Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with laser

Are laser treatments a good way to get rid of facial hair?

shelayna — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:08:29 -0800

I'm looking for information regarding laser treatments to remove facial hair. I'd like to do something about the hair on my face (I'm female). Until now I've been using depilatory creams, but I'd like a permanent solution. Are laser treatments the way to go? I understand that it's easier than electrolysis, and that I'm an ideal candidate for laser treatments since I'm very fair-skinned with dark hair.

How many treatments are generally needed?

Do I need to let my facial hair grow (i.e. not remove it) to a certain length before starting? (I'd feel very awkward going out and about like that)

Are there any after-effects like pain, burning or redness?

Any personal anecdotes for or against would be much appreciated.

Like me, but less hairy.

Foam Pants — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:09:26 -0800

If it works, Tria Beauty would change my hairy life. Anybody have any experience with a home laser hair removal gadget?

Need help with Laser Printer recommendation AND forums where I can get good Laser Printer recommendations...

olddogeyes — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:26:00 -0800

Need help with Laser Printer recommendation AND forums where I can get good Laser Printer recommendations... I have a two part question:

1. I am in need of some recommendations on options (brands/models) for a new laser printer. What forums/message boards exist where I can post a message similar to my question below in hopes of getting more recommendations?

2. Here is what I am looking for in a new printer -- can you make any suggestions or recommendations? 1) Must work in a Windows environment - Could either be a stand-alone network printer (must work with Win XP, Vista and v7) or I could share it off of a computer (Vista). We don't have any Macs. 2) Must do both color and monochrome (black and white). 3) Needs to be able to duplex (print on both sides of paper -- usually by a mechanism that turns the paper over). 4) Looking for lowest cost of printing for black -- wouldn't need to print in color that often. 5) Probably will NOT print photos or other special media (like slides, etc). Will only be printing from Word, Excel, Adobe Acrobat and Web Browsers. 6) Would like a printer that prints at least 8-10 pages per minute in both color and monochrome. 7) Would like for it to have a manual feed capability so I can print envelopes. 8) Finally, it does NOT need to be multi-function. I have a great stand-alone sheet feed scanner and don't need to send or receive faxes on it. 9) Won't consider a Brother brand product - but will consider any other.

Thanks in advance for your help in either recommending a "laser printer" forum/message board or an actual printer model.

I can has printing?

Beardman — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:53:28 -0800

Out of toner and out of cash. What's the cheapest way to get my laser printer (Lexmark E232) printing again? This is in Toronto. I'm hoping to avoid the financial hit of a new cartridge. Ideally, I would just take the empty cartridge into some joint on College St. and they'd slap some new toner in it, but does anybody do that? Google is only turning up references to do-it-yourself ink refill kits, and online stores where you can buy new ones (which are cheaper than Staples, but still not ideal). Thanks!

Lasers and mirrors and fog, oh my!

MrMoonPie — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:45:37 -0800

I have a pretty wicked laser, and I just bought a bunch of mirrors. Help me have fun! Yesterday, I received a veritable treasure chest from American Science & Surplus: 20 3"x7" first-surface mirrors, a couple of diffraction mirrors and gratings, and a 90-degree beam splitter. As you can tell from my previous postings about lasers: OH BOY!

So what I want to do is set up a temporary network of mirrors in a bunch of trees and bounce laser beams around when it's foggy outside. But I don't know of a good way to mount the mirrors. They're heavy glass things with beautiful optics, but no metal backing or frame or anything. How can I put them up in trees so that they're both adjustable and stable?

Pew Pew!

Good guys get blue, bad guys get red.

uaudio — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:06:39 -0800

How close are we to handheld laser weapons? I read an article about a laser on a C-130 burning a hole through a car, a 747 that can shoot down an ICBM, and now a truck-mounted laser that can bring down a plane or UAV. What kind of science challenges do we need to meet before these weapons are issued to soldiers, etc.? I'm sure the power is the biggest challenge, what other ones are there?

Recommendations for laser eye surgery in London

dmt — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:37:04 -0800

Recommendations for laser eye surgery in London I have been thinking about laser eye surgery for some time. Last month my optician confirmed that my prescription has been stable for long enough that I am now (at 33) a viable candidate. Obviously I’ll look to an ophthalmologist for a definitive view but I’m now interested in taking the next step.

So then, what was your experience with laser eye surgery? Did you use someone in London; were you impressed? What did it cost? Any recommendations on the various available procedures? My sense is that the various procedures are safe but I would really like to avoid halo effects while driving at night.

Finally – and this might be a deal breaker – I would be happy to use eyedrops for a period following the procedure but a year sounds like a hard act to follow; the rest of your life sounds positively onerous.

Additional details: shortsighted by 1.5 in both eyes with mild astigmatism.

Color laser printer with Linux/UNIX drivers available

noztran — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:23:08 -0800

Could anyone recommend a color laser printer for ca. 500 GBP for a small office? Compatibility with Linux and Solaris---essential. BONUS question: should I also buy a monochrome laser for B&W printouts or is an unnecessary overkill when one has a color laser?

Can I safely disassemble my CD player, or will it blind me?

Elsa — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:31:59 -0800

Can I safely disassemble my carousel-style CD player, or will the laser [blind me/ fry me/ cross the streams and produce total protonic reversal]? My five-disc carousel-drawer CD player stopped working, perhaps due to a disc sliding out of place and blocking the drawer. The drawer won't shut all the way, and my gentle efforts to retrieve the disc have failed. (I've seen this previous question about retrieving jammed CDs, and nothing has worked.)

If this were a VCR or other device without a laser, I wouldn't hesitate to take it apart and remove the disc or otherwise gently monkey around inside it, in hopes of salvaging either the disc or the player or both. However, I've seen some warnings about the dangers of lasers and particularly the dangers of "residual power" in CD and DVD players. Is this fact or myth?

Is it safe for me to unscrew the bottom panel of my CD player (unplugged for an hour now) and take it apart?

Looking for a printer without the problems of finicky ink.

blueberry — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:36:09 -0800

[MomFilter] Looking for a reasonably cheap, reliable printer (for printing text) for an iMac. Leaning towards laser as the experiences with inkjets have been that bouts of little use lead to still full, yet dry and thus worthless ink cartridges. Looking for a printer for my Mom's iMac. She is wanting to print up a bunch of stories she has written, so the printer will only be used for text.
(No need for color, an attached scanner, or anything else)

She's had two cheap inkjets in the past where they were cheap to buy, but then you got gouged on the ink cartridges. These printers would up being a bit like "disposables" or white elephants—either getting gummed up after a while, or she'd not print anything for a month or two by which time the ink would have dried up or otherwise stopped working.

Fellow MeFites, do you own or know of any reasonably cheap (both pre- and post-sale), reliable b/w laser printers that you can recommend out there? Also, am I correct in guessing that laser toner has a longer "shelf life"?

Or, if lasers are too spendy, do you own or can you otherwise recommend an über-reliable inkjet that, say, you can just buy black ink for, and you've never had gum up or dry up on you?

Thanks all!

Need 3X5 cards printed.

banished — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:53:46 -0800

Need help printing 3X5 cards on a laser printer. Hoping a fellow Mefite can help me out. I need roughly 600 3 X 5 cards printed on a laser printer (double sided). Staples and Kinkos won't do it for me, and I don't have access to a laser printer that will do it. The text should be the same direction on both sides, meaning the cards are intended to be flipped horizontally, if that makes sense.

I will ship you the 600 blank cards so you won't have to purchase them.

E-mail me at johndoemefi [at] gmail [dot] com with your address and a quote if you are interested.

Or alternatively, if you know any commercial places that will do printing of this sort, please let me know. Most places I called said that 3X5 was just too small.

awesome laser-pointer-spinning thing

MrMoonPie — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:13:14 -0800

Help me improve my awesome laser-pointer-spinning thing. So, I built this awesome laser-pointer-spinning thing. It's a foot-long piece of 1x2, with holes drilled to accept 4 laser pointers. There's a bolt though the center, which I chucked into a cordless drill. When spun, it created amazing patterns in the misty night sky (and amazingly awesome patterns in campfire smoke).

Problem is, it's heavy, and produced a lot of torque when starting and stopping. After I started and stopped it several times, the bolt broke from the strain, sending the apparatus flying through the air. Not optimal for the delicate laser optics, or for the delicate optics of the human spectators.

I suppose I could be more careful about trying to ramp the speed up and down gradually, but my drill isn't really very good at that. Does anyone have suggestions about how to make the thing stronger, lighter, more awesome? Manual-powered modifications would be fine, too, but I found that it worked best at high rpms.

Put a "star" on our "tree"!

siclik — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:24:12 -0800

Your suggestions for lighting the top of a 50 ft. sculpture being displayed at our state fair? I work for a manufacturing company that is manufacturing and donating a 50 foot tall metal sculpture, to be displayed at our state fair later this summer. I can't give away too much as we've agreed not to disclose any sensitive information yet, but picture a tall steel structure: 50 ft. tall, base has a 40 ft. diameter. The sculpture consists of three separate structures, coming together to form one larger structure (i know it's vague, but the "3" is important).

At first, we thought of putting different colored LEDs (right, white, blue) on the top of each of the smaller structures so they would come together at the top and form a "flame" of sorts.

Then I thought about doing something like this but thought it would look pretty silly in the day light and I'm not sure how well it would hold up to heavy winds 50 ft. up.

Now, we're considering mounting different colored laser lights (perhaps moving) at the top so people all around the fairgrounds can spot the sculpture.

Your thoughts? We're in Oregon and would really appreciate any input that you can provide. Specific suppliers in our area would be great, if possible.

Why did they bother pulping in the first place?

mhz — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:54:07 -0800

How can I get an awesome engraved diploma? Where can I go locally (Brooklyn, NY) for an engraved diploma?

I'm talking about the images that show up here. I get the feeling that this is the kind of thing that would be cheaper to do locally than over the internet, and I'm looking for recommendations, etc, on a place to do it.

I want to be able to walk into a place with a file with all of the text and artwork I want; I want to choose a plaque, and have it laser cut. Ideally, this won't cost me too much. Turnaround time isn't that big a deal. If it's necessary (or better) to get the parts and work separately, I'm all for it.

So if you've had this done (or you do it!), please tell me where to start – what type of wood is best? Is this practical at all? What type of computer file do I need? Anything else I've missed?

Thanks!

Laser printing and inkjet techology filter

FauxScot — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:35:53 -0800

How do laser and inkjet printers work? I know the basics, of course, but I am looking for serious expertise at the level of the actual chemistry and physics... things like fuzer specs, toner chemistry, deposition, transfer, particle masses, exotic materials; in short... the stuff an actual expert would know. I have a friend who is a hot shot civil engineer who is doing some proposal work and who, for some reason, needs to locate some expertise in the area of inkjets and laser printer technology. (I've been beating him up for years to join Metafilter, and with a good answer here, might just push him over the edge. And Jessamyn NEEDS that $5!)

He's trying to get smart on the laser fuser and the details of toner chemistry, but transfer mechanism is important, too. Rasterization less so. For inkjet, the ink chemistry and fluid dynamics of transfer.

I know there are 20 mefites with PhDs in laser printing out there, fingers poised above keys awaiting this very question. All leads and info very much appreciated.

Recommend a printer

BeaverTerror — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:20:21 -0800

Please recommend a colour printer that prints 11x17" sheets. My HP 9800 was stolen this week, so I'm in the market for another wide format printer. Please help me pick one and give reasons for why you recommend it. I'd like it to be below $500 Canadian. Thank you!

Which cheap, wireless laser printer should I buy?

christopherbdnk — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:08:53 -0800

Which cheap, wireless laser printer should I buy? We're looking to spend under $150 for the printer, and we'd like something with a low cost-per-page, I think that's probably the most important feature. We're going to use three or four different computers with it, in our home, and it won't print all that much at a time. Speed doesn't matter much. If it worked as a scanner, that would be incredibly useful too, but we're okay with buying a scanner separately if we need to.

We're looking at the Brother HL-2170w right now. It's wireless, 1.4 cents per page in toner, and $110 shipped with great reviews everywhere.

So:

- Cheap, under $150
- Cheap, per page
- Wireless
- Works with Vista and OS X
- Scanner, too, if possible

How to not blind self using cheap $199 specials?

Darke — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:00:28 -0800

How can I find the best LASIK eye doctor in the NYC Metro region? I've just been cleared for laser eye surgery by my optometrist, and can't seem to find any sort of way of determining who is likely to blind me and and who can do an awesome job.

Should I go the color laser printer route?

Xere — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:22:23 -0800

College student looking to buy a laser printer. I've only needed to print papers in black ink during my past two years of college. But what's this - I can buy a color laser printer for the same price as a regular one? Are there any downsides to a rarely-used color roller?

Ah. Yes. Where do the legs go on that thing again?

neblina_matinal — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:03:20 -0800

I have a few questions about bellow-the-belt laser hair removal. I've decided I want to get a full bikini hair laser removal. Everything gone. I have a few questions about the whole process though (which yes, I will also be asking when I go in to get the thing done, but I'd still like to know what to expect beforehand).

- When you go in for the first consultation, the one when they assess your skin and hair type and whether you are a good candidate, are you supposed to not wax/shave beforehand for a while? I mean, they have to see the hair, so you're not supposed to be groomed, right?

- When doing the actual procedure, how do they place you? Stir-ups like a Gyn? Or... what? FYI, I've never got a Brazilian wax done at a salon, so a description of... placement is welcome.

- Also, do they protect your *most delicate* skin and bits *right next to that laser beam* with something?

- Has anyone had this done and then regretted it? I can't see any reason why I'd need pubic hair anytime in my life, but still, I've never done anything so permanent, ever.

- If there's anything important I'm forgetting, or something you wish you'd known before you had this done, please do share.

Laser hair removal in Philadelphia

ludwig_van — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:24:28 -0800

Where should I go for laser hair removal in Philadelphia? I want them to remove the hair with lasers.

Help me choose a colour printer PII

MarvinJ — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:25:27 -0800

Help me choose another printer. I got the HP 2605 from this askme and am now looking for your help again. Very happy with the printer we got and the business is doing OK too, but one of the limitations is the way the card is fed means that you can only go to a certain weight and printing on both sides by repeat feeding is out too.

What recommendations do you have for a printer out there, laser or ink jet, that is as good as the HP2605 but will allow heavy paper , light card to be fed through?

Where can I buy a Older-New Printer?

cmherskovic — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:59:05 -0800

Where do the printers that dont sell go? In other words, where can I buy a band-new printer from say 2006? I need a new color laser printer, but I dont want to spend $300+.

So I am looking for Color Laser Printers from say 2006, 2007 that are in box never used that should in theory sell for less then their newer counterparts.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

Is building a femtosecond laser within the reach of a hobbyist?

arimathea — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:24:33 -0800

Is building a femtosecond laser within the reach of hobbyists? I've noticed an interesting number of research projects lately that utilize femtosecond lasers. I've found Sam's Laser FAQ, but the question is left somewhat unanswered. Is building a femtosecond laser within the reach of a hobbyist? What's the major cost in building hobby lasers? (Please no lectures on whether this is a good idea or how I might rip a hole in the space time continuum).

Printing for long-term use

sandpine — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:06:31 -0800

I'm looking for paper to use in a laser printer that will hold up well over time. I have a number of documents that I would like to print and keep in a binder.

My concern is how the documents will degrade over time. I understand that either the paper or toner will breakdown over time and make the document useless/unreadable.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

SandPine