Tag: laser cutter

lased

So. Much. Laser.

Kelly

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.

Tri-city area

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.

lased

Laser Rings

Ringtown

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.

Failring

lased

Tinysaur is Tiny

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

Tinysaur

Here’s tinysaur next to Bre’s dinosaur:
Tinysaur workshop

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.