The belts have been skipping on the Z table. I checked for loose belts and they were a bit loose so I tightened them up good. Still belt slipping… Turns out the lead screws were so dirty and lubeless they were jamming up. They need a thorough cleaning and fresh grease. The rest of the machine looks pretty dirty too. I redistributed some old grease and it’s working for the time being. Any idea what kind of grease we’ll need to replace it?
And brushes, too, unless fingers are the preferred way to grease the screws.
Here’s a lessons learned from my last time deep cleaning the laser:
- Make sure you have a bunch of either paper towels or cleaning rags. It is very messy
- Use the shop vac (it was by the Bridgeport the last time I saw it) to vaccum out the insides of the cabinet and down in the exhaust intake.
- The grate over the exhaust usually needs to be scrubbed with a nylon brush.
- The mirrors are usually pretty dirty but be very careful when cleaning them. Use a Q-Tip with the proper cleaning fluid. (I forget the name of it but it is something like laser optics)
- The honeycomb bed and the knife bed really need to be pressure washed. Be careful with the honeycomb, the high pressure can bend the honeycomb so don’t spray it at an angle, alway straight on and keep a good distance so the force of the water isn’t as strong.
- Hopefully this is common sense but since it is a list, dry everything before putting everything back together.
- When everything is complete, test the laser and make sure it is working properly.
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I would suggest White Lithium Grease, it’s available at Home Depot and Lowe’s or I can bring some in tonight.
For the optics, reagent grade methanol is one the recommend cleaning fluid or lens wipes from Walmart. I think a clean ( new ) micro fiber cloth and a little water would also work quite well here too. I’d just be very careful unless you know how to realign the laser.
I just got off the phone with FSL about the grease and lead screws. They said use a multipurpose lithium grease (translucent brown appearance). There might already be some at DMS from the automotive committee.
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Check the Black Bins by the laser. I am pretty sure there is some in those.
I was thinking about that also. Apparently White Lithium grease is thinner than the general purpose grade. Some people believe it wont last as long. I don’t know either way.
I watched Luke greasing the screws last night, and noted that the grease appeared a bit thin and runny in consistency, like a lightweight axle grease.
I cleaned all the mirrors (except the Output Coupler) a few weeks ago, using the 99% pure alcohol and cotton swabs. Actually, two of us cleaned the laser fairly well from above the double doors. We didn’t do anything behind the double doors, as we didn’t know they were held shut just with magnets, and we didn’t clean the honeycomb bed very well. Otherwise, we wiped it down pretty well and vacuumed out the catch tray.
There was lithium grease in the bins. I put some on the threads at the top of the nuts and ran the table up and down a couple of times to spread it. This smoothed out general motion, but the belt was slipping (and the table stopping) at a single point fairly high up. Upon investigation, I found that there was a small piece of acrylic in the right front thread, which was jamming the nut. That is now taken care of and the table has full motion, but is out of level (right side is about 1/4" low. While I know in theory how to fix this, it seems like something for a trained fixer.
This issue was resolved, so I am closing this topic now. New replies are no longer allowed.
Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help!