Slashdot Mirror
More on the Versalaser
A random reader writes: "In an article at PCMag.com, Bill Machrone describes what has to be the coolest printer ever (or close to it). A company called Versalaser sells a printer which uses a laser and can cut/write on everything from paper to wood to stone. Available in 25-50 Watt models, starting at only US$10,000. Great for the geek who must have it all! Unfortunately, Windows drivers only at this time." We mentioned this wondertool before.
So this is a self admitted repost, huh?! You doubly lazy slashdot editors.
Th
A company called Versalaser sells a printer which uses a laser and can cut/write on everything from paper to wood to stone
Wouldn't it be better to employ someone who can write/work with wood/chisel stone? Even if you employed the person many many times it still wouldn't cost the $10000 needed for this printer, I really don't understand why the price is that high either...
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
I'm heartbroken here.
You go getting my hopes up like, and then you don't even show me some pictures????
*faints*
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
...and start selling stone-cut garden statuettes of Tux?
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
Tatoo Myself in the comfort of my own home
with a freakin' shark?
Far cooler are glass (or is it crystal?) laser printers. I haven't seen them, but a coworker was telling me about seeing them at a big mall somewhere in Sacremento. You get modeled by a scan, then it curs your image into a block of glass -- in 3d.
humm save me a lot of funds...
I'm told you are what you eat, does that mean I can be you by tomorrow with some A1?
This could quite possibly be the most painful way to get that tattoo you have always wanted. Comes with free prescription of percacet.
Invite hot women over who want tattoos. Have your way with them as you design the tattoo. Then stick their arm in the printer.
Fight Spammers!
I want sharks with fricken Veralaser printers on their heads!!
Throw me a bone here, people!
-Cyc
/.'s 10 Millionth
I suspect God may have had one of these for the tablets for Moses...
"Customers have also come up with some notably bad ideas, including engraving plastic butane lighters."
You know, it's amazing we've lasted this long.
Have your own tattoo parlor, right on your computer desktop!
(Caution: be sure to have plenty of gauze and ice, a phone, and be in a place where the EMTs can find you easily...)
Karma: NaN
They have to fix a mac driver for this. With xmas coming up, i could really annoy all my friends by making them nasty wooden door signs written in Gill Sans Ultra Bold.
Now *that's* the stuff.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
I could open a "tribal" body modification shop and make lots o cash.
We mentioned this wondertool before.
At least now they are giving us fair warning of a RP!
Somebody should try to get the videos and get a bittorrent started. E-mail me if you can get the files, since I have a .edu and would be willing to seed (I couldn't get the videos before Slashdotting occurred).
The built-in 25W laser is powerful enough to burn quickly through paper and cardboard without leaving so much as a charred edge.
Coming soon to a store near you... the VersaTattoo! It burns the most intricate designs on your skin with hardly any charred flesh! Warning: some swelling, blistering, or permanent scarring may result. Hold away from eyes. Use at own risk.
I think I'd like to have one ... but not with my son in the house - he be testing whether it could print on "dog".
you can see a picture of it here, the link provided above. And a techTV spot of it.
-Seriv
The bold print giveth, and the fine print taketh away
I can finally design and "print" my own tattoos without those damn temporary papers!
Breakthrough I say... BREAKTHROUGH!
-KL
Find the dyslexic fwibble before midnight!
It's not slashdotted, it's PC magazine's website. Stop whoring.
Disaster (serves 6)
1 tbsp. of laser that can cut anything
2 qts. of Windows drivers
Mix ingredients gently. Bake for 5 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Serve immediately.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
I have yet to meet the geek that doesn't drool over one of these things, they are very cool.
If you watched the TechTV episode, there is not much to these puppys. They could easily be $1000 dollar items. It is clear that the price point is due to relative lack of volume, but the assembly and manufacture of these things could be done very cheaply. I suspect after HP or some other large scale manufacturer provides an offer that they can't refuse that these suckers will be available for the general marketplace.
I'm getting one so I can print my agendas in stone tablets.
Check to see if Amazon or SCO have patented writing on stone tablets, before you buy!
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Find the exploding fwibble before midnight!
That makes me wonder...
Could you send a flat sheet of ice through and get a nice relief sculpture out of it?
Imagine being able to cater ice reliefs of dinner speakers, etc. by simply printing graphics out of photoshop.
Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
Don't you know how expensive a good "frickin laser" is? Ask Dr. Evil.
Feature #8: The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies.
Finding loopholes in Godwin's law since 2001
Based on all of the Tattoo comments in the thread...
How many Tattoos do you currently have?
[] 0 (and I don't want any)
[] 0 (I can't decide on the design)
[] 1
[] 2-5
[] 6-10
[] 11-20
[] You can't see bare skin any longer
[] CowboyNeal tried to doodle on me once
I guess in addition to a wide selection of stationery Kinkos will have to keep a nice pile of boulders from which to cut slabs for printing.
...of the $9000/unit to cover the liability insurance payments. -Zeke
Not quite a matter compiler. Looks like it's just a fancy nameplate engraver.
make a weapon out of it.
If it will burn through 1/4" wood it might be able to do some damage at under a hundred feet, or perhaps blind someone out to 500 feet or more. ???
Now Chairface Chippendale can finally finish writing his name on the moon!
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Why am I reminded of the Versalife corporation? What videogame were they in?
. . . will only cost $1000, and get bundled for free with new systems, but you'll need to buy $300 fusion plasma cartridges for them every few months that are designed to go critical and explode if you try to refill them.
For now, I'll stick with an X-Acto knife and that wood burning kit I got at a garage sale.
Stefan
For about $20,000 dollars more you can get a used 1kW industrial laser. It'll be powerful enough to cut 3/8" steel plate if you slow the feed rate down. Of course it takes up more room. And the operating costs will be a tad higher. But, it is just the thing for disposing of unwanted British spies.
http://www.franeklaser.com/usedlasers.htm
Who let a member of marketing become a member of /.?
I've actually operated one of these before.....I'm not sure it's by the same company, but there's a little fabrication shop about a 5 minute walk from my office that we frequently service their computers for. They use corel draw, and this laser. It's a nifty process to watch, maybe the next time I get over there, I'll set up a video camera and record it....I've seen it make everything..
(Wal/China-Mart) alread has that under patent.
Attach one of these printers to your shark's head and you'll be prepared to take over the world!
A Use Case for this thing:
p g
My summer hobby is model rocketry.
I usually build my own. Specifically, I recreate old, old models from the early 1960s:
http://www.io.com/~stefanj/posed_with_hustler.j
http://www.io.com/~stefanj/017_14A.JPG (big)
Usually I cut my own fins, and less often turn my own nose cones, but if I'm in a hurry or need exact work there's a great outfit that uses a laser cutter to create these pieces.
You send them a file in an accepted rocketry-CAD format, select a material, and use a spreadsheet to figure out the prices. They can cut cardstock, balsa, thin plywood, and special laminates.
The burning effect is really interesting. The centers of the fins and rings and such are creamy white wood, the edges a dark chocolate brown with an interesting ridged texture.
Stefan
I don't disagree; however, isn't much of the cost of cars to recoup R&D and advertising costs? I had also read ago (a couple months, maybe?) about great new advances in solid-state laser technology: I imagine that the cost of the lasers would be expensive, but no so expensive as to warrant the high price.
You're right, though: it is a new product, and given time and competition, the price will drop drastically in the next few years. After R&D is paid off, the rest can go to profit. However, I doubt that this kind of tool will see more widespread use until someone comes up with a new killer application for it.
-but here's hoping!
I'm going to get one, just so I can use it to customize a Versalaser case!
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
Uh... laser cutters have been around for years (more like decades) and are limited in what they can cut. Waterjet cutters on the other hand can cut metal (titanium even!).
Check here (MIT) for a few resources on laser cutting and the feasibility of producing laser cutters at a cost comparable to injet printers.
Not a big deal... just know that it's not the first laser cutter.
I actually got a sample piece of laser cut wood form them a while back, and I must say it looks pretty damn good... I was hoping the sample would have my name on it or something but it just shows the Versalaser logo on it and comes with a whole bunch of lit. with different colors you can get it in :p
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
Yes, but do these support shark-head attachments? I need them badly, and soon!
-Dr. Evil Henchman
The precursor to the nano-forge.
--
Power to the Peaceful
These laser cutters are fairly common in the fashion industry, they've used them for quite a few years. They use them to cut fabric for later assembly. I used to live in a loft right across from a fabric cutter shop, I could watch out my window and into their shop floor and see them at work. They have long tables where they lay out bolts of cloth, about a hundred layers folded over each other, then an arm holding the laser moves over it by computer control and cuts through all the layers. It sort of looks like an old-style pen plotter when it's in motion.
So there is probably a much bigger market for these devices than you'd suspect.
Only after they figure out how to make a $59.99 laser cartridge that needs to be replaced every three months!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Magazines like RCM that offer printed blueprints for radio controlled airplanes and such could just as easily include drawings suitable for feeding a Versalaser....keep plunking in sheets of balsa, and in a few hours you've got all the parts to build your new plane, all laser-cut to tolerance.
Nice.
--riney
I saw a cd writer a while back that could burn graphics into the un-used portions of a CD, but I would love to be able to shape the edges or cut voids into unused areas of a disc (Assuming you keep the CD balanced).
Fools ignore complexity; pragmatists suffer it; experts avoid it; geniuses remove it. ~A. Perlis
I just finished setting up an E size 5 axis 50 watt CO2 laser cutter in an awards shop.
What was especially neat about the laser was it's based on plotter technology. We had the creator of the laser system there to do the installation and walk-through. He stuck a 5 watt laser inplace of the pen plotter on an old roland pen plotter, hacked together a driver to control to laser pulses and mirror heads. very neat system.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds -Albert Einstein
With the new trend of scarring and piercing etc - how long before we see scar tattoos? Bring in your favourite jpg and walk out with a raised brand. Of course I am not offering to be the one to test the power setting required to scar and not burn through.
Here you can see some sample products made by it.
Think I'll order my up one and start working on filling up the Trophy case.
"Failure is not an option, it's part of the standard package"
I was looking into how much it would cost to buy a 25W laser and build an X Y plotter to run it and came across this article describing how you could write off 57% of the cost because it is basically a machine tool.
Not a bad idea... although metal lighters would be nicer.
Shouldn't be a problem so long as the lighter is empty and washed out (refillable lighters)
They can make a laser printer that cuts through anything, but they can't make a website that doesn't get slashdotted.
OK, it's cute. But most slashdot geeks could get much better use of a similarly priced laser cad system that cuts 3d objects, makes PC boards, and can still "print" and engrave 2d surfaces rather than this 2d system that is designed to only print. This may have a very easy to use interface, but many things that have limited functionality do.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Heck why not? Veterinary tatoos are expensive and not very custom. With this baby, you could tattoo your dog with a bone-shaped tatoo, "bad to the bone" caption, and a phone number in case he gets lost when he's out with the ladies ...
Woo, now you can photoshop/gimp a tattoo design and print it on the victim's body. That would be a whole new business experience for an enterprizing geek...
Laser cutters have been around for years...
All the pr0n a beowulf of these could make.
Yes, I suck.
I can see a new Windows exploit....
Rating: Critical
Flaw: Using Windows RPC, an attacker can gain remote access to a machine equipped with the Versalaser peripheral, allowing the attacker to turn the device on and to control its operating rate and output.
Consequences: potential blindness or fires may result from this exploit. Victims have been found with "Bill Sux!" or penguin tattoos spontaneously applied to extremities; unfortunately, secondary infections and scarring rendered most of them unreadable.
Patching: a patch for this exploit will be available with one year.
It's one thing when security flaws can simply spread spam all over the Internet, but physical injury might present more of a problem. It might be good for security if bad security resulted in users losing body parts...on the other hand, the benefit of any added security is likely to be countered by the consequences of thoughtless people accessing and using high-powered lasers. I think I can see the long arm of Darwin here...
Back when I was working with laser marking systems (1988), they were in the $100K region for a 25 joule per pulse laser marking system. This wasn't a raster scan system - just a flash of IR through a mask, and this wasn't a cutter, just a marker.
Now you can get a 25W continuous duty cutter for $10K.
My, how times have changed.
(of course, a laser capable of 15 pulses per second of 25J each, with a pulse width of 25ns, is a different beast than 25W continuous output, but...)
www.eFax.com are spammers
...I can spend 200 USD and build a rather mediocre CNC mill.
Or,
I can spend up to 1000 USD and build an OK CNC mill.
Or,
I can spend 10000 USD on this.
Gosh, I just can't make up my mind......
A $10,000 printer, and Slashdot is worried about there only being Windows drivers. Pathetic! If you can afford a printer that expensive, you can afford to have a machine running Windows.
"Is that a wood carving of a three-way?"
"No honey, its, uh, a major award."
Until it can be head-mounted on a shark :-)
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
1 - Take an old plotter ...
2 - Hook a power laser to the pen
3 - Load usual plotter drivers
4 -
5 - Profit! (sell it for $10,000)
i'm sorry i just used up my moderator points or you would have earned them all!
Hey, now at last it should be possible to design gravestones using the latest clip art from MS Office! I wonder how long it would take until Clippy start saying stuff like "It looks like you're writing a gravestone..."
Now you too can reenact the famous Goldfinger scene with family and friends. "Do you expect me to cut the grass?" 'No my friend I expect you to die!"
for this printer willbe when it can produce a printed circuit board. Then I'll buy one!
Unfortunately, Windows drivers only at this time.
This thing could have been some sort of combination Time Machine/Transmogrifier/Fountain of Youth, but if it only had Windows drivers, we'd have to find a way to bring in the holy war and complain about it.
Slashbots: One. Track. Mind.
Belloc
I got more rhymes than Jamaica got Mangoes.
Hmmm, this reminds me of the laser Strippit. A factory I worked in only had the pneumatic one, required a 6 ft concrete slab to minimise vibrations(things still shook in the office at the other end of the building). This was a great metal working tool, but they had a sample of the output from the much, much more expensive laser model, the silhouette of an eagle. Basicly you just drew the picture of what you wanted on a CAD/CAM program, told it the material thickness, and uploaded it to the Strippit, and voila, the laser would cut water you wanted. This thing sounds like a much cheaper version of it, and a toy I wish I could afford.
Of course, how many of us should be afford it would start seeing how hard it'd be to make a laser gun out of it?
*--*
Woggle
(nope, no password yet)
I wonder what effects things like this has on the jewelry industry. In the next century, there will probably be children's toys that make and cut diamonds into any shape they can imagine with their 3d holographic editing system :)
Karma Clown
TechTV last month had a case mod contest where the grand prize was a versalaser. The guy who won is one lucky SOB. The article about it can be found here:
y /0,24330,3536290,00.html
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/supergeek/stor
3D printers / rapid prototyping systems are even cooler than that. Make anything you like (within the size limits of the printer). Check out Z Corp's printers (or a BBC news article).
These things (i.e., laser cutters of this nature) have been around for a while. Any decent architecture graduate school has a few of them sitting around their fabrication shop, right next to the 3D plastic modeling system. They *are* incredibly useful for model making, and have been around for about 5 or 10 years. We've done some consulting to architecture schools, and I must say, the technology is impressive. It's particularly neat how it integrates with AutoCAD, and how you can use it to not only cut, but also score material.
Statistically speaking, there's a 99.998% chance that my IQ is higher than yours. Get over it.
Check out the dino. Now I ask you, doesn't that pattern look just like ones you've seen in hobby shops? Which means whoever made this thing has *pirated* a *physical object*! This baby is a copy machine for tangible objects - if they happen to be thin and flat.
If this could be developed and made into a reasonably priced option for photo printers it would be great. Every time I have to print out 20 copies of 5 different pictures in 4x6, 5x7 and wallet size for all my relatives, it takes me hours to carefully cut the 8.5x11 photo paper into individual pictures. This could save tons of time and drudge work.
:-(
:-)
Somehow I don't think it will happen in my lifetime though.
And if it did, I would still whine for a auto folder for the invitations and cards I print out.
I've still got a scar from catching a "glint" of reflected laser light from the industrial version of one of these. I shudder to think of the lawsuits on their way from idiots that jimmy open the safety interlock...
By the way - the machine that tattooed me had a cutting area of 8 by 10 feet, powered by a 2KW IR laser the size of a sixties IBM mainframe, and was cutting the stainless steel signs for the DeLorean dealerships - which should give you an idea of how long ago that was...
And yes, it was my own damn fault - I'd jimmied the safety interlock, but when you're a SuperTech pulling down $500/hour to get a critical machine back online, you are sometimes tempted to take STUPID risks.
(At least the safety goggles I was wearing did their job 8^)
> a printer which uses a laser and can cut/write
> on everything from paper to wood to stone.
I'm'sa gettin' me wife's name put on my schwinkie!
"Has [being a kidnapped teenage girl, raped repeatedly for months] changed you?" - Katie Couric to Elizabeth Smart
The real question is this: Does it print on paper? :)
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
1. Print the image on paper backwards (mirror the image).
2. Place the printout face-down on the wood.
3. Set the clothes iron on high, and use it to heat the paper enough to melt the toner (but not so hot as to burn the paper or wood). While applying the heat, carefully peel the paper off - leaving toner behind.
Helps if you set the printer to use as much toner as possible. Takes a few tries to get the knack.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
To be honest, I don't want to be anywhere near a 25 watt laser.
* Do not look into laser beam with remaining eye *
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Obviously the space aliens were using one of these to impress the Earthlings.
Go here to request your free laser processed samples:
http://www.versalaser.com/english/sample.html
I received one a while back. It was a small piece of wood with their logo burned onto it (if I can remember correctly). Useless, but cool none the less.
Most signwriting shops use laser printers to cut vinyl lettering for the side of vans etc. I suppose this is just the turbo nutter bastard version, if it can cut stone.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
So I wonder if this is capable enough to carve out coins from various nations. I think the aluminum coins of some countries are at risk, now we just wait till its economically feasble to do it.
There is an interesting interview with Neil Gershenfeld, the director of MIT's center for bits and atoms - they have been playing with similar 'replicators' and setting up fabrication labs (fablabs!) in middle-tech countries with interesting results. He sees the mainstream availabilty (ok - once cost comes down a bit) of manufacturing processes as the beginning of a paradigm shift similar to the move of mainframe computing to the desktop. He also discusses their use of open-source hardware and schematics in the fablabs.
When i was in the S of France this year there was a guy on the beachside with one of these printers. You picked up a stone off the beach designed a little picture/name/saying/whatever to be printed on it, and he burnt it into the stone there and then. It made cool personalised presents for all my friends.
My spelling isn't bad, I'm evolving the language
Egon: Don't cross the streams.
Peter: Why?
Egon: It would be bad.
Oh yeah!!!
"PC Load Granite"? What the fsck does that mean?
someone recently got a photo from me for a party, took it to the baker where they printed it to a sheet of food dye. They lay that on the cake and it transfers a surprisingly good image into the icing... I think it took a normal-ish printer, though probably special ink and transfer paper
I have to admit, if I had one that I'd just hooked up, the first thing *I'd* do would be to look around the room, thinking "hmm, what can I test this with..." those can be famous last words...
I'll bet it'd really contribute to keeping our fire departments and hospital emergency rooms busy...
At least we wouldn't need to shell out $30 a month/week/whatever to HP/lexmark/canon/blah for ink cartridges, though we might be spending that much more in power bills...
I've had metal cut with a laser machine before. I am nearly certain that there is little comparison that can be made.
One time we tried to see if we can engrave with it. It ended up looking like a nine pin dot matrix print-out. It simply did not have fine enough control, and I doubt that a 15 year old machine would do any better. A machine with 34,000 hours of operation may be pretty well worn out too, there's a reason why it costs much less than many of thethe others listed. That is 17 years of full 40 hour work weeks, so I think it has seen its share of abuse.