Recent content by attah

Wow! That's what pretty serious stuff! I'm thinking to get away with something a bit smaller, since mine is placed in my living room. ;) We'll see how it goes.

Thanks! Pretty much what i expected. But still it's somewhat outside my immediate comfort zone, I don't really like invisible lasers running all over the place. But i have a feeling i'll warm up to the thought eventually. By the way.. what is that fume extractor you are using?

Sigurthr: Yes, perhaps i should raise it a bit.. or maybe look at other lenses? I think i read that the 3-element one might will a lower output. But since it should give a longer useful focal length that might be ok? Also, I get the feeling that it might not handle the power all that well...

Thanks! Yes, it's a b*tch to focus. Well, I have looked at it and it's not impossible.. but i have yet to find a good motor for that. And i'd all but run out of gpio on my raspberry pi. I think mine will remain manual, but perhaps with a worm gear. Moving it up and down seems like it would mess...

I just realized I kind of owe you guys an update. I restarted the project a while back and it's taking shape pretty good. I didn't go for UV, but still a low end of the spectrum diode laser. DTR's Nichia NDB7875 with driver and G2 lens. Here is the damage it can do: That's 3mm black cast...

And heat has a greater refraction/diffraction/... related loss you mean? A little correction.. I really meant to ask what power would be required in the UV spectrum.

So much response! You're all too kind :) Exactly.. if I get the forces acting to counter the mechanism to near zero I can get good precision without beefy steppers and beams etc. Speed is not anything I have considered yet. So while it's nice, a somewhat slow machine will do fine. Okay...

So I got this crazy idea.. cutting plexiglass with a laser. I found out that normal plexiglass has almost 100% blocking/absorbtion below ~360nm (see: Link ) So I thought that maybe i should try my hand at building a cnc machine that cuts with a laser. From what I find it sems that I need a very...