Hi all,
I just signed up. Figured I post my info and a few builds.
My name is David, I recently put together a wood shop in the garage of my new house to build some new furniture, lamps, shelves, etc to fill the place out. Started from scratch (almost) … bought Kobalt table saw & table router, etc. Been working on tuning those and making jigs etc. Would like to post some pics of my recent builds (if this site lets me?)
Just today got a new Atomstack laser engraver/cutter and looking to figure out how to use it! Hoping to find help on that here.
The toolbar at the top of the message compose has an icon in the middle with an arrow pointing up, and if you hover over it you will see “Upload”. That will let you upload pictures. Please do post pictures; it’s allowed and encouraged! Welcome to the forum.
Feel free to use the gray pencil icon at the bottom of the post to edit your post to add pictures, or to post pictures in a response.
If you click on your yellow “D” in a circle at the top right (your “avatar”), you will see a “Greetings” message that offers a tutorial in how to use the Discourse software that this site runs on. It’s quick and easy.
You’ll see that we have both Crafts and Lasers here.
( … umm, I’ll tell my wife
btw, constructive crits are VERY welcome … as noted I just started doing this recently (6 mo ago) and with almost every project I’m trying to do something very new. I know I’m making mistakes. But, I think I’m making pretty good progress(?) (btw, pics are in reverse order of recent creation.)
thanks,
Dave
Feel free to post pictures of construction projects as you go along! Two benefits — others can learn from seeing your process, and it gives space for hints and ideas that might not be obvious from the final pictures. I’ve done a bunch of these build logs and it’s been helpful.
(For the lampshade, I had guessed that the design was laser-cut, missing how recently you had gotten the laser cutter.)
One thing to keep in mind for your new laser cutter is that these open frame LED laser cutters were not designed with safety in mind. (“Warning: Do not look into laser with remaining eye.”) Those LED blue lasers are being sold with “wear these glasses” as the only safety mechanism, which doesn’t help if anyone else wanders by, or just one time you forget to put the glasses on. The problem with the blue lasers is that they quickly, painlessly, permanently burn out cells in your retina, and tihs can happen from reflections, not just staring into the beam. You won’t notice much the loss of peripheral acuity because your brain just fills in the missing information by making something up.
Plexiglass 2422 tint is understood to have the right dye to absorb that blue laser light. @donkjr came up with the idea to cut a piece into a collar that goes around the lens to absorb any reflections as a “better than nothing” alternative to putting the cutter in an enclosure. Here’s an example source:
It’s possible to get plastic that has been certified to block blue laser light, and I would never talk someone out of getting it, but there are plenty of folks here who have used 2422 for this purpose,
Thanks HalfNormal. BTW, noticed the post on SketchUp … used that to design these.
Thanks for the safety tips Michael … this is the kind of info I was hoping for on joining Since it’s a bit off-topic, I’ll start a thread in the laser section when I get some time next week.
Hoping to find help on that here.
… that was a HomeDepot or Lowes purchase
