Cameron had a busy weekend given the delivery of the extrusion this week. Below is a photo of the frame for the laser; it’s upside down because it is built upside down (I’m told there is a method to the madness) so what you see is the top half of the frame for the laser. Before the bottom half can be built he has to figure out how he will fabricate the “drop down” aspect of the floor of the laser which is a big sheet of honeycomb metal (or two sheets, I can’t remember). Once he has that worked out he will build the base of the frame with the extrusion that is waiting patiently to be joined to what you see in the photo, and then the gantry/axis upon which the laser will travel will be installed. Cameron has been weighing each section of extrusion and all of the parts (130 bolts so far) to find out what it will weigh. No one seems to know how heavy their Rezo is and, well, we are CURIOUS! He thinks it will weigh between 600-700 pounds at the end which is why building it to enable the base to be separated from the top will be important; we may have to move it someday.

Cameron ordered casters for the laser that are rated for 2000 pounds (he’s an engineer, he always overbuilds ????) so we will be able to shift it to clean under it and behind it but it won’t be going any further than a few feet one way or another unless we relocate.

The photo of the grid with plywood on it is an example of how you’d place what ever you’re cutting, in this case it’s plywood, on the honeycomb grid/cutting surface. The actual FLOOR of the laser is below the honeycomb and that floor will be designed to drop down so we can load something tall-ish into the laser for etching/engraving such as a huge stock pot or one of those lobster pots folks use over outdoor fires. You might monogram one or you might etch a phrase or date or what have you onto one. Essentially the drop down floor is meant to provide more flexibility relative to what we can do with the laser. If you’re going to build it from scratch you might as well make it as flexible a tool as you can. It will be the exception rather than the rule when we need to drop the floor down (the Rezo plans allow for a 14” material height which is generous if you look at the off the shelf options out there but we like having options).

Thanks for tagging along with us; I suspect the blog will be on hiatus until next weekend; Cameron keeps a heavy meeting schedule during the work week.