Beam Expander mounted on an RPL

Any particular reason you seem to be fixated on where I bought this from?  At this point I'm not sure if your looking for technical info or where I bought my particular unit from, I'm confused  :-?  

You did say you wanted to know that, Why? There are many places to buy beam expanders from and I already told you the brand, so that would take *any* guess work out of it IF you wanted to achieve the same thing and was worried a particular brand may/may-not work.

The whole point of my post was I thought it was cool to mount a Beam Expander on my RPL and I haven't seen it yet for the RPL; LG does have one, but frankly I don't like the way it's mounted.

Not to sound too condescending, but if I told you what kind of GPS I had in my car and the custom mount I had for it, would you then be more interested in where I bought the GPS and the price I got it for, Why?

I don't know maybe I'm missing your point here, but I'm still listening.

Not raining this morning, so I took it in the backyard and I was able to pop a balloon @ 70 feet, it took about 3-4 secs to pop, whereas in the house @ 40 feet it was instant; so I can see where at some point it won't work over a greater distance.  You can then of-course get a 10x or something if you need more distance, but I'm very pleased with the way it's working so far.

I wonder if any members have metal lathes to custom make beam expander attachments for the lasers most of us have pen style, Nova's Alpha, Laserglow and Optotronics ? In general CNI make lasers

making the piece of metal isn't what i am worried about ... it is threading it ... i wish i had the resources to thread larger things but i don't think i have the proper tools for threading at work ...

he have taps and dies but only to a limited size

I was just wondering ware you got one at and how much because i am really interested in getting one and was making sure i wasn't paying to much for one that is all not to be nosy or any thing : ) sorry if i stated my intentions wrong ..... and yes that pic looks really good and that is why i am really really most likely going to get one now, i just wanted to know the technical data on it and how well it worked that is all : )

Not a problem at all, sorry if I sounded otherwise; you asked for technical info and I tried to get that for you, but you keep going back to who/price and I was just wondering if you really wanted to do this project.

You should contact Optotronics and Jack should be able to help you, it's a cool and easy project to do, you will really like the results.

you see that is who i was going to go through for it : ) just was wondering if you found cheaper but i figured that was who you got it from : )

i am still confused about how the expander work : )

Yes you should go through Optotronics because the adapters have to be custom made and he can probably give you more info on the Melles Griot Beam Expanders and get you going. Let us know how it works out.

Electron: Would you mind telling me what it is about the X10DR mounting system that you don't like? We're making a few small revisions to the design in our next production run and I was curious as to what problems you see with the current 3 screw system. It would help us out to have this sort of feedback. Thanks!

I have got to get one! You should post some more pictures of the beam while being focused...

What I'd like to know is are there any risks or issues with using non-coated lenses for a beam expander?

What I'm getting at is the prospect of using a much cheaper alternative to a beam expander; such as a monocular?

For example, machining a simple mount that would clamp to the end of a laser and hold the monocular in place.

A simple task for anyone with basic machining skills, and the result should be simple and clean, and cheap as chips!

As much as I want a proper beam expander, I can't justify the cost considering that much more complex systems such as telescopes, binoculars, monoculars etc... are just a tiny fraction of the cost.

How can what amounts, in manufacturing terms, to little more than an eyepiece cost so much?

I know the likely response would be arguing demand and supply, small markets = higher unit costs etc... but that simply doesn't wash with me.

If a company ONLY made and sold beam exanders, then fine, but in reality the same firm that produces beam expanders also manufacture other optics for many other applications using the same plant, and equipment, and materials so the only comparable factor is material volume... Put very simply.

Therefore, small part = relatively lower cost of manufacture, therefore lower unit price.

Anyway, here's hoping LG do a crazy sale on their X10DR or someone categorically answering my coated lens question.

As far as I know, the only potential issue is laser back-reflection, but this might not be too much of an issue with relatively weak lasers under 1W, especially greenies.


By the way, if this turns out to be a practical solution, I might be able to whip up a batch of custom made mounts and see where it goes; always hoped I'd get a chance to use my uber-lathe skills again.

Actually, on the price issue, I could buy a small precision lathe for less than a cheap beam expander!!

That's saying something right?!

Justin said:

Electron: Would you mind telling me what it is about the X10DR mounting system that you don't like? We're making a few small revisions to the design in our next production run and I was curious as to what problems you see with the current 3 screw system. It would help us out to have this sort of feedback. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi Justin, the X10DR system does look good and I seen a couple of videos of it in action.

What I don't particularly care for is slipping it over the barrel and then having to use 3 screws to tighten it down, that method could of been applied to the RPL too and would have been easier to implement I'm sure.

I would much rather see a more integrated feel/look for it, like what I posted in the picture that has been done for the RPL. The mount ring I just made it black too, so now that blends in even better, although I thought it looked good that way too, but I wanted it to have a more integrated look and feel to it.

Also I don't know if you seen it yet, but Dragon Lasers has come out with a Beam Expander too that also uses the same method employed on the RPL. A review with pictures has been done by another forum member on here as well.

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1216741151/20

Best regards

bbshamsa:

The best way to get the answers to your questions would be to simply give it a try yourself and report back here of your results along with some pictures of your custom mounts too would be nice.

Happy hunting and good luck.

Ace82 said:

I have got to get one!    You should post some more pictures of the beam while being focused...

Click to expand...

I am going to try and get some more pictures perhaps this weekend, my time right now is very limited.

Electron --

Damn you  ;D  I have a similar 3x expander.   Now I have to do at least this good on the mounting.

Good work ---

Mike

electron said:

[quote author=mikeeey link=1217689376/0#11 date=1217742472]awesome! next I'd like to see someone get the beam expander on a laser without screwing it on. Say a dealextreme laser or something..

Click to expand...

What would be so difficult about that? LG doesn't screw theirs on, but I like this setup MUCH better than the way LG does it.[/quote]
how would you get it on? from what i cant see it screws on to a laser not made for it.
btw i thought this was a dragonlaser beam expander, i guess not lol.