One of the most versatile tools in a shop or makerspace is a laser cutter. The recently funded Glowforge makes having one in your garage a possibility.

With so much exciting around laser cutters, you might be wonder what is a laser anyway? There are two primary laser types: Gas and Diode.  Jordan Bunker goes into detail in the Make: Skill Builder article, about the difference.

The pictures and diagrams alone are worth the look. The diagram on how a laser diode emits light is one of my favorites. (Actually, I think it is a good general purpose “led/diode diagram.”

Check out “Learn the Difference: Gas and Diode Lasers,” via Make.

Ever need graph paper for a project, but can’t wait for Amazon Prime? No problem, this free online tool lets you generate graph paper on the fly. Multiple types of graph lines are available and each are fully configurable. Once done, you get a clean PDF of graph paper to print.

Here’s a short run-down of the graph paper types available:

• Squares
• Triangle and Hexagons
• Circular and Polar (Think Smith Chart)
• Asymmetric
• Note Taking

Check out the free graph paper generator at incompetech.com.

Years of hard work, curation, and archiving have brought the Project Apollo Photo Archive to a Flickr album. Kipp Teague writes,

“This new Flickr gallery would have not been possible without the support of Mike [Gentry], Steve [Garber], and Eric [Jones], and many others.”

In this note, he corrects a misconception that this archive itself was an NASA undertaking. While the photos come from NASA, the archive is an independent effort.

There is also a Project Apollo Archive Facebook page, in addition to the photos on Flickr.