Why use a blue diode?

those just 'look cool' and cost alot


get a high-powered red diode, it's cheaper

 Blue cuts a wider range of colors

blue doesn't just "look cool" blue lasers are at around 400nm in wavelength meaning a lower mW laser could cut more effectively than it's red counterpart. As far as expense goes... 20$ for one powerful enough to light a cigar. plus they look cool.

Thats a great idea.. I have seen a guy who is doing that and is cutting foam sheet. I cannot for the life of me find it right now.. but it can be done.

I would make one of these if you can do that.

lol, read my first comment, then PM if you're interested, I'll try to find out my "plans" and communicate with you for further project rendering.

That's exactly what I wanted to do. Let's just hope the printer motors will have enough torque. I tough of hooking up the laser power supply to the ink 'trigger', which means, instead of sending ink onto paper, the laser will be triggered. Thus, the surface, burned/etched/cut. I would suggest a potentiometer at the laser supply to adjust laser power. You could then just print a B&W image, where the black parts would be where to be etched/burned/cut. Sounds good to me, I made rough plans based on my inkjet printer here.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Have you gotten anywhere on that ink trigger? I'm also trying to figure out how to activate the diode when it "prints"

A problem I see is that every time the diode and the driver circuit turns off, the capacitor should/needs to be shorted out to protect the diode. Is there a way we can hook it up to the potentiometer so that when it triggers, it switches from low output visible to full 100-200mw. Thinking about this driver. Any thoughts?

2 problems:

how do you keep small bits from getting stuck in mechanisms instead of coming out

and

how will you protect the other parts of the printer from the rest of the laser that shines through

well, 2nd problem first:
If you use an "ink" trigger, you don't really need to worry as it will only turn the laser on when "ink" would be applied, or, in this case, laser cuts made.  It shouldnt be on long enough to put a hole through plastic.

For the first question, hope and prayer?

Agrees with the first problem's solution lol. Just hope for me.

Or, you try it first. If it doesn't go through the printer correctly, well it won't while lasering.

You have to build an enclosure, and use a shop vac to create suction to pull the waste away from the cutter.  instead of a solid plastic sheet to place the paper on perhaps some kind of metal screen should be used to allow small waste to fall through and withstand the heat of the laser.

 Why, you are right. Plus I could use some steel sheet painted black, with a "hi-heat" paint (like the ones for high temperature parts in cars, like brakes and some engine parts). The black is to actually absorb the heat, cauz if I used some metal finish, it would actually reflect the beam and it might damage something else. 


Screw what I just said. ceramic. non polished finish. Heat cannot kill it.

Or you could glue/tape on a sheet the laser can't cut through. The actual material you use would depend on the kind of laser you use and how powerful it is, but the principle idea would be like using a piece of black paper with the edges glued onto a piece of white paper. The laser cuts the black paper, but not the white paper. The pieces from the black paper are trapped between the black and white pieces of paper, so nothing ends up in your printer. When it comes out just cut off the areas you glued and you have a nice clean stencil and a nice clean printer. Sometimes the low-tech solution is the best solution. :) Also, for a cutting laser you can just use the laser from a DVD-R/RW drive - these are very powerful Class 2 lasers that are quite capable of cutting thin materials, especially black colored material. They should also go right through any clear plastic, so you can just use a transparency as your backing material.

use spray adhesive to connect the 2 papers...though, it may spontaneously combust :P

The developer's site is www.bloodshed.net

It helps to have a different download package handler available. Since I play BigFish games, I had their download manager installed on my desktop. It handled Dev C++ just fine. I took care of my laptop by first downloading a game and then downloading Dev C++.

If dev C++ doesn't work, try mingw or djgpp (or one of the other GCC ports for windows). If that doesn't work, a linux livecd is usable.

Here in the Seattle area we have a place called rePC that has two locations.  While certainly not as cheap as the scrapyard, they have tons of old semi-junked scrap printers and other computer components sold as is on the cheap.

Dude! Rock on! The scrap yard is one of my favorite places!

bluray lasers don't burn things

Hah, blueray lasers DO INDEED burn things.  They would work great for this project.

i have to be positive and constructive, bluray r really really good for cutting

yes you can dvd burners and blue ray players have incredebly strong diodes that can cut paper, pop balloons, and light matches. those would be perfect for this.

silhoutte machine for $100

google it

not for less than $229 unless your looking at a different one than i am? http://www.silhouettemachine.com/ ?

in any case nothing beats doing it your self! :-D