Material Madness

Due to my curiosity and love of searching out and testing new materials to work with on my laser, my laser center has shelves full of untested or tested-but-not-perfected items waiting for my attention. Occasionally, I need to focus on just one material and make a decision of whether it should be kept and promoted in future products or should it go to my bin of dashed dreams (big gray trash barrel).

Shear(ly) Delighted

One way to remain happy is to lower your threshold for what makes you happy. In other words, take joy from the little things. Last night I found that a decision I made a couple of weeks ago is going the be the source of a lot of happiness in the future.

I do a limited amount of engraving on metal-based products, like anodized aluminum and the various flavors of laserable coated metals. I like the results I get from the lasering, but have always been frustrated by the mechanical issues involved. In particular, cutting the metal sheets has been troublesome.

A laser build is never done

One of the fun things about building your own laser is that you get to keep improving it. Whether it is something totally functional or purely cosmetic or some combination of the two, there is always one more piece to add, one more adjustment to make, one more way to try, one more...

Setting the DSP Laser Controller Advance Applications for Rotational Adapter

The DSP Commercial Laser Controller is a great way to run your laser projects. Unfortunately, the documentation is pretty weak, or even non-existent, for some features. Previously, I did a review of the BuildLog.net Laser 2.x open source rotational adapter, but that was focused more on the adapter itself, and did not discuss the software to any extent. Since that time, the software has been updated and setting up the software to run the adapter are slightly different. So, today I decided to figure out the new settings and to make a short Over-The-Shoulder video that demonstrates exactly how to set it up.