<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Brock:
something ridiculous have you tried it? Is it much brighter? Now I am getting laser happy <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
This trick won't work properly if the laser has a feedback limited power supply.
Most of those sold in the UK have to be under 1 milliwatt, and those I've seen from that region indeed have such a power supply to keep them from climbing above 1mW.
To tell if yours does, shoot another laser into it. At some point, you should be able to make the test laser dim or extinguish just by shining another laser down inside it.
If it does, that's the power supply kicking in.
Cheap pointers like those found for $1 or $2 on ebay seem to be the best candidates for this type of modification, as their only form of power regulation comes from a single resistor.