CADmonkey

I have a cousin who is 100% convinced that the US government or someone is hiding anti-gravity from everyone. Something about wheel manufacturers having a chokehold on the world.

Or sn accident in a tunnel, where there isn't a connection.

Protesting is a threat. The problem is, when you don't get what you want, you're supoosed to foklow through on that threat.

Is the EU bound by any such treaty?

Treaties aside, my issue is that it's always the US that everyone begs money from in these situations. We get shit on constantly for a bunch of reasons, some valid, but when someone comes along and starts making threats the question is always "What will the US do about this?"

Every time something like this pops up, I'm reminded of a line from a silly book I read as a kid:

"When technology advances, the technology to outsmart it advances too."

The people making these regulations don't understand car people. That cute little mandatory device will be defeated, and a workaround will be sold, within the first year. The same thing happened with diesel trucks - EPA mandated emissions controls were built in the sloppiest possible fashion by engine manufacturers, and when these expensive trucks started needing thousands of dollars of work with fewer than 100,000 miles, people started disabling the emissions controls.

The same thing will happen with this regulation. It will be implemented in the cheapest, most failure prone way possible to save Ford or whoever $5 per unit. Drivers will start having problems with their whiz-bang fancy electronic DUI detector bricking their car, and boom, now there's a market for disabling or removing the devices.

Also, just to attract more downvotes - there doesn't seem to be any similar regulation being pushed for motorcycles. Consider a Goldwing instead of an Accord?

Honest question from someone who wants to see Ukraine not be overrun by orcs: Why is the US always the one who has to fund wars? There are some countries in the EU that have given a bit of suport, but the guys who are across the ocean seem to be the ones everyone looks to for money. Aren't you clever enlightened boys and girls from the European Union able to take care of this?

Every single time there is some conflict the idiots in charge here have to get big hard-ons and start getting involved. And we are told to stay out of it. But now Ukraine needs money and for some reason everyone focuses on the US providing it. Same with Israel, why are we the ones who have to prop them up?

I'd really like to know. Everyone hates the US until they want money or weapons. We aren't the ones next door to russia, the EU is. And we aren't anywhere near the middle east, so why are we wasting so much money on israel?

Full disclosure, I don't run CNC lasers for a living anymore. But I did for about ten years.

The laser is generated in a cabinet the size of a large refrigerator. Inside that cabinet is a bunch of stuff, but what we are concerned with today are the tubes and turbine. There are glass tubes with mirrors at each end, and they are filled with a mixture of helium, CO2, and nitrogen. These tubes have an electrode in the side of them where high-voltage DC (around 40k volts) is used to "pump" the laser. Some lasers are RF pumped which is nice, because you don't have to put an electrode through the tube, and they are less prone to leaking. In addition to the laser tubes, you have at least one turbine circulating the laser gas through a heat exchanger, because lasers are only 10%-15% efficient and the extra heat has to go somewhere. There will be a chiller, a machine that makes cold water, which circulates water through the heat exchanger and the mirrors.

Once you have that juice being pumped into the laser gas, the tubes will look light purple or pink. But the beam itself is invisible, in the infrared spectrum. There is typically a small red laser, like a laser pointer, which is aimed through the optics to show where the beam is pointed.

To cut metal, you need a cutting gas in addition to the laser. For carbon steel, low-pressure oxygen is used, around 35-60 torr. (so .04 to .05 bar) To cut the steel, the laser is focused on the top surface of the material, and a nozzle is held about .035" (~0.9mm) above the material. The laser pulses at first, say around 2200 watts and 1/2 Hz, for a second if the material is more than 9mm or so thick. Once the laser has pierced the metal, the beam will switch to either continuous wave (full "on") at 2000-2500 watts, or it will run at a frequency which can be chosen by the operator, and a duty cycle which the operator also chooses. In this case the beam will look like it's "on" but it's really flashing too fast to see. While the laser is running, the aforementioned low pressure oxygen is blown at the hot spot it makes, which burns the steel out of the cut.

If you are cutting aluminum or stainless steel, you need nitrogen instead of oxygen, and it needs to be higher pressure. Like 120 psi/8.2 bar. And you have to use more power, because there isn't oxygen to help with the cutting, and because aluminum is a good heat conductor. So you run at 3600-4000 watts, and this is important, your focal point needs to be about 2/3 of the way through the material. This produces a cut that is shiny and fairly smooth on stainless, and fairly neat and clean on aluminum. A good machine with clean optics can cut steel and stainless steel with no burrs, and aluminum with a slight burr which can be easily knocked off with a file.

A 4kw laser can handle carbon steel 3/4"/19mm thick, and stainless or aluminum 1/2"/13mm thick. Speeds vary, but I could generally get any machine to cut 1/4" carbon steel (6mm) at 90-120 inches per minute, which is 2286-3050 mm per minute.

And now, everywhere I go, I spot bad laser cuts on stuff. Nothing like going to the gym and seeing focus lines in the equipment.

CAN YOU NOT FUCKING READ ENGLISH, PRIVATE? WHY IS THIS ORGANIC COMPOSTABLE SHELL CASING IN THE ALUMINUM BIN? DID YOUR INBRED F150 DRIVING PARENTS FORGET TO TEACH YOU HOW TO RECYCLE? "JUST TOSS IT WHEREVER", RIGHT?

Nope, have to keep it to myself. I know a lot about lasers. People think lasers are cool.

But I know incredibly specific boring things about CO2 lasers that are used for metal cutting. I know enough about lasers to make them boring.

Its also easier to see someone standing in front of that KW than in front of a 2023 Silverado.

Its a balmy 273° today

"When he stops busting in my ass"