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Thread: It all starts here...

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
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    Laser Warning It all starts here...

    My projector project is about to start in earnest. some piccies to whet your appetite:

    Basic projector ingredients
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    Power Plate mock up (Fans are just to gauge size)
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    Optical plate mock up
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    scanner/Laser head height check (by sight)
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    Optical plate is all marked up ready for milling & drilling. Still have to do the power plate.
    Then it's just bolting, wiring & firing
    Last edited by WolfMax; 02-24-2014 at 06:50.
    Cheers

    Colin.

    Anyone wanting to be a politician, should automatically be excluded from being one!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
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    Looking good Colin, cant wait to see the photons fly.

  3. #3
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    Mar 2013
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    Langhus - Norway
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    I guess the DTR RGB bundle arrived!
    Nice collection of bits and pieces.
    It is long ago you dug out your red gas laser, and fired it up.

    I guess that restarted the laser interest.

    A few month later and building a feinschmecker piece of equipment.

    Really looking forward to see where this is going, and what the final result will look like.
    __________________________________________________ __________

    More projects than time available.
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    Just got to love lasers!

  4. #4
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    Aug 2013
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    West Sussex
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    Looking good Colin! I'm intrigued as to the purpose of the metal rods.

    Keith

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Galvonaut View Post
    Looking good Colin! I'm intrigued as to the purpose of the metal rods.

    Keith
    Support posts between the lower optical deck and the upper power deck. They are 12mm stainless steel and will be machined to 120 mm overall length with the ends turned down to 20mm long M8 thread. They will then go through M8 clearance holes on each corner of the decks and be locked together with M8 Nyloc nuts. Leaving a gap between the decks of 80mm. More than enough room for the lasers and scanner.

    The one thing I didn't show as part of the 'ingredients' was the case. I'm saving that for a surprise.
    Cheers

    Colin.

    Anyone wanting to be a politician, should automatically be excluded from being one!

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by WolfMax View Post
    Support posts between the lower optical deck and the upper power deck. They are 12mm stainless steel and will be machined to 120 mm overall length with the ends turned down to 20mm long M8 thread. They will then go through M8 clearance holes on each corner of the decks and be locked together with M8 Nyloc nuts. Leaving a gap between the decks of 80mm. More than enough room for the lasers and scanner.

    The one thing I didn't show as part of the 'ingredients' was the case. I'm saving that for a surprise.
    Oh cool - proper engineering then
    Look forward to seeing the case - I'm still stuck on mine until I know how much space I'll need.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Datsurb View Post
    I guess the DTR RGB bundle arrived!
    Nice collection of bits and pieces.
    It is long ago you dug out your red gas laser, and fired it up.

    I guess that restarted the laser interest.
    When I first built the HeNe laser (1986) the only scanners I could find any info on were G120 galvos. But they were so expensive and I was so poor (for want of a better word), that any ideas of a projector was out of the question. Now things are much less expensive and I have the means at my disposal, I'm fulfilling a long held desire to build one of these things. And since RGB isn't any more difficult than a single colour, I might as well go down that road too.

    I'll be honest, I'm only building one for the sense of achievement. I'm not likely to use it much, the odd party maybe or when I'm bored and need to do something. It's likely to sit in a cupboard for months at a time to be played with when the mood takes me.
    Cheers

    Colin.

    Anyone wanting to be a politician, should automatically be excluded from being one!

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Galvonaut View Post
    Oh cool - proper engineering then
    Look forward to seeing the case - I'm still stuck on mine until I know how much space I'll need.
    Proper Engineering done (at some point) by proper engineers with the proper equipment that I don't have
    I've even done CAD drawings so I can give them the materials and the plans and say 'How much and when will it be done'!

    Don't get me wrong, if I had the tools to do the job, I'd do it. But I don't so that's the way it has to be. I will be wiring it and setting up the optics myself though.
    Cheers

    Colin.

    Anyone wanting to be a politician, should automatically be excluded from being one!

  9. #9
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    The tools may be more minimal than you think. The one big thing I needed to get was a bandsaw, but it may be possible to get the cutting done by a supplier. For drilling I got the best bench pillar drill 120 quid could buy me, and got the best chuck I could justify to replace the crappy one that came with it. It's worth doing, because with only occasional use you get long life, but you also get the ease and accuracy of a better tool. I also got fluteless taps for M3 and M4, which cost a bit, but they can be used in the pillar drill with the power off, belt moved by hand to speed up the threading and keep it very clean and accurate.

    Another thing is SketchUp, if you can use it. You can model the 3D layout and see things you might miss, though arraying the parts as you do is good, no substitute for doing that and looking at them a long time so you see things not obvious at first. If you can do a laser print of a mounting plane in Sketchup you can gluespray the paper to the deck to protect the surface and get accurate markings at same time. After drilling and cutting, white spirit soaking the paper will remove it and clean the deck.

  10. #10
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    Nice work!!! I'm working on my first DIY too, and have been following your threads.

    What kind of laser drivers are you using, and are they analog?
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