Custom Plastic Case Fabrication?

I've rough-designed the case I want to put my laser project in. It's sleek, fits the hand nicely and has some nice curves, monitor/status display windows, adjustment and switch holes, battery compartment with nice cover, internal ribbing and custom circuit supports, etc. Which means that I will need to look into custom fabrication.

Anyone here have any experience with this - places, costs, etc?

Thanks!

Dave

is that one single case we are talking about? uh.. very expensive for sure! how about something like cardboard, then epoxy/fiberglass on it, out with the cardboard, then some filing and painting? would work nicely i think, but too much work for me personally. i first choose housings, and then plan what/how to put stuff into it.
you can find almost any housing somewhere.. use your imagination and luck!

manuel

I've actually been looking for some housings I saw a few years ago on some hand-held kids games. No luck - but they would have been perfect.

I'm expecting the fabrication will be somewhat pricey, but considering I'm going to have a 6 diode array in this thing with adjustable output (selecting 1 through 6 modules active), battery power monitor, adjustable (switchable) focal lengths... I might as well go for the best I can. This will be the Cadillac of hand-held lasers for sure! I will probably need a belt-pack battery array though, but it's a small price to pay for 1 watt of red cutting power!

Dave

that sounds like an insane laser! will the 6 beams be collimated together?

Yes- 3 facing west, 3 facing east, all pumping into cubes to form two combined beams. A pellicle directs the west set of beams east, and another cube combines east & west to form a 6 beam aggregate, which is then collimated further and outputted. A switch selects one of three lenses - "pointer" style - a collimated ~ 4mm beam that has low divergence, a burning focus beam with a focal distance of ~ 4 feet, and a second burning focus beam with a distance of 3 to 4 inches.

The modules will be digitally selectable for 1 to 6 modules "on", for 6 power ranges.

A battery monitor will provide an audio/visual alert when the current to the module(s) drops below 280mA.

I will be using 2 Lion rechargables rated for 2400 AH in the unit, but I anticipate requiring the belt pack for any extended use. Battery technology now is sooooooooooooooo stone-age. We need some serious breakthroughs here.

The unit (without the belt battery array) will be about 7.5" long by 3" wide.

I am seeking a source for less expensive combiner cubes (Edmund lists then for around $150.00 EACH for the 5mm size - any suggestions?)

I am currently looking at a completed price per unit of around $1000.00, but hope to significantly reduce this as I source better component and support materials prices.

For almost 1.2 to 1.4 watts of output power, it's worth it to me. It will create a piece of laser gear that has real-world applications and looks DAMN cool! I want it to be something that makes people think I somehow got hold of "Area 51" technology when they see it in operation!

WL will unfortunately benefit as I need to get a few pairs of safety goggles to use with this thing! However, fortunately, Senakt WILL benefit as I will be ordering the diodes from him - and I believe in spares! LOL!

Dave

that is amazing! u should sell the technology to Nova for thousands, or better yet, market it yourself! you will be rich man!

lasercricker said:

that is amazing! u should sell the technology to Nova for thousands, or better yet, market it yourself! you will be rich man!

Click to expand...

*ahem ahem*...
I remember a thread about why ebay Removed lasers if they were over 5mW...
The stupid guy that takes his brand new 200mW laser to a party and has fun w/ some friends...
now imagine that w/ a 1,2W laser!!!

Tis true, sadly. This is why I *only* trust myself with this unit. The liability issues with marketing such a unit are wayyyyyy beyond anything I feel like dealing with. Someone, no doubt, would cook someone else's eyes (or their own) and sue someone. Not interested in that garbage. Besides - there's a certain coolness to demonstrating something to friends and having to distribute safety goggles first!

HAHA distributing safety goggles first
Let us know how it will end up,and (hopefully)
post a tutorial

This is a project that will test my patience for sure! But I plan on posting a tutorial, and lots of photos and videos. It'll be a few days/weeks before I order the diodes from Senkat, then lots of machining to do as I will not be using Aixiz modules, but my own custom heatsinks and driver modules. I figure - if ALL goes well - next autumn I should be approaching completion. Of course by then, I may have to redesign to accomodate higher power available diodes.

By the time I'm done, I'll have a 50 watt hand held laser device - that needs a sled of car batteries to power it!

Someone - PLEASE make a better battery!

Dave

well sounds like a good project hope evrey thing goes well

Me too! Still looking for cheaper (but good) cube beam splitter/combiners.

Hmmm...i doubt a laser shade would block enough of the 50w..and i doubt you would be able to call it hand held
But damnn!!! 50 watt?!? thats like-metal burning?holes trough walls?xanatos is around ^^

great project, there is no "enough" with "power", especially with lasers!
some points, though:

-if you and everyone else has to wear eyeprotection, which is obviously an undiscussable fact, you wont see that much of the beam neither. it will look like, say, 100mw or 10mw, and be as impressive as that too. well, like a 10mw beam which burns all stuff it is shone on!

-a reflection would *still* be potentially blinding/deadly, even with eyeprotection. just too much power, even for shades. if you get shades which protect from a direct hit, you will either not see anything through it, or pay more than for the actual laser. which would be a good thing to do nevertheless!

-six laserdiodes.. combination is *difficult*, despite its been done and everyone would like to do it. not sure if i understood you right, but if you plan to use combining cubes *only* to combine more than 2 diodes, it will simply not work at all. no "work badly", but "work not". there are many threads about combining more diodes, it *is* possible, but not easy, and portability has its own difficulties as well.

-use TEC-cooling, pretty please! i bet you know the "open can with TEC" thread! ;-)

-i just forgot another point i had to mention.. wait..

-oh, right, the ps3 drive has a nice polarising combiner cube, 5mm sounds right. since there are so many drives bought here by people, start a thread to collect some of them?

sorry for that much critic and slowing sown.. i *definitely* want to see you do it, and will help with more-or-less helpful hints whereever i can! do it, and do history!

manuel

Hi there,

Yes, I know the cube issue - and I will be making a beam-matrix with FS mirrors, feeding 3 in at V orientation on one side of the cube, shooting 3 in from the back of the cube at H orientation to get a set of 6 very close proximity beams, which I will then collimate down for output. 1 cube, many mirrors. At least that's the plan! If I can do 3 on a side, I may try 4 on a side for 8 total diodes.

Rubberband was exceptionally kind and he sent me a bag full of optics from various burners, including 4 of the 5mm cubes, which are exactly what I wanted. I also received three 3mm cubes as well. And while I was just given some of the highest quality BK7 cube beamsplitters - I *think* they are used for combining 633nm & 532nm, as their operational characteristics are not consistent with combining 2 - 633nm beams. I have rotated polarity of the incident beams over the full 360 degree range, and yet I get only straight-through beams, with some reflection out of BOTH of the adjacent side faces... but 532nm gets reflected and properly extincted - so I think they're combiners for red & green.

And yes, I plan on not only USING TEC cooling - but having the entire generation and optics section mounted within the area of the TEC's surface. I have the perfect heatsink for the toasty side as well!

My initial setup & testing is happening with the oodles of 5mw pointers I have. When I get my web business work caught up, I'll be playing with the 5mm cubes Rubberband sent me, and I'll start sending in photos here and on High Octane's place (LE). I have several pics of the 15mm cubes in the optics section there as well.

More soon, and THANK YOU for any help, advice, words of wisdom and anything else you might come up with!

On a completely unrelated topic - is your avatar from Full Metal Alchemist?

Dave

i didnt really expect that you wouldnt know about the "cube combining issue" (nice name!), just wanted to be sure.
yes, i have several "cubes" from drives, and most of them seem to not be polarizing combiners. perhaps even all are not working but the one from the ps3 sled? not sure! and perhaps the bigger one from the sled was the only one not being really-tiny-3mm but 5mm.
one of my "current" projects is as well a handheld laser with a combiner, but only two diodes here, and no TEC. i will eventually work on it, and post when its done or when i give up. currently i am thinking about how to mount the optics (combiner and mirror) so they are secure and may be adjusted, at least while mounting. perhaps hotglue, since it gets quite hard and stays soft for a good while, yet is possible to totally remove.

where is that "High Octane's place (LE)" anyway?

i think the best would be to first mirror-cut the beams, and then combine them. so they overlap later in the path for a more uniform beam, and you need only one (lossy) combiner too. it potentially has to be larger though. 2 beams side-by-side on a 5mm cube? one beam out of my aixiz module is 5mm by itself! am i overlooking something?

you surely know the "epic" red laser from photonlexicon, with 24ish diodes, several watts output, and, most important, nice hi-res pics? i had a wrong idea on how to use those mirrors cleverly before seeing that!

my avatar is dr. ovi robotnik, evil i am, sonic the hedgehog is my biggest problem. if i get rid of him i can finally start building that laser for worlddomination. obvious, what the "chaos emeralds" really are to be used for, not? harrharr

manuel