Hello! First post, Looking for tips on lasers... laser pointers?

Because I'm sure that joke hasn't been used here before.

First off, hello to all, newly interested laser hobbyist here. As my profile says I'm a maintenance tech, but I also do a fair bit of woodworking, and though I don't own the machinery I know my way around a metal shop (I've got my eye on a 7x12 Hi-Torque mini lathe though).

My interest in lasers started a couple days ago upon seeing this beauty:

*edit* since the video doesn't appear to want to play nice here's the LINK
And that got me to thinking. I've been considering building a CNC router to make designs and intricate cuts out of wood, or anything else I find that can be routed, but routers are big, heavy, and noisy; meaning you need a big, heavy mount for them. Whereas lasers are somewhat lighter, quieter, and far less prone to vibrating their mounts to pieces. So this got me to googling, and I ended up at DTR's Laser Shop. I figured I should ask some people who know what they're doing before I start trying to laser (or would that be lase?) holes in things, and wound up here.

For CNC cutting wood you would probably want at least 10w of output. The most efficient way to do this is by using an ir diode. There are a few nice 10w+ 808nm c-mount on ebay.

Although you could also just buy one as making lasers that high powered can be EXTREMELY dangerous. If you just stick with a normal cnc mill you don't have to leave the room or wear any yellow tinted eyewear.

Good luck on your decision.