DIY 1000W Fiber Laser Cutter Part 7: Tube Cutting

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After using my DIY 1000W fiber laser cutter for the past year, I've decided to explore adding a rotary 4th axis for tube cutting.
In this video, we install the rotary axis, test round tube cutting and square tube cutting, and learn the limitations of the Ruida RDC6563F fiber laser controller and RDCutist software for tube cutting.
Please understand that I am a novice on the subject, and that fiber lasers can be very dangerous, if you are going to build or use a laser, please do your own research and understand the safety risks!
My website: www.id3ntitycrisis.com
My design portfolio: www.id3ntitycrisis.com/portfolio

[@Arek_R.]

This shows importance of making sure you know what kind of ecosystem you lock yourself into once you buy the proprietary controllers.

[@bernieinsaudi]

Pushing the boundaries that the rest of us are the beneficiaries of.. brilliant.

[@hermankopinga]

Great vid, great inspiration. Always dangerous to watch diy tool video’s because I always try and figure if I could do it myself., especially Fibre lasers. And your series keeps amazing me.

[@TAMARbarCNC]

I've done exactly what you've mentioned in the end with sheetcam. My diy fiber laser integrated sheets and tubes works great.

[@diyfiberlaser]

Great to hear...I saw the video of your laser and it looks awesome!

[@niam102008]

yup, use mach3 and sheetcam and rotary plugin, work great for me

[@TAMARbarCNC]

@niam102008 you've built a fiber laser with a mach3 controller and you're using sheetcam rotary plug-in for tubes and pipes cutting?

[@ianeliason8890]

Like it, but swapping the X, it becomes mathematical. It's better with a new axis. You are showing the real stuff now. You told me 2 days ago about the rotary. Cheers.

[@zoidbergVII]

Lightburn softare works with Ruida controllers, potentially that can make use of the U axis, then the workflow for square tube could be laser/rotate/laser repeat.

[@rosswoolley2854]

Thanks for the video Travis. I really enjoyed it.

[@wadeskelton7585]

Very cool - nice problem solving brother 👍👍

[@buildmotion1426]

Good video! Thanks for posting. 😁

[@vitymp007]

Thanks Travis.

[@michaelzweers1807]

We use lightburn, works great for these things. Cost a pretty penny, but time is also expensive. (i have an diy co2 laser build based on yt Further Fabrication)

[@DIYweldingPlans]

Light burn works great with ruida. I use it for a 150w co2 gantry laser and a 30w galvo co2. Light burn for the win. I tossed RD works same day I go the laser and never looked back

[@vstolpner]

Is that on the same machine or the gantry and galvo are separate machines?

[@AndrewPrice2704]

You may be able to project your pattern from the square tube onto a cylinder in 360 or blender, then export and cut the cylindrical pattern (which is what the controller thinks it is doing) as long as the height control follows properly this might work :)

[@davidking7580]

I had luck getting a dedicated U axis to work on my co2 laser with a Ruida RDC6445S controller and Lightburn by downgrading the version of the controller, and changing my workflow a bit. Your “RDC” should be version V26.01.13. If it is V26.01.13 it will not work, you can downgrade using RDworks. Once it's on the right version, you have to send the file to the controller, and then start the job using the controller rather than starting it from the computer. There are some links to controller firmware out there, but I think linking them here will cause the comment to get removed.

[@diyfiberlaser]

Thanks for the tip!…I will investigate

[@ToddSandercock]

For my tube cutter I ended up writing my own software for solidworks that exports the tubes correctly to allow easy cutting. Commercial options for Gcode creation was $20k+

[@ChromedOutDubs]

Any videos of the software or machine? Would love to see it in action, im wanting to do the same!

[@irishful1]

i think the last cut just collided due to thermal expansion or something, 0.5mm gap is close enough for it to happen

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

I am wondering how you control the far side burn. It seems like a shorter focal distance lens might help.

[@TechBuild]

Using the rotary axis on the X axis is useful for cutting round tubing, but how will you then cut on a square tubing? That will need the X axis linear motion as well.

[@zyeborm]

If you have a cnc controller you could just do the cam in fusion. They have taken full 4 axis out of the regular edition though and moved it into a subscription. Might still work with your unrolling trick though. You can do the rotations on a 4th axis with 3 axis setups still. Just an option to consider

[@mrp19285]

Centroid Acorn can run a fiber laser and can do a 4th axis.

[@technicgamerhd5380]

I think a few people tried LinuxCNC with Lasers Cutters, maybe that would be an idea

[@stevengoan6490]

Nice video , were you using compressed air too cut the tube

[@Z-add]

So the controller is limited on how it can do the rotary.

[@eekpie]

next video: converting to GRBL

[@polakis1975]

After a year using it what is the cost of running the fiber. Are you using gases or just oxygen? My concern is the high cost of using it due to gases for best cutting results.

[@Basement_CNC]

Cant wait on the mill conversion video (the red one you see at the end) and are those TTS toolholders 😮 well, cant wait, I also wuold buy the masso, if something doesnt work on the fluid nc board im setting up right now 🤷‍♂️ well se

[@roeschdan]

Travis, what mount do you use for your masso controller? I'm not happy with the monitor arm I am using right now. Thanks for all the great content as well!

[@diyfiberlaser]

I’m using an arm to hold the keyboard from an old computer stand on my 6090…I would prefer something a little more rigid as well

[@bdimetalworks]

I wonder if it would be possible to run a masso G3 touchscreen controller like the one on your CNC mill on your laser? Do you think it would work?

[@diyfiberlaser]

It's probably possibly, but in no way ideal, you'd have to come up with a custom solution for THC and multi-stage piercing and I'm not sure what you'd do for software...maye create a custom postprocessor for Fusion360 to generate the proper gcode? I was going to try it, but at least for flat sheet cutting, there are cheaper and better fiber laser specific controllers available.

[@vstolpner]

Very cool!! Have you tried engraving with your laser? I know it's meant for cutting, but just wondering if it could do engraving with low enough power settings? I'm thinking to build one similar to yours but I want something that will be and do cut as well as engrave stainless and other metals

[@diyfiberlaser]

Yes, I’ve tried it….it’s just ok results. For better results you’d need a controller that supports cypcut software…from what I understand it has power curve settings that can lower the power as it accelerates/decelerates, making a more even engraving. The Ruida controller doesn’t have that functionality.

[@vstolpner]

@@diyfiberlaser Do you have any photos of the engraving results by any chance?

[@diyfiberlaser]

@@vstolpner Here's a comparison of the difference between my 2 lasers: www.id3ntitycrisis.com/images/Laser-engraving-difference.jpg

[@vstolpner]

@@diyfiberlaser oh wow, I can see what you mean. Thanks

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

Maybe Gary Ramsey Laser Press Brake because he sells systems with tube cutter add-ons and I am sure he will have and idea about square tubes and controllers.

[@sumajiji5191]

please tutour build industrial robot..

[@seimela]

I am first ❤🎉

[@ethanmye-rs]

Linuxcnc or die!😂