Grad Student Invents Cheap Laser Cutter 137
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."
Re:All in one Coppier,Printer, Fax, Scanner, Shred (Score:2, Interesting)
How about a button to laser cut up and auto eject those pesky paper jams?
Public School shop classes. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Teak Etching! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:As opposed to doers? (Score:3, Interesting)
And thus I have been informed. This is entirely news to me, and is certainly stuff that matters. My mind is whizzing with awesome ideas as a result.
Applause
Re:I was not aware what RepRap was (Score:3, Interesting)
Clearly, you have not watched your Stargate [wikia.com].
Cloth? (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually optical choppers are very useful (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Member of RepRap? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Member of RepRap? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:I was not aware what RepRap was (Score:3, Interesting)
I've met the RepRap team and I can tell you the one thing they are best at (and it appears slashdot are helping them replicate) is hype and self publicity.
The RepRap machine is basically a cheap plastic printer / rapid prototyping machine which is an idea that's been around ... at least 10+ years before they started. The only component they can manufacture are the plastic bits. Have a look at the photo and see if you can spot the plastic bits. I'll give you a hint, they're not the metal frame, or the wooden base, or any of the active / electrical components. And it goes without saying that, ofcourse, you have to assemble the device it's "replicated". I recall someone asking them what percentage of the device they could 'replicate' and after lots of 'vision' and 'this has great potential' we eventually managed to get a figure of 10%.
Rapid prototyping machines you could build at home - kinda cool but not new. Calling it 'self replicating manufacturing' - shameless publicity whoring.
Re:Member of RepRap? (Score:3, Interesting)
Alright!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
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
Re:Public School shop classes. (Score:1, Interesting)
Only the truly gifted come through such a process unscathed - but because they don't need "school" anyway. Put them next to a pile of books and provide a mentor to answer the occasional question, and they're fine in ANY environment. They live for learning and you can't take it from them.
To what you are referring is a gift, but not as you imply. I read the implication of "truly gifted" as regarding intelligence, and if this is the intended meaning, I must disagree. A highly intelligent ("truly gifted") person may not thrive in the sort of environment you describe, because they lack the internal impetus to just go and learn on their own. In fact, being so smart probably gives them the ability to succeed at any "necessary" work in their life (schoolwork, paycheck work), thus leaving them little external incentive to progress farther. Think of it as: to make a bunch of money I need to perform X-1; I'm smart enough to perform X without any effort/extra learning; this leads to no reason to perform X+1, or even X. High intelligence does not necessarily include high self-motivation. Or, any other way, high intelligence doesn't mean an equally high sense of reward simply for doing more ("I really want to do X+1, but no one ever cares and it takes extra time, so instead I'll try to do things other people care about").
If "truly gifted" was intended to mean people with a high level of internal motivation and satisfaction, then I agree with your statement entirely and apologize for the confusion. Such people are truly gifted, regardless of intelligence (etc.).