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Cutting Heads

A project log for Building Another Laser Cutter

Building a laser cutter around a Coherent GEM-50L laser

jerry-biehlerJerry Biehler 03/06/2021 at 08:460 Comments

I got the main head adapter mounted and installed. Machined it from some PPS plastic I had lying around. I did end up having to machine the nose of the 1.5" lens assy back a but to get the focal point outside the nozzle.

Also got the other head cleaned up and installed. The head was intended for 1064nm (YAG) and the optics were fried so I machined an adapter to hold a ZnSe lens in the old lens cell and bought a window to replace the glass one. I couldn't find a window in the diameter it was designed for so I took a larger window and ground it down. I made a wax chuck and used some mitee-grip wax fixture paper to attach the window to the chuck. Then used my Tsugami carbide tool grinder to ground down the outside diameter. Worked pretty well, some minor chipping but nothing even close to the beam path.

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