Just starting the hobby, anything i need to know before buying my first laser?

[mophead]

This thread has a good place to get 50 glass samples for cheap. at least 15-20 of the 50 are decent for lumias

heh. lumina. heh

[Stuka]

All of your advice is gratefully accepted and appreciated! I just hooked up with a guy I know who has some of the motor options and/or pieces below.

I also wanted to ask. Do all of you buy your laser pointers or make them exclusively? I found a blue, red and orange one on another website for sale. What is your best advice for this?

Recommendation -

Instead of buying several pricey pointers, go ahead and invest in a decent modulated laser module.
You can still use it stand-alone while experimenting, plus you'll be making an investment in your future projector!

You could get a cheap WalMart-variety pointer if you want to have something available to carry with you to test potential lumia samples...

[mixedgas]

Steve's "Easybake" Lumia: Go to the hardware store, get the 1/8th inch thick acrylic plastic that they sell as replacement windows for houses. Cut a circle with a hole saw, or just cut a small square. If you scribe it deeply with a box knife, it will break with some effort along the scribe lines, but wear gloves when breaking. Take it outside because the fumes in the next step are just killer, both in smell and toxicity, so wait for a slightly windy day, or keep at arms length.

Get a propane torch of the plumbing variety, very slowly and gently make passes with the tip of the flame across the plastic. Let it cool for a whole minute before making the next torch pass. DO NOT deeply burn it. If your not spending 5 minutes a square inch, your messing up. It takes time, so you will use enough propane to make Hank Hill proud. The idea is to form little tiny random bubbles just below the surface of the plastic while keeping it somewhat clear. The more you make passes with the torch, the more filligree in the lumia. The deeper you cook it per pass, the more divergence angle of the lumina. In other words, its tunable for the screen distance and amount of detail.

Easybake with icing. Heat a long brass or steel rod, longer then the lumia. Press completed Easybake lumia onto the rod lengthwise for a few moments in random spots, then bend the lumia over the rod. This allows you to make slight bent ripples in the plastic.

ZOOMIA: Place a 50 mm focal length planoconvex lens behind a thin lumia, run the launch beam through it. On the other side, place either a zoom or wide angle lens to collect and shape the diffracted light. This allows dome wide lumia in planetaria or long distance projection of the lumia outdoors. Respect to uberlaserist Greg Makhov for teaching me this one.

Torture Tube: Get a length of Pyrex 6 mm diameter tubing with 1 mm or less wall. AKA thin wall Pyrex. It takes a lot of heat to cook Pyrex, you may find a welding torch with a "00" tip handy for this one. Poke the hot Pyrex with a nail, pinch it with pliers, add Pyrex glass "angel hair" to it, mash it gently with the patterned edge of a mill file. Mount it so the tubing axis runs along the motor shaft. This creates repeating "ocean waves" when the motor spins. Needs a slow but not too slow motor for the waves, pyrex is used so you only have to flame anneal the glass. Angel hair is made by rapidly stretching molten pyrex till it is a few 1000ths of a inch in diameter. A propane torch from the hardware store will work, but you may be Hank Hill's friend when done.

REFLECTIVE LUMIA: Crinked aluminum foil, glued onto a disk sunny side out. Imitation gold leaf from a artists store is best for this.

REFLECTIVE or BURNING LUMIA, Laserium Style: Aluminized mylar from a model airplane shop or mylar balloons is bonded to a glass disk, aluminum side out. Focus the high power laser to a tiny spot on the surface of the mylar, the reflection from the melting plastic is the lumia. This was once patented as part of the LM Projector patent, now expired. You need a watt or so to do this.

Self HEATING LUMIA: fill the space between two parallel glass plates with LDPE or similar plastic that is opaque when frozen but clear when melted. Heat with laser beam to melting. As the plastic just becomes clear with convection currents, cool things happen, you might also do this with a external heater. Craft stores now sell LDPE for 3$ a bag, next to the hot melt glue, for making your own cool stuff by melting it in water that is not quite boiling.

The candy store lumia: Take a date to a candy store, get the molded glass "heart" candy boxes. Eat solid sugar contents with date. Work out next day to save cardiovascular function, Molded "depression" glass usually has nice faucets or prisms molded in, place in front of scan head. You really want the one with the prisms radiating out from the center of the lid, and when you scan a slow circle on it... Magic happens..

Stained glass stores sell glass from 4$ to 16$ a square foot and have lots of scraps, plus hole drills for glass and circle cutters. Take a BRIGHT pointer and scan at ceiling. Explain to store owner before doing so. Junk yards often have old shower glass which is the best.

DOORKNOB LUMIA: Antique glass door knobs often have magical properties, this is a Tim Walsh invention. dont waist your time with modern plastic clones, the index of refraction is just plain wrong.

Slumped Lumia: Find a friend with a ceramics kiln. Make a plaster form for the bottom of the kiln, load the sheet glass in over the plaster form in the bottom of the kiln, slowly heat kiln until the glass is plastic but not molten. Compared to firing glaze on bisque, Flint float glass made for windows has a low softening point. You must anneal the glass by reducing kiln temp 10' C every 5 minutes for 30 minutes, then let the kiln cool before removing the glass.

YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE LUMIA: Find a friend who does lapidary or has a glassblowing shop. Get a old sealed beam car headlight with DOT4 lens with prisms. Use glass saw with diamond wheel to remove lens. Requires gloves and safety glasses when doing this. VERY IMPORTANT: release vacuum in lamp before sawing by breaking or nicking fill stem, else lamp can implode. Place in front of scan head.

Steve

[Laser Zone]

Just starting the hobby, anything i need to know before buying my first laser?


YA RUN !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Laserchik]

@mixed gas

Excellent suggestions on Lumia! Not to mention referencing The Beatles in your title is always a great way to start out a post(HUGE fan!!) Thank you!

@Stuka

I have a green laser pointer that Displaser gave to me as a gift. I am wearing that thing out, I assure you........I do like your reccommendation as well. Thank you!

[Displaser]

Steve,

Thanks for yet another lengthy post. Great lumia ideas!

Greg