Michael Swanson writes in MMDigest 020429:

> You could cut music rolls by using the same method.  Make a beryllium
> copper mask that looks like a flat tracker bar with 100 holes in it.
> Then make beryllium copper shutters with a hole in them the size of
> the corresponding hole in the mask.

Actually, I don't think you would need to get this fancy. Just turn the
laser on and off as it scanned over the holes. Also, to avoid the need
to move the laser back and forth, aim the laser from the side to a
rotating mirror. Laser printers do something similar. This solution
would then be a fixed laser, a constant speed spinning mirror, and a
fixed mask.

The only question is whether the metal mask would heat up too much,
such that it would have problems with waxed papers.

C. Jim Cook
Bolton, Mass.