Comgrow Z1 Laser Focusing Mount 10W

cults3d

The OEM focus adjustment for the Comgrow Comgo Z1 diode laser seemed fiddly and low quality for a system claiming to have the smallest focused dot on the market. It uses 2 AL channels held in place by 4 thumbscrews. Adjustments using their design require placing a 2mm shim between the head and the material then snugging the thumbscrews. I never managed to do this w/o the head getting torqued somewhat and pinching the shim. Another issue is cutting materials near the thickness capacity of the laser. You need to adjust the focus below the surface for a good result. With only 2mm of space under the shield it's difficult or impossible to cut 5+mm thick materials w/o removing it. I'm also not convinced that the shield isn't too restrictive of the airflow from the 40mm cooling fan. The shield forces the air to exit a small opening at the bottom of the shield (again, just 2mm above the part). Maybe Comgrow wanted it to act like a form of air assist? The X axis extrusion allows for about 4" of clearance (100mm from wasteboard to the X rail) and my design comes close to this as well. I settled on linear rods, drylin bearings and a leadscrew for simplicity, rigidity and compactness. The rods are 8x150mm. The leadscrew is also 150mm. The design uses 608 bearings to constrain the leadscrew. Recommended print orientation is with the largest flat surface on your print surface. The gantry and laser mounts might print cleaner standing up, but layer orientation will make it weaker. Update: Added a gantry mount option that just uses a clearance hole for the leadscrew instead of 608 bearings. The rods hold everything in alignment so there's not really a need for tight constraint of the screw except in the Z direction. I don't recommend using PETG as it seems to be too flexible and the laser movement would induce oscillations. All the screw hardware is M3 except for the Drylin clamp which is M4. Threads are modeled into the parts. I added a slight clearance for the bearings and rods, but still needed to post-process with a bit to get a snug fit. Better to be a tad too small than loose in this mount. Don't forget to move the Y axis endstop. This design is a few mm thicker than the OEM. Hardware I used.... Rods: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XP4H2K5 Drylin: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076NWK2NK Leadscrew: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZC68JYV