replacement mirror from old Hardrive

[waltfl]

Hi all
here are something I came up because the last of my reflection mirror was damaged.
I remembered the old days as we used old harddrive disc as mirror and because I have a lot of them laying around I took one appart and first try this with the dremel and a diamond cutting blade but it did not work out .
next I thought taking a metal snip and it realy worked great I cut a not quite round piece in the size of my mirrors out and put them, in the gantry holder
then I started a job where I could compare with one with the old mirrors
it worked the same like the goldplated mirrors.
here are a picture of the HD dis cut and the final mirorr also a sample engraving what shows no difference.
I did not have to adjust anythings
thats maybe some help if somebody runs out of new mirrors like me
greetings
walt

[wctx1977]

Hi all
here are something I came up because the last of my reflection mirror was damaged.
I remembered the old days as we used old harddrive disc as mirror and because I have a lot of them laying around I took one appart and first try this with the dremel and a diamond cutting blade but it did not work out .
next I thought taking a metal snip and it realy worked great I cut a not quite round piece in the size of my mirrors out and put them, in the gantry holder
then I started a job where I could compare with one with the old mirrors
it worked the same like the goldplated mirrors.
here are a picture of the HD dis cut and the final mirorr also a sample engraving what shows no difference.
I did not have to adjust anythings
thats maybe some help if somebody runs out of new mirrors like me
greetings
walt

Hey walt!
Good discovery!!! that would be very helpful in case someone need an emergency mirror backup Thanks!

[waltfl]

Hi all
I did find even a better solution to get the mirrors cut from theold HD disc .
I took a disc platter put blua masking tape on both sides adn clemped it between two pieces of 3/4 inch plywood then clemped this in the drill press took out the center drill bit from a 3/4 inch hole saw ( size depends on the mirror size this is for 18mm mirror) the metal version hole saw.
then I used the lowest speed on the drill press and carfully slowly cut the mirror not to much pressure and they came out perfect now I got so many mirrors who work perfect in the gantry and the head positions
there is not difference of engraving or cutting outcome against the goldplated mirrors .
i will make a couple picture and post them here
greetings
walt

[waltfl]

here are some picture comparisson between engraving with goldplated mirrors and disc mirrors
thwe top one is with both original gold plated mirrros setting engraving 200mm/s 9% power
the second is with the gantryu mirror a dics mirror and the head still the original
the third is withthe head a disc mirror and the gantry the original mirror
the fourth is with both mirrors gantry and head a disc mirror each
there is no visible difference or other probleme
gretings
walt

[waltfl]

Hi all
I fianlly was aible to take a few pic from my setup to cut reflection mirrors out of a old Hard drive disc.
I also made a test run in acrylic ( what is most of my jobs) for lighted acrylic.
also tim twehr at build logs did a test and write up here
http://www.buildlog.net/forum/viewtopic ... 8035#p8035
there is not visible difference between this disc mirrors and the original goldplated mirrors except one major THE PRIZE, and I dont have to wait for delivery.
greetings
walt

[twehr]

Walt,

Just wanted to say thanks for this idea. I just completed a long and photo-filled blog on the whole process. It worked great for me. I gave you all the credit for the idea, as it was truly a great one.

If anyone want to see the process in detail, along with some cutting tests, check it out here.