The power you need is directly related to how fast you want to be able to mark the wood, and your final spot size on the wood. You could get away with a few watts of IR light if you have good optical focus and didn't mind the marking process proceeding slowly (about 1-2 cm/sec). >From that figure, just multiply up the power by the speed increase you need. From your mention of spinning mirrors, I'll assume that you're thinking of raster scanning the image. To save time, many use vector scanning, as in the end the path length will be much shorter. For this you'll need galvos. For best focus across the plane of work, f-theta lenses are most often used. This keeps the focal point of the beam at the same plane as it scans across the work, however it's not strictly necessary just for marking if you simply allow for a long enough throw from your galvos/mirros so the focal point doesn't stray too far from the plane of work. On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Mark Hanchey wrot= e: > I sometimes do a lot of wood working where you have to transfer large > patterns to wood for scroll work, very intricate patterns and the > current method is to print out the pattern and then use carbon paper to > trace that onto the wood, it can take a couple hours to transfer some of > the designs. > The process works, but I was looking for a new electronics project to do > to make use of some new ARM and FGPA chips I just got, so I want to make > a setup that can use a laser, some spinning mirrors , that will transfer > a pattern to a section of wood. =A0I don't know what laser strength would > be required to do a project like this. > > The laser just needs to burn a light brown line that I can distinguish > from white pine boards, so not anything industrial sized, hoping I can > do it with some reasonably cheap laser diodes, if IR lasers are better I > can use them , I don't need to be able to see the beam , just the > pattern on the wood. =A0Size of the patterns is roughly 2ft x 2ft max and > distance from the laser can be anything that would work best, open to > suggestions . > > Thanks > Mark > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .