Laser Cutter Slat Bed

[Keith 66]

The reply was to your comment "Whats wrong with steel honeycomb". Rocking horse poo is wot knife edge bars seem to be when i spend hours googling for them! unless you go on ali express. Which for some reason never came up on all the searching i did.

 

[ukracer]

The reply was to your comment "Whats wrong with steel honeycomb". Rocking horse poo is wot knife edge bars seem to be when i spend hours googling for them! unless you go on ali express. Which for some reason never came up on all the searching i did.

Ok no problem. I was wondering if you were saying steel honey comb was hard to find.

 

[Keith 66]

I have gone down the Aliexpress route & emailed an enquiry to Cloudray for a set plus holders. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

As an aside to this i visited our local Hackspace last night to have a look, they have a large laser cutter that is obviously heavily used, it has a alloy honeycomb bed installed & the entire inside of the machine plus the bed was caked in black tar. Tbh im surprised it hasnt caught fire yet.

 

[Keith 66]

Well i just bought a set of 22 bars from Aliexpress, the bars were cheap as chips, the shipping a fair old whack more. But considering its direct from china its ok. To think that all the stuff on aliexpress used to be made here & now we make sod all.

 

[MattF]

So what is a good alternative for the honeycombs? I've ordered an extension kit for that S9 I ordered, to increase its size, but that means the only honeycomb I could find, (& ordered, as a put on), is wider & slightly shorter than its potential engraving/cutting area.

 

[Keith 66]

These are the same as the bars i bought from Ali express, Top right, https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32946241083.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.7.7969BoXOBoXOzs&algo_pvid=e9fca031-88d1-4891-a57d-91ebcfce9cdb&algo_exp_id=e9fca031-88d1-4891-a57d-91ebcfce9cdb-3&pdp_ext_f={"order":"4","eval":"1"}&pdp_npi=4@dis!GBP!10.14!8.11!!!12.77!10.22!@2103835e17425848810892721e1cbb!12000034661219931!sea!UK!0!ABX&curPageLogUid=scQzMYHyWjve&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:,
Type A 5 x 15mm were £1.87 each I made the slotted mounts from 15mm alloy Tbar., Job came out well & increased airflow is noticeable with no dead air spaces to fill with fumes to catch alight. Bars are easily cleaned in minutes with a bucket of soapy water & a scotchbrite.
On our school laser this was a fortnightly task

 

[MattF]

What would this stuff be like as a cutting bed?

Cutting Table Honeycomb Laser Bed

Tyvok Laser Honeycomb Table 400x400/200x200mm Work Bed CO₂ Diode Laser Flexible Honeycomb Work Plate CNC Laser Honeycomb Panel - AliExpress 1420

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

a.aliexpress.com

Once shipping is added on that other style, this would work out relatively similar on cost, & is a more open & adaptable structure than honeycomb.

 

[Keith 66]

Probably works very similar, I think most laser cutter suppliers use honeycomb because its dirt cheap, The bar bed or variants are hard to find in the uk so you have to go the aliexpress route.
Really peed me off when theres a factory three miles away selling lasers with bar beds!

 

[Ali]

What size honeycomb do you need Matt?

 

[MattF]

What size honeycomb do you need Matt?

These are the spec's:



950mm x 410mm. I'm awaiting all parts arriving before I get this engraver set up. I've ordered several upgrades & addons. Makes more sense to only assemble it once.

The honeycomb I've ordered is 850mm x 530mm, so not perfect but close.

 

[Ali]

These are the spec's:

View attachment 489187

950mm x 410mm. I'm awaiting all parts arriving before I get this engraver set up. I've ordered several upgrades & addons. Makes more sense to only assemble it once.

The honeycomb I've ordered is 850mm x 530mm, so not perfect but close.

I acquired a 2.4 x 1.2m sheet of honeycomb (compressed, so actually about 75mm x 1.2m). I don’t really need it, you can have it for postage if you like. You’ll need to make a frame though. The cells in the honeycomb are the small type, 6mm ish.

 

[Agroshield]

These are the specs:

It is not an area increase of 226%. That is marketing maths. The area of the larger one is 2.26 times that of the original. The area increase is 126%.

Cut the sheet in half (so you have 2 x 425 x 530) and then cut each piece down to 425 x 410. It will be easier to handle two pieces for cleaning than a single piece.

 

[MattF]

I acquired a 2.4 x 1.2m sheet of honeycomb (compressed, so actually about 75mm x 1.2m). I don’t really need it, you can have it for postage if you like. You’ll need to make a frame though. The cells in the honeycomb are the small type, 6mm ish.

I'll let you know, one way or the other, on that once I've had chance to have a play with the machine. Currently, I'm potentially leaning towards slatted type over honeycomb, for the reasons mentioned by @Keith 66.

You know me though. I'm fickle & unpredictable.