Random laser projects

As people do projects on the laser we accumulate the demonstration parts and abandoned or failed projects in the laser cutter room.  They subsequently become showcases of what we can do (or what we can’t do depending on how you look at it) for visitors to the laser room.  Below are some photos showing a few of those samples that we keep for people to check out.

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US Map cut out of 1/8″ acrylic. The whole thing is only about 4 inches across so Hawaii was lost before we even got it out of the laser cutter.

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Leather cutting and engraving turns out really well. The detail and color of the engraving is particularly nice although it really smells when cutting.
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Although we can’t cut or engrave plain metal of any kind (that takes 150 watts or more) we can engrave the anodizing away on anodized aluminum. The anodizing is an oxide layer a couple thousandths of an inch thick on the surface of the metal and the laser removes that quite easily.
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We do these as demos and so we’ve got lots of them. They serve as good samples of how different power levels give different engraving depths.
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Wood engravings turn out well but sometimes the image gets pretty garbled. The kitten is really detailed (width is just a bit over 2 inches).
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Delicate things turn out really well on the laser and showcase how it is able to do easily the kinds of things that be near impossible to do by hand.
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Foamcore and paper cut easily. Paper resolution is good but limited a little by the burning of the edges that can occur. Foamcore cuts and engraves well.
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Acrylic of all colors and thicknesses is our bread and butter and it generally comes out really well. We can cut from 1/16″ to 1/2″ thick material and the edges generally come out smooth. The box and Raspberry Pi case demonstrate how you use the laser, an inherently 2-dimensional machine, to make 3 dimensional objects.