Lite 300*200 X-Y Stages for DIY CO2 Laser

[andyslater]

Work area is about 200mm x 300mm.

Okay, now you've got me worried again. On your site it says that the "working area" is 300x220 and on your eBay listing it says 320x240. I appreciate that it will ultimately depend on how the lens head is mounted, but if you've never actually built on this stage yourself, surely there must be somebody here who has used it, and perhaps reported back to you, that has been able to state an actual working area?

I observe that you sell a few different heads. I don't mind if I need to buy a new head as well but I do want to be able to machine a full 297x210 A4 sheet.

Has anybody here used this stage and if so what's your maximum working area?

[Tech_Marco]

I have used similiar XY stages from different manufacturer. Even K40 more or less the size is not exact. Plus, with different way of how the limit swtiches installed, and with or without the plastic tube trimmed, it make a lot of difference.

The 9"x14" is the max area a honeycomb can fit in. But it is not true work area. The laser head reachable area is 9"x13". But is it a true work area, it may or may not depends on your file setting like the speed. If you're driving it by G-Code Mach3, you can most likely to use all work area. But with DSP, there is acceleration involved. If you're trying to use the maringal space, you may get "Beyond size error". YOu said that you want to use A4, my question is do you have to use all area on A4? of course the 3020 can fit in a A4 size. But can you print full A4 (8.3"x 11.7" or 210mm x 297.18mm), I don't know as I never tried it. I don't want to be hold up by this responsibiity, you make the call


Marco

[andyslater]

I understand your reluctance to commit on this; in your shoes, I wouldn't want to given the various factors involved.

You said that you want to use A4, my question is do you have to use all area on A4?

It's the whole reason I want to change my xy stage.

With my current setup I can load an A4 sheet but can only use 210x250. What I usually do is to arrange parts into an area measuring 210x148 (half the A4), run the machine, then take the sheet out and turn it around to use the other half. It would be sooooo much more convenient if I could cut the whole sheet in one operation and would save on wasted material in the middle.

Having said that, I never cut right to the edge of a sheet. So if the new stage will only let me cut 200 of the 210 width, that will be acceptable so long as it's the central 200mm i.e. that the part that couldn't be cut is a 5mm margin on each side.

I'm not expecting you to be able to give me an answer on that Marco, but I'd still like to hear from anybody else who is using this stage and can tell me what area they can cut.