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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

[UK] [WTB] Anything small + cheap

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Aranthos

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Hey folks! I introduced myself to your forum back in Summer '10 but kinda went AWOL for a while after running out of money. Just so you know, it sucks to get interested in something, learn all about it, then suddenly your cash flow dries up before you get a chance to even start it as a hobby...

However! I'm happy to announce I have a shiny new job, and I can finally get on with feeding my lust for lasers! I'm in the process of piecing together a parts list for a low power (relatively speaking, of course) 445 laser with some help from Jayrob, but I'd quite like a rather more complete spectrum of lasers =] I don't want my only laser to be one that won't really be much fun thanks to all the safety precautions around it!

I'm pretty much interested in any handhelds people have but don't really want, so long as they're not too pricey - I'm saving my cash for the big one. Of course, I'd also be interested in any safety gear that's up for grabs as well - though I can get that myself relatively easily even here in the UK.

One final thing - UK based lazors are preferred so that customs don't get involved, plus it means I won't have to wait a month to see anything :)
 
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zdarkazn

zdarkazn

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Aranthos said:
Hey folks! I introduced myself to your forum back in Summer '10 but kinda went AWOL for a while after running out of money. Just so you know, it sucks to get interested in something, learn all about it, then suddenly your cash flow dries up before you get a chance to even start it as a hobby...

However! I'm happy to announce I have a shiny new job, and I can finally get on with feeding my lust for lasers! I'm in the process of piecing together a parts list for a low power (relatively speaking, of course) 445 laser with some help from Jayrob, but I'd quite like a rather more complete spectrum of lasers =] I don't want my only laser to be one that won't really be much fun thanks to all the safety precautions around it!

I'm pretty much interested in any handhelds people have but don't really want, so long as they're not too pricey - I'm saving my cash for the big one. Of course, I'd also be interested in any safety gear that's up for grabs as well - though I can get that myself relatively easily even here in the UK.

One final thing - UK based lazors are preferred so that customs don't get involved, plus it means I won't have to wait a month to see anything :)
Click to expand...

I would recommend that you get all the safety gear first. Dont learn the hard way like some people did. As soon as you receive your first few lasers, you might be tempted to play with them even though you dont have protection. It only takes a second to cause damage from a high powered laser.
I would suggest that you buy the Dragon Lasers glasses. They're not that expensive, but they're really great and big. They seem to be high quality too and not like the $8 ones that you can get on ebay which break easily. I have links to 3 of them in my sig. Total was $110 for those 3, which is a great deal :D. Safety comes first!
 
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anselm

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One final thing - UK based lazors are preferred so that customs don't get involved, plus it means I won't have to wait a month to see anything
Click to expand...
Have you already taken a look at OdicForce?
They are UK based and have pretty decent prices and quality, apparently.
 
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Aranthos

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Oddly enough I stumbled into them a few months back when looking for goggles - they seemed to be held in pretty high regard so they were my fallback plan if I couldn't get any pens from here! =]

Anything else I should get safety-wise? I'm considering a beam dump so that when burning stuff the beam has nowhere to go afterward (I don't think I'd want one hitting my PC monitor), but that's about all I can think of.
 
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anselm

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Anything else I should get safety-wise?
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A healthy dose of common sense when handling the laser.
That's the single most important "piece" of laser safety.

About the beam dump: Mohrenberg is having a sale right now, they're pretty affordable.
Or make your own, there have been a couple of threads about how to in the last
two or three months.
 
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Aranthos

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I understand the common sense requirement - it's something I've learned the easy way from lurking these forums for a while. Seems the only times people have trouble with lasers is when they're idiots with them. I daresay I should be safe, I'm putting the harsh restriction on myself that anything past 5mW doesn't get showed off without goggles involved, and anything past 200mW fires into a beam dump wherever it's practical =]

I'm not put off by the cost of safety - I've had one near-miss with my vision in the past (though it was - ironically - a laser that prevented me from becoming blind!) and I know how fragile it is. If that means my initial spend on quality goggles outweighs my spend on pens, then so be it!
 
zdarkazn

zdarkazn

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Aranthos said:
Oddly enough I stumbled into them a few months back when looking for goggles - they seemed to be held in pretty high regard so they were my fallback plan if I couldn't get any pens from here! =]

Anything else I should get safety-wise? I'm considering a beam dump so that when burning stuff the beam has nowhere to go afterward (I don't think I'd want one hitting my PC monitor), but that's about all I can think of.
Click to expand...

A beam dump would be useful if you always held the laser so that it pointed to the beam dump after burning something. I have a tendency to aim the laser in other directions when burning, so if you're like me, then its probably not needed.
 
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Aranthos

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That's more or less what I'd plan on doing. I'd really like my burning lasers to have tripod mounts so they'd be steady when doing their work - so a beam dump makes sense in my case, though I wouldn't take it with me when I'm lighting camp fires =]
 
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