RPL Blue 20mw and a matchstick

considerin the fact its impossible, i sharpied a brown match and tried to light it using a lens.
focusing the beam on the match head for 30 secs or so, i could see bits of smoke, it was definitely smoke and not the reflection off the match head u sumtimes get with low powered pointers. the match head was left with little chips/burn marks - evidence that the laser tried to burn it. obviously the blue laser didnt light the match in the end, but somehow its left me thinking that professional mounting the laser/match could make this possible.
can someone please put me out of my misery and tell me wether this is possible?

i've heard reports from people lighting matches with 5mw lasers so it should be possible, i used to think lighting matches with my 35mw green was impossible but managed to do it a few days ago. Make sure to use a high quality AR coated lens for the best results

With a very short focal point lens it MAY be possible. Then again... its 20mW, lol. I could get balloons popped with my 17mW RPL blue and I thought that was quite a feat. I'm sure its possible with the 20mW Oceanus ( ) you got, but its not gunna be easy. It'll probably even take the right match from the matchbox, as well as every other bit of luck to align to get it to ignite. Perhaps try baking it a little bit after the sharpie to get it nice and dry? :-/

Oceanus ??? !!
[smiley=bath.gif] ;D

I guess we are up for bunch of new nicks once your page is up Pseudo

Milos said:

Oceanus ??? !!
[smiley=bath.gif] ;D

I guess we are up for bunch of new nicks once your page is up Pseudo

Click to expand...

Haha, I wish. Unfortunately I don't really have the funds to restock on a tenth of the things I wish I could stick on the site. I HAVE started working on it again for the first time in a while and I hope to have it ready for public viewing by the New Year, but it will be kinda bare as far as items go, sorry!

Dark -- A few of us have lit matches with our 405's running near 15 mW. It's very hard on the diode but the blue focuses down real good and I think four of us have reported these results. As Pseudo says --"Close Focus" -- I was at 12". The diode died a couple days later.

Mike