Balloons, Cups... what else?

Just curious if anyone else has come up with other things to burn holes in for fun? Balloons are pretty fun because they pop. The plastic cup thing is not bad, vinyl tape works, but what else seems to work well for showing off the green laser?

My 55mw Vitalspirit will smoke and melt cassette tape, burn through brown plastic cups, pop red, black and orange balloons and blister skin...

You can always try the "cookie wrapper" signature. If your laser is over 80mW you can write things fairly quickly on certain cookie wrappers. Just beware of the glossy surface if you're not using safety glasses. That specular reflection at under a foot is gonna be bad for your eyes. I took a flash to the eyes from a <110mW doing this but fortunately was wearing my safety glasses.

Some pics on my experiment photopage here...
http://www.pbase.com/nero_design/laserexperiments

The most heavy duty item I've ever burned or attemped to burn through was one of those black plastic film containers that Kodak use to sell their 35mm film in. I don't know if film still comes in these as I've gone digital for the past 4 years; but I found one of these in my infamous "junk drawer" and had to try it. It took ~2 minutes of continuos burning with my PPL mounted (duct taped) to my camera tripod to make sure the beam did not move.

Jack

My PGL-III went through a audio cassette case back (black plastic) in a pretty short time when using freshly charged NiMH at around 4" range, its >75mw !

I started to melt a spot on my keyboard's wrist rest when I got my hands on a 100mW red diode laser module. It is made of a dark grey plastic.

I received the module in mid-May and burned the wrist rest shortly thereafter; I can still see the spot if I shine a flashlight on the wrist rest.

The_LED_Museum said:

I started to melt a spot on my keyboard's wrist rest when I got my hands on a 100mW red diode laser module. It is made of a dark grey plastic.

I received the module in mid-May and burned the wrist rest shortly thereafter; I can still see the spot if I shine a flashlight on the wrist rest.

Click to expand...

lmao..... boredom!

Ha!!

I can totally relate to the wrist rest burn...lol...the rest I have is made of a black rubberized material...smokes up real quick with my >200 mW. I've got little holes and lines burned all over it. I have a keyboard with black keys and have burned a hole through one of the keys. Also burned a hole through my black mouse.

I've even been able to burn black threads off of my jeans whenever they come loose...quite handy for that. I've even gotten them to smoke up a bit.

I have to say though, that I never would've thought of trying to attract lizards with them. Most birds fly away as soon as they detect the dot. Our association club uses them to keep the geese off of the docks (to help cut down on droppings).

Great thread!!

Lol...I just realized that the last paragraph actually belongs in another thread...lmao.

Anyone try popping some pop-corn?

lighting fireworks or sparklers?

oh, what about writing in the snow? would that be too risky with reflections and stuff?

House flies?

you can ignite a red tipped match from a matchbook.

Impyboy said:

...oh, what about writing in the snow? would that be too risky with reflections and stuff?

Click to expand...

I don't believe you can "write" in snow with a visible laser; far too much of the radiation would be reflected or deflected away to cause any thermal effects (melting, etc.)

Take an ace of spades and burn out the center spade.
Fun way to trash old credit cards before you cut them up (money to burn?)

I've burned a hole through my checking account :ironic:

PhotonWrangler said:

I've burned a hole through my checking account :ironic:

Click to expand...

That must be a pretty powerful laser ya got there
great answer!

Jack