The MicroSlice: A few years ago I saw an Instructable where Groover had used a pair of DVD-RW drives to make a pocket laser engraver. Inspired by the idea, driven by the recent purchase of a full-sized 50 watt CO2 laser cutter, and roused by the launch of the Microcontroller contest I took the decision to have a crack at making my own mini laser engraver.
10 comments:
This Mini Laser engraver is really cute, but I don't think it is actually that useful. If the device was able to cut wood and/or able to work on a larger scale then it might actually be useful. This little device rocks because it is all open source, and built from basic parts. Even though all of these parts are basic they still don't seem like things that people just have around and not in use. Because the device can cut paper you might think that it would be useful for scale model making. To some extent that is true, but I often find that it is most helpful to be able to laser cut the large parts of a model, not the small ones. I'm really not sure who this device would be useful for. All the same I sorta want one.
Even though this is the most adorable laser cutter ever, I don't know how practical it could be. The best application for this product in my mind would be for miniature scale models. Its a very portable device and much more affordable than an actual laser cutter. This article was very thorough and great for someone who would like to build one of these machines. I can also see this machine being used for greeting cards or scrapbooking projects. This machine could replace many paper cutting machines that exist today. It would be nice to have one of these, but I don't know if there is a strong application yet.
I think that it is interesting to see all of the amazing things that people have been able to create with Arduinos. As someone who's only experience with Arduinos has been programming MIDI control buttons whenever I see something like this it makes me so much more interested in just what the Arduino can do. I do however see where the rest of the commenters are coming from in saying that it is not necessarily a practical tool, but don't think that it is meant to be "useful" I think that it makes more sense that it is just a DIY guide to a fun little project that can be quickly put together. I also found it funny that the parts for the mini laser cutter were made on a larger laser cutter.
The rise of open source and DIY 3d printers, laser and waterjet cutters, and CNC routers is really great. While examples like this one may not be all that useful, the development of cheap machines like these will no doubt have an impact on the DIY and maker communities. Making these amazing, but usually incredibly expensive technologies, more available to the every day consumer is a step in the right direction and I'm excited to see how these projects advance and what impact they make on these communities.
Awwww it's so cute! But in seriousness, I like the influx of micro-arduino-controlled devices that have begun development in the last few years. A lot of the problems in technology, especially surrounding the maker community is cost; 3D printers used to cost thousands of dollars and now personal ones can cost a few hundred. Much of the advancement has come from the micro controller, because people are able to make devices that could compete with or help innovation in commercially available products, which ultimately lowers the price threshold and increases the quality and user-friendliness.
I think it would be really fun to have one of these, but I'm not sure how useful it would really be. It's so small that it would be practically useless. I think the most useful it could be might be for small details in a model that would be extremely hard to do by hand. I think in terms of usefulness a Cricket might still be better and more practical. This laser cutter is probably more programmable, which would be useful for a wider variety of projects.
I think I actually ran into this a while back when I was looking for was to build my own laser cutter. I'm shocked by how open it is for anyone to make a laser cutter, I easily found multiple kits that were not too extravagantly pricey. This one however seems as though it would be the easiest to get a hold of and a great introduction to the work of tool patching.
Hey cool, this machine is pretty useless. In it’s current state at least. Take out the laser, put in a diamond point or carbine scribe, and it becomes the worlds most fragile layout tool. You could use it to scribe out clews, caster plates, or most usefully, a printer circuit board.
I don’t know that the maker community should be playing around with class III lasers. It’s just too easy to get injured. Building a little router is one thing, its damage is fairly limited to the length of its cutting mill. A laser can be damaging still far past its focal length. It scares me that people could build this with just instructions from the internet, and things in their basement.
It's so damn cute! Yes I want one, yes it's tiny, but I also don't think it'd be very useful. The size limitations of this device are pretty straightforward and it could only potentially be used for a number of small-scale things. What is truly great about this article though is that is gives insight to the whole DIY world of tool making, and I think that is something that is very important and useful for people to start thinking about.
This is so adorable. I like the idea of being able to have one of these on a desk or counter to allow for the quick engraving of small tags and things like that. I might try my hand at building one myself this summer.
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