2011-09-26

Searching for the Perfect Laser Cutting Table

At some point, everybody who builds a personal laser begins a search for the best and cheapest cutting table they can find, buy, build, borrow, or invent. And like everyone else, I have been on that quest for some time now. But maybe - just maybe - I may have found it.

2011-09-19

Laser Power Settings Via PWM Can Fool You

When I bought my first cheap Chinese laser, I set the laser power level with a variable resistor and a mA meter. It worked, but it seemed just a little too iffy to me. If I moved my angle of view of the meter, I would see different readings. I couldn't help longing for a way to be more exact, more repeatable from job to job. Then I heard about the magical PWM. I didn't know what it was, exactly, or how it worked, but I was hearing that it was the modern digital approach to managing power levels in your laser. I'm a modern kind of guy. I'm a digital kind of guy. Sounds like just what I was looking for - or was it?

2011-09-12

Are you well connected?

My son talks about a "Klout" score, a measurement of how well connected you are or how much influence you wield on the internet. I wish there were a way to measure how well connected the various parts of our laser systems are. Let me tell you why.