Please remember this about laser safety: the color of the glasses is not the color it blocks! A pair of red goggles will let a red laser right through them. They usually block green lasers. Be sure the goggles you use are meant to block the wavelength you are using.

need price list, DO WANT :D

@bolke

Typically when you get a gun you go through a safety course. I think the more complex an instrument is the more caution you should have while handling it. A knife is pretty basic no need for a proper explanation. A gun is more complex you need a license to use it. A laser is more complex than that.

I think most people could use a laser but they should be aware of the things that go along with it, and have the proper equipment to operate it. I think people around here who do this a lot and have heard horror stories just want people to be aware of the risks before doing this hack.

seriousness aside,if you loose your eye using your finger… well you probably shouldn’t be using any of the other tools you mentioned.

If you make a blinding weapon use high power red, green and blue lasers so if someone wears goggles to protect from one colour it won’t save them from the other two.

The only safe way to protect your eyes at that point would be through use of cameras plugged into LCD video glasses.

I like how the warning screen flashes so fast you can barely get to the e-OMG LAZER

I don’t think the comparison of a high-power laser with a gun is a very good one. With a gun, you know exactly where and when the danger lies, and people in general respect the risks of handling them. With a laser, you can be carefully pointing it away from yourself and everyone you care about, and still accidentally catch a reflection long enough to damage your vision. On top of that, no matter what you tell them, many people have NO respect for the danger of using a laser. (Think about the last time your friends played with a laser pointer around you. How long did it take for it take them to point it at your face?)

@Chris

Guess it’s different between different states and such I’m up in Canada it’s kind of hard to follow.

Anyways I still think it’s something you need to be more careful with. If we do end up with a bunch of people being stupid they are just going to ruin it for the rest of us. So why not advocate proper use now instead of having it a political issue in a few years with people crying for their ban.

see, if dangerous things were only for mental people, we would have a better world. unfortunately, whats is dangerous and what is not? and then again, everybody can be a president. all im saying is, dickheads will always be and they will always find a way to piss you off.

So I don’t get it woots the hack in this.
The only hack I see here that he builds it into a flashlight casing, big deal…

Oh and smoking dangerous to your health too dont forget that

lol he doesn’t include the safety glasses in the ‘parts you’ll need’ section

i’d like to see someone put it to use for something insted of burning matches, popping balloons and other dumb stuff

what is it with the comment spam??!!!

as for safety, the dangers of any 200mW output with a tiny increase in drive current.

Yes, they are useful tools WHEN PROPERLY USED INDOORS WITH THE CORRECT OD7 RATED GOGGLES!!!!

@thlip: wicked lasers’ goggles are awful. They’re really terrible. I wouldn’t trust them at all. Do not buy them. Do not try to find cheaper goggles. Your eyesight is worth millions of dollars. Don’t cheap out and buy crappy chinese $50 goggles.
In fact, never buy anything wicked lasers makes, at all, ever. They’ve got a really bad track record for selling junk. All of their lasers are less powerful than advertised, if they work at all. They usually break in a few hours, and they cost 10 times more than they should. Never buy anything from WL. Period.

oemlasersystems.com has some actual proper certified protective eyewear for sale. It costs more, but as I mentioned, my insurance policy values the use of my eyes at $10,000,000, so a hundred bucks to save them is a bargain.

hmm, at what wattage is a laser powerful enough to burn some things, but not so powerful that goggles are required at all times? No goggles with safe use and common sense obviously.

Le Lightsaber Terrible!

Ok, so I need a price on a 445nm diode then. Last I looked they were approaching $1500 which makes this pretty unachievable for me.

be thankful it’s only 1W, they could go a lot more with this design because of the heatsink.

This isn’t really a weapon. I guess you could hurt peoples eyes, but that’s it, and it doesn’t hurt even the most low density metals.

@Link: Think about what you are saying! You want a power level that burns “stuff” by laser, but won’t hurt your eyes because it is too bright? Keep dreaming!

That’s like asking what temperature is best for burning wood, that you can hold it.

Paper and plastic don’t react to light at all. Your eyes can see individual photons. If it burns paper then it will fry your eyes ten times over before that.

@Jake: Nice piece. But used badly, the laser is probably more of a threat – silent, longer ranged, visible for fractions of a second, and keeps going half a day without reloading. Oh, and far more easily concealed.

You guys do know this will destroy the retina before you can blink?

Jesus Christ, some of you people are poster kids for why everything has safety labels and rules. This is a jury rigged Class 4 laser — it’s an accident waiting to happen.

@bobdole

That’s good to know I just went to find the first option in google that fit the right wavelength. You’re right if I’m screwing around with lasers I would spend the cash to make sure they are safe.

What would the range be if you were to point this at the sky? Could it reach the ISS?

I’m assuming most of the people claiming lasers are more dangerous than guns are American…

This seems idiotic to me. Lasers are clearly safer than a gun as the worst you can do with this sort of laser is ruin someone’s eyesight or give someone a nasty burn. A gun on the other hand can kill someone, very quickly. There really isn’t any comparison with regard to how dangerous these two things are. Just because they’re more common doesn’t change that.

I will concede that your arguments do have one good point. That is that generally people do respect guns but they don’t respect or even understand lasers. While guns are clearly more dangerous it is more likely that someone is going to get hurt in some way due to ignorance with lasers. This is an ignorance issue.

@hackius – i was thinking the same thing, but i think most laser cutters are around 40watts min… probably not enough power here to do any real work.

I did some very slow going wood engraving on my plotter with a 300mW laser. This wouldn’t be useful on a plotter for cutting stuff, but for engraving it should be awesome. I’d love to try it.

Is the damage from visible light or UV?
I read that plastic (glasses) block some UV but is there any kind of coating that I can apply, just to be safe?

@ACIDRAIN
i lolled
For weeks before being caught? Have you seen the video? That beam is a solid bar for as far as it reaches, of course such a person would get caught!

(also you’re a bit paranoid)

Its a bit too late to try and regulate this sort of thing. Blu-ray laser diodes are quite powerful enough to blind, and available pretty much everywhere. Making a pocketable laser is a common enough project, and this nicely shows how easy it is. Making the components illegal to stop people messing around with them hasn’t helped in the War On Drugs; why do you think it might help in the War On Shiny Things?

My suggestion? Start wearing an eyepatch. That way you’ve got a hot-failover vision system in the event that someone starts messing around with one of these toys. Also works against nuke-flash, j-rays and green orbital blinding weapons combined with carnivorous animated plants. Yarr.

how to start a fire in the forest…

“”They’re just more prone to misuse.”"

Which technically makes them more dangerous.

I like experimenting with stuff like this but I know I’m able to judge the risks and safety I need to take. If someone else is playing with it I’ve no control over that, while I’m all for the hacks I do find it a bit worrying that bob the 15 year old down the road might build one and not think about it’s use, leaving ME with injury. I only hope that anyone attempting these things really does think it over and use their brains, for the sake of others.

@NKT
To my understanding, you should not use this laser without goggles, because the very beam itself would damage your eyes without looking directly into it.

What I meant was, a cheap laser pointer won’t damage your eyes unless you point it at your eye socket. A laser diode from a DVD burner has enough power to pop a balloon maybe, but it still doesn’t damage your eyes. No goggles required. At what wattage should you begin to cover your eyes?

@Link
No! A diode from a DVD burner WILL damage your eyes. Your eye acts as an extremely effective lens which focuses the light onto your retina. Ever used a magnifying glass to burn things? Same concept.
You need goggles for any laser that you plan to use indoors or to burn something, except for maybe the <5mW red pointers you find at retail stores.

And to everyone else planning to build this, BUY GOGGLES! Not those cheap Chinese ones or DIY ones, but certified goggles with an OD of 5 or more from a reputable source. Looking at the dot from distances of 20 feet and maybe more is harmful to your eyes.

Also, many people, when they think of lasers, they think of toys. Everyone knows a gun is dangerous. The same can't be said for lasers.
/rant

I agree with Oren Beck.

You know, He/Ne lasers and Diode lasers can damage eyesight, and yet, almost every store has laser price scanners flashing you in the face hundreds of times a second. Or hand-held scanners in a holder aimed where you get hit in the eye. And lottery ticket scanners, etc.

“Oh, it is only brief exposure” people say.
Well, do you think it quickly adds up? How many seconds exposure does it take to damage someone’s eyesight? One second? Two? How often do you plan to shop over your lifetime?

You can’t even walk into Home Depot without getting beamed in the face. And what about cashiers who are exposed all day!
I’ve been looking for blue sunglasses, but…

People, we’ve got to protest every time we shop! And spread the word on-line. Why us; because we know more about these than non-techies.

All lasers should come with bigger and multiple warnings. And like mattress tags, be illegal to detach. The law should require large warnings be displayed prominently at every cash register or device that uses a laser. Operators, yes, cashiers, should be required to attend training that emphasizes the danger. Pocket lasers should never be sold to kids; really they should be taken off the market.

Exiting soap box. My 02 cents.

There is no good that can come from this. Any laser over 5mW should be bench mounted for proper use in a physics research or industrial environment. Anyone that makes a laser like this portable is only promoting mischief because there is no legitimate or legal use for such a device. I would sign any petition to make them illegal.

@LRMNmeyer

Aight, understood; goggles for anything but cheap dime store lasers. Hmmm I was unaware of the intensity of the dangers of lasers it seems.

^^ it’s people like that that should never own a high powered laser. Luckily those people usually don’t have the skills to make one.

I have plenty of high powered lasers including 445′s. From 400-1500 mw and they are awesome but you have to respect their power and use safety glasses at all times ( unless outdoors shining in the sky, far distance. Etc.)

just built one i love it

really nice vid and well detailed. hopefully i could make one but ive never even tried making a laser