On Mon, 20 Oct 2014 10:37:32 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Sun, 19 Oct 2014 23:12:05 -0400, "Carl Ijames"
wrote:

Well, they used one or two beam steering mirrors to get the beam to the
focusing lens, and back then they already had the table system on the turret
punch presses that they could just use, and they probably didn't think they
could keep a mirror system in alignment over that large a range of motion,
plus it would take at least one more mirror so even more losses and
alignment issues. Nowadays they use fiber bundles to handle the alignment
issue.
-----
Regards,
Carl Ijames
"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
. ..

On Sun, 19 Oct 2014 20:03:29 -0400, "Carl Ijames"
wrote:

The sparks travel that fast, yeah, that's what I meant :-). Guess I
shouldn't post while watching football. The Giants just finished losing to
Dallas, and I'm not doing any math, so maybe I'm safe from typos and mental
misteaks (:-)) this time. We have a 1200 W Amada CO2 laser at work, but it
dates from the 80's and moves the sheet, not the laser head, so it isn't
nearly as impressive as current tech.

Perhaps not, but 1200w is nothing to scoff at. I wonder why they
moved the work instead of the cutter, though...


Ayup. the Laser isnt this box riding on the top of the X/Z mechanism.
Its a rather large (or was) a rather large assembly of tubes at least
3 FEET long enclosed in a shield and bolted down to a coolant/Chiller
system. It remains in place while a series of mirrors are turned
within the X/Z arms and the beam is fed through a "head"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cutting

Its not like bolting this supersize lazer pointer on the moving parts
Grin

Remember how I jumped at the chance to own the laser you said you had?
Well, until you told me it was a pointer, not a burner. Aw, shucks!

More bad news:
Remember that sore throat I had on Oct 4th which turned into a pair of
sinus infections? It came back again last night, 3 days after the
completion of a course of azithromycin, and I'm down again.

--
Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
-- Margaret Lee Runbeck