Today I spent the day at TechShop San Francisco.  I spent a couple hours designing in Corel Draw, then had two hours on the laser (unfortunately, the bulb was overheating, so productive time was less).

First, I made a jig and etched off the paint of pennies that I had spray painted to leave text behind:

This is using 70% power and 4 passes.  It looks ok, but I need to have at least two layers of paint, and use a higher dpi.  I’ll get some shiny pennies and try again.

Next project was to make a more solid prototype for the doll chain resulting in this:

If you’re curious, it’s a black sock stretched over a jar.

Next project was to experiment etching magnifying glass lenses.  For the tank periscope, I need to have a crosshairs.  Not sure what lens I’ll need, figured I’d give it a go.  I experimented with an off-label uses of the laser – instead of printing a raster image, I used a vector at only 15% power (tried lower power first, but not deep enough).  Result is this:

I am going to try rubbing in some pigment so the lines will be more visible.

The last, and primary project of the day was to make a wooden frame using a magnifying glass motif that I designed in Corel.  The laser died midway through the first attempt.  The second attempt worked, but unfortunately didn’t quite punch all the way through and the result was that it broke when trying to remove it from the waste wood.  I did get a good L shape out of it which will give you an idea.

I may switch to acrylic.  Also, not sure whether I will use glass a a backing, or wood.  I may very well add in border rectangles both in and out, so I won’t need anything else.  I might be able to also flip it over and raster on a groove around the inner rectangle to hold a piece of glass.

I also learned how to TIG weld today.  I have to say, it’s really quite fun!  I like how delicate it is, and the great control you have.  I’ll have to practice a lot more, as it requires a lot of technique to do well.