Interesting "origami" trick with laser cutter

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Interesting "origami" trick with laser cutter

Postby BenJackson » Tue Mar 19, 2013 8:26 pm

This video shows a plastic sheet on tall standoffs that's cut, then lowered (to defocus the laser) and "slumped" by using the unfocused beam to soften where it needs to bend.

The main downside is you need a lot of Z travel (enough for the workpiece to have room to slump plus room to move down to defocus the lens):

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Re: Interesting "origami" trick with laser cutter

Postby macona » Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:22 am

That is pretty neat. I have seen people put it the beam out of focus for other effects too.

Here is another version of laser origami. I would love to get a galvo setup working, I have a couple galvo heads but I need a controller for them. They just take an analog signal in.

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Re: Interesting "origami" trick with laser cutter

Postby 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! :-)
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