djQUAN
0
- Joined
- May 27, 2013
- Messages
- 1,154
- Points
- 63
This past week, there have been several company representatives come and do product demos and presentations and my managers do trainings and presentations and would you know it, they all brought the ubiquitous red laser pointers for their use but quickly ran out of batteries in the middle of the presentation.
As luck would have it, there's a laserist in the audience. :wave: I let them use my 450nm blue pen laser and by the end of the week, the button was worn out and mangled. The cheap rubber from my china pen host wasn't up to the task so I made a new one from scratch.
Here's how I made one without a lathe. All I had was my micro mill for use and some Polycarbonate offcuts. (same stuff they use to make bullet proof glass)
Using an end mill and manually turning a dividing attachment, I was able to make the basic shape of the button.
An angled cutting bit was used to chamfer the edges to make it easier for the finger.
A smaller end mill was used to cut the finished button piece off the blank.
Here's the new button beside the old worn out rubber one.
On the pen host. I still have mixed feelings about the height. Seems to protrude too far out but not too bad.
And before anyone comments, yes, I let them use a 100mW laser for pointing at the presentation. But I covered the aperture with a piece of cardboard with a tiny pinhole to limit output power and it worked perfect for the application without blinding the audience.
As luck would have it, there's a laserist in the audience. :wave: I let them use my 450nm blue pen laser and by the end of the week, the button was worn out and mangled. The cheap rubber from my china pen host wasn't up to the task so I made a new one from scratch.
Here's how I made one without a lathe. All I had was my micro mill for use and some Polycarbonate offcuts. (same stuff they use to make bullet proof glass)
Using an end mill and manually turning a dividing attachment, I was able to make the basic shape of the button.
An angled cutting bit was used to chamfer the edges to make it easier for the finger.
A smaller end mill was used to cut the finished button piece off the blank.
Here's the new button beside the old worn out rubber one.
On the pen host. I still have mixed feelings about the height. Seems to protrude too far out but not too bad.
And before anyone comments, yes, I let them use a 100mW laser for pointing at the presentation. But I covered the aperture with a piece of cardboard with a tiny pinhole to limit output power and it worked perfect for the application without blinding the audience.
