New honeycomb..?

Tags: #<Tag:0x00007fa4995469e8>
#1

Does anyone (perhaps the gracious @lasertechs) know when the honeycomb in the laser cutter was last replaced? The last time I was in, it looked extremely grotty and uneven with several large holes. A quick search here on discourse indicates that people have been muttering about replacing it for a year or more.

A brief and cursory google search leads me to believe they may not be very expensive, but I have no expertise on the matter. Either way, is there somewhere I can pledge some cash if it means getting a new one sooner rather than later? I’m only in the space once a month or so, but it’d still be worth it: I feel like my laser jobs have been getting progressively more scorched on the underside as time goes on, and I suspect the venerable honeycomb has at least something to do with it.

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#2

It’s a bit trickier than it seems because of the slightly non-standard size of the bed, but we’re working on it!

I too am hoping that we’ll get this done soon, it’s not very nice to try and align things properly on the honeycomb and get clean cuts!

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#3

@danleblanc01 the honeycomb is now shiny and new!

IMG_0683
IMG_0683.jpeg4032×3024 2.65 MB

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#4

have some slats laser cut

better support easier to clean etc etc

Slats-1-620x325

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#5

They look interesting, but it’s a bit late now - the new honeycomb is installed and we have enough spares for two years of regular replacements.

If you have an affordable source for slats in the uk I’d be very curious for the future though, I’ve only been able to find copper slats, starting upwards of 50 pounds per piece, and shipping from the US.

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#6

Thanks for spending most of the day on this!! Legend

#7

I just a bit more of a look around and found some affordable options for this actually, so we might well want to consider this at some point as an alternative to the honeycomb. Note this was all purely out of curiosity and we’re all set for laser beds for a long time, I just wanted to write down what I found out. (@lasertechs for future reference!)

I think it’s a good idea to have the honeycomb anyway as it’s much better for things like cutting paper/card/mylar, but for plywood and acrylic this could be great - it’s just a question of whether it’s worth the hassle asking people to switch beds in between jobs or if the honeycomb is just the easiest general-purpose option.

(Rough) quotes I got from fractory.com for a 50x10 slat grid with 10mm tip spacing (all including VAT, excluding shipping). Other thicknesses are of course possible, as is a coarser grid, but none of that has a big impact on pricing because the price is dominated by setup costs (buying 1 slat instead of 60 costs 70 pounds as opposed to 90)

  • Galvanised steel 1mm: ~90 pounds
  • Galvanised steel 2mm: ~120 pounds
  • Stainless steel 1mm: ~120 pounds
  • Stainless steel 2mm: ~160 pounds
  • 1050 Aluminium 1mm: ~90 pounds
  • 1050 Aluminium 2mm: ~115 pounds

Realistically we’d probably have to add another 50 pounds or so for a test batch to find out the right fit, and there are more questions about how we’d make this compatible with the rails on the laser bed etc.