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: Expanded Clutter Space

    The OMTech laser manual specifically warns against allowing clutter to accumulate atop the cabinet:

    It is highly recommended to have an extra work table nearby in order to avoid placing objects on or directly adjacent to the machine, which could become a fire or laser hazard.

    OMTech USB570c Cabinet Laser Engraver User Manual

    The Basement Shop lacks the floor space for their recommended “extra work table”, so the laser cabinet now sports a pair of wings:

    OMTech Laser - side shelf - end view
    OMTech Laser – side shelf – end view

    They’re a pair of those battered maple shelves, cut to fit the length of the cabinet:

    OMTech Laser - side shelf
    OMTech Laser – side shelf

    They’re a convenient 9 inches wide, just right for general clutter. That stubby screwdriver encroaching on the lid shows I haven’t been entirely successful.

    Each white shelf bracket has three self-tapping machine screws driven into the wood and a single 4 mm SHCS through a hole drilled into the cabinet with a nyloc nut & washer on the inside. If I understand the somewhat abbreviated instruction sticker correctly, I installed them upside-down in order to put the longer end under the wood where it would do the most good; they’re entirely rigid enough for the purpose.

    Some of the same indoor urethane finish I slobbered on the gate signs tidied the sawed ends.