The Shop Is Coming to LIFE!

[joejones]

We are finally unpacking the 90+ boxes and beginning to set up things! I have two totally awesome helpers now who are worth their weight in GOLD!

We (read: "they") are building work benches, and setting up the 3D printers and the lasers, and so much more! They are helping me to build the shop extension as well, to make room for all of this stuff. They got the CreatBot D600 PRO printer working. The next one will be the BigRep Studio G2 unit, and then the MODIX BIG METER 3D printer. They have already set up nine of the lasers and we are installing a ceiling mounted exhaust vent with blast gates for each laser.

Here are some photos, with more to follow.

They may have taken my advice and established user IDs here. I hope so. They are very smart, but they can use some advice from seasoned pros too.

Joe

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[joejones]

More photos ... The D600 PRO is ALIVE! Its ALIVE! Only THREE YEARS after I bought it!

Joe

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[joejones]

The shop extension is also coming along ...

Joe

DECK LEVEL CONCEPT DRAWING.jpg

door frame 1.jpg

[joejones]

So far, they have set up

(3) X-TOOL S1 lasers, two with risers and conveyors
(1) X-TOOL P2 with the riser and conveyor
(2) X-TOOL M1 Ultras with risers
(2) X-TOOL F1 Ultras with conveyors

We still have the Laserpecker 4, and the Laserpecker 2, and the 30 watt Chinese galvo fiber laser, and the Tyvok 48x96 laser, and three more X-TOOL D1 PROs, and the SwiftShape machine, and two X-TOOL DTF printers, and the Langmuir MR1, and about a dozen other machines to set up and get running, to begin bringing in some INCOME to this shop. That is something I haven't seen in four years.

Joe

[joejones]

The X-TOOL P2 with conveyor.

Joe

P2 WITH CONVEYOR.jpg

[dovetaildan]

Wow, making great progress!

One piece of advice from a seasoned pro: swap out the Tee connectors in the exhaust piping for Wyes. For any 90 degree corners, try to find long radius 90's, or use a pair of 45's connected with a short straight section in between, which is what I did for my shop dust collection. I've built my own dust collection including the ducting, the air movement principles also apply to exhaust venting. When putting together a vacuum system, the main goal is to reduce air flow resistance, as much as possible. This is the reason all experts will tell you never to use anything with sharp corners in the piping. They work fine for water, but air does not like to get pulled around corners, so you need to make them as smooth and gentle as you can. Otherwise you will not get nearly as much airflow as you should which means it'll be much harder to exhaust all the smoke.

A friend of mine installed all of his ducting years ago, before I started helping him. He did not know about this either, and broke the rules. Long story short, his system with a similar Hp collector, has maybe 1/3, if he's lucky, of the air volume I get from mine.

[joejones]

Wow, making great progress!

One piece of advice from a seasoned pro: swap out the Tee connectors in the exhaust piping for Wyes.

Thank you. I agree with you on resistance to air flow. I did consider Y joints, but the lasers each have an exhaust fan that pushes air out through a 3" expandable plastic tube. So there is positive air pressure at the T joint, and I am not removing dust or anything heavy. Just smoke. I will see how these T's work, and swap to curved Y connectors if it becomes an issue.

Joe

[joejones]

D600 PRO PROGRESS 90 PERCENT.jpg

[dovetaildan]

Wow, making great progress!

One piece of advice from a seasoned pro: swap out the Tee connectors in the exhaust piping for Wyes.

Thank you. I agree with you on resistance to air flow. I did consider Y joints, but the lasers each have an exhaust fan that pushes air out through a 3" expandable plastic tube. So there is positive air pressure at the T joint, and I am not removing dust or anything heavy. Just smoke. I will see how these T's work, and swap to curved Y connectors if it becomes an issue.

Joe

If you are pushing air, I'd expect you'll have some blowback to the other lasers connected to the same line. I don't know that wyes can guarantee smoke won't blow back, but I'd bet that they'd be better than tees. IMO.

[joejones]

There is an inline duct fan sucking air through the main tube and up from all of the joints. We bought a wireless remote control for it too, so we can turn it on and off from any laser station. Amazon is going to deliver blast gates tomorrow, so we can shut off any laser that does not need to have an airflow to remove smoke.

Joe