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A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

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Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#91

Post by fsckboy »

RecycledEle wrote: post #18
aqme28 wrote: post #7

A society in which "the average car-buyer" has a tiny portable steel-melting laser is a society where I'm wearing welding goggles every time I leave the house. And I'm not sure how you even lock a bike or a door or a safe any more.

The same can be said of BB guns that can put out eyes, lock picks that can open locked doors, and bolt cutters than can break chains. More powerful tools are a good thing.

>The same can be said of BB guns that can put out eyes

I know! these are the same people who took mostly harmless Jarts off the market!

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31176/how-one-dad-got-la...

Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#92

Post by gpderetta »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #42
aqme28 wrote: post #7

A society in which "the average car-buyer" has a tiny portable steel-melting laser is a society where I'm wearing welding goggles every time I leave the house. And I'm not sure how you even lock a bike or a door or a safe any more.

"The average car-buyer or metalworker" can already afford a $30 cordless angle grinder: https://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/grinders/angle-gri... (Cost plus a $30-$80 battery, of course, but after you pick your color, you've already got batteries). Your locks are far more protected by the social contract that would compel a stranger to stop someone who was cutting a bike lock with an angle grinder, and would ca…

"Use goggles to protect remaining eye"

Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#93

Post by ben_w »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #75
bloggie wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These do exist, here's one I saw recently: https://www.laserpwr.net/hand-held-laser/hand-held-laser-2.h...

30W? That's a pretty powerful laser. A 1W laser can set stuff on fire. A 5W laser can cut steel.

> A 5W laser can cut steel

I've experimented with using a 60 W (I think*) laser on a small steel bracket, and even with the beam holding on a single point for a minute, it made a barely visible dot that you couldn't feel by running your finger over.

* It was nearly a decade ago, but I looked up the relevant hacker space and unless they changed the model, it was 60 watts.

The bracket was around 1cm by 5cm, and around 1mm thick.

Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#94

Post by XorNot »

sarchertech wrote: post #17
aqme28 wrote: post #7

A society in which "the average car-buyer" has a tiny portable steel-melting laser is a society where I'm wearing welding goggles every time I leave the house. And I'm not sure how you even lock a bike or a door or a safe any more.

There are already so many ways to defeat locks, that locks are just there to keep honest people honest and to slow down criminals. The laser in the article took 30 seconds to cut a a tiny disc out of a sheet of steel 100 micrometers thick. That isn’t going to change things on the theft front. There are much more effective methods available today.

The battery powered angle grinder was the end of useful bike locks AFAIK.

Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#95

Post by kwhitefoot »

sschueller wrote: post #65
aqme28 wrote: post #7

A society in which "the average car-buyer" has a tiny portable steel-melting laser is a society where I'm wearing welding goggles every time I leave the house. And I'm not sure how you even lock a bike or a door or a safe any more.

Because of this Switzerland has outlawed portable laser pointers higher than the lowest class. Anything more powerful than a low end projector pointer is now classified as a weapon and regulated as such. This at least keeps these units out of the hands of the general public and those that can't use them responsibly. It sucks for those of us who used them responsibly just like we did with RC aircraft before drones bec…

Same in Norway, in 2015. Anything above 1mW is forbidden in practice although the law leaves the actual limit and exceptions to the regulating authority.

Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#96

Post by jandrese »

notyoutube wrote: post #48
passwordoops wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I moved to the Netherlands my boss told me to never spend more than 20 euro on a bike because it will get stolen. I didn't listen, and lo and behold two weeks in my 75 euro bike and the 35 euro heavy duty lock disappeared

I'm skeptical: * Where do you buy a ≤20 euro bike? * Most people on the street have bikes that look to be at least 200 euros new, from what I can tell.

Presumably from the bike thieves. There's a glut in the stolen bike market so the price competition is fierce.

Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#97

Post by antisthenes »

jandrese wrote: post #96
notyoutube wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm skeptical: * Where do you buy a ≤20 euro bike? * Most people on the street have bikes that look to be at least 200 euros new, from what I can tell.

Presumably from the bike thieves. There's a glut in the stolen bike market so the price competition is fierce.

It seems like that that point the bike thieves are just a bike rental company.

You get the bike for < 20 Euro and then, presumably, at some point in the future it gets stolen again, but you already got 20 Euros worth of use out of it.

Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#98

Post by pants2 »

rhelz wrote: post #82
aqme28 wrote: post #7

A society in which "the average car-buyer" has a tiny portable steel-melting laser is a society where I'm wearing welding goggles every time I leave the house. And I'm not sure how you even lock a bike or a door or a safe any more.

I hate to tell you this, but you can already buy infrared lasers off of eBay which have completely invisible beams which can blind yo.

This is something that makes me nervous any time I see YouTube videos about these sorts of lasers. They can blind someone nearly instantly, silently, and invisibly from a quarter mile away. That's terrifying.

Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#99

Post by pksebben »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #77
83 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diode based lasers have driven the cost to laser cut plywood down to affordable levels (~$200 for a creality/comgrow/chinabrand 5w laser). I just bought two of them off ebay as "customer returned" for $75 dollars a piece. they work great on the 1/8in plywood and 3/8in foam i've been cutting. Haven't tried 1/4in ply yet but I bet going slower or multi pass and it will do it. Edit: It easily cut 1/4 ply (used 2 passes,…

What is this genre of machine called, just a laser cutter? I would love to play with this

Look for "diode laser cnc". If you search for "laser cutter" or "engraver" the results get mixed in with all kinds of larger machines.

The world of home laser apparati is kinda wild.

Re: A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel

#100

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

Propelloni wrote: post #78
devoutsalsa wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every place in the world does probably. But how would you prove an unmarked, cheap bike was stolen?

You wouldn't but nowadays no bike is unmarked, even the cheap ones.

Can’t you trivially deface an identifier?
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