another from oz, hello.

I found this great site trying to better-understand the cold lasers I use in my work. Was primarily hoping to be able to make more-informed purchases. Cannot understand the value in the lofty prices asked by sellers of so-called medical lasers, so I might have a go at building something too. still reading a lot, so wont post much just yet. thanks.

Welcome to the hobby!

-Alex

welcome-

hope you get the help
please tell us more-
do not remember reading much- one good place for some medical lasers is JETLASERS.com- forum rep is very nice and has perfect English- he goes by name Gray
and yes most medical lasers do cost a lot more-
AixiZ Laser sells some also and holds patents for some medical lasers- see Dr 'Chuck' at AixiZ- try the 800 toll free # at the site- best to call 9 am to noon Texas time.(Central)- he would like to get a call from down there--lol
welcome

Welcome to the forums

Thank you for your welcome messages.

I have been using cheap *bay pens for acupuncture and the power output has been measured on a couple of them (pleasingly higher than stated by seller) using a meter made available at a training conference. I have ordered a Laserbee 3.7W laser power meter from Jerry Bauer (discovered in this forum)so that I will be able to continue to verify my cheap lasers. I am a bit too busy with life to become an expert laser builder right now, so will continue to shop for others' builds and hopefully find some reliable units at decent prices.

I am fascinated by light (maybe even moth-like) and what it can do biologically. Also interested casually in night vision for navigation. Hopefully I do not offend by saying I do not yet have a desire to burn things with lasers (though I am a bit of a pyromaniac and am infamous for having scorched a friend's tablecloth while playfully burning napkins at their candle-lit dinner ).

Looking forward to more learning.
Regards.

Hey welcome drcam

No need to apologize about burning stuff - not all of us want to burn stuff.

Some of us like lower powered lasers just to admire the beauty of the beams. Other like to build laser light show projectors, and some just like collecting gas lasers or obscure wavelengths like 589nm. Still others enjoy raw power and have high powered CO2 lasers, multi watt pointers, or diode bars that will scorch or even set fire to wood/punch a hole in metal.

LPF is not about just burning stuff with high powered pointers.

You can see my collection of lasers in my sig - as you can see none of these are terribly powerful (apart from the projectors), and none of them are pointers except for my ecig mountable 520nm, which I plan to turn into a semi modular unit, tethered to a power supply, to use for shrinking heatshrink, engraving plastics etc, amongst other things.

Enjoy your stay!

welcome