shapeoko 2 expansion/laser upgrade

Dan Noren

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as good a place to start as any, so here goes...

as soon as spring has sprung, the cnc machine will be undergoing some upgrades. i'll be widening it by 6 inches, and adding laser engraving capacity. so, guess what showed up in the mail today? thanks to brent and his magical 3d printer, the new mounting brackets showed up in the mail. thank you brent!:thumb: talk about timing, i should be getting the tax return in the next couple of days, and the order for the laser upgrade kit, and some additional software will be going out. just another item in a day that is turning out pretty good. :D
 

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i have gotten the 2.8w laser kit, with an extra set of safety glasses, and shielding. last night i discovered 2 things about the brackets. one, was that the holes i had for them are a touch too small, easily fixed with a 5.1mm drill bit, and the other was that i had to order the new socket head screws, as the hardware store didn't carry that length.
 
got a bit done on this yesterday. moved the cnc and the board it is secured to, over to another bench, and got rid of all of the spacers, lots of chisel work there. took pop's grinder, and ground down the heads of the screws in the torsion box, and sanded it nice and smooth. then started adding the new three layer bed. after this was done, moved the cnc back on to it's own bench. i'm not happy with the narrow footprint, and the newly acquired top heaviness. what i'm planning on doing, is the same as the base for the lathe, build a torsion box out of 2x4's, with enough in the corners for the wheels to be secure (the ones that i have now are rated for 300 lbs each, so no worries there), and add a top layer of 3/4" plywood, and then secure the cnc bench to the torsion box. adding some angled parts to the legs to stabilize it even more. now i just have to figure out how to lift it high enough to get the wheels out from under it, and scoot the new base under the bench. so many things to think about....
 

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now we can pick this one back up. in order to make it a bit more stable for moving around, i've decided to widen out the base as well. for this, i've drawn up a torsion box, large enough to prevent tipping, and picked up the lumber, wheels, etc. (sorry, no pics of this yet). today, i've cut tbe new parts for the x axis, the longer threaded rod, the ends of the machine's frame, and the mounting bracket for the laser. the part with the threaded rod is the new, taller z axis. the new mounting bracket from inventables for the silent spindle is more of a sleeve, and clamps shut on the right side, with holes already tapped for m4. there are holes on the left side as well, pretapped, and i will be using them for the laser mount. the new laser mount is aluminum angle stock, that will be mounted to the spindle bracket with 3 m4 screws. it will head for the front of the spindle, and turn in front of it. there will be a pair of holes drilled to mount the laser. elegant, yet simple solution, neh?
 

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yesterday was the day for the rebuild of the z axis assembly, and setting up the mount for the laser. first removed the old z axis from the cnc machine, then marked out where the holes were to be drilled in the angle iron, and drilled the holes. then i took apart the z axis assembly, and started the rebuild. added the wheels to the new spindle bracket, and checked it out on the new z axis. then cleaned up the motor mount plate. then added the plate to the z axis.
 

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then the new spindle bracket was checked against the motor mount plate. then added the z axis stepper motor assembly, and was pretty much finished with the rebuild of the z axis assembly. after widening the holes in the laser mounting bracket a touch, added the bracket to the spindle bracket, and added the laser to it, to see if it fits. everything fit nicely the first time. with that done, i need to deburr the laser mounting bracket, and paint it flat black (keep it as cool as the rest of the machine). once the weather starts to cooperate, i can start in on the torsion box base for the bench, and the easier parts of the rebuild.
 

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Looking good Dan. The bracket looks plenty strong, but before you finalize your wiring, test out to make sure you're not getting too much vibration while using the laser. I tried something similar with mine and with the extra weight of the spindle, the z axis would shake under the momentum of the spindle coming to a stop and moving again. It all worked fine when it was just the laser on the x axis, but the weight of the spindle really made it vibrate, making the laser marks really fuzzy.
 
where would the vibration be coming from? as the spindle would not be running while using the laser. this is basically the same set up they have in their conversion for the cnc, but i'm keeping the spindle in place.
 
The weight of the spindle itself may cause it, the momentum and mass of the spindle will cause it as it's changing directions. Typically the laser can be moved at a much faster speed than when using the spindle. It may not, but something to test for.
 
got the torsion box for the base of the bench built today.
 

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