Re: Newbie Intro

Hey Tom, sorry I missed the intro. I sorta limped through the one
optics course require by my EE major...lol, didn't think it would be
very usefull at the time. Little did I know I would get into machine
vision, lasers, etc.

I had a sherline before I got the great deal on this huge mill (long
story, but it ended up costing me -$300!). I thought about mounting
a laser to the sherline, but decided the travel and speed is too
limited (for example, I cut some thin paper at 120IPM...can you even
move a sherline leadscrew driven table at 120IPM???). I posted a few
weeks ago about building a universal gantry machine to which a small
CO2 laser could be mounted (or a router). Most of the people on here
are deathly afraid of laser beams...or sharks with laser beams? :-)

You probably agree that the CO2 wavelength is one of the safer ones,
at least compared to eximer and yag, which focus so nicely on the
retina and pass through most glass and plastics. A little common
sense and lexan can go a long way in protecting you from the CO2
wavelength.

On the lens issue. ZnSe is somewhat expensive, and I am the king of
scrounging, so I am just using what I have collected over the years.

The ZnSe lenses I have now are:

Four 3" F.L. 1" dia plano/convex
Two 1.75" F.L. 1.1" dia plano/convex
One 7.0" F.L. 0.625" dia plano convex
One negative 2" F.L. 0.625" dia
One negative 5.82" F.L. 0.5" dia

I am not sure about the structure of these last two negative
lenses...I guess they are plano/concave?

I also have two 2.5" F.L. 1.1" dia Germanium lenses AR coated at 10.6
which I believe are meniscus.

Any ideas on how to use the negative lenses/positive lenses I have to
get a better spot with the Synrad J48-1?

By the way, if you need a lens holder machined for your laser I will
do it for the cost of shipping if you can send me an autocad or rhino
file. I also have a good supply of 0.062" Indium wire that makes a
nice cushiony seal for the soft ZnSe material.

Rick