Hackaday Links: July 1, 2012

Opening really old lock boxes

[Barry Wels] is a locksmith. One day, he got a call from a museum that had a few 17th century strong boxes that needed to be opened. After a little probing with an endoscope, he decided they could be picked with a little bit of spring steel. So, what’s in the box? [Barry] is going to send in an update in a month or two.

An awesome Geordi La Forge VISOR. But don’t take my word for it.

[DrewSmith007] made a replica of Geordi’s VISOR from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Bonus: it’s autographed by Levar Burton.

Free mirrors for your laser cutter

If you have a laser cutter, your mirrors will get damaged, and they’re very expensive to replace. [Phil] sent in a neat tip: make your own mirrors from hard drive platters.

A proper M.U.L.E. remake

Combine Settlers of Catan with M.U.L.E.. That’s what this Kickstarter is trying to do, and it sounds freakin’ awesome.

This game is so cool

A few months ago, I mapped the surface of a video game moon. Since then, Kerbal Space Program had a huge update with a brand new moon. Over on Reddit, [InsanityCore] started mapping this new moon, so I rendered it. Go give [InsanityCore] some karma. He did all the hard work.

22 thoughts on “Hackaday Links: July 1, 2012

  1. a properly calibrated laser cutter should not have their beams focused when bounced off the mirrors and should only be focused by a lens at the exit of the optics.

    if the laser can damage the mirrors then you can use the laser cutter to make new mirrors.

    you can buy mirrors fairly cheap from office copiers and laser printers.

    beauty compacts and make up mirrors should work too just cut out small disks of mirror and have some in reserve

    1. WTF are you talking about?

      1) those mirrors have two reflective surfaces which (as other readers pointed out) will reflect the beam at least twice (you should count with internal reflection) at different angles.

      2) the internal reflection of those mirrors would easily burn the reflective coating in the backside of the mirror (2nd surface), rendering them useless only after a few minutes.

    1. I have some old locks. Just one over 150 years old. It still is a beast. Takes a lot of force to make it do anything, even after a week long soak in various solvents.

    1. I played M.U.L.E at a the apartment of a FOAF back in ’85 or ’86. Interesting game, but I don’t recall the game system. He also had a neat coffee table he’d built over the weekend with 2×4’s.

  2. The platter mirrors only last for a short time. Buy some nice NOS gold plated silicon or copper mirrors made by II-IV or Laser Power Optics and be done with it. You will never damage them at the low powers of small laser cutters and never have to realign once they are in. If you are spending a couple grand to build a machine (Average price) or even buy a cheap chinese one, what is $100 to $150 for good mirrors?

    1. Says who?

      And if it’s “says you”, got a source for that?

      The originator seems to think they’d last as long, if not longer than the usual cheap gold ones as they need less cleaning, and are easier to clean as well, so there’s less likelihood of damage.

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