Non flammable material

[Travis Reese]

I'm sure this is an odd idea but I'm wondering if anyone knows of a material that I can fire the laser at but that won't burn. Would need it to be something I could make into a small disk shape or that I could get in that shape.

I was playing with the laser the other day and put a slab of marble on the bed. Just for grins I pulled out my FLIR camera. It was pretty interesting. I could see exactly where the beam was hitting with the thermal imager. Gave me the idea that if I could find a material that would fit the circular opening over the mirrors that I could use it to see the beam alignment.

[Travis Reese]

Here's a video.

[Travis Reese]

At the beginning of the video you see what looks like a hot spot in the upper right of the frame. That was from a video I took yesterday with the focal lens on the head. I believe it actually "burnt" the sensor in the camera. At the end of the video you see the trail from the video I took also looks stuck in the frame. I think this may have burned in as well. May be a lesson learned here to not try to view the laser as it's firing but only the heat trail after it fires.

[David Somers]

And I thought I had a lot of tools and fun toolish toys!

That looks like fun. But a piece of masking tape actually works really well and very quickly for alignment purposes. You should have a button on your control panel labeled "Pulse" that allows you to do a very quick fire of the laser which is perfect for this type of thing and will leave a nice, small dot on the tape. Ray Scott or whoever delivered your machine should have shown you that technique when you got set up?

Having said that, the FLIR would be a fun way to do it. Perhaps a piece of Corian cut to fit the mirror opening? Throw it on a lathe and turn a rim that just fits the opening. Or just a small piece of sheet metal cut to fit in place?

Fun toy!!!! Every home needs a FLIR!

[Travis Reese]

Oh I'm very familiar with the tape. Just thought this might be kind of cool. I hadn't though of corian. I could definitely turn that down on a lathe.

[Dan Hintz]

Anodized aluminum would be a good choice for a non-burning material... but I think you're going to get better resolution for alignment with paper/tape and the eye.

[Gene Uselman]

Oh I'm very familiar with the tape. Just thought this might be kind of cool. I hadn't though of corian. I could definitely turn that down on a lathe.

Corian will burn... ask me how I know