I’ve got a product stream using the 1F (Woodworker, original) that I think I could use the laser addon to significantly reduce my total processing time.
What I have so far:
- Use Easel for the .nc files
- I cut exclusively with a 1/8" bit
- Stock is all hardwood, resawn and planed down to 0.30" thick
- Every cut program uses the same X/Y/Z zero point. I don’t do any zero alterations unless my machine loses power. I use pegs to drop each piece of stock to the same spot on my spoilboard. At least, close enough, I factor in up to ~1/16" wastage around the edges in the piece placement, the pegs get clipped here and there. Exact placement of the stock is non-critical as long as the program area is covered
- Due to the small size of the pieces I am cutting, no hold down method works for a single piece (0.75-1.5 square inch in area), and I cut 40-60 pieces per piece of stock, so I tape the whole board and only cut 0.29-0.295 into the stock, leaving 0.01-0.005 material remaining (leaves stock looking like this: https://photos.app.goo.gl/S7QQ1LybqpQ9PxhM6)
- I then use a benchtop belt sander to sand off most of that remaining, breaking the pieces out of the stock.
- I then use a disc sander to manually sand down the last of the remaining material, removing all of the extra stuff from the breakout.
These sanding steps are now up to about 80% of my time spent per saleable item.
What I think I can do with adding a laser:
- After a router cutting run, before removing the stock from the spoilboard, run a laser (7w?) pass that trims the edge of every piece to cut that last 0.01-0.005" of wood cleanly. Removing the manual steps to break them out of the stock.
I expect:
- The laser would need to be mounted so that when the router bit is at it’s fully 0.295" depth, the laser body is still above the stock to avoid crashing. Lets assume that is 1/8" (0.125)
- When the laser program is running, the router bit will need to be at a safe height (0.15"?) above the stock, which by necessity of the above point, the laser body will be 0.30 (stock thickness) + 0.15 (bit safe height) = 0.45" above the stock.
- Which then means that the laser would need to focus at 0.45 (above stock) + 0.30 (stock thickness) = 0.75" below the body
- I will have to carefully measure the -Y offset from the router bit zero to the laser zero, and then offset the laser cut program +Y by that same amount.
- I would end up with a faint burn line on the lower edge of every piece
What makes this a non-starter:
- Having to re-set ANY zero for either router or laser between jobs
- Having a mount that prevents router usage with the laser mounted, since remounting the bit, the router, or the laser will mean at least some minor variation in X/Y and/or Z.
- The laser unable to focus 0.75" away
- The laser can’t actually cut 0.01-0.005" of hardwood (everyone talks about maximum cut, and I think this is doable, but can’t find anything to confirm it)
- The laser can’t cut exactly down the side of the work pieces due to beam divergence or the upper edge of the piece clipped part of the laser. If I have to move the cut line out from the base of the piece, it doesn’t save me any time.
And because someone is inevitably going to ask about workholding options instead to allow full depth of cut:
- I use Taytools double sided tape as the only known solution for workholding for this, and I am only safe with around 40% coverage on the stock. Less and I have a high failure rate on the tape’s ability to hold.
- Vacuum is a nice thought, but given the final square inches, I’ve only got around 9-20 pounds of pressure holding each piece, and that just isn’t enough to prevent the pieces from getting ripped out and damaged at an unacceptable rate. I’ve tested, and I lose >50% pieces still. This is assuming I don’t have massive vacuum loss as I cut through the board all over the place.
3B: It would technically be possible to have custom vacuum backing boards to ensure vacuum is only delivered to the pieces and no cut channels, although I would need 100+ of these boards, and the product updates and tweaks would mean remaking them regularly. Time and wasted stock material that I don’t see as functionally worth it given the difficulty of vacuum holding the pieces anyway. - Clamps to the stock edges/corners would quickly no longer be holding anything.
- A high pressure clamp mounted to the body of the router that holds the middle of each piece down for the duration of the cut might work, swinging around as the router cuts around the edge, but it would have to be controllable to locate/assign the center of the coming piece prior to the start of cutting, and would have to be able to swing around faster than the X/Y movement. This is just a fantasy thought. I have never seen anything remotely close to this concept out there.
So that all being said … does anyone see any issues with the idea that makes it a non-starter before I buy a laser?