pic of smallish gear cut with my homebrew laser

So after hooking up the z-axis direction sensing microcontroller to
the laser, I drew a quickie gear in Rhino 3 and chose a 0.010 inch
diameter endmill in VisualMill 5 using the 2D engraving mode. I set
the laser to full power (about 16-17 watts).

Here is what I ended up with (material 1/16" basswood):

http://www.skyko.com/shizlaser/lasergear.JPG

Total machining time was about 18 seconds at 60IPM feedrate!

Not bad, but still not happy with my z-axis-laser-control solution :-/

Rick