by Liberty4Ever » Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:22 am
That laser origami video was very cool.
Now I know why I didn't take the excellent advice from other laser builders and keep my laser project simple by not having a machine controlled Z axis and using the adjustable stalk on the laser head to focus it, and instead designed a Z axis with about ten inches of travel for LinuxCNC to control. When I finally build my laser, I'll be able to cut the outlines on a sheet of acrylic, drop the Z axis a few inches to defocus the laser and heat the acrylic to melt it so it'll fold down to a 90 degree angle. It's just G code for LinuxCNC.
LinuxCNC isn't very good with raster laser engraved artwork (with apologies to the intrepid builders who have done an excellent job blazing that trail), so I was already contemplating a slight drop in the Z direction to slightly defocus the laser for an attempt at vector engraving, but the laser origami is way cooler.
Apparently, I didn't build that!