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Got meself a new toy

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mattinker:
Kwakers,

instead of making a glaze from powdered glass how about looking at ready made ceramics glazes of a kind that are already spray-able? Does your other half spray glazes?

Regards, Matthew

John Stevenson:
Steve,

 :worthless:

kwackers:
I didn't really have any pics and more importantly I didn't have anything I'd made - other than lots of scrap that I'd chopped into bits/set fire too or had filled full of holes...
So I quickly made the dinosaur out of 3mm scrap MDF, six inch vernier on the top to give some idea of size and took a snap.
(Took longer to figure out how to put the dinosaur together than to cut it out!)

Laser is an eBay Chinese special, it worked out of the box and the optics were even aligned! All nicely modular with 'proper' electronics and slides so I figured if it was a bit rubbish I could mad-mod it.  :dremel:

Max work area is 300x500mm, laser is 50w and it comes with a load of chaff. Currently as you can see it backs on to my garage door - this is because the exhaust consists of cracking the door open and chucking the pipe out underneath it. One of the other nice things is the seller has them on 'buy-it-now' or 'best-offer' and it appears they'll take a significant drop on their best offer, the cutter is also on the south coast so was here within 3 days.

@Mathew, nope she doesn't have any spray glazes but that's a good idea. There certainly seems to be mileage in spraying glass on stuff and then 'welding' it on...

As an aside, having played with and seen one now I'm contemplating whether when I make my CNC router mark II I shouldn't give it the ability to have a laser head... The extra footprint would be handy although it would need some method of being able to add and remove the optics easily and accurately - along with some way to avoid sticking something fleshy into the path of the beam as it bounces around the machine.

BillTodd:
Can these things burn on a curved surface?  (i.e. something that is, say, 20mm higher in the middle than at each end)

kwackers:
I don't think mine would - I think the laser would have diverged too much.

You can get lenses with longer focal lengths which would help - presumably the higher powered stuff that can cut through 20mm materials have these (mine cuts 6mm acrylic easily enough, I think it'd do 10mm at a push).

Failing that I wouldn't be surprised if someone's figured out a way to do it...

I should add I'm presuming something quite large here - if its effective diameter is less than about 8" then I have a rotary attachment which with a suitable jig would allow it to cut.

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