Hi guys,
First post here ;D
So I've been lurking around here for about a week, reading the basic tutorials/FAQs and searching the forums for things that I had questions about. I just want to make sure I have everything straight before I build my laser.
tl;dr short version: My motivation for learning what I have from this forum is the desire to build a laser that burns wood (etching).
long: I'll build an x,y cnc like table and have the laser attached to this. The laser and the table will all be controlled by computer. The computer program will take a gray scale image and analyze each pixels darkness. The darkness of the pixel will determine how long the laser will be on at a certain (x,y) location. So say we have a gray pixel, the laser will move to that pixel location and then turn on for 5 seconds (guessing), the next pixel is black, so the laser will be turned on for 10 seconds.
Sorry if I'm inarticulate
Are lasers capable of this? I am worried that a laser burning wood (assuming I can afford a powerful enough one to do so) will just instantly burn the wood, so the the wood is white one second and then pitch black the next second (no in between). I guess it would still be worth building if it where just black and white, but it wouldn't be as cool as gray scale.
After replies I'll have a few more questions, but I'll wait. Thank you
-Keith
First post here ;D
So I've been lurking around here for about a week, reading the basic tutorials/FAQs and searching the forums for things that I had questions about. I just want to make sure I have everything straight before I build my laser.
tl;dr short version: My motivation for learning what I have from this forum is the desire to build a laser that burns wood (etching).
long: I'll build an x,y cnc like table and have the laser attached to this. The laser and the table will all be controlled by computer. The computer program will take a gray scale image and analyze each pixels darkness. The darkness of the pixel will determine how long the laser will be on at a certain (x,y) location. So say we have a gray pixel, the laser will move to that pixel location and then turn on for 5 seconds (guessing), the next pixel is black, so the laser will be turned on for 10 seconds.
Sorry if I'm inarticulate
Are lasers capable of this? I am worried that a laser burning wood (assuming I can afford a powerful enough one to do so) will just instantly burn the wood, so the the wood is white one second and then pitch black the next second (no in between). I guess it would still be worth building if it where just black and white, but it wouldn't be as cool as gray scale.
After replies I'll have a few more questions, but I'll wait. Thank you
-Keith