Ouch my eye!

Do not look at LASER with remaining eye!

Motion

Posts specific to the motion system in the ULS M25

Post Index

  • Possibilities

    For those of you that have been following along, you will remember that the X rail for my old ULS-M25 is badly warped from the fire. To replace it with an official part from ULS will cost me $365 + taxes [or about $13.50/inch for the 27 inch extrusion]. Needless to say, this is a unpalatable price for an aluminum extrusion. So I’ve been trying to come up with possible replacement solutions that are more cost effective. The first step was to create a CAD model for the existing part to serve as a reference. While my model isn’t exact, as it is based on measurements of the damaged part, it should be close enough to serve its purpose.


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  • Second Sourcing: Belts

    So now that I have my quote in from the ULS rep for my list of parts, I thought I’d go through the list and see how much of it I can second source from other suppliers outside of the ULS umbrella. So for starters I decided to go with what is most-likely the easiest part to find elsewhere… the timing belts. Now I don’t know much about timing belts, but figured they were an off the shelf component. So after doing a little research online, I discovered that the pitch/profile for the belt is known as MXL (Miniature Extra Light). I wasn’t sure on the material of the belt, but I did come across a spec that stated it was Kevlar re-enforced. After searching he usual retail suspects [McMaster Carr & SDP/SI as well as few others] it became apparent that the material must be urethane. So armed with that information, as well as the length  and width specifications for the replacement belts, I came up with some pricing:

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  • And then a step to the right

    The search for replacement stepper motors is on. The first step was identifying what is there already.

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  • The price of admission

    So I finally got my quote back for all the ULS parts this week. It came in quite a bit higher than I anticipated. While most of the items are tolerable, some aren’t. [all prices are Canadian, and don’t include the 13% tax I need to pay as well]

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  • One less thing

    Well today I decided to try and salvage the flying head that carries the #3 mirror and focusing lens. I had pretty much written it off, as it was partially encased in molten glass & plastic. It also fell into the fire, so I assumed the worst for the parts of it that I could not see.

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  • X marks the spot

    Finally the X axis movement.

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  • Y oh Y

    Onto the Y axis movement.

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  • Feeling Elevated

    Up next is the Z-lift mechanics [pun intended].

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  • The Parts List

    Now that this project is officially a go, I need to source some replacement parts. So as a starting point I thought I’ll see what official replacement parts from ULS will cost, before I try to hack something together. So I put together a quick list based on my first impressions during the tear-down.

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  • Digging in

    Things have been busy at work as we just moved, so I haven’t had much time to think about the laser. I’ve decided to take the next few Fridays off from work to work on it, as I have some accrued vacation time I need to use up before the year-end. This is the first Friday, and I decided to start breaking down the laser to asses the state of things. I’ll post more detail over the next little while as I examine the bits more closely, but for now enjoy the photos that I took to try and detail the construction, and the damage to the unit.

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