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Sorry for the slow response
A few I lurk in:
Sawmill Creek - both the engraving & CNC
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/forumdis...-Manufacturing
http://www.ladyada.net/library/laser/
http://forums.adafruit.com/viewforum.php?f=18
Also look for a hackerspace or community workshop in your area - they may have a laser:
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces
If anyone wants to discuss building a laser this isn't the right place but a supplier turned me on to this website the other day:
http://www.buildlog.net/index.html
The nice thing about them is the frame and motors don't need to be nearly as robust as a bot. Lots of them are done with all extruded aluminum frames and pretty light steppers or servos.
I'm not interested in building a laser machine myself, what I have been thinking about doing is combining the two crafts (CNC routing and laser engraving/ cutting). Such as using the SB to CNC cut a 3D photo profile, then using the laser to etch/engrave to fine details into the scene. Has anyone tried that?Quote:
Originally Posted by bleeth
Perhaps this thread should be moved to another place to continue this discussion.
George
I know this thread has not been posted in for a few months but I only just stumbled upon it.
does anyone have a DXF or DWG file of the illustrator vector drawing. I do not have the ability to view vector graphics from adobe. I have been looking for dimensions for interleaved and sliding leaf irises so I can draw it up in AutoCAD for a little side project.
@Chris,
Are you still looking to automating the opening and closing of your iris? If so, I may be able to help. I am currently working on a stepper motor design for another project. I would be willing to port it over for your use. Depending on what you want to do, only a few modifications would be needed to the originial design but that is relatively easy.
Hello talkshopbot! This is my first post in your forum. I just had to join when I read this thread. What great information and ideas you have here. Chris, I love your beautifully made door peep hole.
Anyone that is seriously interested and admires the iris would probably agree that we all just want to see it really .... Human sized. I want to make one as a door I can walk through. Ok, so before you start trying to tell me not to.... I think it will be possible. But I do thik I'll need some help from some of you experts in order to make it a really great well-working design.
Brad Kent on page 7 or 8 of this thread showed a design that I'm leaning toward using for two reasons. I think it will use up less extra space outside the door opening. And I like the gapless opening effect and the sliding, yet not overlapping, design of the 12 triangle parts.
Two things: I will make the triangle sections of the door anywhere from 1-2" thick because I will give them an insulated core. I'm thinking a square tube frame for the triangles and then sheet metal for the covering which would leave it hollow to fill it with insulation.
Now, on to the questions about it... I need to make the triangle pieces interlock in some kind of sliding tongue and groove way, so that when the door is shut, it is sealed. But the thing that is bothering me more is how this Brad Kent design (if I may call it that) would operate. There are two "pegs" on each triangle section that ride in the slots in the big ring. This is simple, the triangles slide back and forth in that groove. But what stops the triangles from just rotating with that ring? What kind of fixed ring/fixture/slot would be needed on the opposite side of the triangles to keep them in place but allow them to still slide? I know that there are many more things to worry about later in the design of this door, but we'll get to them if you guys want to jump in and help me along the way... I'll wait to see if this post wakes any of you up.... :)
P.S.: Jake, your stepper motor (if it has the torque could help out in the end with this, I'm hoping to put some kind of bio access to open the door, and I want it all electronic, hand print, retinal or finger print scan, or just a number keypad. Also I want to put in a hand wheel to open it concealed behind a panel in the wall, in order to get out of the room in an emergency/failure)
Hi Seth, and welcome.
can I say about the "human sized" door... Oh Hell Yeah!
Check out Robo Von Bismarck's (aka Michael Cosgrove) thread over on brassgoggles.
http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/inde...c,24887.0.html
He proposes a second set of guide channels in addition to the actuating mechanism... ingenious. (see his exploded diagram just shy of halfway down the page).
Anything you do with this please post back. We are all about collective wisdom.
Chris
Awesome link Chris, it's exactly what I was looking for. Now the world makes sense again. They also talk in that forum about the airtight quandary . Making this thing so it isn't drafty. If it's a 7ft opening in the side of my house, I need a way to make it not too drafty. I DO live in Minnesota, after all. I was thinking a grooved side, and then buying poly strips to be on the edges that rub. Poly is nice and slippery, and would wear to be mated well. Then the other place to seal is around the circumference of the ring(s)... Not sure how to do that one yet.
So. I see Robo's design uses 8 sliding panels. every panel you put in these irises make the outer space required smaller, cause the panels are not as wide....I wonder how many panels one could use before the slots on the rings got too close together?
How do you calculate where the center point for the arced slots in the second ring should be? I know he had to have done that before having a machine cut his pieces. I need to know that, cause working on the scale that I am will have to be carefully measured. Then the next thing will be.... how the HECK am I gonna get two perfect 7 ft inner diameter and 12.5 ft outer diameter metal rings built?
Well after eyeing the mechanical iris for some time I finally got some shop time to cut a trial run on the pieces. While all the pieces turned out not too bad I didn't give much thought to actually assembling the unit and the required hardwre sizes so the first cut is more of a proof of concept for my toolpaths. I plan to get more plywood tomorrow and recut with new toolpaths. Hopefully the second time is a charm and I can assemble using all brass screws in a size of 10-24. I have resized all "holes" for either tap size or clearance size for 10-24 and hopefully the wood will "self-tap" as the hardware is installed! I will post further results tommorrow if all goes well! The plywood I used is actually a underlay for flooring but has a very nice veneer on one side but the other side has nail locations and writing which can be sanded off if required. This ply seems to machine nice and comes in 4 ft square pieces. I have also renested the parts to allow 2 complete sets of parts from each sheet of ply! Planning a few pieces for chrstmas gifts!
Gerald
I'm itching to be able to get back in the shop but still can't pick anything up heavy so i wanted to try something small. The issue i have (i need a refresher course) so what i need to know is looking at the dxf how can i cut these gears so that they have the square flat bottoms when cutting this as a "flat on the table" file?
Yes, George we use the laser to compliment the cnc daily,Quote:
Originally Posted by ironsides
and to those who want a large format laser, I want you to think about this.
It would be nice for cutting large precise parts, but for engraving large letters over a big area or pictures, its called raster engraving and most machines do it from 250 lines per inch up to full coverage of 1600 lines per inch, and to do it at any depth it runs slow, example : at full power 100% at 1 inch a second, a 25 watt RF machine will cut 1/2 inch clear cedar, to engrave a picture 12inches x 12inches at 60% full power will take about and hour with a 25 watt synrad tube 100 watts will be 4 times faster..
WE did try it, a 4x4 laser, but no one was willing to pay for its work, so we sold it and went back to a smaller machine.