Hey LPF,

I'm looking for someone to help me out with a custom host. I have dimensions and sketches, but I need someone to make it for me as I don't have any of the tools.

This host will require a mill and a lathe to make. It's a fairly wide host, 47mm down the entire body. It is mostly lathe work, and only requires a bit of mill work. It is in 4 separate pieces: cap, heat sink, battery tube and tail cap. Everything will be made out of aluminium. I would preferably like to have this made by someone who has experience making a custom laser host, but it is not required.

PM or Post if you think you can help me.

Have you tried ehgemus? Or does he not have a mill? I would assume that would be one of the first places you looked/asked though so this may be irrelevant.

Perhaps if you post a couple of rough draft pics, you would get a better response.
Manual milling is difficult as is, and without an idea of the project, there is no way to tell what
is expected..

It's basically cutting off a chuck of the heat-sink for corrective optics.

Sort of like this CNI heat-sink


Edit: I assume the correct tool for this would be a mill. I really have no clue what is required to make this. I suppose it could be done with a hacksaw.

I asked him, but he hasn't replied. I got a reply from him before about a month ago and he said he might be busy with work and life so I assume he's really busy at the moment and unable to do this.

You would need a mill to cut that ledge, at least if you want any accuracy..

Now you mention corrective optics, im assuming the lava lenses?

You have to figure the length of the total heatsink and the working distance
of the 2 pc optics. If your ledge is too short, you're SOL... too long and it will
be ugly

Depending on the host you go with, id make this a 2 piece heatsink, similar to what
I use in my dual builds. An 'inner' mount, as mentioned with the ledge, and an outer
sleeve which covers the optics and a cap on the front.

Yup, I was going to use prisms, but it's to much work to get the beam to come out the center and to have it come out perpendicular to the host. MUCH easier to use the cylindrical lenses.

Prisms are better More work, better reward kinda thing...

To use a prism pair, all you have to do is cut the head with the 12mm hole offset
just like the CNI pic above.. I have a set of prisms im going to try out in that fashion.
The hardest part will be getting the hole drilled straight on the mill, where a center
hole on the lathe is superior..

Another reason I didn't use prisms is because I was only getting an 88% transmission with mine

I haven't measured the cylindrical optics yet, but i'm hoping the numbers are better.

They should be... Which prisms are you using? I got a set from a member over
at PL. They were a bit pricey, but small, and will give me the desired shape..

The only downside to a prism pair I have seen so far is trying to pass 2 beams
through a single pair. They expand a bit, and in turn, the beams separate a tad
which looks bad at the aperture.

The lava optics do similar, just not as bad.

The first set of prisms I tried were the 808nm coated from the CNI labbies.. The
dot, actually looked like a dot. The cylindrical lens set produce more of a 'WTF'
at distance

I'm using 400-700nm coated BK-7 glass prisms, no idea why my losses are so high.

Try to match your diode to the optics... Before I employ any optics, including
the collimator, I try each diode I have with the optics first.

Each diodes wavelength is a bit different, so testing how they work with each other
will help reduce loss. Not sure what you may gain, but its worth a try.

I have 16 a-140's on hand, and will test the prism pair I have with each one.
The best match up wins

I wish I could do that, unfortunately I only have a limited amount of diodes

Bump. Looking for someone to help me do this specifically:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f65/co...ml#post1089316