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DIY Laser Cutter Raises Capital, Concerns
An anonymous reader sends this quote from Wired:
"Affordable 3-D printers and CNC mills are popping up everywhere, opening up new worlds of production to wide ranges of designers. However, one major tool still hasn’t received a DIY overhaul: the laser cutter. Maybe people are sensitive because Goldfinger tried to cut James Bond in half with one, but all that changes now with Patrick Hood-Daniel’s new Kickstarter, 'Build Your Own Laser Cutter.' ... A 40-watt laser tube and power supply means it can cut a variety of materials: wood, plastic, fabric, and paper. ... There is one major red flag, however. The machine’s frame is built from of Medium Density Overlay (MDO) — a type of plywood. Hood-Daniels says this is a feature, making the blackTooth less sensitive to thermal distortion and inaccuracy than a metal frame, but it also creates a serious, fire-breathing concern. ... When asked for comment, Hood-Daniel says 'Initially, I had the same thoughts as to the precarious use of wood for the structure, but even with long burns to the structure which were made on accident when starting a run, there was no ignition.'"
So that means there's not really any story then?
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
This will destroy Rock, Scissors and Paper.
Nothing beats Laser Cutter. The game is ruined.
Am I 'rite?
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Maybe they haven't received as much attention because it's difficult to permanently blind yourself with a 3D printer?
Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
Dope and paint the wood with flame retardant if it's such a concern.
Problem solved.
If I can't cut nosy Brits in half?
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
That should do the trick.
When did the notion start to circulate that anything remotely related to wood is some kind of incendiary deathtrap? Is it when people stopped having to start fires with nothing more than minimal tools and careful arrangement of sticks?
Christ, you've got something designed to cut through plastics with a laser, plastics which are basically just waiting for some added heat to turn into sticky, flaming, hydrocarbon death, and nobody says a thing. Suddenly, terrifying wood,. notorious for perfunctory smoldering in response to heat, bursts onto the scene and everybody is freaking out about ignition. Kids these days.
Somehow, people have been practicing pyrography for millenia without bursting into flames.
Wait, so we have a DIY device with a 40W laser and people are worried that the plywood might be a fire hazard?
It depends. A laser that can cut metal is obviously dangerous and you should not place any part of your body that you want to remain attached in the path of the beam. So, a very high power laser is like a disc saw - everyone can see that it's dangerous (it can cut a piece of wood or metal, obviously it can cut off a finger).
The lower power lasers are different. They do not burn, do not cut and are powered by a couple of batteries, like a flash light. To understand that it is still dangerous, you need to understand that the beam is highly concentrated and can still burn the retina, even tough it does not burn a piece of paper and you do not feel it if you place your hand in the path of the beam.
Similar stuff with guns. Most people understand that a real gun is really dangerous and you can kill someone with it (they may not understand all the safety precautions, but will tell you that you should not load the gun, aim it at somebody and pull the trigger if you do not want to kill that somebody). On the other hand, BB guns are not seen as that dangerous, kids shoot each other all the time with them and if nobody manages to hit an eye, it will be OK.
I thought lasers stopped being scary after everyone played with a laser pointer. Or a CD/DVD drive. Or a laser mouse. Or a laser barcode scanner in a store. Or after the Star Wars style laser weapons didn't exactly materialize after all the years of research and investment. As for CNC machines, waterjet systems are more powerful (try cutting stone with a laser), and turret/punch systems are, IMO, more dangerous (things are actually slamming around). I always thought that you'd use laser when you need the extra precision that laser CNC gives you, not the "dangerous" power. As for the fire hazard - try setting a block of wood on fire with a magnifying glass. In general, you would use a laser CNC to cut wood, not to set it on fire (and it cuts nicely indeed). It seems like all the issues the summary talks about are not the real reason why DIY laser cutters aren't abundant. The real reason - talked about in the article - is that commercial cutters are already available for less money than even this kickstarter is asking for (you get a smaller, but metal-framed and fully assembled device).
So I wonder how much experience the poster has with either MDO or laser cutters. I have a laser cutter, and have used MDO, but have never tried cutting MDO. Go try it. I cut plywood and MDF -- I'm less worried about a fire than the laser cutting through the MDO given enough dwell time. But basically, this artcle seems like a "I'm clueless and scared, so let's post unsubstiated speculation to SlashDot."
BTW -- there is another open source laser cutter out there: http://labs.nortd.com/lasersaur/ I'll probably replace mine with a Lasersaur when my machine dies (it's acting poorly :(
Well, theres the small problem that the reflection of the beam may still be dangerous. That's something most people don't think of when speaking about the dangers of high-powered lasers:
It's not only the direct beam you want to be wary of, but indirect sources as well. A friend of mine once got 3rd degree burns from the reflection of a high-power UV laser.
What I forgot, just to be clear: I'm not speaking of reflections in a polished mirror. I'm talking about reflections from an ordinary wall.
...like asbestos and lead?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
This will destroy Rock, Scissors and Paper.
Nothing beats Laser Cutter. The game is ruined.
Or replaced by a newer variation: rock, laser cutter, mirror.
Just put the 3D printer and the material in an oxygen-depleted environment. It's not like a canister of Nitrogen is expensive, or even dangerous (the gas, not the risk of explosive decompression if you go full retard). It's pretty easy to build a glass enclosure to seal everything in. That way, you could work with wood that would ordinarily burst into flames and it won't. You'll need to setup a infrared thermometer to rake the workbench after and only unlock once the material has cooled, obviously... and air-cooling something that's several hundred degrees takes a few hours... but I see no problem here.
It's simple to design safety features for a design like this. As a backup, you could put a water pressure sprayer in the containment area as well, in case the seals break while the material is in a super-heated state.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
yours doesn't do that? I must have built my disc saw improperly....
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I suspect the idea here is for this to be the enthusiast's enthusiast toy.
Or maybe just put one in the local hardware store. Take your pattern in, they cut up a piece of metal for you.
In principal its a little like the key duplication machine.
I used to work programming laser cutters. Let's summarize the ways these machines can kill/maim you:
1) Fire: You can build your entire machine on metal, that won't prevent the thing you are cutting from catching fire.
2) Smoke: There's a reason most laser cutters have huge ventilation tubes. The laser will produce smoke, if you cut anything but wood it will be toxic smoke. Not good.
3) Laser: 40 watts is 100 times the power needed to instantly blind you. Lasers of that power are dangerous even bouncing on non-reflective surfaces. The laser is probable IR so invisible too.
4) And IMHO the worst: The high-current high-voltage power source (10 KV or more) can instantly kill you.
The company I worked for had huge problems with the certification of the power source alone.
DIY 40W Laser = terrible idea. CNCs are much cheaper and safer.
...but just about everything is shiny at 10 microns, thus that needs to be watched
Or rather not.
Flourescent (adj): smelling like ground wheat.
Darn, now my insurance company will be asking if I have any laser cutters, 3D printers, etc. And it will probably cost me more than a pit bull, fireplace, or inground pool.
Thieves. Next thing you know, they will also tell me what I can or cannot make with it. Oh, wait...
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I've worked with three different laser ablation systems last year. For that, I had to go through a one-day training session, to prepare me for all the safety issues involved. Most notable is protection of your eyes. Any of the lasers at the research institute where I was working, was capable of permanently blinding. Most of them had a continuous power of "only" a few tens of W, while one was a 300 W IR laser which melted a computer's case placed 7 m away - only with the reflected light.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
As the other AC helpfully pointed out it is the reflections that are the biggest concern. They are likely to increase if you put aluminum foil on your wooden frame. Hence my warning.
I've built the BlackToe 8'x4' router and the WhiteAnt 3D printer. Don't fund this.
In both cases the shipments arrived with multiple mistakes and require two or more reshipments. Instructions were out of date, assumed you knew things, and didn't cover any safety issues. When I would write for help I'd frequently get an automated out-of-office message, followed by his response a few minutes later. Everything about the way this guy does business says "this is going to lead to disaster".
He would have been better off running a kickstarter on his RedFrog pick & place machine.