TinkerMillians! Thank you to all the people who have helped make the BAL a reality at TinkerMill. We are so excited that TinkerMill has such a powerful tool for prototyping and production. This tool can help start many businesses and bring people’s dreams to life.

What we have accomplished and where we are at today:

• We disconnected the laser and chiller and moved it to TinkerMill.
• Had the machine moved to its approximate position and then rough-leveled the bed.
• Powered up the controller and looked at all the error messages.
• Worked to figure out what those errors meant.
• Worked on designs for how to power the laser.
• We consulted an electrical engineer who gave us a plan we could not afford to implement.
• Talked to many electricians about what to do.
• Monitored the power TinkerMill uses and talked to Longmont Power and determined that we have plenty of power capacity without upgrading the utility transformer.
• Worked with a great electrician who is a member looking at several options to run power to the laser affordably.
• Worked with another great electrician to pull permits and help us wire everything.
• Upgraded the service and added two disconnects. Installed a transformer to run the chiller at 480V. Ran conduit/wire to W and installed two disconnects.
• Talked to many specialty gas companies and arranged to get the special gas needed to run the laser and the assist gases required to make cuts.
• Worked with a Mitsubishi tech for about 2 weeks to get the laser operational.
• Worked on a post processor to take designs and make code the laser understands.
• We cut the coins and many other materials to learn what the laser can do (we have not even scratched the surface of its capability).
• Built walls for blocking sight lines.
• Cleaned the laser and laser bed.
• Worked on certification classes
• We were donated a gantry crane with a winch, and seeking a strong sheet lifter magnet.
• Built more plywood walls to make it safer for others to be in W
• Cut more consumable slats for the bed
• Many little steps between these larger ones are too numerous to remember.

The efforts of so many people accomplished this, and it all began because many of our members and friends had faith that we could make this a reality at TinkerMill and opened their money holders to express their faith. We raised about $30,000 from our members alone. Thank you to everyone who invested to get the 4kW where it is today!

We have overcome considerable hurdles however, we do have some issues that need to be addressed:

• The Nitrogen supply we have is a 230L dewar and can not sustain the amount of assist gas production needed for very long. The length of time varies depending on how thick you are cutting. There is a real danger of outpacing gas production and drawing liquid nitrogen into the laser head, which would explode the lens and create a toxic nightmare cleanup job with other potential damage that would cost us many thousands to fix. To mitigate this danger, we need to put an evaporator between the dewar and the laser, ensuring the liquid nitrogen will convert into gas before getting to the laser.
• Since we have liquid nitrogen in the room and the tiny potential of a large-scale release of that liquid combined with the desire to start sealing the room better for better thermal efficiency, we could have an issue with asphyxiation because a significant release of the Nitrogen would displace the oxygen in the room. This is mitigated by installing an oxygen depletion monitor that would sound an alarm if there is low oxygen in the room, so you can safely leave the space. These devices are not cheap.
• We want to improve our ventilation system and buy a micro bulk for stretch goals.