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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 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?
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!
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?
replicating rapid-prototyper (self replicating machine) - yeah, definitely needs a better name.
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?
Oh god, that really makes me think it isn't fit for my goal! Bad marketing indeed!
If Teak (Tectona) is dark enough, it could be used to make awesome etchings for paperweights and other cool knickknacks.
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That laser head starts rastering across the material fast enough it's just what the device sounds like: reprap,reprap,reprap,reprap.....
Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
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.
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.
Well, look what the ability to make hundreds of dies simultaneously on a wafer did for the semiconductor revolution. If one could make hundreds of small plastic custom parts at one time, it could enable small businesses to make things they otherwise couldn't do economically. I look at cheap Chinese products and ask, why make them over there and lug them thousands of miles at a cost of energy, when we could do short runs as needed here, locally and by American businesses. I have lots of things around the house that could have been made by a machine with this technology (layered up). By the way, let's extend the manufacturing principle to not just 2D axes but also rotational, as in what a lathe does but instead of removing material you add it to a rotated base. So for example you could make a cup on demand out of plastic beads fused together - which is just about what a styrofoam cup is.
"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"
Well, look what the ability to make hundreds of dies simultaneously on a wafer did for the semiconductor revolution. If one could make hundreds of small plastic custom parts at one time, it could enable small businesses to make things they otherwise couldn't do economically. I look at cheap Chinese products and ask, why make them over there and lug them thousands of miles at a cost of energy, when we could do short runs as needed here, locally and by American businesses. I have lots of things around the house that could have been made by a machine with this technology (layered up). By the way, let's extend the manufacturing principle to not just 2D axes but also rotational, as in what a lathe does but instead of removing material you add it to a rotated base. So for example you could make a cup on demand out of plastic beads fused together - which is just about what a styrofoam cup is.
Eventually perhaps. But right now, injection moulding and other similar techniques are more practical.To use your Styrofoam cup example. The cups take a fraction of a second with a mould. Pop two halves together, pump in the Styrofoam, dry, release. Easy and efficient. Thousands can be made in an hour. 3D object creation is in it's infancy right now. The hardware is expensive and still quite primitive, with a limited number of things it can use as a medium. In time.. Who knows. Making a cup with a 3D printer of any kind would be pretty slow. Fine for one cup, but not for mass production. Eventually it might be practical to have plastic printers/recyclers at home,and if you want a cup, print one in about 5 minutes, then if it breaks, recycle it into a new cup at home. Someone in the rep rap or maker-bot community is currently working on a plastic recycling unit that takes things like plastic milk bottles and shreds and melts them down, then extrudes a plastic filament that can be used in the 3D printer.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
Sure, there are more efficient and practical ways but the point of personal manufacturing systems is to be able to make things yourself in small runs instead of depending on large-scale mass production manufacturers. If I have a home box that can make shoes, I might choose to pay a little more for raw materials but I gain the ability to be independent of a specific finished goods maker. Even it is slower than buying off the shelf and it takes two days to process, I don't care if it runs overnight and takes six different kind of plastic feedstock. Essentially it amounts having tiny elves in my cottage who magically make things at night without my doing it and without my depending on China and Walmart. But I understand your point about mass production and agree that one-offs are not always the perfect solution.
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.
I think the recycling thing is important. I was really tempted by something like the MakerBot or RepRap when I saw them at FOSDEM, but I knew that my house would quickly fill up with random plastic crap if I had one. On the other hand, if I could just dump stuff I was bored with back in the plastic reservoir and have it melted down for re-using in the next thing I wanted, that would be really great. I'd love, for example, to be able to fabricate the right number of plastic plates, knives, and forks for a picnic, then just wash them and melt them down after use. The same is true for a lot of kitchen things. I have a load of mixing bowls all in different sizes. Some of them only get used once or twice a year. They take up space all the time though. For things like jelly moulds, they'd be fantastic - you could print a new shape every time.
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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.
Finally. Ahem.
"No, Mr Bond. We expect you to die!"
...and don't call me Shirley.
How is this news? Can't you cut a laser beam by just, hum, putting something on its path?
-dZ?
Carol vs. Ghost
3D object creation is in it's infancy right now. The hardware is expensive and still quite primitive, with a limited number of things it can use as a medium. In time.. Who knows.
Making a cup with a 3D printer of any kind would be pretty slow. Fine for one cup, but not for mass production.
Actually you would be surprised, 3D printing is the cutting edge in dental technology, but milling is more advanced such as the D4D labworks system that scans, designs and mills, Wielandmanufacture milling machine that is more production orientated. The industry is moving toward digital from beginning to end by using intraoral scanners and not even taking traditional impressions; the biggest holdup is capitalization of equipment systems that often costs 6 figures.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
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.