09-09-2025 — Square day

Howdy all. As I was typing the date for this entry, I noticed it was 3x3 = 9 and 3x3 = 9 and 45x45 = 2025. Hmm, Now I’m going to have to think about how often dates like that happen. Oh well. Weather, no change.

A few blog entries back, I mentioned I was getting a Fiber Optic USB cable for connecting the laser to the laptop. Well, I finally tried it. Big failure. The computer does not notice the laser when I plug that cable into the laser, and into either the USB Hub (I’ve been using), or even when into the laptop directly. I don’t know if it is this cable only, or the whole concept.

The black one is the fiber optic cable. The red is the 20 foot original cable. I ordered a 25 and a 26 foot “normal” cable, and am hoping one or the other can work, and allow enough slack that it can drape nicely.

I did add those screw hooks you see up high, to keep the cables from choking me as I go through the door, or from them laying on the floor, waiting for Roomba to chew them up. I also used some rug tape to hold down the brown cable tunnels on the floor in the hall. I don’t need real tripping hazards. I can already trip over things that aren’t there.

So, this morning I finally uninstalled LaserGRBL — what a piece of GaRBage Like software. And connected the laser via LightBurn. So much easier to use and understand. Within 3 minutes, I was moving the laser focusing head via the software. Oh, I did manually focus the laser in the machine, and did a spot burn from the laser machine to confirm it hit the wood.

A couple of moments later, I created a rectangle and some text in LightBurn.

The text was set to engrave, and the rectangle to cut. A few button presses later, flames were flowing in the laser machine’s box. And all the fumes being sucked into the fume extractor, while the flame was being controlled by the “air assist”. If you look directly above the “h” in shot, you can see that first laser dot burn.

So, I have successfully installed and tested my first CO2 laser. Yippee for mee.

While I was upstairs, I started a couple 3D prints for Xmas.

I doubt you can tell what these might be.

And you certainly don’t know what is being created here.

Looks like, for me, it is time to Enjoy Life