All That Work Just For This? - CO2 Laser Cutter Part 5

The video series continues where I'm building my own DIY CO2 laser cutter. I started out by replacing the V wheel assemblies with some more substantial linear rail. Then I installed some drag chain and routing the wires and air assist tube. With that done I started wiring up all the motor drivers and laser controller. With everything wired up I installed the mirror mounts and lens and spent quite a bit of time aligning everything. Finally with all that work done I was able to actually cut something out on my laser cutter!
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[@bytesizedengineering]

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[@jamesstjames1289]

You could heat it but you would be better off using mild steel.

[@stafdehat]

Re: Cracking aluminum while bending. Aluminum work-hardens, which is probably why it cracked. Try bending part of the way, then hit it with a torch to anneal the metal, then bend it further, repeat.

[@mattwest9705]

Work hardening is definitely the issue. And agree that annealing and heat are the answer. There are ways to pre heat treat too that don't involve slow bending. Definitely look up some videos on bending aluminum, there is a lot of help out there

[@Timestamp_Guy]

his tooling is REALLY sharp. not sure what that tip radius is, but AL isn't as ductile as steel sheet. He should try a tool with a much larger bend radius for metal that thick.

[@MrTooldforthis]

When bending metal there should be a radius equal to 3 times the thickness at the bend.

[@paulkaakee4051]

Yes that`s good and don`t use pencil on al for layout. Carbon in pencil is said to effect the al.

[@michaels136]

3003 Aluminum Alloy is what you want to use. It has great bendability. I am a Sheet Metal Worker and that is what we use for all applications that has to be bent, rolled or run thru roll forming machines. Look forward to all your videos. Keep up the great work.

[@bytesizedengineering]

Thanks for the info!

[@MalcolmSalmond]

@@bytesizedengineering You could also use a 50 series aluminum alloy if the bottom die has a wide enough gap. We normally say eight times material thickness so 16 g at .0625 equals a 1/2 inch bottom die

[@Andrew_Sparrow]

From what I remember from school.. .we would rub a bar or soap (standard white hand soap) on the aluminium and heat until the mark left (like a crayon) turned black to know it's hot enough to of annealed :)

[@stafdehat]

You just accidentally taught me the rubber-band-trick for spools of wire. And I love you for it.

[@pecilijevelicanstveni4973]

The bend radius MUST BE GREATER of or at least EQUAL to the thickness of the sheet metal. Practical advice is that bend radius has to be minimum as TWICE as of the thickness of the sheet metal (if it is possible regarding the construction). So the radius of the tip of the metal vice blade(s) must have that radius, in another words, for every thickness you must have the blades with that radius!. Yours are too sharp, more like to cut the metal. It does not depend of the type of metal, only with the bend radius.

[@collie147]

Exactly! You're pulling and stretching the metal instead of bending it. In other words the tip part of the punch of the break, that gives the inner diameter of the bend, is too sharp. Other more malleable metals might be fine but aluminium is probably too brittle.

[@kurtbilinski1723]

The aluminum must be annealed before bending it. Use a Sharpie felt pen and draw a mark in the area of the bend. Heat the aluminum with a torch until the pen mark disappears. It's now "dead soft" and can be bent easily.

[@AJMansfield1]

The laser and gantry don't need to be on the same level, you can just use those two side mirrors to reflect the beam downward at an angle and then reflect it back level for the x gantry.

[@m.sierra5258]

Thank you :) just wanted to comment the same thing.

[@dgoddard]

Cracking up over the "stool" sample. Great sense of humor. Great videos as well.

[@dougcox835]

A trick I learned for using printed paper as a template is to print the pattern on label paper which has adhesive. They make it in full sheets. It's more expensive than plain paper but in the grand scheme of things not really much. Some patterns try to fall apart as you cut the pattern, especially when there are large inside squares or things like that. I know this sounds funny but to check your art just print on plain paper to make sure you have it right so you don't waste the label sheets. Also (depending on the size of the pattern) a sheet can be used more than once. Just be careful not to jam the printer. Another trick with this is to use an X-acto blade to cut the pattern out of the sheet so you leave the backing intact and the sheet still works in the printer with the rest for a second run. When you have a large area bare in the second run you can simply put scotch tape on the bare area to give the printer wheels something to get traction with. This was way more than I intended to say. Sorry about that.

[@petriepretorius4085]

aluminum loves not to be bent, steel is all the more better, but with aluminum you must either cast it in its design, or bend thinner sheets very carefully...you can use heat, but aluminum is weird, because it develops a very thin oxide layer on the surface that has a much higher melting point than the interior of the metal, so when you heat it too much and the oxide layer melts, the interior might become unstable...also one of the reasons it cracks is that the oxide layer on the surface is more brittle and it micro fractures when put under strain...and when it makes those cracks that goes to the inside of the metal on the bend, the oxidizing follows, it penetrates...aluminum is a wonderful metal, but one has to understand its personality...but if it works it works! well done to your laser machine build, Zach, it is inspiring, and a hello from South Africa...😊👋

[@CampfireshopSurvival]

Just a heads up on the mirror alignment. The weird guide circle in front of the mirror is for holding your tape/paper for the test firing. I switched away from tape and use post-it note paper now, much less residue left behind.

[@bytesizedengineering]

That's a good tip using the post-it note. I switch to a piece of cardboard after a while. I didn't want to use the guide circles because I wasn't convinced they were concentric with the mirror alignment. In other words, I was concerned that if I center it on the guide it wouldn't necessarily be centered on the mirror itself.

[@CampfireshopSurvival]

@@bytesizedengineering here is the kicker. Center is ideal but aligned is what is the goal. You want to make sure it hits the same place on each mirror/location.

[@NafrytiNosferatu]

CLEARLY, adding another Mirror was out of the question lmao.

[@NathanaelNewton]

Sendcutsend looks pretty cool actually! I've definitely wanted parts like that for different things in the past, but never ended up really working on the projects, I'll keep them in mind for future things. That vicr looks quite useful, for some reason I never imagined that you could get a metal bending attachment for a vice.

[@milspectoothpick4119]

6061 can be bent. It just work hardens more than the lower grades so you need a bigger bend radius. Something like 3003 or 5052 can make sharper bend radii but using a sharp pointed bend die will cause you trouble with most materials anyway. Taking some sand paper or a grinder to radius off the sharp point of the die will help a lot.

[@kreynolds1123]

Tip for the future: It might help to temporarily remove from the case, the connector with a dificult to reach pin, or maybe simply rotate the connector to get better access to solder it.

[@jameswiz]

Aluminum tends to break like that during bending for several reasons. One, its too tight of a bend, or sometimes it needs lubrication during bending so it can slide. Also The type of alum makes a difference, but you could also try different jaws for that bender, and see if one with a rounded nose helps keep the stresses down on the edge.

[@muppet000111]

Going to build the same one:). These series helps me a lot!!

[@rolanddube2169]

Nice job with the wiring. As far as your aluminum bracket breaking, you have several options. 1) different and thinner grade of aluminum (more prone to bending), 2) go with a bigger radius on the bend, and/or 3) heat the aluminum with a torch and get it good and hot. You would need to apply heat as you are bending as well. Just be careful not to melt the aluminum, one minute it is solid and the next minute it is a puddle.

[@bytesizedengineering]

Thanks for the tips! I learned later on that 6061 aluminum is terrible for bending and that I need to use 5052.

[@aaronkashmer5882]

Use a candle blacken the AL with soot, heat with MAP gas blow torch.... when the Soot goes away bend it.

[@5274jacob]

"professional solution" has a vevor tag on it 🤣

[@savage_x89]

When forming aluminum, be mindful of the type of aluminum. Some bend better than others. And when it comes to the actual bend, a good rule of thumb is, minimum bend radius is almost double the thickness of the material, never less than the thickness.

[@kenabi]

the fabricator dahtcohm has a nice writeup on bending aluminum they posted at the start of the month. (feb 1st, to be specific). and the pitfalls of it.

[@kreynolds1123]

I'm not knowledge in bending sheet metals. But I know bending aluminum weakens it with every bend. I suspect you will have stronger piece if you were to use a rounded tip that distributes a complete 90 bend over a distance rather than 90 degrees all at one point.

[@NathanaelNewton]

The electricity in this apartment building is kind of glitchy, but even with that, it was kind of weird when the exact moment that you test fire the laser the first time in this video, the light in my hallway blinked on and off 😅

[@quinnbrown9912]

Aluminum bends... Correct on 50 series aluminum being better suited to handle bends. However, your 60 series and also the 50 should be hit with a carburizing flame and annealed. It will make it much more plyable and forgiving.

[@antsbradley]

Why put the stepper motor on the plate that the focus head is on, it is extra mass and thus momentum, could it not be mounted on the Y axis gantry and fix the belt to the focus head plate so the motor remains stationary in Y moves?

[@Subgunman]

Where did you buy the bending adapter for the vise?

[@michaelladigo2395]

aluminum requires a bend radius. 6061 and 7075 are bad for cracking, especially in the T4 and T6 hardened state. Use about a 1/8" bend radius minimum.

[@gregorydobson4307]

Aluminium needs to be annealed so i use normal white hand soap rubbed onto area then heat with gas flame untill soap goes black, quench aluminium straight away. Ready to bend.

[@bytesizedengineering]

Is that for all alloys? I mostly use 6061.

[@tuloko16]

Bend radious is too tight. An easy fix for this is: cut a strip of steel sheetmetal that is at least half the thickness of the aluminum sheet you are triying to bend. Is doesn’t have to be “exact”. Now, take this strip of sheet metal and bend it ats tight as you can (with the bending tool). You want this v shape piece to fit tight against the male part of your bending tool. Now with this added piece, the radious of the bend won’t be as tight and it should give you better results. You can experiment with different thicknesses of inserts and make different radiouses by stacking them. I hope thst makes sence. It comes quite useful when working on aviation sheet metal when we don’t have the option to temper the aluminum.

[@JK-qy5ou]

If you have other tools for the bending maschine, use a bigger radius.

[@bytesizedengineering]

Good idea. I found out later that my guess was right. 6061 aluminum is terrible for bending. I need to get som 5052

[@turtleplates]

What was the focus length of that lens.. looked really close to nozzle to Me

[@bytesizedengineering]

It's a 50.8mm focal length lens. From my measurements that's only about 4mm from the tip of the nozzle. I need to do a ramp focus test to confirm that's the best place. It seems awfully close to me too.

[@clousetechworkshop7597]

Aluminum can be a real pain, you have it right about certain grades being better for bending than others, even then it will fatigue and crack quite easily. You basically have one shot to get it right each time and it's best to anneal it if you can. Larger radii bend for aluminum are a good practice too.

[@bytesizedengineering]

Time to get a torch! All I have now is a heat gun. Since aluminum doesn't change colors when you heat it how do you tell if it's annealed?

[@pecilijevelicanstveni4973]

@@bytesizedengineering You do not need anything else, torch or something! Try my advice: change the bend radius and that is it. I said that it do not depend of a material. The same is for steel, copper etc. Try something else, just for the experiment. Put the piece of aluminium in an ordinary vise and bend it by hand. Just push the tip of the piece. The material will bend without cracks. It will bend naturally. Please, look carefully the next video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/in3Ul6Ccj7ard5o The guy is fantastic! (Believe me, I have 40+ years of experience, MSc in mechanical engineering 🙂).

[@jpkatz1435]

As others have noted, bend radius too tight when piece is cracking at bend, so, buy/make bending die set(s) with greater radi for when you have to use what IS at hand, plus the suggestions of more comptable alloys, some of which may be meatles other then aluminum. Plus the annealing option. I bet if you talk to the Send Cut Send folks they will have lots of useful ideas/solutions to this problem. Also every fab shop will have lots of interesting/usefuf scrap shapes and will be glad to pass some of them along to an enterprising Maker, you. Love your clearity in problem solving and the pace of presentation!!!

[@patriotmagistrate4395]

I’ve seen a lot of metal workers cut a groove on the inside of the bend. Of course they usually weld the seam afterword.

[@poodlefluids]

​@@bytesizedengineeringI am just a hobbyist but I would think you could get thermal crayons for that.

[@watahyahknow]

did nothing wrong except using aluminium , it just doesnt bend well , unless you use a more radiused bend might be able to 3d print sumting that slides over the knife end of the bending devise you have , using lumbrication on the fork end might help too as it alows the material to slide intoo the fork instead of being stretched

[@sy2532]

Is this project continuing? Are there more video's?

[@bytesizedengineering]

Yes, I'm sorry for the delay. I've had some other projects I've been working on. Hopefully there will be another video soon

[@helderlage]

the metal vise blade is too sharp, it must be made of hard plastic and the edge rounded

[@mischermer4767]

your bend radius is too tight. change the anvil head to a more softer, gradual bend radius, perhaps a 3-4mm

[@sourcespoint5365]

just heat it a little before pending it

[@Mr_ASIC]

you bent a wrong Aluminum Alloy

[@michaelschmidt850]

Bending radius is to small

[@burrefpv9273]

Heat up The aluminium, then bend.

[@bytesizedengineering]

I did find out afterwards that 6061 is terrible for bending. You can anneal it by heating it up, but it's better to just use a different alloy

[@pdwinc.1077]

As for the chiller. Not to bad considering it was probably built by a 10 year old.

[@anonytube1679]

Please STOP adding this horrible "music" to your otherwise great videos! If I wanted to listen to music, I would listen to my own. When watching your videos, I constantly have to turn the volume up and down. This is very frustrating, and in many cases I just stop watching.

[@Madman-vs7gp]

time to bust out the tig welder and learn how to weld videos

[@mrb2917]

dude, what is this music

[@deanneumann8594]

I wish you would have done without the music. Good content otherwise.

[@klausbrinck2137]

Background music in technical videos is straight stupid, and defeats the purpose, of giving the audience the chance to getting used to the sounds, the wanted, and (especially) the unwanted ones... Aside to that, it f***ing distracts, especially such bad music (are you 12?)

[@redbad]

Vevor is a terrible brand with poor quality control. I'm not that all surprised about the state of that water chiller.

[@bytesizedengineering]

Well why didn't you tell me that before I bought it!?🤣

[@redbad]

@@bytesizedengineering haha I would've trust me

[@DoublePenetration0]

Vevor doesnt make good products at all :(

[@ste76539]

For heavens sake fasten that vice down. KZbinrs should not be releasing videos with heavy vices unfastened like this, there are NO excuses it's just irresponsible.

[@CuttingOutBack]

It's alive!!! Great work. I'm definitely checking out send cut send for some parts I need!

[@cyberlizardcouk]

you need to drop the power output when aligning the mirrors to get a much smaller dot.

[@rixogtr]

Looks like you've used 6061 aluminium, that cracks like that

[@Cuongtomato]

Where can I buy aluminum extrusion ? Thanks

[@gaiustacitus4242]

Sheet metal is supposed to be bent with a radius which ranges from the material thickness for 6mm and below up 9.5x the material thickness for 1/2". Believe it or not, there is also "grain" in aluminum. You can cheat and bend aluminum against the "grain" with an almost nonexistent radius as you were trying to do. Very sharp bends always produced weak structures. FYI - When bending metal with the proper radius it is necessary to calculate the flat layout and to calculate the bend line. There are formulae for these functions.

[@snowgoer540]

In addition to what everyone else has said, consider the grain direction and don’t bend parallel to the grains.

[@bytesizedengineering]

I didn't know aluminum had grain direction! How do I tell which direction it goes?

[@meins1043]

@@bytesizedengineering It has. This was one of the first things they told us about Aluminium in the three and a half years of education to become an industrial mechanik in Germany. You can see in witch direktion it has been rolled/worked if you look closely.

[@ducati543]

Aluminum needs to be annealed before bending. Annealing is done with a torch and you have to bring the aluminum to a temperature of 775° you can use a propane torch but you will need a 775 temperature crayon sold at a welding supply store. Mark the piece with the crayon by the bend start heating when the marks disappear you can bend the plate now. With that said 7075 aluminum cannot be bent or welded, only machined.

[@jazzdirt]

Maybe bend a little, heat it to resolve stresses in the lattice.. Bend a little again.. heat it again.. until you've got the bend you want. Or try bending it with a bit more heat in it.. put it in the oven for a bit before bending..

[@soniclab-cnc]

I am unsure why you used 4 mirrors. You normally only use one fixed mirror and one on the gantry and the lens assembly. That shortens the laser path and increases laser power.

[@steadfasttherenowned2460]

Awesome video. Montage music needs some work. Anything would be better. Even silence 😀

[@PeterHarvey-hr3ju]

Liquid soap on the aluminum, heat until the soap turns black . Wash and cool then it will bend without splitting

[@rtoronto7637]

There is a minimum bend radius for a given material type and thickness

[@Randorf100]

apply heat dude

[@milanjosejose9939]

Nice

[@JonathanRansom]

Can't wait to use your plans to build one of these.

[@bytesizedengineering]

I think my plans will be for a smaller desktop 40 watt version. If someone is crazy enough to build a huge one like me they'll just have to scale up some of the aluminum parts

[@JonathanRansom]

That's what I'm wanting!

[@odczynnik]

Blending radius might be to small it will also make aluminium brake. I think putting the mirrors to the frame where all mechanic are installed also may cause troubles. Especially during engraving when lens nozzle moves very quick like 500mm/s, it may cause frame a little shake/bend which can change laser mirror alignment during the work🤔

[@Ryan-nj5ue]

Heat the aluminum with a torch before bending

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

Rad ! Id love to build one myself one day but it still seems kinda scary

[@bytesizedengineering]

This is definitely a tool that you need to use caution with. The sooner I can put panels on to enclose it the better!

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

@@bytesizedengineering Yeah safety first! Cant wait to see your next episode on it