Did you ever see those laser devices that make a little laser show on a wall that changes around? I'll show you how you can do that with stuff laying around the house.

Step 1: Gather Materials

These are the things you will need before starting.

-laser
-2 mirrors, one has to be at least 2" by 2"
-2 electric motors(scavenged from toy fans)
-a AA battery
-plenty of small wire
-some plastic containors to mount the motors on, anything about an inch high and sturdy enought to mount the motors on will work.
- DIY Laser Mount
-a base about 5" by 5", I used a plastic lid, you can use cardboard or anything else thats handy.
- a potentiometer to control the speed of the motor, any salvaged volume control should work
-plenty of wire so we have some slack to work with

Tools
-soldering iron
-hot glue/epoxy

Step 2: Setting Up the Electric

Solder wires to one of the leads on both motors. Then solder both of those to one end of the battery. Next Solder a short wire to one of one of the motors leads. Attach a longer wire to the other motors lead. Solder the potentiometer to the short wire, solder a wire to that then connect that with the longer wire. Attach that to the switch then to the other end of the battery. The picture will help a lot.

Before anyone rant... I realize that anyone with any knowledge about basic electronics knows that electricity always takes the path of least resistance so wiring in a parallel isn't the best choice if I want to use a potentiometer. I wanted to only have to use one battery so I did. The potentiometer, if you're careful with it will change the speed of the one motor without stopping completely. If you want to wire in a series, it doesn't take too much knowledge to do that, so you can if you like.

Sorry for all the words.

Step 3: Setting Up Base

Glue the two plastic containors upside down to the two opposite corners of your lid/cardboard. The containors should not be touching, in fact they should be about 2-3" apart.

Step 4: Gluing Mirrors to Motors

Using the hot glue or the epoxy, glue the mirror to the tip of the motor. Try and get it as close to the middle as you can to reduce vibrations.
Also try and get it as flat as possible by 'eyeballing' it. This should get it flat but not so flat that it won't make a circle with the beam.
Attach the big mirror to the motor with the potentiometer attached and the smaller mirror to the motor without it.

Step 5: Gluing the Motors to the Platforms

Hold the motors on the platform with the mirrors facing eachother, now rotate them in opposite directions each about 5-10 degrees.

Step 6: Getting It to Work

Using the DIY Laser Mount, adjust the laser so it shines onto one mirror, reflects to the other and then hits a wall.

Turn flip the switch and watch the show happen. Slowly turn the potentiometer to watch the design change.

Step 7: Closing Thoughts

You don't need a switch as you can just twist and untwist two wires if you must.

The problems with wiring in parallel isn't too apparent here, probably because the potentiometer has pretty low resistance and i think it isn't worth it to wire in a series.

To keep the laser on, try using a zip tie over the button. The way the ties are made is that you can just twist them too and they will turn off the laser.

If you dont want to make the laser stand you could try to put the laser on a book or something to try and get the angles right. The instructable for using flour as a camera holder will work good, using a laser instead of a camera of course.

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If you want to go to a forum where you can learn all about lasers, go to Lasercommunity

A great place for high powered lasers is Wicked Lasers. Only buy lasers there if you buy goggles too, any laser over 5mW can be very devastating to eyesight.

Created by Lasercommunity member: trooperrick123