DIY handheld laser cutter

I noticed how low the price of very high powered IR laser diodes have fallen, so i decided i should try and build a handheld laser cutter. Finally it seems with my budget to be possible to ditch old mechanical tooling and move to an age of energy.

OD6+ quality protective goggles and clothing to cover the skin. Liquid cooling to keep the temperature in check. I guess the only tricky part is to build a +100W current regulated power supply?

Unless you are a dark-skinned individual, your skin is not in danger.

Diode bars are not good for cutting because of the high optical hazard, poor absorption, and multimode "flashlight" style beams. Sorry, but this project has been postulated many times - but it's not going to work.

That's right. Stick with CO2, and it wont be even close to hand held.

I had read some previous info catering to similar opinions as you raised, but after studying the product descriptions i thought the game has changed: 100W 808nm diode:

"very high power laser diode stack with collimated beam spot" This sounds to me like what you need for cutting. A collimated beam is capable of cutting thicker material compared to a near focused beam.

Is what you are saying that 100W is not enough power without focusing optics? There exists also a 500W diode of the same series. But it's price is already the same as the 100w co2 lasers i have found.

without knowing the beam characteristics, it is impossible to answer that question.

vari said:

Is what you are saying that 100W is not enough power without focusing optics? There exists also a 500W diode of the same series. But it's price is already the same as the 100w co2 lasers i have found.

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If anything look for a fibre coupled laser diode as the output is a lot easier to focuse with a single lens .