domenica 10 febbraio 2013

Turn a regular low-powered laser pointer to a line laser


WARNING: When playing with lasers always wear safety glasses. Lasers can permanently damage your eyes, by proceeding reading the info shown here

you relieve the author of this blog from any liability arising 
from using the informations written here.







If you're a geek, you know this is going to happen to you sooner or later in your life,
you need a laser line for your 3D scanner  / water level, you-name-it diy project.
Chances are you only have a low-powered red laser lying around, the ones you usually see on keychains on pencils. you already know you can turn it into a laser line by using an optical fiber so you don't lose power however what if you just have a paper clip?
no problem!
Pick the paper clip and bend it in a L-shape
Here I used a clip used to keep a shirt folded.
Then polish the piece that will be reflecting the laser with some rubbing alcohol.











Now attach the L-shaped paper clip so a piece of the clip is perpendicular to the laser beam,
play around with the position by looking at the projected laser line, move around the clip until you get a nice, focused laser line.
Once you're happy with the line projected, fix
the paper clip with some tape or, better, some Blu-Tack (or Patafix if you're from UE :)
By using Blu-Tack you'll be able to move around the paper clip and it will just stay where you last put it.
If you're building this to use the laser line for a 3D scanner i suggest you to find a position for the clip so the line is very focused for a long segment.
There you go, a laser line from a low powered laser pointer in less than a minute ;) 










WARNING: When playing with lasers always wear safety glasses. 
Lasers can permanently damage your eyes, by proceeding reading the info shown here
you relieve the author of this blog from any liability arising 
from using the informations written here.


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