The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • OMTech 60 W Laser: Laser Power Indicator

    Although the OMTech laser controls the laser power supply with a key-lock switch, there’s little visible difference between the OFF and ON positions. Having occasionally mistaken it in both directions, this seemed like a useful addition:

    Laser Power Lock Indicator - installed
    Laser Power Lock Indicator – installed

    The strip of black duct tape below the lock muffles the rattle of the triangle hatch key against the metal cabinet.

    Two snippets of foam tape hold the knob to the lock cylinder, making an admittedly tenuous connection, but the knob fits around the outside of the switch housing with minimal clearance and doesn’t shouldn’t suffer any torque or pulling, so it might work.

    The solid model looks about like you’d expect:

    Laser Power Lock Indicator - solid model
    Laser Power Lock Indicator – solid model

    Unfortunately, it has no good orientation for printing, so I let PrusaSlicer generate support material inside the knob:

    Laser Power Lock Indicator - Support structures
    Laser Power Lock Indicator – Support structures

    Suffice it to say: removing all that plastic did not go well.

    I eventually grabbed the knob in the lathe and bored the interior out to its more-or-less proper dimensions, figuring nobody would ever notice the carnage, and it worked reasonably well. In the unlikely event I need another pointer, I’ll add a support spider to hold up the interior with minimal contact and less plastic.

    Yeah, the laser really needs a stack light showing its condition and safety status …

    The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

    // Indicator for OMTech laser power lock
    // Ed Nisley KE4ZNU 2022-04-09
    KnobOD = 35.0;
    KnobHeight = 22.0;
    KnobTaper = 4.0;
    PointerLength = 45.0;
    PointerThick = 3.0;
    TipOD = 2.0;
    /* [Hidden] */
    //——
    Protrusion = 0.1; // make holes end cleanly
    HoleWindage = 0.2;
    module PolyCyl(Dia,Height,ForceSides=0) { // based on nophead's polyholes
    Sides = (ForceSides != 0) ? ForceSides : (ceil(Dia) + 2);
    FixDia = Dia / cos(180/Sides);
    cylinder(d=(FixDia + HoleWindage),h=Height,$fn=Sides);
    }
    //———-
    // Create part
    // Plenty of magic numbers from actual measurements
    module Pointer() {
    difference() {
    union() {
    linear_extrude(height=PointerThick)
    hull() {
    circle(d=KnobOD,$fn=24);
    translate([PointerLength – TipOD/2,0])
    circle(d=TipOD,$fn=12);
    }
    cylinder(d=KnobOD,h=KnobHeight – KnobTaper,$fn=24);
    translate([0,0,KnobHeight – KnobTaper – Protrusion])
    cylinder(d1=KnobOD,d2=KnobOD – 3.0,h=KnobTaper + Protrusion,$fn=24);
    }
    translate([0,0,-Protrusion]) {
    PolyCyl(29.0,14.0 + Protrusion,24);
    PolyCyl(24.0,14.0 + 5.0 + Protrusion,24); // leaves clearance under pointer
    }
    translate([0,0,KnobHeight])
    cube([12.0,2.0,2*KnobHeight],center=true);
    }
    }
    //———-
    // Build it
    Pointer();

    And doodles giving the dimensions of the key lock, not all of which can be true at the same time:

    Laser Power Lock Indicator - Dimension Doodles
    Laser Power Lock Indicator – Dimension Doodles