Polygon mirrors?

[Alaskan]

Maybe buy something like this as a base for larger mirrors glued to it?

laser scanning mirror from laser printer as shown as-is | eBay

 

[lasersbee]

Hi!

I'm doing a spirograph project with red and green lasers. One of my design ideas is to have a 4, 5 or 6 sided polygon mirror on a motor in order to be able to create a line (and liquid sky effect if I add a fogging machine). But I'm having a bit of trouble finding this type of mirrors, I've looked for barcode scanner parts and such, but no luck. Found one type, but it was very flat, so not big enough.

Where do I buy mirrors like this?

If all you want to do is the "liquid sky" effect....
You could use the scanning mirror/actuator from
a Bar Code scanner. The actuator oscillates the
mirror in one axis to scan the Laser's beam to read
the barcode. They are easily and cheaply available
on eBay.

You could also use a Laser Line lens that can also
be found easily and cheaply on eBay,

If those are too expensive you can use a easily
available Pharmaceutical glass stir stick as a Laser
Line lens.


Jerry

 

[Skauber]

Maybe buy something like this as a base for larger mirrors glued to it?

laser scanning mirror from laser printer as shown as-is | eBay

That's an idea, might consider that.

If all you want to do is the "liquid sky" effect....
You could use the scanning mirror/actuator from
a Bar Code scanner. The actuator oscillates the
mirror in one axis to scan the Laser's beam to read
the barcode. They are easily and cheaply available
on eBay.

You could also use a Laser Line lens that can also
be found easily and cheaply on eBay,

If those are too expensive you can use a easily
available Pharmaceutical glass stir stick as a Laser
Line lens.


Jerry

Well, this will sit at the output of the spirograph, meaning it has to be able to bounce a spirograph pattern off it, not just a straight and steady beam. A lens or anything like that won't work in that situation. A mirror from a barcode scanner could work, but seems like they're very flat, so wouldn't be able to accommodate a spirograph pattern, which is why 1" tall or so would be desirable. I might attempt to glue mirrors on something from ebay, if I can't find a suitable mirror ready made. Even a mirror from a barrel mirror scanner could work I guess, though might be a bit bigger than what I need. Still, bigger is better than smaller....

 

[lasersbee]

Well, this will sit at the output of the spirograph, meaning it has to be able to bounce a spirograph pattern off it, not just a straight and steady beam. A lens or anything like that won't work in that situation. A mirror from a barcode scanner could work, but seems like they're very flat, so wouldn't be able to accommodate a spirograph pattern, which is why 1" tall or so would be desirable. I might attempt to glue mirrors on something from ebay, if I can't find a suitable mirror ready made. Even a mirror from a barrel mirror scanner could work I guess, though might be a bit bigger than what I need. Still, bigger is better than smaller....

The Laser Barcode Scanner we sell with one of our
products has a Scan actuator mirror that measures
about 1cm X 1.5cm. Perhaps you could replace the
mirror with a larger one.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f39/wtb-polygon-mirror-single-axis-galvo-100325.html

Don't you think if someone had or knew where to
purchase what you are looking for they would have
said so on this Thread :thinking:


Jerry

 

[Skauber]

Who knows? If they saw this thread, maybe. But it's a large forum, and I don't expect someone who has stuff to sell will randomly go into the "optics" section and read all the threads to see if someone might randomly be looking for something. Logically, they'd check the Buy/Sell/Trade section... Didn't think it would be the end of the world to use the buy/sell/trade section to inform potential sellers that I'm interested in a certain part.

 

[lasersbee]

Who knows? If they saw this thread, maybe. But it's a large forum, and I don't expect someone who has stuff to sell will randomly go into the "optics" section and read all the threads to see if someone might randomly be looking for something. Logically, they'd check the Buy/Sell/Trade section... Didn't think it would be the end of the world to use the buy/sell/trade section to inform potential sellers that I'm interested in a certain part.

That's all you got out of my post :thinking:

Jerry

 

[Skauber]

Regardless, a moderator checked and approved that listing, so I take that as a good sign that it was correct use of that forum section. And this is getting a bit off-topic from what the thread is about.

 

[10fenny]

Just saw this thread... so how fast do you want to "scan" your images? Honestly a scanned spyrograph pattern is gonna be laser noodles unless it's scanned super slow

 

[Skauber]

Well, the idea is to give the spirograph the ability to make a line/liquid sky effect. So the principle would be to stop the spirograph mirrors, then run the polygon mirror/galvo to create a line. It's not a super important component of this project. If it proves to be too difficult to find the necessary mirrors without spending too much on it, I'll just save it for when I'm gonna do a galvo scanner.

 

[10fenny]

Run toggle switchs to the ttl for two different red diodes. One for the spyrograph and one with a line lens. I got a similar project but with three line lens reds

 

[Skauber]

Yeah, could do that. But at that stage I'd probably just wait till I build a galvo, which will be again with both red and green, but this time with a beam combiner lens, or perhaps a true RGB if budget allows. But that's another project, have to do this first one first.