Laser engraver Air assist - V slot wheels, 500mm, RAMPS 1.6+ RE-Arm
Description
This remix makes a few changes to enable the use of 500mm aluminum pieces and changes the extruded aluminum and wheels to V-slot. The idea is that you buy 500mm extruded aluminum (easy/cheap to find) and you don't need to cut anything. the 5mmx500mm rod made an interesting challenge, I had to add a bumpout on the gantry for the bearing holder in order for the rod to be long enough. In the end it works well, and parts are standard sizes. Since the wheels are not the same size as the original, almost every part changed. I added some endstops, belt tensioners, and air assist. Hardware needed: 3 of 500mm v-slot 2040 2 of 500mm t-slot (or v-slot if you wish) 2040 1 of 500mm 5mm rod 1 of 16mm x 5mm and 5mm opening bearing 12 v slot wheels. 11mm width, 25mm dia, and 5mm opening in the bearing. The gantry and air assist are made for a 40mm x 40mm laser, mine is 5500mW. I put some wether strip on the inside of the air assist part near the lens to get a better seal for the air. The "tall leg" file can be mirrored for the other side. Controller is a Re-Arm RAMPS 1.6 with Trinamic drivers(TMC2100) and runs Marlin 2.0 Overkill maybe, but I like the quietness of trinamic drivers, and my 3d printers both use re-arm RAMPS. So it's all the same. The mosfet switch was an ebay purchase (photos attached of the back and front) I removed the bulky screw headers and soldered directly to the board. The air assist is just a flexible 5mm OD hose about 36" (92cm) long hooked up to 950 GPH, 32 watt air pump. I used a Vivosun pump bought on Ebay for about $45 CDN. The bed size for all this is about 360 x 345. not bad, but for 500mm parts I was hoping for more. The end stops are mounted on the gantries. This was for simplicity, wires come from 2 places only.The belt tensioners are a remix that keep the belt low in the V slot. This seems to keep the wear to a minimum. I changed the legs since I noticed the whole machine was dancing on my desk the first few tries an the print was then distorted when it moved. Now I can screw the whole macine to a peice of wood and raise the workpeice (with some leftover schluter tile edging) without fear of things doing more dancing. In order for the laser to be off at start up, I used a MOSFET switch that was triggered by the stepper motor cooling fan output. This setup ensures the laser is not on at start up. Since the servo outputs (Used to control the PWM for the laser) are high during the boot sequence it makes it pretty dangerous. The Mosfet is hooked up in between the laser power coming from the laser module and the laser itself. It is switched on for 600 seconds when any stepper motor moves. I use the "home" function to turn it on if I want to focus the laser before a print. I also adjusted Marlin for the laser to be on at 1% as the default, rather than 100%, this makes setting the focus safer as well.(although I always use the protective eye-wear) The Marlin 2.0 configuration.h file, configuration_adv.h file and re-arm pin file is attached.
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