Thinking about making a laser tool?

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Keiss
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon May 25, 2015 8:22 am

Thinking about making a laser tool?

Post by Keiss »

I am now thinking about making a laser tool, but I have absolutely no knowledge of lasers.

I probably should go and find a hobby laser forum to ask this, but that just adds another web site I have to log into and keep track of, so as I am here already I thought I would ask........


I am considering making a 3watt solidstate laser, what is the easiest way to go about this project???
What advice can people give??
As usual I want fast, easy, cheap, results.

My initial thoughts are:

1) see if I can source 10 or more IR laser diodes for under £10
2)make up some drive electronics
3)experiment with stacking and combining multiple lasers into one beam to give higher output power.
4)????????????
5)Profit


Now I know people have done similar things before, but I really don't know in detail how it would be done.

Can anyone give quick start idiots guide advice on trying such a thing??

Do I need to consider focusing and optics to get a small beam confinement or do diodes as linked to above already have reasonable focus (I always imagined the cutting power of the laser is more a factor of how small the beam is giving a high energy per unit area??)

Could I use normal mirrors to combine beams when they are coming in from different angles, or would prisms be needed?

Cheap safety precautions, I don't want to have to spend huge money on special glasses and testing equipment, can I do this safely, what advice do people have, I want to avoid being blinded!!!!

What do I need to know about?

What wavelength beams are best for cutting different materials??

I have some old DVD-RW drives, would it be better experimenting with junk DVD burner lasers before spending on new ones?
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LINUS
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Posts: 263
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:55 am

Re: Thinking about making a laser tool?

Post by LINUS »

... read through my Laser-Knowledge first ...

You need focussing optics and really good cooling of the diode!

Combining more diodes optically is possible, but you need really good optics and complex adjusting systems, what's not worth the fuzz ... better buy stronger fibercoupled diodes ...
Ebobatma
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2015 3:40 pm

Puttana minigonna stivale

Post by Ebobatma »

:oops: I don't know
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