Why does Lasersaur get so much more press?

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Why does Lasersaur get so much more press?

Postby BenJackson » Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:52 pm

Is it just the catchy name? Whenever someone wants to toss in a comment like "someday we'll all have DIY laser cutters" there's always a mention of Lasersaur, which as far as I know has never cut anything and has not been replicated by anyone. Where's the love for the 2.x laser?

Maybe the 2.x laser needs a press kit. Cost estimate, number successfully completed, capabilities, etc. Then we could get the word out when hack/DIY/maker sites bring up Lasersaur.
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Re: Why does Lasersaur get so much more press?

Postby r691175002 » Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:09 pm

I have no idea and I still fall out of my chair everytime I see the project mentioned.

As far as I'm aware, the idea was conceived long after buildlog was already cutting, and is planned to be both more expensive and less capable. The thing hasn't even cut yet. A misguided project IMO but what can you do?

The kicker? Massive funding from kickstarter. If someone doesn't care enough about building a laser cutter to try typing it into google I doubt rational thinking will be given any weight.

<Rant>I actually hold a similar opinion on most 3d printers. Take a solved problem (cnc milling) and create a slow, imprecise and extremely expensive way of of making plastic parts. I never got why so many makers think 3d printing is the greatest thing since sliced bread. For the cost of most of the machines you can get a mill that will be infinitely more useful.

I'll admit that some of the newer machines are impressive, however you can't do serious work with extruded plastic regardless of surface finish.</Rant>



I think you are right about the press kit though, we should all do our part - Take some photos, talk about pricing and wrap it up into a few neat pages. I'm still convinced a competent maker can do the 2.x for under 1500$ and with some of the projects going on (maker-slide, open source controller) that number could go below 1000$ very quickly.

I'll look into dropping mine off at the local hacker-space for a few weeks. I think every place wants a laser and they would get addicted pretty fast.
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Re: Why does Lasersaur get so much more press?

Postby andrewblanejr » Fri Oct 14, 2011 4:53 am

i agree that the 2.x is way better than the lasersaur...but...

1. the lasersaur has cut things...there are videos of it doing so

2. the lasersaur is intended to be much larger, there is some appeal in that

3. the lasersaur sounds like DINOsaur...maybe when we get around to 3.x it should be called the s3xy-laser... 3 for ver3, xy for the xy axis, and s...for fun. most of us could call it the "sexy laser" while geeks and prudes could call it the "ess-three-ex-why laser"

4. i just bought all the parts to make a 2.x, i'm pretty sure i'm over $2k right now, and i'm missing skins. If you want a DSP controller then i think it is hard to do it for less than $2k. I'd happy be mistaken about my expeditures, but i don't think i am.

/Andrew

ps. ihave no idea about this post icon, but it looked cool
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