Is the Y galvo mirror supposed to be transparent?

Hi everyone. I just cleaned my galvo mirrors for the first time and noticed my X mirror and my Y mirror look very different. While the X galvo mirror looks like an opaque mirror as I expected, the Y galvo mirror is rather transparent and has a yellow tint and while it is quite shiny it isn’t mirrored. After cleaning all my mirrors my prints are still getting worse, and I was wondering if I just have a bad Y galvo mirror that is progressively degrading because it is not actually mirrored. Anyway I know a lot of other people on the forums have cleaned their galvos, and I wanted to know if both of your galvo mirrors are actually mirrored or not.

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They should look exactly the same, sounds like you found an issue.

@RocusHalbasch I hate to ask since you’re one of the most informed users here, you even tracked down the galvos for the original form1 - however, are you sure you’re looking at the reflective side of the mirror? the back non-reflecting side is yellowishly transparently as you describe …

Well if so the problems this seems to be causing is ragging, and very rough surface finish on some areas of my prints. Also the problems seem to be progressively worsening with each print. I’ll keep investigating. This is really disappointing as it’s my 4th printer and I just got it, I noticed problems on my third print.

Yes Kevin I am sure I’m looking at the correct side, but it’s good you asked just in case. To be clear the back is transparent, yellow, and dull. and the front is transparent, yellow, and shiny.

Did you happen to take any photos you can share with us? It would be interesting to see this.

Yes photos would be good - also of the laser spot - any sign of “rabbit ears”? very interesting that you note progressively worse prints…

Also - is that your 4th printer overall including the Kickstarter Form1? or is that 4 Form1+'s (I hope not…)

The progressive part would probably be the laser.
When this laser got so bad it wouldn’t print, I designed a light “Choke” to install in front of the laser. It took my laser spot test from sucky to awesome. With it’s help, I have been printing like crazy since placing my order for the replacement Form1+. And the prints are perfect.

Hi Josh,

Do you want to share your design with the rest of us? :wink:

Well I do, but I probably shouldn’t make it public.

If I have time I’ll take some pictures tonight and do a laser spot test. If not I’m going to be out of town for a week so it’ll have to wait. As for the printer it’s my fourth overall, specifically it’s my first Form1+. I just got it too. The problem started on my third print. And I finally got one that wasn’t crooked… :frowning:

Ok everyone here they are. First the laser spot test I definitely have a flare.

Then for the galvo mirror it was hard to find a way to capture this, what I ended up doing was putting the hex wrench behind the Y galvo mirror and taking a picture of the “mirrored” side.

My X galvo is opaque from both sides and mirrored on one, and if I put the wrench right behind it I can’t see the wrench at all.

I don’t think that’s normal. Almost like they forgot to put the reflective coating on it!

I think it’s just really really thin. It is very reflective when light hits it from the front like it’s mirrored but the mirror is so thin you can see through it.

One other thing that really surprises me is that it got a couple good prints like this, and it still prints the rook, it just has rough and raggy spots on two sides, but other areas come out cleanly.

So the areas that are rough when I print the rook also correspond with the side oriented in the direction of the flare so it is definitely the problem. I don’t know if the flare is a bad laser or bad galvo mirror.

The way to know is to do a laser spot test with the laser out of the printer. When I did mine with the laser out of the printer it looked exactly the same. So the “Dust Bunny” theory is shit.

Remember that a mirror does not have to be reflective at ALL the visible wavelengths to function.
Just the laser wavelength.

Looky here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichroic_filter

Edit for Ante: What’s your point? It’s clearly fails quality control.

Re-read what i wrote.