Great vid, great inspiration. Always dangerous to watch diy tool video’s because I always try and figure if I could do it myself., especially Fibre lasers. And your series keeps amazing me.
Lightburn softare works with Ruida controllers, potentially that can make use of the U axis, then the workflow for square tube could be laser/rotate/laser repeat.
We use lightburn, works great for these things. Cost a pretty penny, but time is also expensive. (i have an diy co2 laser build based on yt Further Fabrication)
I had luck getting a dedicated U axis to work on my co2 laser with a Ruida RDC6445S controller and Lightburn by downgrading the version of the controller, and changing my workflow a bit. Your “RDC” should be version V26.01.13. If it is V26.01.13 it will not work, you can downgrade using RDworks. Once it's on the right version, you have to send the file to the controller, and then start the job using the controller rather than starting it from the computer. There are some links to controller firmware out there, but I think linking them here will cause the comment to get removed.
Like it, but swapping the X, it becomes mathematical. It's better with a new axis. You are showing the real stuff now. You told me 2 days ago about the rotary. Cheers.
Cant wait on the mill conversion video (the red one you see at the end) and are those TTS toolholders 😮 well, cant wait, I also wuold buy the masso, if something doesnt work on the fluid nc board im setting up right now 🤷♂️ well se
You may be able to project your pattern from the square tube onto a cylinder in 360 or blender, then export and cut the cylindrical pattern (which is what the controller thinks it is doing) as long as the height control follows properly this might work :)
For my tube cutter I ended up writing my own software for solidworks that exports the tubes correctly to allow easy cutting. Commercial options for Gcode creation was $20k+
Light burn works great with ruida. I use it for a 150w co2 gantry laser and a 30w galvo co2. Light burn for the win. I tossed RD works same day I go the laser and never looked back
If you have a cnc controller you could just do the cam in fusion. They have taken full 4 axis out of the regular edition though and moved it into a subscription. Might still work with your unrolling trick though. You can do the rotations on a 4th axis with 3 axis setups still. Just an option to consider
Using the rotary axis on the X axis is useful for cutting round tubing, but how will you then cut on a square tubing? That will need the X axis linear motion as well.
After a year using it what is the cost of running the fiber. Are you using gases or just oxygen? My concern is the high cost of using it due to gases for best cutting results.
Travis, what mount do you use for your masso controller? I'm not happy with the monitor arm I am using right now. Thanks for all the great content as well!
It's probably possibly, but in no way ideal, you'd have to come up with a custom solution for THC and multi-stage piercing and I'm not sure what you'd do for software...maye create a custom postprocessor for Fusion360 to generate the proper gcode? I was going to try it, but at least for flat sheet cutting, there are cheaper and better fiber laser specific controllers available.
Very cool!! Have you tried engraving with your laser? I know it's meant for cutting, but just wondering if it could do engraving with low enough power settings? I'm thinking to build one similar to yours but I want something that will be and do cut as well as engrave stainless and other metals
Yes, I’ve tried it….it’s just ok results. For better results you’d need a controller that supports cypcut software…from what I understand it has power curve settings that can lower the power as it accelerates/decelerates, making a more even engraving. The Ruida controller doesn’t have that functionality.
Maybe Gary Ramsey Laser Press Brake because he sells systems with tube cutter add-ons and I am sure he will have and idea about square tubes and controllers.
