraving speeds
• This demonstrates that the "focal point" appears to be changing with speed.
• Now for one of my illogical and stupid tests. at 12mm below the focal point.
• We get exactly what is predicted by lens theory ..... a very thick out of focus line
• However, increase the speed and all of a sudden we see that this thick line now
 becomes a thin line.
• This seems to indicate that despite being grossly out if focus, there is still a focused
beam of energy present 12mm below the supposed focus point.
• This is the start of my Russ theory of how lenses cut .
• I present diagrams to illustrate how my "rogue" beam right through the central
axis of the lens can cause damage way below the nominal focal point.
• The higher speed filters out the lower power part of the beam (insufficient exposure
time to damage the material) but leaves behind an intense central spike of power
that does have sufficient exposure time to leave its mark.
• I think I prove there is no single focal point when we use a lens with a Gaussian
intensity laser beam.
• I start to dream about the possibility of a long focus compound lens and explain
how I might go about improving cutting performance by reducing the beam
diameter onto the final lens with a pre-focusing optic.

195 Honeycomb--- A Disaster Looming?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaz9ZEjwjfs

• I am not a lover of the much used honeycomb table . I have seen too many
machine fires caused whilst cutting acrylic.
• Here is a view from inside my machine to watch what happens UNDERNEATH the
honeycomb while I cut some acrylic.
• Do not be over alarmed and paranoid about using honeycomb. This is a sober
reminder why you should NEVER walk away from your machine whist cutting
acrylic.

196 Long Compound Lens Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfoig-maWCA

• I am a very sceptical and inquisitive person who yearns to understand exactly how
things work. At present I do not believe the well tried and tested lens theory
explains how our laser lenses cut.
• As prelude to trying to design/discover and suitable lens combination for a long
focus compound lens I need to sum up the bits of science required.
• I go through various problems with lens theory that do not accord with physical
observations.
• I explain the basic physics of light and the principle of refraction which is the
mechanism by which lenses work.
• A reminder of how light waves stimulate molecules to a self-destruct temperature
and it is the INTENSITY of that light which is responsible for the RATE of material
damage
• Thus if we can make a Gaussian intensity beam smaller in diameter, we can
increase its INTENSITY. More intensity= faster damage potential.
• Diagrams to show that the projecting focal point/s I am proposing, increase with
the lens focal length.
• The reason being to do with the geometry of the lens. Longer focal length lenses
are "flatter"
• This is the reasoning behind adding a upper optic to the lens tube to pre-focus the
beam to a smaller footprint as it hits the second lens.
•

197 Long Compound lens Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrlYYQ-5UYg

• I start off by manufacturing a more sophisticated focus measuring jig

• Using the jig tells me that there seems to be a small discrepancy between the
stated focal points and those which I observe.
• We look again at refraction and a property called the refractive index of zinc
selenide. That index changes with the wavelength of light
• This results in a shorter focal length (by several mm) when we observe the lens
with normal visible white light wavelengths as opposed to the invisible 10.6 micron
wavelength light that the machine uses. The machine see the correct focal length
because that is how the lens was designed.
• I check that I am using a 4" focal length lens by using my jig and then accurately
determine the focal point distance beyond the nozzle.
• I set the machine power to about 35watts in an attempt to replicate a result I
discovered on my Tangerine Tiger.
• Using a 25mm square block of acrylic I determine that it takes about half a second
to pierce an almost parallel hole right through the 25mm thickness. HOW and
WHY?
• Hmmm.... now a silly thought. If I can pierce through that 25mm in half a second,
then if I set the speed to 1mm/s I should be able to cut the block in half. Yes cut
through 25mm thick acrylic with 35 watts using a 4" lens. Sounds impossible but
the facts say different.
• Yes it works. The two halves stick together a bit because of the liquid phase of
acrylic flows solidifies in sections of the cut. But it REALLY did cut through.
• I now change the lense to the 7.5" focal length and carry out the acrylic block test
again.
• The results are still staggering
• My first compound lens test was going to be a 4" lens with a 7.5 prefocusing lens
on top.. However my concern at exceeding the 4"PVD lens energy density
limitation made me swap the combination to 4" lens on top.
• I try to locate the focal point of this combination and WOW, it is no longer 7.5" but
is now less than 2"!!!
• Using my acrylic block test with a half secon pulse showed this combination is
maybe 30% LESS destructive than either the 7.5" or4 lenses on their own.
• STOP! There is something about this result that seems to make no sense.
• There now follows lots of diagrams to illustrate the problem I didn't forsee. The
converging beam of the first lens is definitely prefocusing and reducing the
 footprint onto the second lens but because the rays are converging they are
significantly shortening the focal length of the second lens.
• This shorter focal length is DECREASING the cutting ability of the compound
when compared to the individual lenses.
• I start REAL cutting tests with 10mm thick poplar plywood as my reference
material. I use cutting speed to pierce through at the measure of success.
• Comparing the performance with my previous cutting tests seems rather
promising 50 to 100% increase .......very exciting.
• These quick exploratory tests need to to be verified and lots more lens
combinations explored.

198 Compound Lens Progress Update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH-5TrvMfH4

• In the warm office again rather than the freezing workshop.

• Hoping to shortcut a lot of lens combination testing with actual materials, I have
designed a simple lens testing fixture that allows me to try different lens
combinations at various spacing to determine if there are any obvious pairings that
I should carry out real tests on.
• I quickly obtain many promising combinations.

199 Long Compound Lens Part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mat_A6aw_8U

• I move to the workshop to try testing some of the combinations that looked
promising during my bench testing of lenses in the last session.
• I test the real focal point of the 7.5" lens and estimate it to be closer to 9" and it
has a "spot size of about 1.4mm.
• I flip the lens to flat side up and it looks to produce a smaller spot closer to 1mm.
but still at 9".
• I test the 7.5" lens on real wood and it performs badly.
• Back to the lens test fixture and I find that the focus happens to be about 7.5" as
expected. Remember back a couple of sessions when I explained about the visible
light focal length being shorter than the 10.6 micro focal point? Well that is what
has happened here
• Does this invalidate all the bench tests?
• Looking back at my previous test data, we have a cutting speed target of 14mm/s
to beat before we can say were are finding a useful combination
• I receive a delivery of nozzles and lenses from Cloudray just in time to begin
testing.
• I abandon my bench test data !!
• I establish a method for testing combinations. First find the focus and then test the
cutting speed.
• Lots of random lens swaps tested to gain steadt progress.

200 Long Compound Lens Conclusion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Iwt-zFjfo

• I have done quite a bit of testing off camera because it's only the results that are of
interest.
• One interesting combination happened to NOT be a long compound lens but a
possible alterative for the SHORT compound lens.
• I demonstrate it on my "foxy" picture.
• As I carry on testing in the background my examination of previous test work set a
minimum goal of 14mm/s . Success means improving that speed.
• Lots of testing with various lens combinations has thrown up an interesting point. I
seem to be hitting a speed limit of 16mm/s.
• I did eventually get to 17mm/s but with many combinations (strange?)
• Back to my previous test data to verify that I can repeat the best 14mm/s result
with a 2.5"GaAs lens.......... because between this testing and the previous test
data I have changed my tube. There is little difference in the power but I need to
verify that the previous data still has credibility.
• Testing that 2.5GaAs lens seems to verify consistency. BUT on inspecting the
lens I find that the anti-reflective coating looks to be damaged.
• This can only be excess energy density being fired at the lens by relatively short
(probably 4")lenses.
• I find similar damage to a 7.5" l-ns that was used as a lower lens,. Bad news. This
means I am really limited to just using a 7.5" lens as my pre-focus lens
• After lots more background testing I pull the results together for review agist my
previous test data and I appear to have made some significant improvements.
• Improvements? The amount of gain depends on how you interpret the data.
• HOWEVER. I had to stop and run all my old tests again because it appears that
my new tube is better than the old one and gives better "normal" cutting results.
• I then compare compound results with matching single lens data to see if a 7.5"
pre-focusing lens is improving the performance.
• For certain lenses and focal lengths there are improvements but the goal is to
achieve a combination that gives the fastest cutting performance.
• When I examine all the data for compound lenses a very strange pattern
emerges. Regardless of the secondary lens (type,FL or material) there is
remarkable number of results for 17 and 18mm/s. This should not be possible.
• Are there any single lenses that can produce17 or 18mm/s so that we do not need
to use a compound combinati0on. The answer was yes.
• This constant cutting speed puzzle caused me to search fro reasons why such an
oddity was possible. . It forced me to look at the mode burn differences between
my old and new tubes.
• They were almost the same power but the mode burns were significantly different
and began to hint at the importance of light INTENSITY (not power) for efficient
 cutting.
• After everything I have discovered about lens combinations, I have to admit that
I am hunting for something that cannot exist.
• A failure? Maybe , but every failure has its own teaching. I need to concentrate on
understanding he mechanism by which lenses cut. If I can succeed in that, I may
be able to decode the puzzles I have seen during these sessions.

201 The science behind laser Cutting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Fsj5ZCKtc

• Any first time buyer of a laser machine EXPECTS it to cut and without any
scientific know how or prior experience they fiddle with a few speed and power
parameters, throw a piece of material onto the table , press the start button and a
miracle happens.
• That cutting action is like no other. I demonstrate some mechanical cutting to
demonstrate what it is NOT
• I know of many people that are happy to stay an ignorant expert laser user.
However understanding the very basic science behind damaging material with
your laser (cutting or engraving) is one of the first building blocks that helps you to
understand how this whole laser technology works.
• The laser beam is NOT that pink glow you see within the tube. If it was then it
would be pink at the front of the machine as well. No , without going into the
physics, that pink beam is the "engine" that creates the INVISIBLE l beam of laser
light that we use for cutting and engraving.
• This beam exits the tube and bounces around the machine off mirrors to eventually
arrive at a lens that concentrates (amplifies) the light INTENSITY. and reduces the
beam to a very small focus point.
• Now to the science of light (the electromagnetic spectrum), the basic building
blocks of ALL materials (atoms and molecules.). the molecular vibration definition
of temperature and the coherent nature of a laser beam and how it just happens
to be at a wavelength that excites a huge range of molecules.
• When the beam of light hits a solid or liquid it encounters SURFACE molecules.
The light can only stimulate what it hits. IT does not penetrate into the surface. It
stimulates just the surface molecules to heat up and self-destruct ( chemically
convert to other molecules) whereupon new exposed SURFACE molecules can
be stimulated.
• This light damage is a layer by layer erosion process and not something instant. It
may appear instant because the more intense the light the faster the erosion will
happen.
• Chemical material damage is one form of erosion but there is another
non-chemical erosion . You will be familiar with the solid(ice) liquid(water)and
vapour (steam) states of H2O. These change of state require more and more heat
( molecular stimulation) to happen. Acrylic changes state in exactly the same way.
at room temperature it is solid. At 160c it becomes liquid and at 200C it becomes
acrylic vapour......no chemistry involved. However heat the vapout and it will
 change its chemistry and catch fire.
• A demonstration of the non-uniform light intensity within the laser beam and
description of the concept of EXPOSURE time
• Six flash cards that sum up how a laser beam damages material.
• A demonstration of how the supposed diverging laser beam below the focal point
seems to defy the laws of physics Why no expanding cut?
• At this point I describe how and why I imagine the beam is cutting below the focal
point.
• A demonstartion of a high intensity core to the beam when it is defocused yet
lens theory says there should be no power there.

202 More laser Cutting Investigations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJeHKpyols0

• We recap on the previous session

• We look again at the remarkable results from my compound lens tests where
despite the focal length of the bottom lens and the spacing from the top 7.5"
pre-focus lens nearly all the cutting speeds were the same at 17 or 18 mm/s.
• We have to conclude from this that the light INTENSITY through each of these
many different lens types must be exactly the same to produce the same amount
of damage. How is this possible?
• Is it to do with the difference between a normal parallel beam hitting the lens or is it
caused by the converging pre-focussing lens?.
• quick mode burn test followed by a comparative burn with a 190mm Fl lens but
set 110mm above its focal point to simulate its use in the compound lens tests.
• This clearly demonstrates that reducing the footprint of a beam dramatically
increases its intensity and damage capability.
• I wondered if I took two matching lenses placed flat sides to each other and with
a special spacing between , could I make a parallel input beam exit as a smaller
parallel output. Theory says yes but in practice it failed.
• I carry out a series of cutting tests to see if I can find any useful patterns that may
guide my thinking.
• Just going round in circles I conclude I must be trying to look at lenses in the
wrong way. Just measuring their cutting capability sounds logical but is very one
dimensional.
• I write a new lens test program based on DOTS and DOT MODE. The aim is to
standardize the cutting parameters for lenses. I use the same power for every test
and a series of fixed exposure times. Measuring the depths of cut for each
exposure time will produce a cutting profile for each lens.
• With the focus set to the top surface of a special test block I run a test on a 4" lens.
. The data in this format is not easily understandable so thepenetrations were
plotted graphically.
• When we examine the graph it becomes obvious that I only need to see a small
part of the graph to represent the performance at REAL cutting speeds.
• I use the same 4" lens to cut a 25mm square and then measure the block and the
hole to calculate the cut width,
• I use the 4" graph to find out how long it takes to pierce 10mm deep. I use the
kerf width to build a series of touching holes (kerf diameter) to fit into 1mm.
• This allows me to predict a cutting speed for 10mm acrylic with this lens. The
speed is about 5mm/s. In practice 5mm /s was easy and it just about made a cut at
6mm/s. This may prove to be a good cutting speed predictor? (for my machine
only)
• I run a whole series of similar tests on all my lenses and then examine the
graphical results.
• I then chose the best performing 1.5" lens and added the 7.5" lens above it to see
how the combination performed the same test, This clearly sows no difference
• A similar no benefit result for compound lenses also existed for the 2",2.5 and 4"
lenses.
• I then use the graphs to see which lens focal length I should use to cut 10mm
thick acrylic for example. Now comes an interesting observation The longer the
focal length the quicker it will cut.
• This kills the myth that you need more power to use a 4" lens.
• We have finally proved no benefit for having a compound lens.

203 The Russ Theory of Laser Lenses Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aNwKhTRnd8

• Having found a reliable way to characterize the performance of each lens by

using acrylic, I would not expect to see the same performance figures in other
materials. Other materials such as plywood and MDF are not transparent so the
same test regime would not work
• Or would it? With a little lateral thinking I have devised a slightly less accurate
version of the same test that will allow lens characterization for different opaque
materials.
• I select the best performing lens from each focal length and test it with wood so
that I can get material related relative performance data.
• There are a few surprises when we compare the performance graphs for wood
and acrylic
• Using the best performing cutting lens (a 2.5" GaAs) I then attempt to use these
charts to predict the cutting speed for various thickness of materials. I devise a
fairly crude method for converting the chart data into cutting speed.
• I cut 3mm Baltic birch ply and then 9mm ply to test/refine my formula.
• I then make a quantum leap to 26mm thick oak (maybe elm). I use my formula to
predict a cutting speed of 3mm/s WHAT!!!!!...... with only 65 watts and a 2.5" lens.
That's insanity on steroids!
• Don't fall off your chair when you see the prediction happen in front of your eyes.
• Much more important.... look at the straightness and squareness of the cut.. That
poses some serious questions about how is this possible?
• I then examine under a powerful microscope, two extremes of my "pierce tubes"
from long and short focus lenses and discuss why and how the different burn
patterns could be formed.
• I finally hint that I have now worked out exactly how lenses do the things I have
demonstrated. I plan to keep it a secret until the next session. I have a wife that
tells me "i knew that anyway" when she is struggling with something and I help her
out. With that lifelong experience, I challenge those that think they already know
the answer to speak out now before I tell them in the next session.........just
because it appeals to my sense of fun.

204 Laser Beam Safety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UsyExzCZsc

• This is an unplanned session interrupting my research into how lenses cut. I have
had run of questions about expensive safety glasses.
• Safety glasses salesmen play on your fear of the word LASER and how isuch
dangerous equipment will easily make you blind.
• I cannot give you any advice as to how to best spend your money. Instead I plan to
show and demonstrate all the dangers of this machine and asses the risk factor of
each. At the end I hope you will be able to make a sensible risk-assessed decision
for yourself.
• A brief description of the INVISIBLE laser beam and how it bounces around the
machine off 3 mirrors and is finally amplified through a special lens.
• Lasers are classified in 4 groups. 1 being safe and 4 being very dangerous. I
demonstrate what a class 4 laser can do
• Some science follows. the laser beam is a beam of invisible LIGHT it is NOT a
beam of HEAT.
• You all know what sound waves are and look like, well, light is exactly the same
sort of wave energy but instead of what we hear being at about 15thousand cyles
per second, the frequency of our invisible laser light is about 28 thousand billiion
cycles per second (unimaginable.!!!)
• I try to make these numbers into something tangible with a simple table, jelly and
cake analogy. This helps to explain the concept of how waves of energy can
shake different materials in different ways depending on the internal structure of
the material.
• The next bit of science they don't teach at school is the fact that all atoms and
molecules are vibrating and the rate of vibration defines the molecules
temperature. Make a molecule vibrate faster and it gets hotter.
• It just so happens that the 28 teraHz frequency of our laser light is just about the
right frequency to excite most material molecules, causing them to vibrate faster
and thus get hotter.
• The lens makes the laser beam hundreds of times more intense. Thus at the focal
point that intense light causes damage almost instantly
• I use water to demonstrate how concentrated light energy can create steam as it
stimulates water molecules to get hot. Water looks transparent to our eyes but to
the laser beam it is totally opaque. It is therefore only the SIURFACE molecules
that are being stimulated and instantly tun to stem. There is liitle or no heating of
the water mass itself.
• You also think of glass and the plastic lens of my glasses as being transparent . To
us yes but they are solid opaque materials to our laser beam.
• Co2 laser light has a relatively long wavelength of 10.6 microns The light only
sees 3 things in its universe 1)metals. All of which reflect the light(used for
mirrors)..2) A very small group of salt-like materials that are transparent to the light
(we use these for lenses) and 3) EVERYTHING ELSE.. whose molecules will be
excited (heated) when the 10.6 micron wavelength light hits it.
• The beam that travels around the machine is not dangerous unless you put your
self directly in its path. If a bullet misses you by half a millimetre it's not dangerous.
It only damages you if it hits you. There are no sideways rays that "leak" from that
invisible beam NOTHING will jump out and bite you.
• The only stupid thing to do is place metal in the path of the beam because the be
could be reflected at YOU
• I demonstrate that glass and polycarbonate spectacle lenses 100% absorb the
laser light because they are group 3 materials. Thus simple industrial safety
glasses costing $2 will afford your eyes 100% protection against being hit by a
laser beam.
• I then demonstrate cutting/engraving organic materials (wood ,MDF, leather etc).
The very bright intense light you see is a much greater danger to your eyes. It is
just like looking at a mini arc welder. It contains high levels of UV light which can
damage human cells (including eyes) and also its intensity is a bit like looking at
the sun
• I speak of the relative risks for each of the subject discussed
• Don't fear this laser technology. Understand it and respect it.

205 The Russ Theory of how Lasers Lenses Cut Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwsjwUmeCFI

• My recent failure to find a long focus lens to improve cutting efficiency led me to
look differently at how I could characterize lenses.
• The method I devised revealed some great patterns when displayed in a graphical
form
• I go back and review all the basic lens theory that I had been indoctrinated with. I
point out some major problems with that theory that I discovered when I tested
the cutting performance of a variety of lenses
• I look at the properties of a Gaussian distribution and how it is used to describe
the light intensity within a laser beam and how power and intensity are separately
described by the same graph.
• Amplifying the beam through a lens does not increase the POWER it only
increases the INTENSITY of the light.
• Analysing how the beam intensifies according to spot size theory, again produced
this crazy result that was opposite to my observations.
• There was another problem that didn't make sense. Just how was it possible to cut
the correct size holes through thick material . You set the focal point onto the
material surface but what happens below that focal point is beam
DIVERGRENCE and LOSS of energy density. This is well described by
conventional lens theory. So how is what we actually witness possible?
• I quickly go through a huge documented data set from my previous cutting tests to
illustrate that whatever the focal length, cutting through 10mm material produced
PARALLEL sided cuts.
• I show more of my puzzling tests with straight "worm holes" in acrylic below the
focal point
• Are those holes the result of "total internal reflection" of laser light? No.
• I try to "see" the shape of the damage patterns below the focal point by making
test burns in clear acrylic for different lenses
• I then compare the graphical data that characterizes various lens focal lengths
and it all of a sudden begins to show a pattern that I first suspected 2 years ago.
The cutting depth INCREASES with the focal length for a CONSTANT power input
• This explodes several myths and "facts". You do not need high power to use a 4"
lens. You cut with INTENSITY and not POWER so the spot size/power density
idea is incorrect.
• I then summerize a revised list of truths that form the basis of my theory.
• I present diagrams of lenses and discus the various ray patterns and how
refraction affects the path of the rays.
• I then concentrate my attention to what happens to rays JUST a fraction away
from the lens axis. It seems that the geometry of the spherical surface is so close to
being NORMAL to the ray path that only the merest amount of refraction will occur.
That means that the focal point of these near-axial rays will focus way beyond the
nominal focal point of the lens.
• This PROJECTING focal point/s provides a carrying (and focussing) path for that
central Gaussian intensity.
• The double refraction path of a plano-convex lens when used flat down produces
a narrower range of focus scatter. Used flat side up that focus scatter is much
greater because there is only one refraction occurring.
• This points to the fact that a plano convex lens will produce more efficient cutting if
used flat side up....... this is against all conventional wisdom. However, examining
my lens cutting data confirms that flat side up produces deeper cutting for ALL
 focal lengths.
• HOWEVER. .......All these results and conclusions are caviated by one special
condition. If your raw laser beam is non-Gaussian then you will not be able to
achieve efficient cutting.

206 Experiments to Test The Lens Cutting Theory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITQiwjAJysQ

• Some people did not fully comprehend my theory of how lenses cut so I recap
with a revised diagram
• I re-run the test of cutting through 26mm hardwood with a 2.5" GaAS lens at
3mm/s
• I then change the setup by removing the hardwood but leaving everything else
set the same but this time burning a track on a piece of so that its surface mimics
the BOTTOM surface of the hard wood We are trying to see what the beam is like
at that point
• By changing the speed we can filter out the lower power from the outer part of the
thick beam
• I then demonstrate that a 4" lens will cut through the 26mm hardwood but at
2mm/s ie 33% less speed....but why.
• I examine the reflections off the curved surfaces of various lenses to assess the
degree of curvature. The flatter the lens surface the greater the "projected" focus
(according to my theory) and it illustrates why the 2.5"GaAS cutts better than the 4"
ZnSe.
• I take a less than perfect lens and test it with my penetration test. I then begin
brutally modify it in stages. I test at each stage to asses the performance change.
I eventually drill right through the axis and destroy the cutting ability
• I finally test this non-cutting lens to see if it will still focus and engrave.
• Important safety warning about working with zinc selenide.

207 The Importance of Beam Intensity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8sNPtIIXZ4

• You have only one machine and 1 tube's worth of experience. Most of you will not
have power tested your tube or even be aware that most of the Chinese laser tube
market is dishonest.
• What is a laser beam supposed to look like and how to test what you have.
• I can guarantee that your Ebay or Amazon Marketplace will be fitted with a B
grade or almost junk tube. Many of those tubes will be labelled K H Laser and that
will be an absolute guarantee of a factory reject that has been relabelle
• The premier grade Reci tube named in an advert is not always what it seems and
because of their high cost I spend some time pointing out that the market is flooded
with B grade Reci tubes and how you can recognize them.
• Can I cut twice as fast if I double the power of my tube? No. and I explain why the
beam DIAMTER is an important factor.
• How is beam diameter defined? here is a brief explanation
• And why beam diameter is an important element in determining INTENSITY
• We look at two mode burns from the same tube just a few moments apart . Why
are they so different.
• What is BEAM DIVERGENCE? It is a little discussed feature of all laser beams. It
is typically is about 3mm/m beam growth for all glass tubes. That means the beam
is one diameter at the back corner of the machine and a much bigger diameter at
the diagonally opposite front corner.
• Remember, the power remains the same but the beam diameter grows thus
meaning that the INTENSITY drops and cutting ability is seriously affected.
• This session has been about the raw beam before it passes through the lens. If the
intensity is low to start with , amplifying it through a lens will improve it .....but not
very much. As the saying goes "rubbish in= rubbish out"

208 Can I Remove the focal point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSU4cplekio

• My theory of lenses is based on reverse engineering. I try to theorise what

happens in a lens to cause what I observe.
• My observations lead me to believe that a lens has two distinct characteristics.
One is an engraving capability and the other a cutting property.
• We have been educated to understand that lenses focus light to a single point .
Set that focal point onto the surface of material and it will do damage ie engrave.
.But if that is where the light energy is focused how is it possible to cut deep
narrow parallel slots?
• The best example of something being wrong with this idea is my demonstration of
cutting 26mm thick hardwood with a 2.5" lens. Am I contravening the laws of
physics? I doubt it
• From all my lens work so far it has become very evident that beam intensity is a
crucial factor in the cutting process. I look at why it is possible to cut above
expectations if you only have a low power tube.
• In a recent session I was brutal with a lens and drilled a hole through its axis. I did
this to prove my theory that cutting was a function of something happening very
close to the lens axis. That hole destroyed the lens's cutting capability
• That hole did not affect the engraving capability, so that seems to prove my point
about two very separate capabilities .
• In this session I will try the opposite experiment ie I will try to leave the lens cutting
capability but remove the engraving property.
• I do a couple of control tests on the lens before I start modifying it ie a focus test
 and depth penetration test
• I then proceed to modify the lens in stages and document the performance after
each change.
• I complete the lens modification and test and graphically present the results
• I have ground away the outer parts of the lens in stages until there was only a
3mm central disc lens surface remaining. This was able to cut but unable to
engrave because I could no longer find a focus point at or near 38mm.
• I think this reliably proves my two separate functions idea but I will carry out
further detailed experiments in future sessions to examine the functions more
closely.

209 Cutting with a Projected Focus Final Proof

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9YuZW2Cr1E

• Lenses and laser beams are not behaving in the manner that lens theory predicts.
• I have been brutal with lenses in previous sessions in an attempt to decode what
happens to various parts of the beam as it passes through the lens.
• In this session I use the "holey" lens in my compound lens set-up to examine its
effect on the focal point
• A brief aside about using default parameters to make my focus program instantly
reprogrammable
• I determine for the focal distance and run a penetration profile test before
changing to the "modified" lens. I also run the dot test to set more reference data.
• I substitue modified lenses into the compound configuration and run fous and
profile tests
• A graph of the results shows the effects on cutting and focal distance and focal
depth.
• Examination of the dot test results and an explanation of how it is very difficult to
get dots with a laser machine.
• Comparing normal compound lens dots with the modified lens configuration dots
• The results for the modified lenses look promising enough to try a proper photo
engraving test
• The results are about 90% compared to normal lenses but the condition of the
38mm focal distance lens is abysmal and it is unbelievable that the results are as
good as they are.
• I carry out a profile cutting test (with a difference) with another modified lens that
supposedly has its engraving ability decreased but leaves cutting unaffected. The
pulse length is constant and the test starts off at the correct 38.1mm focal distance.
• The results are very puzzling because there are a series of tests where each
penetration is 2mm lower than the previous, Maximum depth penetration occurs
when the material is 10mm and 12mm lower than the 38.1mm specified focal point
• I then carry out a 2D version of the test on a piece of card ti samplw the points of
 surface penetration.
• There then follows a lengthy analysis of the results and a microscopic examination
of the penetration damage for each test hole.
• There is proof here of a focal point existing at 10mm lower than the manufacturers
specification.
• The existence of this focal point is now irrefutable and my observations have been
validated, but how and why is this possible? I see more experiments ahead.

210 Lets Focus on Focus AGAIN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw4T560i-vU

• Previous experiments have shown the TWO distinct characterises of a lens that
with lens brutalisation can be separated from each other .
• I ask the very simple question "What and where is a lens's focal point?"
• I look at diagrams of lenses and demonstrate that there is no single focal point
• The thickness of a burn line will vary because of speed and exposure time
because of the spread of focal points within a single lens.
• I want to understand why my favourite cutting lens ( a GaASs 63.5mmFL) is
different to others.
• Using a real burn dot as an example I discuss theoretical and manufactures
claimed "spot size"
• A look at my model of a Gaussian profile and how it can either be viewd as a map
of material damage against time OR as a map of intensity change within the beam
as the tube % power changes.
• I set the Laser and Manual set features on the keypad for a test.
• Using thin card with a constant damage threshold I run various exposure time
and power tests to examine the damage above and below the manufacturers focal
point.
• I then discuss the results to demonstrate that the manufacturers focal point is
nonsensical as is the manufacturer's claimed spot size.
• I then examine the damage regions and relate them to the beam intensity profile
as the %power is changed.
• Finally I run tests on lenses flat side up and flat side down to demonstrate the that
INTENSITY (or power) focus is NOT a fixed point and is different to the lens's
specified focal distance.

211 Understanding Black Etching Ceramics Pt1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L94Do81v-s

• I describe my work with compound lens development and the discovery of

ceramic marking on a product called Lasertiles.
• I had tried to decode the working mechanism/chemistry of the process an had
done experiments to see if I could replicate it. All failed.
• My interest in this subject has resurfaced because I had been asked if the "Norton
Process" for engraving white tiles with a blue (450nm) diode laser would work on a
CO2 laser. I had no idea,
• I did research into the process and soon zoomed into the basic chemistry.
• It turns out that there is some fascinating PHYSICS about the process.
• The white paint used in the Norton process turned out to be a carrier for about
10% of a widely used white pigment called titanium dioxide (TiO2)
• I show the research and thought processes that persuaded my to give this process
a try and bought some TiO2
• I produce a TiO2 slurry with isopropyl alcohols and paint it on the surface of acrylic
• I experiment with various powers and then examine the results under a
microscope. and discuss what I see.
• I then carry out tests on a ceramic tile to investigate the possible power/speed
parameters. The results are promising.
• I await delivery of more alcohol to make a bigger batch of TiO2 "paint"

212 Understanding Black Etching Ceramics Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwujeITphFs

• After decoding how the ceramic marking process worked I bought a few tiles and
proceeded to try and understand the practical side of the process.
• Various failed attempts to apply an even film of TiO2 caused me to buy an airbrush
• Mixing and applying was not a simple task as airbrush application was a new skill
with a far from suitable material.
• Eventually I coated some tiles successfully.
• Next problem was preparing an image. Most people with ANY sort of laser believe
they must somehow prepare their image for " burning". One of the free on-line
processing tools is called ImagR.
• I personally hate these "laser preparation" software packages because they are
not photo replication aid but more cartoon generators. I explain how they strip out
all the mid greys, sharpen the edges and increase the brightness before they
dither the image. In normal wood, card or leather engraving this reduces pixel
overburning.
• I explain how IF you can make your machine produce clean individual pixels
(using my dot test pattern) then there should be no need for any perpetration
• I explain the problem of producing SINGLE dots with an RF or a diode machine
which are PWM controlled.
• I use one of my test pictures (a 254ppi fox ) to test the process.
• After a an initial test strip I had to abort and reset the parameters
• The final result was one of the best images I had ever produced. It required only a
quick warm water rinse off to remove the excess TiO2.
• I examine the details of the dots under the microscope and felt that it would be
possible to push the resolution to 508ppi
• A subsequent unpublished video demonstrates the result I achieved at 508pp
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVgmoN1wljs
 213 How Lenses Cut More experiments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTrURliuHrI

• In the last lens session we proved that there were more than one single
manufacturers focal point with a puzzling test. In this session we will repeart and
expand on that "lowering the table " test.
• For those people that jump in and out of random sessions I go over some old
subjects about how light and materials interact.
• I also recap details aboiut different lens types and how.
• I set up a 4" lens and test it's focus
• I then run the "drop" test with 1mm drop between burns
• There is then a rather drawn out but interesting video step-though to watch how the
burn tubes grow and develop.
• I then swap to a 38.1mm focal length lens and repeat the test. I set the
manufacturers focus at the material surface but. the evidence that we see, shows
the INTENSITY focal point being 5mm into the material. as we do mpore
step-through and analysis.
• There was a moment where I was doubting my idea of a secondary focal point
below the manufacturers focal point. This evidence tells me my original
observation was correct

214 Setting Z to a New Zero Position

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooFg4lL9y0o

• If you have a stepper driven Z axis and you use the programmable feature I have
often found that I need a Z=0 position that is not at the top of the Z axis
• I then go on to express the negative issues with the auto focus system that was
originally installed.
• I have been promising to create my own simple Z=0 system for this machine. and
today is the day.
• I then spend time explaining all the possible ways to set Z=0 at the top home
position and also a quick fiddle to set the table at a lower position by using a
spacer block
• I finally add a simple push button switch that is wired in parallel with the top table
limit switch
• Drive the table low and press reset and provided you have set Z to auto home,
when the table rises to about the correct height, just press the Z=0 button twice
and at the second push your Z=0 will be set.

215 AT LAST!!! I understand how lenses cut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5qaBYPCLQU
• We plan to do more lens experiments but I did wonder if using MDF as a focus
setting material was correct. Should I perhaps be using acrylic becaus all mr drop
tests were into acrylic. Was I choosing an incorrect focal distance?
• I use my focus test in a slightly different way to examine the depth of cut into
acrylic and not just look at the line thickness
• Examination of various speed and power focus tests under the microscope
demonstrated that the INTENSITY focus for thos lens was consistently at 37mm
and not 38.1mm.
• Using this new focal distance I re ran the drop tests of the last session but this time
I set the new INTENSITY focus 5mm INTO the material
• From the last session we observed ballooning inside the tube.. I proposed it was
due ti the high intensity rays just off the beam axis passing through the neck of the
tube and eroding (evaporating) the tube walls Others suggested it was hot trapped
expanding gasses that were causing the effect.
• I set up an experiment to see which of these theories was true
• I carried out the test and examined the results under my microscope. The
expanding gas idea was wrong.
• I then run the drop tests to see what happens to cut depth and when the lens is
flipped. It seems tha flat side up gives deeper cutting.
• Next I set up a test with increasing pulse duration to examine how quickly the
beam penetrates.
• I test and plot graphs for several lenses.
• I then devise a procedure for converting the depth data into cutting speed for a
given material thickness.
• I get back to the real purpose of the drop tests and that is to try and sort out if the
long thin tubes are caused by a focal point below the nominal focal distance or if
they are in effect mini mode burns.
• I go back and examine two mode burns I did when experimenting with long focus
compound lenses.. It reminded me that the shape of a mode burn and its
penetration speed were governed by the material entrance footprint . Nothing to
do with focal point or "spot size"
• I generate a set of burn profiles on card to help withy my analysid of intensity
boundaries within the beam.
• There are several links in the video description that point to widespread
misunderstanding of how lenses and laser beams collaborate. . There is a classic
video from Trotec that blames a 4" lens for not engraving a line of small text. when
there is little wrong with the engraving elsewhere. The real issue is missing light
signals. The lens cannot transmit what's not there.
• Pulling together lots of data into one cad drawing allowed me to create a
reasonable scale model of the ray paths at key intensity boundaries. There is a
full explanation of each part of the diagram and what it means.
• The explanation is lengthy and complex and may require several viewings (sorry,
it's crystal clear to me!!!)
• It means we need spherical aberration in our lenses for efficient cutting.....I'm
sure no lens manufacturer will admit to that. However the facts are there to be
 seen . A 2.5" Ga As plano convex lens used the WRONG way has bags of
aberration whereas a 2.5" Zinc Selenide MENISCUS lens used the correct way
has minimal aberration. The depth penetration tests are undeniable.

216 The FOCUS Fallacy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBEVvJkhC18

• It has always puzzled me as to why the focal distance of a lens changes withy
speed, Lenses are designed with a FIXED focal point so how can it possibly
change?
• This session is all about showing that there are THREE factors that can alter a
lens's focal distance, Speed, power and unbelievably , material.
• I run focus tests on HDF to show change of focal distance with speed and power
• The definition of a focal point is that point through which all the light rays pass.
Hence we choose the thinnest line in any focus test as an indicator of that unique
focal distance.
• This idea cannot be true if the thinnest line at 10% power is much thinner than the
line at 95% power.
• I do a batch of testing and then I examine some of the results under my
microscope
• Looking at an EXTRUDED acrylic test piece we see that the power and
out-of-focus have a tremendous range of effects on the material. In some slow
speed tests we can see the footprints of stepper motor intermittent motion.
• We then compare those results with the same test in CAST acrylic.
• A look at slate under the microscope reveals that those grey lines we see on slate
are not stone chips or scratches but a crude form of glass cased by melting of
sandy/sedimentary/silica material at over 1700C. Fascinating.
• Glass is also a silica material but reacts differently. When the power is intense, at
and around the thinnest line, melting and bubbling are obvious but as the beam
goes out of focus and the beam gets "blunter" melting ceases and sharding (stone
chipping) happens in conjunction with some melting.
• A quick look at Baltic birch
• The purpose of this quick look at how various materials damage is to show that
laser LIGHT affects each material in a different way and that a large part of
understanding our laser technology is understanding about materials.
• I then step through the results of my many tests that clearly illustrate that the focal
distance changes with speed, material and power.
• OK so we have proved that the focal point and spot size are figments of the
manufacturer's imagination but we have not established WHY the focal point is
jumping around. That will be investigated in the next session.

217 Do Laser Lenses Meet Specification

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdeX7A14F2w
• Basic lens theory has been around for thousands of years and although
dramatically refined and computerised in the modern era, the principles have
remained constant.
• Laser technology, in contrast was born in the mid 1960s. and from all my
observations seems to have been integrated into all the lens theory models as
though it was just another type of light that obeys all the ancient principles.
• With the assistance of Cloudray, I have amassed a huge collection of lenses for
testing. Every lens has a focal length and spot size specification. BUT in all my
extensive testing, ZERO percent of those lens have come close to matching their
claimed specification. Why?
• There are many fatuous reasons for why lenses do not perform as promised but all
of those reasons lay the blame on YOU, your machine, and your competence.
• My suspicion of lens theory began a few years ago when I started small scale lens
testing to find the most efficient cutting lens. The conventional wisdom I was
following indicated that the shorter the focal length the smaller the spot size (at the
focal point) thus for a given amount of watts the energy density at the focal point
increases as the focal distance decreases Thus higher energy density = more
material damage. On that basis a 1.5" lens should cut faster than a "les powerful"
2" lens.
• That turned out to be VERY wrong and the 2" lens beat the 1.5" lens hands down.
So you can see why my insatiable curiosity was piqued by this demonstrable
anomaly to long held "truths"
• This was all based on the principle of ENERGY DENSITY, a very exact scientific
description which I immediately distrusted. As I have shown in many previous
sessions the Gaussian graph shape defines the INTENSITY (brightness) of light.
• I examine the specifications/properties of a typical laser tube/beam
• The tube manufacturer will claim a certain beam size but this is just a standard
way of specifying beam size using FWHM. In reality the beam will be more than
twice this size and I then demonstrate this and at the same time show the beam
divergence effect across my table.
• I now start to examine the ray paths through different lens types to show an
important WEAKNESS in our lens designs. A property of the geometry called
aberration
• I refer to a PDF document that can be downloaded called Lens Aberrations
Fundamentals. All of a sudden I begin to understand why WE are seeing a
variable (dynamic) focal point. Lenses are designed to focus an IMAGE. Our goal
is to damage material by use of light INTENSITY. Our most intense light is at the
CENTRE of the beam where the focal point is DIFFERENT from that specified for
IMAGE focus.
• I examine a lens specification sheet and begin to raise questions about what those
specs really mean, because they do not translate to realty when the lens is in use.
• I set up one of the conditions specified in the APC data sheet to test the validity of
the "spot size" specification.
• If all the rays are passing through the spot diameter then exposure time will have
no effect. Hmmmm. The claimed 0.04mm spot size turns out to be a 3mm hole!!!
• Using the unfocused beam I demonstrate how for a fixed power, the beam width
 changes with speed.. It's exactly the same effect just demonstrated with the lens
in.
• I reinforce the difference between a lens designed for image transmission (which
all lenses are) and our APPLICATION of that lens for a completely different
purpose.........light INTENSITY amplification.

218 Old Light Through New Windows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uOW2nUiPKk

• My journey learning about this Chinese laser technology has consumed 6 years
of my life. Its been a slow steady set of zig zag learning experiences based on a lot
of experimentation and discovery, There has been a lot of background research
into unreadable scientific treaties to try and understand some of the deep physics
principles. I have eventually been able to extract the essence and convert then into
visual models that I (and others) can understand
• To watch this series as a "box set" would be like watching grass grow ........great
for sending you to sleep.
• I have always promised myself to go back and rework the knowledge I have
acquired into a logical and more concise format for newcomers to the technology.
• There are many simple scientific principles underpinning this technology that I
wish I had known from day 1. So I began work on the series as a background
project.
• I had no time scale or any idea of how I was going to "dorp" it on the world.
• I step back in time to my great relationship with Thinklaser and the Lightblade
machine that I use daily.. By a very strange coincidence one of my close contacts
from Thinklaser had moved on and approached me enquiring If I ever completed
the " Lasers A to Z" project that he was aware of.
• He was in the process of developing a website aimed at be a central hub or
repository for all sorts of laser information and videos..... a one-stop laser
reference library.. We agreed that this would be a great vehicle for distributing my
new series along with all my old videos , Lightburn tutorials and many other laser
related videos
• See laseruser.com

219 Lenses and Laser Beams Laugh at Lens Theory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBmxwNooG54

• Discovering how and why lenses really work in conjunction with a laser beam to
damage material in our CO2 laser machines has consumed about 3 years of my
life. I hope to sum up that story in less than an hour
• My scepticism about lens theory and lasers began when I performed comparative
cutting tests with a few different types of 38.1mm lenses. Why 38.1? Lens theory
with its spot size and energy density predictions indicated the very high values for
this focal length would produce the best cutting. To my surprise the one 2" lens in
my collection was about 3 times better. This serious disconnect between theory
 and reality piqued my curiosity.
• AS I investigated and blindly experimented with more and more lenses I was able
to demonstrate even more theory and fact anomalies. I am not an optical engineer
so I have never been restricted by the conventions of that profession. Ignorance,
scepticism and curiosity are my main problem solving skills.
• Acrylic has been my constant "friend" throughout this journey of discovery. Its
properties are unique and the way it responds to CO2 laser light has allowed me to
reverse engineer what must be happening to the beam before and after it passes
through a lens.
• The light INTENSITY within a laser beam is not uniform. It is much more intense at
the centre. We do not damage material with watts of power, no, we damage
material with light INTENSITY. The greater the intensity the faser you can damage
material
• I demonstrate both these facts by firing the raw beam into acrylic for different
exposure times. Both the beam shape and variable penetration are obvious.
However the key observation is the sharp pointed material damage that is caused
by the light intensity profile and NOT any sort of focus.
• I then take a VERY long focal length lens and intercept the beam at various points
along its path towards a focal point. I record the record the time for the beam to
penetrate through a 50mm deep block of acrylic. The results show that as I move
down the beam. the entry "footprint" of the beam decreases and the time for
penetration decreases
• I then repeat the physics of how light and material interact and how light energy is
transformed into heat as it stimulates molecular vibration
• I examine the Gaussian intensity graph and explain how power, beam diameter
and light intensity are related.
• I then examine lens types and discuss the ABERRATION that is a natural
consequence of using spherical surfaces on a lens.
• That aberration is the enemy when using a lens to transmit an IMAGE but a filtering
friend when we use it to amplify INTENSITY.
• I try to explain that filtering effect and how various INTENSITIES within the beam
aggregate. There is no fixed INTENSITY focus because it depends on the beam
speed and power as to what part of the intensity aggregate exceeds the damage
threshold of the material . This is the reason why there is no fixed INTENSITY
focal point and why it is different from the IMAGE focal point.
• I then list lenses in my collection and demonstrate some tests that I will carry out
for each one.. This demonstrates beyond doubt the existence and variability of this
INTENSITY focus
• I refer to a set of test results done recently to prove that the INTESITY focus
changes with power, with speed and more surprisingly with material.
• PROBLEM. If the intensity focus is so variable how am I ever going to set the
optimum focus for a specific set of conditions? My line method and the ramp
method are both generally useful but ther are some cautions to be observed.
• Even more confusing now is that there are TWO optimum INTENSITY focal points
. One achieves the thinnest line and one achieves the deepest cut.
• I then demonstrate my focus test in a way that allows me (and you) to see the
 penetration variations into acrylic. It clearl yshows the difference between , the
max penetration focus, the thinnest line focus and the manufacturers focus are all
different.
• I then use my intensity diagram to explain how a laser bean REALLY cuts
• I then demonstrate the way I assess the cutting performance of a lens. I have
tested all my lenses and produces a HUGE pdf document of all the results. I
discuss just a few of the summaries
• Even if YOU don' t understand all those weird interaction between lenses and
laser beams. I do. Its all a lovely crystal clear model in my brain. So that's my work
on lenses done and I can now close Pandora's box

220 The Cloudray Russ Spec Prototype

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MZNnHtoxe0

• At last the prototype copy of my China blue machine arrived for my critique.
• I quickly walk around the machine and am very happy at the way my specification
has been translated .
• There are some really nice additions like a beam combiner,(although not my
favourite extra) and a proper stepper controlled Z axis.
• There are lots of wows and ticks for the neat professional engineering.
• There are also some minor criticisms as I get into the detail.
• The beam combiner, in particular, is not really functional and is as bad as all
others I have encountered.
• I quickly set about fitting the parts onto my simple wooden trolley.
• I modify the extract fan to remove the inlet guard
• I modify the CW3000 so that I can see the water level in the tank
• I fit the main components onto my trolley and test the extract system.
• I point out that several key items (extract duct, various pipes and special door key)
were missing from the shipment.
• I give details of the cheap trolley construction
• I power up the machine (oops ....big red button embarrassment)
• There were some software compatibility issues with RDWorks and the RDC6432
controller
• I struggled to make the Z axis work properly and eventually gave up and swapped
the controller for a RDC6445 (an upgraded version of the RDC6442)
• After a few hiccups with Chinese language display and an incorrectly wired Z axis
limit switch I get the Z axis working properly. The table and the leadscrews are
super bits of engineering
• Despite a few minor issues, this prototype far exceeded my expectations and the
sort of comments seen in this video will be dealt with by the time production begins.