Burning Stuff............

How powerful does a laser have to be before i can start burning stuff with it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif?? Also can i get a unit like this in hand held form (pointer), where can i get one and how much would it cost?

Anything near a CDRH Class IV (500mW on up, easily cuts/burns stuff), you'll want to invest in a pair of safety goggles rated for the laser wavelength your laser emits at, BEFORE you start thinking about getting the laser itself.

You can *just start* to burn stuff with as little as 60mW in visible wavelengths, but you'll want at least several hundred milliwatts to burn things.

so can you get these units in a hand held form? and how much do they cost?

I have simple website set up to demonstrate the design of the ChangChun GLP-III (now called the PGL-III) green laser at http://laser.shiftlock.com. I've just added a video of this laser burning a hole in a plastic cup from four feet away in 8 seconds. It also makes newspaper smoke and burn in seconds from feet away. It will pretty much burn a hole in anything thin. Also frys ants. The power is supposed to be >50mW. I don't have a laser power meter, and I haven't had time to rig the green diode method, so I don't know its true power, but I would guess it's quite a bit more than 50mW. I know one of these lasers was recently measured at just over 120mW.

Chris the Laser dude was selling 1000 watt pulse 532 nm units at swap meet last year Mr Transistor and I were going to split and buy one but we seen it operate. It punched a hole thru a steel barrel in about 10 nanseconds. I had one of my bad preminitions about a hole going thru 4 houses so we BOTH decided it was too powerful to have toys like that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif One the other hand we swapped chris a blue laser for 2 1 watt spectrolab 1024 nm diode emmitters. We hooked them up to drafting pens with fibir optic cable. 1 watt makes a very nice engraver/cutter. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Plays REAL havoc on ant hills. Kinda like a death ray. Get some googles for the frequency of laser you want to fry with and be carefule what you aim it at. Make sure a BURNING ray is not reflected back to you! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

The 1 watt burns instantaeously and can be left on. It runs on 3 volts. Zapppp!

you can get the Big green from the Chinese if you are brave:
http://www.viasho.com/next/English/532nm.htm


NikolaTesla /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

An Arc lamp is the Spark that takes away the Dark--HID Forever!

My Lights

One othe word of caution. Burning lasers DO NOT like the smoke to get on the optics. Smoke is a solid particle that absorb the light. We found out the hard way and burnt a collimeter lens right off. Small muffin fan at discharge end helps keep smoke away. And keep the optic clean!

The laser pen red and green toys look real cool though if you have a smoke machine. You can get cheap ones from Music store (American DJ brand)

NikolaTesla /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

An Arc lamp is the Spark that takes away the Dark--HID Forever!

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Nikola,,a thousand watt 532nm green laser are you sure??
the largest we know of is a 120watt unit,,

I'm getting a 35mW from chris. obviously i'm not going to be able to burn stuff with it. right?

What i'm really looking for is somthing so i can burn stuff with in a pointer form, and the cheapest way out of it. I don't really want a laser cannon that i might kill myself with or others. And it would need to be portable.

Shiftlocks sounds more like what i'm after. Who suped up yours? or can you do it? also the best and cheapest place to get a changchun. i really just want to burn stuff, and yes i got some goggles comming.

i looked at those goggles and i don't think they would protect you from much...

It really depends on the material that your trying to burn, you can usually burn electrical tape

what goggles? i didn't say what type i got. you probably talking about those " military" ones on ebay. i'm not getting them! that guy couldn't tell me what wave length they protect against! He just said they are "broad range", which means he doesn't know. I like my eyes more than my wallet...... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

yeah, i think a good pair of goggles would be over 100$
Check some past posts, people have posted many sites before. Just use the search.

Also check you pm

any way. back to Burning stuff.The best place to get these units, the changchun?. who do i get to hotwire it? i've heard that dwight is is good. Any opinions on him? i really just want to lase stuff, ants and other bugs, newspaper etc etc. oh, and i don't want to pay hundreds of dollars either.

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DaFiend said:
I'm getting a 35mW from chris. obviously i'm not going to be able to burn stuff with it. right?

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hmm i dunno, you may have a fair chance if you took the IR filter out...

not that Id ever advise you do such a thing! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif If you're gonna try it, as the guys have said - just make sure you have adaqute Eye protection.

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i really just want to lase stuff, ants and other bugs, newspaper etc etc. oh, and i don't want to pay hundreds of dollars either.

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that presents a bit of a problem then.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

why in the hell does it cost so much? would it be easier, and cheaper? to mod a a red to burn stuff or does that just not work? I just want to burn some stuff.

unfortunatly like me you have to pay the price, and i dont think my 45MW will even burn stuff when it arrives.. tho it says on site it will burn thru black bags.. dunno, ill give it a try on paper etc and let you know

[ QUOTE ]
DaFiend said:
...would it be easier, and cheaper? to mod a a red to burn stuff or does that just not work? I just want to burn some stuff.

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There is no way to modify a red laser pointer to the point at which it will burn anything.
Some red keychain laser pointers can be modified to near 10mW by installing an extra button cell in them, but that probably isn't very good for the laser diode. Many will burn out; a few will achieve power levels of 7mW to 10mW when this modification is performed.

ok. so red is out of the question, which means i'm stuck with green. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif don't get me wrong, green is cool. but expensive /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif

Stick a magnifying glass in front of the laser, put it near paper or a plastic bag and for god sake watch you dont burn yourself *runs away for giving him that idea* lol

sounds good and and bad. good cause it burns, bad cause its not really what i mean, and i dont want it to reflect and get me in the eyes! Thanks for the tip though. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif