Have I messed up my lens already?

[Jiten Patel]

So been using the speedy 400 for the odd job and lots of testing. I cut a job of some small wood pieces (veneer MDF 6mm) and cleaned the lens before the job. After the job, I cleaned the lens and have this spot on it which won't come off. Now I know some people have mentioned using vinegar and other things to get it off, but don't really want to use something that will further mess it up. How do I clean this thing up?

Thanks

Jitphoto.jpg

[Dan Hintz]

It looks salvageable, but you may have ot putt a little elbow grease into cleaning it. Any darker and I would say the lens is damaged. Clean using your normal method, but this time you won't get away with wet-and-drag, you'll need to do some rubbing with the Q-tip.

[Scott Shepherd]

I agree, I think you are fine. Could be damaged, but I've done a lot worse myself and it's come clean. Make sure you don't run the machine with the nose cone on and the air off. That'll cause what you see there. Not saying that's what caused it, but it will cause a serious issue. Air On- Nose Cone On. Air Off- Nose Cone Off is my rule.

[Jiten Patel]

What would cause that after only an hour and half of cutting?

[Dan Hintz]

It's an avalanche process... once a small amount of residue sticks to the lens, that area heats up, which allows more residue to stick, and so on.

[Jiten Patel]

Thanks guys. Nose cone was on, air was on....so not sure where I went wrong. Is it a point of just scrubbing hard for ages?

[Dan Hintz]

Think of it in terms of many many light strokes rather than a few hard ones. You want to soften that residue without scratching the lens.

[Jiten Patel]

Got it, thanks guys...really appreciate it. Will post up when I get it off!

[matthew knott]

I would avoid scribing hard as the AR coatings are fragile, I have used distilled vinegar ( the clear stuff) to great effect on dirty optics ! There's a company near me in Stevenage that sell new optics and cleaning kits, they make the highest grade optics and are pretty helpful if you need optic advise (umicore)
hope you can recover it Jit, how are you getting on with new machine?

[Jiten Patel]

Guys you are brilliant! All done - just some elbow grease needed. I was worried about scrubbing too long just in case I scratched it as my galvo would never get build up like this as it is too far away from the bed. Thanks again Clean.jpg

[Scott Shepherd]

What would cause that after only an hour and half of cutting?

Insufficient air flow on the exhaust. I had that for a while and I could not keep my lens clean. Upgraded my exhaust for it and it immediately resolved the issue.

[Jon Colley]

If you haven't done so already, I would pop off the bottom cover at the back of the unit and make sure the air assist valve is opened up. If it was already wide open, stick with the nose cone that has the smaller opening for higher air assist pressure.

[Jiten Patel]

Right, so I will turn up my air assist. The exhaust is a Trotec atmos, so should have sufficient air flow should it now? The thing is built for these machines?

Matt, getting on great. Love playing with it....far more complicated than the galvo's that's for sure. So many things to think about before running a job, but I guess it will become second nature with practice. Got hundreds of product ideas, just trying to source everything I need to make and package them and we are away. The second business should be launching Jan 14 if all goes well. Lots of R&D to do...which means lots of £££!

Jon, thanks for the advise....not sure what you mean by opening the back of the unit and the air assist valve....do you have pics?

[Tony saunders]

Mmmn - interesting thread!
I just took delivery of my new Speedy 400 yesterday. I'd had a 300 since the beginning of the year on loan and cut LOADS of MDF (which is messy!)

Anyway, I used the vacuum bed with the 400 - first use - engraving (actually light vector cut lines) on 2mm MDF - job ran for 100mins. it was only when it was trying to run the 30 second cutout that I noticed it wasn't cutting well at all...

The 2.0" lens is absolutely ruined!!!...

I noticed that the air assist was off in Job Control, but to be honest after many many similar omissions with the 300 - nothing like this has happened before! It looks like a new lens - I've tried cleaning / soaking etc...

Bit of a blow after only a couple of hours use

I'm using an out-to-air kit - 1.5KW blower with a 150mm pipe and a 'T' off to the vacuum port on the machine... (all Trotec Supplied)

Gutted!!!!

[Dan Hintz]

At least it;s a relatively inexpensive resolution, Tony... imagine if you had let a fire run unabated in the machine. That would have hurt a bit more.