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This page will show you how to
make a simple home made laser ellipse. |
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First, find what you want to use as a
platform, I used a CD jewel Case. Then you will need two small fans, small electric motors will also work very well. Take a small mirror and place it on the very center of the rotating fan. I found that "poster putty" works really well. Its basically like silly putty, but alittle more sticky. The trick is, to stick the mirror on the fan NOT perfectly flat. You want it slightly slanted, this way when its spinning, the angle the mirror is at, will change, reflecting the beam in a circular motion. You will have to adjust how slanted the mirror is later. You can do a quick test, to see if its making a circle on the wall, you want the circle pretty small, about 2" diameter at 2 feet. Maybe smaller. Now you need to make a second fan/mirror setup just like the first one. Attach both fans to your platform, and position them like I have them in the Pics. You will need to adjust this also, thats why I found the putty is the best way, you can simply move then around where you want. |
~ Click Thumbnails for larger Images ~ |
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Now you are ready to try it out! Place your laser facing the first fan, and get it to reflect to the second fans mirror. This might take alot of adjusting, of both the lasers position, and the two fans. But eventually, you will get it lined up. Now you need to see how your mirror slant is. The first fan should be reflecting a very small circle on the second fans mirror. If you see that the circle is too large, and is too large to shine on the second fans mirror, you will need to make the first fans mirror less slanted. After you have the first fan fitting the second fan correctly, you can now adjust the second fans mirror. You want its slant to bee about the same as the first fans. If you notice that you are not getting any ellipse patterns, but rather what looks like 2 rings, simply turn off the fans, and rotate one of the fans 180 degrees, and turn it back on, that should get you the patterns you are looking for. You can also add a pot (variable resistor in a knob form) to each fan, and the pattern will change as you change the speed of each fan. |
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