Greetings to all this Sunday evening. I hope everyone has had a good weekend. It has been another busy one here, and a laborious one at that.

Cameron spent a lot of time modifying parts/hardware with his grinder and drill press to accommodate the “outside of plans” drop down floor. You’ll see in the photo below that here are big, chrome in appearance bolt-ish pieces of hardware (called ball screws, I’m told) in each corner of the laser skeleton. They will attach to a motor that will raise and lower the bed when needed. For all of the extra time and effort this mod has required I’m going to be under some obligation to come up with enough projects that will require it’s use! Also, for the sake of clarity, the smooth metal sheeting makes up the “floor” of the machine and the second photo shows the installation of the honeycomb bed, the surface upon which what ever is being cut or engraved will rest.

I’m sorry my photo doesn’t fit in this space; you can’t see both of the front facing ball screws (they measure 300 mm or 11.8” tall for the folks like me out there who never learned the metric system) nor the two in the back that will drop the bed when needed once the motor is connected.

So I asked Cameron about the size of the “cells” in this honeycomb because they are much smaller than the other examples I’ve seen. He said they vary in size but he went with this smaller cell opening in anticipation of the very small pieces of fabric I will want to cut for pixel based textile art and such.

I know it doesn’t look like much but Cameron has been working on what you see all weekend. His work tables are covered in hardware and tools and the drill press is alight in metal shavings from all of the modifications he had to make to install the ball screws. He said the honeycomb bed is a very tight fit so he hopes there won’t be much need to swap it out for another bed, like a knife edge bed commonly used when cutting wood. I guess time will tell.

You know the drill; the project is on hiatus until next weekend. Have a great week everyone!