What would you make with a Laser?

TJ wrote: I'd attach the laser to a 747 and use it to shoot down ballistic missiles.

In 1989 as a machinist I worked on the Aurora Project, they said it was part of a sattelite. When I asked about the rubber mounts for the laser and why it had a "debris shield" I was ushered off to the office. Sattelite killer?

John Brown wrote:

914Driver wrote:

TJ wrote: I'd attach the laser to a 747 and use it to shoot down ballistic missiles.

In 1989 as a machinist I worked on the Aurora Project, they said it was part of a sattelite. When I asked about the rubber mounts for the laser and why it had a "debris shield" I was ushered off to the office. Sattelite killer?

Meanwhile outside of 914Drivers house:

I thought this thread was going to be about crazy DSM frankensteingeneering.

oh I don't know what I would make. but here is a laser machine in my friends garage.

He makes model airplane parts.

SVreX wrote: Novaderrick: Can you tell me more about the specs of your machine? Size, capabilities, power level, software, programing ease- whatever. I'm interested in what you did.

the machines i ran were Amada 4000 watt flat lasers with automatic shuttle beds. 2 of them were from the late 90's and held sheets of steel up to 5 feet by 10 feet and could cut up to 1" thick steel or 3/4" stainless. they had regular Fanuc controller like you might find on a cnc machining center from that era. the big one was new in '04 and could handle material up to 6 feet by 12 feet and up to an inch thick. the controller was windows based but you could configure the screen to look like the controllers on the other machines.

we cut steel, stainless, and some aluminum on them, but the operators manual said it could cut plastic and etch on pretty much anything with the proper lense, nozzle, and power settings.

all the programming was done in standard G code. i can't remember what program they used for making the actual programs or doing the nesting, but it looked pretty simple to use based on what i saw my supervisors do.i got pretty good at doing on the spot editing of the code to make small changes to the parts if they were out of spec or if i had to start in the middle of a part due to a lense or nozzle problem of some sort.

we also had a neat thing called a "Fabrivision" that we used to check our parts- it had a 4X4 foot glass sheet that we set the parts on and it used lasers to measure the placement and size of all the holes, slots, and whatever else needed to be checked in the parts. it was accurate down to .001". we figured out how to use it in "prototype" mode to make a program that could be put into the cad program to make the part- that's how we made the Metallica sign. we just cut out the letters out of paper, set them on the glass, scanned it, then made a program out of it. it was about 10 minutes from the time we scanned it until i was cutting the first part out of a piece of scrap from the "real" job i was doing at the time..

i got laid off from that job in march of '09, and i miss it. i was just starting to get good at using all the equipment and was making decent money for the area..

here is one of the "projects" i made at work.. 3/4" steel with 20 gauge perforated steel welded to the back. both cut with the same program on the same machine about 5 minutes apart. for the perforated part, i just cut the outline and then skipped it to the end of the program, then had one of the welders tack it to the back of the thick part. all the programming was done in background edit mode while the "real" job was cutting and only actually used about 2 minutes of machine time to do. lasers are awesome..

photo engravings or photo jigsaw puzzles.

Excellent info, NovaD.

Thanks for the details.

EricM wrote: oh I don't know what I would make. but here is a laser machine in my friends garage. He makes model airplane parts.

That unit is a lot smaller than what I am doing, designed primarily for engraving. It is also less versatile. Can't cut metal.

But thank you for sharing. Is your friend looking to part with it? (We will be setting up multiple units of differing capacities for differing purposes).

I would make another, bigger lazer

Motorcycle fork braces out of aluminum. I could even be the first buyer. The one available for my bike is ~160$ so if you were to charge around 50-60 and put a cool emblem on it people would buy them. The brace is pretty simple, just two holes in a piece of thick aluminum. The brace also has a screw on both sides to mount it to the fork. The CNC could make the brace, all you have to do is drill and tap two holes and you'd be in business.

benzbaron wrote: Motorcycle fork braces out of aluminum. I could even be the first buyer. The one available for my bike is ~160$ so if you were to charge around 50-60 and put a cool emblem on it people would buy them. The brace is pretty simple, just two holes in a piece of thick aluminum. The brace also has a screw on both sides to mount it to the fork. The CNC could make the brace, all you have to do is drill and tap two holes and you'd be in business.

That seems like an item that would benefit from forging vs. CNC billet aluminum.

Here is a picture of what one for sale looks like, they are pretty expensive for what you are buying. Just start making the braces and sell them less than everyone else. Make a name up and you could go into business. I think regular machined aluminum would be plenty strong if you choose the correct alloy.

I'm not wanting to be solely in the business of selling motorcycle fork braces, but I'll happily be your supplier if YOU want to.

I was hoping for lasercats.

I would make Marty! a custom set of adjustable camber plates for a Ford Festiva.

For mass production I would design a line of Harley accessories. I'm not a Harley guy but if my goal was to make the laser earn it's keep custom engraved air cleaners and what not I think would pay off. Everybody wants their bike to stand out and they're usually not afraid to spend to get it.

While this one appears to be stamped, an engraved one would be pretty similar.

benzbaron wrote:

Lots of liability right there.

He would be much better off making Tacoma cargo bar brackets.

Darn, you beat me to it.

I'll hotlink it anyway.

Only better if you put a transmitter in Kent's filling and proclaim to be god.