Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Laser links ?

> How the he** do you keep the heat from shattering the glass?
> I can understand punching a small hole in glass, it happens so
> quickly that the bulk of the glass doesn't get hot. But, cutting
> a line in the glass, I would expect the heat to eventually develop,
> unless you did it extremely slowly - punching lots of tiny holes
> in the glass, and letting the laser rest between holes. Then the glass
> could be broken across all the holes.
> Jon

I'm not sure but I would think you're right with lots of little holes. When
I saw the guy writing his name on the glass it wasn't a continuous line, in
fact it shattered quite a bit and was made using lots of small cracks. That
may be due to the nature of the beam, being pulsed n' all, but still at a
high rate. Trying to pulse a CO2 laser may prove tricky, the cheapest way
would probably be a Q-switch which is a tiny motor with a mirror on it.
They're used on crystal lasers so none of the light can escape from the
crystal while the molecules in the crystal begin to laser and saturate. The
motor moves very quickly and has a microswitch on it to tell the laser's
flash lamps when to fire. It all has to be timed very nicely so that the
mirror is aligning up as the lamp fire (And we're talking micro to nano
seconds here).

I still think the best idea is a mechanical mode of cutting and then
polishing with a lower pressure water jet. A laser is definitly one of those
things I'd like to build if only I had enough £££'s. :-) Can't really
think of a use for one, I just want one, isn't that good enough? Here are
some links anyway:

http://www.andersonlasers.com/
http://www.andruslaser.com/laser/co2/co2.htm
http://www.emissiontechnologies.com/
http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/hall/4956/

http://f.webring.com/cgi-bin/Hubsearch?http://f.webring.com/cgi-bin/Hubsearc
h?ring=nightlase&Method=and&RingDesc=on&query=co2&sid=&SearchType=Ring&Keywo
rds=on&hubpage=Hub1&ringsearch

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lohwr/ <------ Excellent!

John H.