Why buy

I've been curious, and figured I'd post some questions:
What do you use your laser for?
When I think of laser, I think of laser pointers, used for, well, pointing...
Why the hell buy a $200 laser pointer?

I wonder my self. It would seem that the main reason is too burn something specifically balloons and matches, black tape and trash bags.
What makes me incredulous even more are the guys that have this weird fascination for flashlights

I have been making lasers for 30+ years when it was all high voltage. I am building some small red and green to try mixing colors. True -- the parlor tricks are fun too. Theres also NdYAG, CO2, ArIon to play with and learn optics.
As for "flashlights, you haven't looked at what they are doing !! The HID technology is great. I have a 35 watt HID (arc) light which is supurb !!!

Keep an open mind to new ideas.

Mike

For some of us it is a hobby. Nothing more and nothing less.

hkbladelawhk said:

I've been curious, and figured I'd post some questions:
What do you use your laser for?
When I think of laser, I think of laser pointers, used for, well, pointing...
Why the hell buy a $200 laser pointer?

Click to expand...

For the same reason people buy $80,000 sports cars when a $12,000 economy sub-compact will get them to work and to the grocery store just as well.

I must say I've wondered the same thing. I don't have a high power laser, only a 4mw one. I find the powerful ones very fascinating in theory, but when I think of buying one, I only imagine myself doing things that would get me in trouble! You know, annoying the neighbors, flattening a noisy neighbor's car tire, starting someone's hair on fire :naughty:

However, to avoid the temptation to do such stupid things, I won't buy one. I just don't trust myself. I mean, it's tempting to try different things like those if you've spent $200 or more on a laser and can't come up with anything worthwhile to do with it other than pointing it up at the foggy sky at night and play lightsaber.

Now for flashlights---they certainly do have a practical application. It puts out light that lets you see when you otherwise can't. Haven't we all found ourselves in that situation? I can't think of any situation that caused me to think, "I really wish I had a laser in this situation". Unless of course, my neighbor was annoying me. But that's an issue for a different discussion.

But lasers are COOL! No doubt about it! :twothumbs

I ask that question everytime I see my 3 green lasers, but seen the light beam on the sky or on a dark enviroment, is real fun .

I love gadgets, but I buy them when they're cheap.

so some of these "laser pointers" can burn through stuff at a distance?

hkbladelawhk said:

so some of these "laser pointers" can burn through stuff at a distance?

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Yes they can. :thumbsup:

And if you'd like a visible red burning hand-held laser, about 150mW to 250mW on the cheap, there's tons of threads both here, and on Laserpointerforums about using 16X speed DVD burner laser diodes and mounting them in flashlights.

If you have a source for a dead high-speed DVD burner drive, the diode is free. Discussion forum group-buy diodes run about $20 each.

Suitable LED flashlights to serve as the body can be had for about $20, to as little as $7.

If the LED flashlights driver board puts out the proper voltage and current the driver board is "free".

The 5mW Axiz laser diode housing you poke the 5mW diode out of, and put the DVD diode into is $4.

If you need to make a driver board, you can do so with just about $10 in parts from an electronics supplier.

So for anywhere from $13, to about $55, not counting any tools, solder, flux, heatsink compound etc. or, assuming you have them, you can have a laser that will pop baloons and light matches at a distance of 20 feet or more, if you do everything right.

AJ_Dual said:

Yes they can. :thumbsup:

And if you'd like a visible red burning hand-held laser, about 150mW to 250mW on the cheap, there's tons of threads both here, and on Laserpointerforums about using 16X speed DVD burner laser diodes and mounting them in flashlights.

If you have a source for a dead high-speed DVD burner drive, the diode is free. Discussion forum group-buy diodes run about $20 each.

Suitable LED flashlights to serve as the body can be had for about $20, to as little as $7.

If the LED flashlights driver board puts out the proper voltage and current the driver board is "free".

The 5mW Axiz laser diode housing you poke the 5mW diode out of, and put the DVD diode into is $4.

If you need to make a driver board, you can do so with just about $10 in parts from an electronics supplier.

So for anywhere from $13, to about $55, not counting any tools, solder, flux, heatsink compound etc. or, assuming you have them, you can have a laser that will pop baloons and light matches at a distance of 20 feet or more, if you do everything right.

Click to expand...

Haha, what about already manufactured ones?

I used to use lasers to make laser shows out of scavenged azimuth adjustment platforms out of old laser disk drives.

The azimuth adjustment platforms have two mirrors on them, each mounted to a coil-and-magnet assembly; when the coil leads are connected to a source of AC in the lower AF range (<200Hz) such as the speaker outputs from a small stereo ghetto blaster (no more than 2 watts/channel RMS), you can create some rather neat patterns on the wall depending on the type of music you play in the stereo.

Sure, it's crude, but effective.

Nowadays, I use lasers primarily for pointing purposes; and lower powered lasers (typically <3mW) as cat toys after I've finished evaluating them on my website.

hkbladelawhk said:

Haha, what about already manufactured ones?

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Usualy several hundred dollars for a completed unit with comparable power.

Here's an example: 200mW http://www.laserglow.com/index.php?orion

Although you're getting proper heat-sinking, the FDA required safety features for hand-held lasers >5mW, testing, and warranty backing from that seller. The old adage "You get what you pay for" is true.

Here's a less expensive unit with 125mW for $200 or so: http://www.wickedlasers.com/Red_Lasers-1-1.html

Although no FDA safety features, and that means U.S. Customs might confiscate it, and with the pen-pointer sized case, thermal managment and duty cycle will be less unless you don't care about diode life.

Genxsis said:

flattening a noisy neighbor's car tire,

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That's a good idea, so has anyone been able to puncture a tire yet? say at 30-50m. :devil: