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Grad Student Invents Cheap Laser Cutter
An anonymous reader writes "Peter Jansen, a PhD student and member of the RepRap community, has constructed a working prototype of an inexpensive table-top laser cutter built out of old CD/DVD drives as an offshoot of his efforts to design an under $200 open-source Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printer. Where traditional laser cutters use powerful, fixed-focus beams, this new technique dynamically adjusts the focal point of the laser using a reciprocating motion similar to a reciprocating saw, allowing a far less powerful and inexpensive laser diode to be used. The technique is currently limited to cutting black materials to a depth of only a few millimeters, but should still be useful and enabling for Makers and other crafters. The end-goal is to create a hybrid inexpensive 3D printer that can be easily reconfigured for 2D laser cutting, providing powerful making tools to the desktop."
it could make a profit.
Hope they have a 2nd confirm on the shred button.
This would make redacting existing or printing with redaction a little more holy too
First post
It would be cool to see this down with Bluray lasers instead of DVD, if only for the MORE POWER! effect.
The end-goal is to create a hybrid inexpensive 3D printer that can be easily reconfigured for 2D laser cutting, providing powerful making tools to the desktop
3D printer and a laser cutter? I'm no office machine expert but I don't think I want a printer capable of transforming into a laser cutter ... I've seen the Twilight Zone and this doesn't end well.
Why would anyone want to cut a laser?
His roommate's PhD project is the inexpensive cloning of sharks.
I'm not sure I like where this is headed.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
Thinking of all the possible office toner accidents where someone will loose a finger
Lawyer up
Profit!
I'm not sure I've ever heard the term Makers as used in this context. I was pretty much expecting to see Mark come after it, capitalized and everything.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Something cheap to cut off my relation!
Fucking awesome. Awesome to the max.
WTF is RepRap?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RepRap_Project
Cool. I want a self replicating replicator!
How about a button to laser cut up and auto eject those pesky paper jams?
IMHO, this is the kind of inventive tinkering that should be pushed forward in today's schools. It takes a lot of different skills from across several disciplines to be able to crank something like this out, but once you see it, you realize how simple it really is. It takes imagination and perseverance as well, and that's hard to teach.
I don't mean to start a "Public schools are apathizing our youth!" thread, but I wonder how many kids would really enjoy classes geared towards making useful projects out of surplus crap - a combining of wood shop, metal shop, and electronics classes.
Where can we get cheap sharks to go with this?
So the guy took a laser, and made a laser? Umm no The laser has already been invented. What this guy did was engineer a low cost solution to a process that already existed.
If Teak (Tectona) is dark enough, it could be used to make awesome etchings for paperweights and other cool knickknacks.
Home of The Suki Series
I shall repeat what a wise man said at one time. "I want sharks with freakin lazer beams on their heads!!!!!" Now make it happen. or maybe some triceratops with nightvison goggles with laser guns on the side.
when the thing can cut through the fruitcake I got last Christmas
Seriously, something like this could cut patterns CHEAPLY on cloth. Think of it as a stamping machine.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Warning: Science content.
Several labs in my Uni's Chemistry Department regularly employ LASER choppers, if not "cutters". Simply stick the disk with the slits you want (to set the pulse duration) in front of the laser and set the motor to the desired RPM. That's how they get he pulse durations and frequencies that they need for their experiments. One could also use liquid crystal to turn the beam on and off rapidly. Come to think of it, I have no idea how a CD or DVD burner controls its laser. Maybe the laser can be turned on and off fast enough.
so the frequency is doubled? sweet...
What's "making" in this context?
Come on, nobody else picked up on the phrase, "allowing a far less ... inexpensive laser diode to be used."? Think about it.
"Yo mama's so poor she has to -cut- her cheap lasers to get two"?
C'mon. You can do better than that:
Yo mama is so fat she needs a laser cutter to clip her nails.
Yo mama is so ugly the laser light tries to bend around her.
Yo mama is so poor she needs a laser to cut the last slice of bread.
Yo mama is so stupid she uses a laser to light the house.
Always remember the warning that is on the first page of the manual.
"DO NOT LOOK INTO LASER WITH REMAINING EYE"
Ok, pretending this is NOT slashdot... but really, this is not news.
DIY lasercutters with blue-ray and DVD-lasers have been around (for example on youtube) for years.
In all honesty: I assumed all geeks worth that expression would have known for a long time.
Ok, so when this becomes cheap enough to replace all lasers used to correct vision, instead of thousands of dollars, we would be talking about hundreds...cool
The "smaller" the shark, the bigger the laser. Same as American males drive really big cars. It is called "compensating".
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
... he doesn't expect us to talk?
Mass production requires massive demands to be cost-effective. Making things slowly and locally, at home, for your own use and recycling them, again locally to be reused for your own needs, means cutting down on all of the material and workforce transport expenses, initial investments in manufacturing sites' buildings (and roads) and machines, as well as cleanup. It seems like path to sustainable living and growth.
So essentially he is making the cut by drilling a series of adjacent holes. Depending on the spacing between the holes the cut may have a very rough finished edge.
If the laser is capable of removing material, the next logical step would be a laser based CNC machine. Basically the reverse of what they are doing with the sintering rig, but using a subtractive process rather than an additive process.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
Someone introduce the kid to Nichia 445nm diodes from the casio projectors. Easily capable of 1500mw and about $35 each. Or even better, some cheap IR diodes.
How is this news? Can't you cut a laser beam by just, hum, putting something on its path?
-dZ?
Carol vs. Ghost
The end-goal is to create a hybrid inexpensive 3D printer that can be easily reconfigured for 2D laser cutting, providing powerful making tools to the desktop."
The end-goal ought to be to create a working lightsaber! Get on that!
The end of craftsmanship as we know it.
When everything can be done with 3D CAD and downloaded designs in the home and "printed" onto your block of wood from Hardware House, the idea of "hand-made" furniture etc. kind of goes out the window.
I wonder what will happen to the poorer countries who export hand-crafted goods when suddenly every middle-class westerner can make their own "authentic Thai elephant figurine" or any number of downloadable designs. And what of all those Chinese factory workers, when we can buy "printable plastic" blocks and make our own Star Wars figurines from pirated designs?
This is going to be a whole new world of hurt for companies I'm sure.
Mod parent insightful.
I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.