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Yesterday, some of the Usual Suspects and I decided to have fun with a laser printer. Of course, by "laser printer", I really mean the "multi-thousand dollar 60W laser capable of etching steel in one of the labs on campus".
Photo evidence of our madness. (It's Finals Week. You really can't blame us for this, can you?)
We were there 6 hours, but that's mostly because we etched about 4 Leathermans (Leathersmen? Leathermen?), which are stainless steel, and did a lot of trial-and-error on an extra Thinkpad laptop cover we had. Which was good, because IBM probably came up with the most impossible material that could still take a laser. The rubber kept melting, creating a weird drop-shadow effect. Multiple passes ended up being the answer.
Hopefully, now that there's some idea of how to do this, the process will go faster next time. I know that the one who has the access to this lab is hoping that the "equation on the Leatherman" becomes a meme of sorts, with your favorite or the characteristic equation of your major gracing your Leatherman. Which is why I was forced to quickly LaTeX-up Shrödinger's Equation for his multitool, after I figured out how to do the vector forms for my two equations.
(Unfortunately, I don't think my prof will find it terribly amusing if I whip out the multitool during the final tomorrow. Even though we are allowed equation sheets. I don't think "hunk of stainless steel" counts, though.)
Photo evidence of our madness. (It's Finals Week. You really can't blame us for this, can you?)
We were there 6 hours, but that's mostly because we etched about 4 Leathermans (Leathersmen? Leathermen?), which are stainless steel, and did a lot of trial-and-error on an extra Thinkpad laptop cover we had. Which was good, because IBM probably came up with the most impossible material that could still take a laser. The rubber kept melting, creating a weird drop-shadow effect. Multiple passes ended up being the answer.
Hopefully, now that there's some idea of how to do this, the process will go faster next time. I know that the one who has the access to this lab is hoping that the "equation on the Leatherman" becomes a meme of sorts, with your favorite or the characteristic equation of your major gracing your Leatherman. Which is why I was forced to quickly LaTeX-up Shrödinger's Equation for his multitool, after I figured out how to do the vector forms for my two equations.
(Unfortunately, I don't think my prof will find it terribly amusing if I whip out the multitool during the final tomorrow. Even though we are allowed equation sheets. I don't think "hunk of stainless steel" counts, though.)
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