Reply with QuoteI can't get your link to work, is it just me?
I'd hardly call a mirror made from a hard drive free, with the prices of hard drives nowadays
Free CO2 Laser Mirrors
That's right! A friend over at BuildLog.net (Walt) introduced the idea of making emergency replacement mirrors from an old harddrive disk. I took on the task of putting the idea to a test. WOW! It works really well.
I wrote the whole process up and included lots of pictures and some impressive test results. So take a look if you want to make your own CO2 laser mirrors for free!
Check it out here
tim
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I can't get your link to work, is it just me?
I'd hardly call a mirror made from a hard drive free, with the prices of hard drives nowadays
I just tried the link and it worked fine. I also checked the blog and there have been 22 hits from here this morning, so it must be working for some. If anyone else finds differently, please let us know.Originally Posted by pontiacg5
I can't get your link to work, is it just me?
I'd hardly call a mirror made from a hard drive free, with the prices of hard drives nowadays
If you could get to the article, you could read that I tell people where to get free HDs as well
Link worked fine for me. You would be a fool to use anything but a free hard drive to make mirrors from. If you cannot find an old free desktop computer case you are not trying.
Matt
The link seems to work fine for me now, it was probably something on my end...
I was attempting to be funny on the hard drive prices thing, I guess my humor just doesn't make much sense to anyone else
Even if you bought a $200 hard drive with 3 platters, if you get 15 mirrors from each, thats 45 mirrors for $200. Humor and sarcasm are often lost in digital translation.
Matt
Thanks allot Tim,
This is great because i needed some new mirrors
cheers
Update
I now have all three mirrors replaced. They work great, no loss of power, and extremely easy to clean without damaging.Thanks allot Tim,
This is great because i needed some new mirrors
cheers
Today i opened a broken Harddisk and going to buy a hole drill
its getting more fun with these cheap mirrors
the price of HD is higher than mirrors in china
yes a new one is, but here if something is broken we usually give it away for free.
yesterday i got 2 harddisks from my neighbour, chinese mirrors are way more expensive then.
Last edited by vincenttor; 02-22-2012 at 09:27 AM.
Hi david
no you are wrong the cheapest HD which will do it cost pretty much then 1 mirror from china
greetings
walt
I read this a while ago with interest and I wondered if instead of a hole saw, it might be possible to waterjet cut them with a bit more accuracy and less clean up. Covering them with tape would protect them - I know it does add some cost but it just might be easier?
When you used these, did you get similar resulst to your normal mirrors?
Mirrors
You could use a water jet, but don't see the pint of spending the money for it.
Performance has been perfect.
thats absolutly correct I have my mirrors running a few hundred hours running and I even just have to wipe it a bit with a dry lense cleaning
whipe and no scratches.
greetings
walt
This is awsome! Has anyone tried to cut them out on a mill? you could make them exact size then and use a better bit. Just thinking out loud here.
Necessity is the mother of all invention (unknown)
My club home page www.lhmac.org
Yes, milling them out works.
I just got hold of a used 80w cutter and the mirrors were in pretty bad shape so some googling led me here.
Found an old hard disc and I just cut 6 x 24.5mm diameter discs on a router with a 2mm ball end mill, 10000 rpm, 900mm/min, 0.33mm per pass, total depth 1mm deeper then the thickness of the platter. I stuck masking tape to protect the top and the disc platter was stuck to a sheet of acylic (with the protective film still on) with double sided tape. The cut discs popped off cleanly and have perfect edges. Obviously YMMV but laser is cutting much better now
--
Jon
Gave this a go today, but cut them on the bandsaw roughly and sanded the edges with the linisher, 3 new mirrors in about 5 minutes once I got the case open. No #9 torx just drilled them out instead. Only wish we had a simple fix for tubes.
