Hacking and Nonsense
In case you were wondering “Can you laser etch rocks?”
You totally can.
Robo-rock was etched in raster mode at 20% speed and 100% power on a 35 watt laser.
Unlike the last robo-pet I had (grass) this one should be substantially harder to kill.
Related ideas we’ve come up with include etching a bunch with electrical symbols and casting them like runes for circuits. Of course this led to a discussion on casting bones, and then etching them.
Today I made EVEN MORE STUFF on the laser cutter. AND, this time I actually listed something for sale on Etsy. This is the first time in many, many months I have actually listed things for sale (excluding mindlessly hitting renew when things expire). It’s awesome to actually make things I like again.
I made the city ring in blue acrylic:
I also made it in white acrylic but there was a small problem. The white was slightly warped. This caused the laser to be out of focus when it hit it, making things generally melty.
Within an hour of listing the blue ring on Etsy, I’d sold 2. So I guess they’re a hit? I also made one out of day-glo pink plastic. It’s a little blinding.
I tried to make a tiny city on a ring. It came out OK but I’m still figuring out what scale works with what materials. Also, balsa is useless; never use it for anything.
I have been using a program called QCAD to draw out the designs, and its been kinda frustrating. The documentation for it is terrible. Bre found a guy who does tutorials which has helped a little, but its overall a slow process. In some ways its similar to Rhino, which I learned in college, but the UI is totally different and its annoying. I’m debating whether to reinstall XP on my laptop (it has Ubuntu right now) just so I can use Illustrator instead. Because apparently I have forgotten how much I hate Illustrator.
I also made another ring, but the basswood was too weak for the design, and the notches were a tiny bit too small.
First and foremost, the laser is now up and running at the hackerspace. One of Bre’s friends sent him a dinosaur pattern, and I decided that said dinosaur pattern would be more fun if it was ridiculously small.
Three tries (took a while to get the scale right) and some tweezers later… TINYSAUR
Here’s tinysaur next to Bre’s dinosaur:
If you’d like to make your own Tinysaur but lack a 35 watt CO2 laser, you can get the pre-lased kit on Etsy or if you’d rather skip the tedium and just have a tiny T-Rex, you can get a completed Tinysaur as well.