Easy Laser Light Show

Description:
Here is a very cool laser light show. What makes it cooler is that it can be made with items around the home! This one is quite simple and does not take much time at all.

Warning:
Be very careful during the building of and using of this device, it is quite easy for a mistake to happen and the laser to shine in you eye. I highly suggest wearing laser safety goggles during the entire process.

For this Instructable you will need:
- Scissors(Heavy kitchen scissors work best)
- 9v Motor (can be found in many toys and especially cheepo hand-held fans.)
- Popsicle sticks
- CD (will be destroyed so make sure there is nothing on it that you want)
- Hot glue gun
- Cardboard
- A laser (obviously)
- Laser safety glasses or some other form of eye protection that will keep your eyes safe from the laser.

The base is made of simple sturdy cardboard. Size may vary depending on what laser you are using, however mine is a 6" by 10" rectangle.

For the motor stand first cut out five 2" popsicle stick segments. Next glue four together in a square as shown in the first picture. With the 5th piece glue it in an upright position against the edge of the square bottom.

To start first cut out two 1.25" pieces. Then, holding the two together, cut a 30 degree angle into them. (You do not need to be exact just make sure that the sides line up with each other.) Next cut a small inch long popscicle stick in half longways as seen in the fourth image. Glue the angled pieces to the half piece so that the edges line up. Finally use a small scrap piece to glue in between the pieces on the other side. Make sure that there is still space left between the pieces like in image two.

Note: In all of my images you may notice that the mirror is at a 45 degree angle. This ended up creating a much to large an effect so I changed it to a 30 degree angle.

To make the mirror get your CD and cut a 1" by 1" square. This is where it comes in handy to have those kitchen scissors, just take it slow and if you mess up there will be plenty of CD left.  Don't worry if the silver flakes off around the edges as it will be fine as long as not too much comes off from the center.

Now get the CD mirror you have created and glue it to the center of the mirror mount. After doing this squirt some glue down in the space between the mount and place it over the center of the motor axle as best you can (Make sure that you do not glue it to the motor itself.) As for attaching the motor cut a 1.5" long popsicle stick and glue it to the motor and the motor base.

The motor itself will vibrate so this step is just to reinforce the motor mount so that it does not vibrate itself to pieces. First get four 2" sticks and arrange them on the bottom of the motor mount as seen tin the second picture. As for the angled pieces, cut them at around 2.5" and then size them down to fit your mount snugly.

These spacers simply add a little height to keep the mirror from banging the ground. It is made of 3 popsicle sticks  cut in half and sandwiched together. These are then glued to the bottom of the motor mount.

This part of the design may also vary in size depending on what size laser you have. The laser I used was fairly large and so I made the mount the entire length of a popsicle stick. To make this fit your laser simply use the same design just change the dimensions to suit your laser.

Now glue the motor and laser mount centered together on the cardboard. Now all you have to do hook up the power for the motor. I would suggest two AA's with a switch so it is easy to turn off and on. This makes the motor move plenty fast enough to create wonderful circles of laser light. I do not suggest using an higher power as it tends to make it vibrate too much and the mirror can possibly fly off creating a dangerous situation. Only one more step and you are done!

At this point do not put the laser on but instead turn on you power supply. You are trying to get the mirror to spin nice and strait. If it hits the base just wiggle it around and redo the gluing until it spins nicely. Congratulations! You can now use the thing!

To use this for a laser show first put on your safety glasses and place the reflective part of the mirror in the direction of the area you want the laser to shine. Now stand facing the area and do not go past the mirror for safety. Turn the laser pointer on and place in facing the mirror. Make sure that the laser can stay on without you holding it. (Use tape if necessary.) Now turn on the motor and enjoy!

In the end you end up with these nice circles. (The bumps are due to it being against a door)

Note:
You might want to use some type of weight or fasten this down as it does vibrate a bit.
You can also expand upon this by adding more mirrors. This creates even cooler effects.