Tarkin looking good on camera

Space Teams LASERS
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While making some cuts on Tarkin last night, I did some tests with recording video. This one turned out particularly well:

I think this one turned out so well largely because it was so zoomed-in. With larger shots, I had a lot of issues with the camera auto-focusing on the dirt and scratches on the window rather than the cutting surface. This is fixable by disabling auto-focus but I would also love to learn how to clean the window.

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I’ve had the same wish, but after thinking it through decided against it. The window is acrylic, and the laser produces an incredible amount of super fine particulate (added benefit of being sticky too if it’s from wood or plastic of any kind) that covers it in short order. It also gets scratched if someone looks at it wrong, lol

Like most industrial machines, the windows are to ensure the machine is running properly, and safety is prioritized over clarity. It would require labor intensive polishing and regular replacement of the windows if we prioritized clarity- a cost that both monetarily and labor wise I have little interest in adding to the space as an official task.

If you are interested in doing it however, I won’t stop you! I do warn you that it likely will be dirty again much sooner than you’d be satisfied with. If you’d like help doing so give me a ping and I’ll swing by!

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Of course! I have no expectation that this would be a general task for the space. But I’d love to be able to clean it myself, and since it’s an important safety mechanism I want to be sure I’m not damaging it in any way in the process. Will you be around the space any time tonight, this weekend, or Monday?

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It only takes water, a rag, paper towel or sponge to clean the soot or smoky residue. You may have to do it several times to get all the film. As mentioned above, all it takes is one run that produces a lot of smoke to ruin your cleaning.

As far as polishing the scratches, is labor intensive, there are plenty of ways and polishing compounds to do it. Here is one sample Amazon.com .

Some of the current scratches are too deep for the above system. Just a reminder, open flames are not allowed outside designated areas in Asmbly. But if you want to try the flaming method, you can take out the windows and do it outside. It would require prior authorization and coordination.

Sadly, at the end of the day, all it takes is someone to slide something across the top of the machine to ruin your work (reason of why is not even considered).

Is nice to hear that someone is wanting to clean equipment tough.

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Ultimately we’re waiting on Danny’s OK.

If I haven’t heard back from him after a week I’ll assume it to be a yes.

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I don’t think you want to try to polish that. You should be able to wash it with water or windex. Most laser smoke is very water-soluble, but there can be a lot.

Polishing compounds- seriously no. Not unless you went so far as to take the windows off the machine. That is a gritty paste by design and the risk of bits of that landing on rails or optics is way too high, esp since it sounds unlikely you’d really get it much clearer with such an effort. It could easily leave it more fogged than when you started.

Flame polish is almost certain to bubble up an acrylic window. But I think they’re polycarbonate, which cannot be flame-polished. Polycarbonate would brown, bubble, and crack. Ruining the window is pretty much guaranteed, so nope on that idea.

Some things to seriously think about:

  1. keep water or windex overspray off the optics. ESPECIALLY that collimator back in the left rear of the bed. That big ~2” yellow lens. The mirror on the left of the gantry- that moves with the gantry- is a thing, but in the worst case the mirror is cheap to replace. The collimator would be a very big deal. Has to be custom-made with significant lead time. Don’t try to clean the collimator with windex or paper towels or whatever, either. That requires a fine touch with swabs and lens cleaner. It also has 5 precision adjustments on it that require calibration so it shouldn’t be touched at all.
  2. I’m not sure on whether the windows are acrylic or polycarbonate now, but I think polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is not as rigid as acrylic. That makes it much harder to break, but that also reduces its hardness- it is easier to scuff up. Aggressive cleaning pressure while there’s smoke on it, or even just the abrasiveness of paper towels (probably not) could create scuffing.

If it really needed polishing to begin with, why wouldn’t we just get new polycarbonate windows? They’re not that expensive or hard to cut to shape.

If we need to do a photoshoot, I can make an exception and unlock the door interlocks so it can operate with the lid up. CO2 laser doesn’t do significant reflections at all unless it’s on polished metal (the honeycomb isn’t going to reflect, not just because it’s blackened but it’s on edge, not perpendicular). Also any glasses including shop safety glasses are opaque to the CO2 wavelength and thus effective eye protection. The bigger issues are how bad the smoke is going to be (acrylic is particularly acrid. Fumes escaping from anything is pretty low when cutting all the way through, and crazy high when not), and everyone also needs to be aware that the beam is traveling parallel along the gantry to that hole in the left side of the head. So, don’t reach in there.

It’s not something done without supervision, and for a good reason. But yes it can be done for photoshoots.

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