Lasers

Jarre demo’s “Mini” laser harp at Hamburg concert

November 4, 2011
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Ricardo Melo just sent me a link to footage of Jarre’s recent gig in Hamburg. Looks like he’s added a mini laser harp to his rig. Looks like it uses a straight “interruption” trigger built into the frame. This kind is way easier to keep under control on stage.

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DIY CO2 Laser Cutter – more test cuts…

October 11, 2011
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I re-aligned the bounce mirrors, added an air-assist, and did some test cuts on acrylic, plywood and hardwood. Slowing the feedrate seems more effective than increasing the power. Need to spend some time with different materials, figuring out the cut parameters for each one. Oooh shiny!

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…making some initial cuts with the CO2 Laser

October 4, 2011
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Yes! Finally, after several iterations we have the installed, aligned and focused CO2 laser wreaking some serious havoc on a piece of MDO. There are still many tests to run and various safety mechanisms to install, but the system works, and is aligned over a 24″ x 24″ area (at least). I can think of [...]

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…installing the laser tube

September 28, 2011
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After much wailing and gnashing of teeth I finally got the tube installed in its new home. However I’ve now realized that it’s 4″ too short and I need to build a new base and position it correctly . Still, I hooked up the cooling system, and thankfully there are no leaks – I gave [...]

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…building my Destructor(tm) beam

September 25, 2011
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More progress in the laser/CNC saga. I built a cage from steel and MDO for the laser tube – fits really nicely. Next step is to add the first bounce mirror which will turn the beam straight up – into a PVC tube attached with plumbing flanges (The sales assistant at Menard’s asked me what [...]

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Laser Cutter 2.0 : That is one big *ss tube…

September 10, 2011
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Good news! The laser tube, power supply and cooling system arrived yesterday. The 80W tube is *MASSIVE* – even though I knew the dimensions before I ordered it, I guess my subconscious had chosen to ignore the fact of exactly how long this thing was going to be. Hmmmm… I might have to move my [...]

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…an update to the laser cutter / mill saga

August 30, 2011
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It turns out that the laser tube I have will not work with the generic PSU units on E-bay. Not entirely sure why this is, but I did notice that the insulation on the tube is starting to *melt* so maybe it’s time to move on. So… it looks like my only option right now [...]

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Adding a laser cutter to the BlackToe CNC Mill

August 6, 2011
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It’s time I took the CO2 laser from the Chinese cutter and attached it to the gantry of my BlackToe CNC mill. Effectively increasing the size of the cutting bay from the tiny 5×8″ to a whopping 2′x 4′ – the small size of the cutting area was starting to become annoying – and it seemed ridiculous [...]

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At the Maker Faire in Detroit

July 31, 2011
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Spending the weekend up at the Maker Faire in Detroit. Check out the Maker Faire Daily stream for more info. UPDATE : Just got back from the Faire – always a pleasure to go to these, and nice that they’re more local than San Francisco now… Wow lot’s of stuff to see and do. The [...]

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Jarre at the royal wedding : 1, laser harp : 0

July 5, 2011
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I got an email from Dan Wilson about the recent Jarre gig for the Monaco royal wedding. Looks like an excellent concert, although the laser harp had some issues – and JMJ didn’t look too happy about it. I found this video on Dailymotion (with apologies in advance for all the ads they make you [...]

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