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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

How can I convince my parents to let me get a burning laser?

Joined
Feb 10, 2012
Messages
330
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0
JK, don't say "I want a burning laser"
Say , "I would like to build a 638nm red laser for optical experimentation" Google some cool experiments you can do (eg, simple interferomenter), much more interesting than burning stuff - well almost ;-)

( Keiichi tsuchiya, whats with the huge photo of a guy on motobike leaning agaist a wall in your sig:confused::rolleyes: :crackup: )
 





Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
526
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0
JK, don't say "I want a burning laser"
Say , "I would like to build a 638nm red laser for optical experimentation" Google some cool experiments you can do (eg, simple interferomenter), much more interesting than burning stuff - well almost ;-)

( Keiichi tsuchiya, whats with the huge photo of a guy on motobike leaning agaist a wall in your sig:confused::rolleyes: :crackup: )

That would have been my advice as well. My best advice to you is to just let any high power laser conversation go for a few months. You've already learned why not to break your "Kid Mad Scientist Security Protocol" by going for up-front full disclosure with your parents. You should NEVER have mentioned burning, ever. You should have just said, "I need 200mW so I can have it show up well for a laser show I want to build out of scrap motors and mirrors." etc.

I totally sympathize. Diode lasers didn't even exist when I was a kid, all I could get were surplus HeNe tubes from American Science & Surplus. Just a few mW, but the high voltage power supplies could certainly be tricky to deal with... And the 1000+ Volts might have made my parents say "No"... had they thought to ask.

And the first diode red pointers that came out when I was a teen were $100 and maybe 2mW at best. Way out of my price range.

However, I still did all sorts of "dangerous" projects and experiments. I figured out that old 1950's chemistry and electricity and science experiment books for kids had stuff no one would dream of having kids do by the 1980's or 1990's. So I built stuff like a carbon arc furnace in a clay flower pot using carbon rods from batteries I cut open, some curtain rod in the basement, a "suicide cord" I cut from an extension cord. A "salt-water-rheostat" from a glass ashtray, some lead fishing sinkers, and bare wire. :D

Did I go ask, "HEY MOM AND DAD! CAN I GO MAKE A 2000 DEGREE CARBON-ARC FURNACE THAT PLUGS INTO THE WALL AND AN ASHTRAY FULL OF WATER?"

Hell no I didn't.

I just said, "Is it okay if I poke holes in this flower pot to do something from this experiment book?", "I need this ashtray as a dish." "I need to bend up some of these old curtain rods, is that okay?"

When I was done, and had an arc buzzing away like a frigging WWII air-raid searchlight, THEN I called my parents in to see it. They were like "Holy.... ****" but at least were able to decide I had done it successfully, and that I hadn't killed myself or burned down the house.

Am I telling you to LIE? No. I'm telling you to show some discretion in what you say. And to learn that it's easier to beg forgivness than ask permission all the time. This will be something important to understand not just when you're an underage kid, but when you're a grown man with a wife as well. The point is to think ahead about what you do and what you say so you are never asked any questions that you'd need to lie in answer to them.

A fine line? A gray area? For sure. However I'll state flat-out that I think a kid with an interest in electronics, lasers, technology, science and engineering is important enough that a little moral ambiguity to get him some experience is worth it.

You need to take the same approach. I suggest that you get into cheap flashlights from Deal Extreme, electronic parts kits, LED light projects and "safe stuff", like other eye-safe 5mW modules from places like Axiz or Deal Extreme, until you've got a critical mass of electronic project stuff laying around, your own workbench area full of wires and junk and they're used to letting you work with a soldering iron etc.

Then one day, maybe this coming spring, or next summer, go ask to buy a cheap high powered DVD-Write drive so you can harvest some parts for it for one of your projects. Don't go into any details you don't have to. Don't go saying "The DIODE IN THERE WILL BURN! YEAH! CAN I? CAN I? CAN I? PLEASE?" etc. Stick the diode into the 5mW module and it's host that you've already built.

Then go build your 200mW burner.

See how this works?
 
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Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
99
Points
8
Yes maybe start with lower powered ones to see that you are responsible and make it all from scrap...make an lm317 driver and use anything for a host. Show them what you can do and it is educational inform them about ohms law, resistors multi meter anything they don't know. Then ask your dad to make one after he watches you assemble a 5mw or any other power laser.
And this is if your dad isn't an electric guy. Maybe your average office worker for a paper company :D
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2012
Messages
38
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0
That would have been my advice as well. My best advice to you is to just let any high power laser conversation go for a few months. You've already learned why not to break your "Kid Mad Scientist Security Protocol" by going for up-front full disclosure with your parents. You should NEVER have mentioned burning, ever. You should have just said, "I need 200mW so I can have it show up well for a laser show I want to build out of scrap motors and mirrors." etc.

I totally sympathize. Diode lasers didn't even exist when I was a kid, all I could get were surplus HeNe tubes from American Science & Surplus. Just a few mW, but the high voltage power supplies could certainly be tricky to deal with... And the 1000+ Volts might have made my parents say "No"... had they thought to ask.

And the first diode red pointers that came out when I was a teen were $100 and maybe 2mW at best. Way out of my price range.

However, I still did all sorts of "dangerous" projects and experiments. I figured out that old 1950's chemistry and electricity and science experiment books for kids had stuff no one would dream of having kids do by the 1980's or 1990's. So I built stuff like a carbon arc furnace in a clay flower pot using carbon rods from batteries I cut open, some curtain rod in the basement, a "suicide cord" I cut from an extension cord. A "salt-water-rheostat" from a glass ashtray, some lead fishing sinkers, and bare wire. :D

Did I go ask, "HEY MOM AND DAD! CAN I GO MAKE A 2000 DEGREE CARBON-ARC FURNACE THAT PLUGS INTO THE WALL AND AN ASHTRAY FULL OF WATER?"

Hell no I didn't.

I just said, "Is it okay if I poke holes in this flower pot to do something from this experiment book?", "I need this ashtray as a dish." "I need to bend up some of these old curtain rods, is that okay?"

When I was done, and had an arc buzzing away like a frigging WWII air-raid searchlight, THEN I called my parents in to see it. They were like "Holy.... ****" but at least were able to decide I had done it successfully, and that I hadn't killed myself or burned down the house.

Am I telling you to LIE? No. I'm telling you to show some discretion in what you say. And to learn that it's easier to beg forgivness than ask permission all the time. This will be something important to understand not just when you're an underage kid, but when you're a grown man with a wife as well. The point is to think ahead about what you do and what you say so you are never asked any questions that you'd need to lie in answer to them.

A fine line? A gray area? For sure. However I'll state flat-out that I think a kid with an interest in electronics, lasers, technology, science and engineering is important enough that a little moral ambiguity to get him some experience is worth it.

You need to take the same approach. I suggest that you get into cheap flashlights from Deal Extreme, electronic parts kits, LED light projects and "safe stuff", like other eye-safe 5mW modules from places like Axiz or Deal Extreme, until you've got a critical mass of electronic project stuff laying around, your own workbench area full of wires and junk and they're used to letting you work with a soldering iron etc.

Then one day, maybe this coming spring, or next summer, go ask to buy a cheap high powered DVD-Write drive so you can harvest some parts for it for one of your projects. Don't go into any details you don't have to. Don't go saying "The DIODE IN THERE WILL BURN! YEAH! CAN I? CAN I? CAN I? PLEASE?" etc. Stick the diode into the 5mW module and it's host that you've already built.

Then go build your 200mW burner.

See how this works?

Thanks.This is the best solution I think by far. Yah and I had regreted mentioning burning as soon as they rejected my idea. But at least I havent mentioned the street lights or other stuff you can do with them haha. I have a 5mW in shipping that I purposley bought specifically cuz it was said to be extremely overspecked haha. At least 5 times stronger than the lable so at least got a more powerful one. I have glasses of course. But yah I'll try their ideas. I'm already one step ahead though cuz my dad actually offered to buy me a sodering gun when I mentioned wanting one.
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2012
Messages
319
Points
18
JK, don't say "I want a burning laser"
Say , "I would like to build a 638nm red laser for optical experimentation" Google some cool experiments you can do (eg, simple interferomenter), much more interesting than burning stuff - well almost ;-)

( Keiichi tsuchiya, whats with the huge photo of a guy on motobike leaning agaist a wall in your sig:confused::rolleyes: :crackup: )

well it may look huge but its under the size regulation for the sig !! also about the guy in the photo ....hes going at about 170mph ....click on the link that i have on my sig so you can have a better idea of what im talking about ^_^:wave: ( they have balls of steel to be racing there !! and at that speeds !! trust me !! )
 
Joined
Nov 11, 2012
Messages
78
Points
0
You ok Moh!?!?! still going stong right? you newly wed you.

For the OP if you even have to ask this question having a high powa laser around is prolly not going to be your parents cup of tee. Wait awhile is my suggestion.
you can boil a cup of tea for them :D
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2012
Messages
38
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0
I'm reopening the thread. My parents won't even et me have a 5mW pointer of any color. They freak out about IR even though I explained how I can purchase IR filters from reputable sources if the laser doesn't have one or a good one. I also explained how getting a non-DPSS will not release IR. Besides IR they also are worried about me getting an overpowered one which I again explained I can measure with my LaserBee. They say that I might blind myself while I'm measuring it. I said I would even get OD5 glasses if they are that worried. Many people are so stubborn and prejudice against lasers and teenagers in general. I understand their concerns but they just won't listen to reason. I don't even have full access to my frontal cerebral cortex and I can understand the saftey concerns and how to prevent them. I mean my dad though welding goggles might be an alternative to laser glasses ( back when they actually were letting me have lasers)! Sorry for venting I'm just very POed.
 
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
14,125
Points
113
Sucks, but listen to you parents. They might be misguided, and in this case wrong, but they still do have your best interest at heart.

Wait until you're 18, and in college, to experiment.

Besides, laser technology is improving all the time... fair chance when you can get into the hobby, you'll be enjoying better lasers then we can have now :D
 
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Sucks, but listen to you parents. They might be misguided, and in this case wrong, but they still do have your best interest at heart.

Wait until you're 18, and in college, to experiment.

Besides, laser technology is improving all the time... fair chance when you can get into the hobby, you'll be enjoying better lasers then we can have now :D

Yah I guess :/ but I hate the thought of having to wait sx years. But I guess if I go to the college I want to (MIT) I will have access to a fairly good amount of stuff. Have you heard of their laser camera? They created a camera which fires a short laser pulse into a wall. THe photons then bounce and some bounce back into the camera. Using the reaction time they can create fairly accurate footage. Its pretty sweet. http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/mits-laser-camera-can-see-around-corners.php
 
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Joined
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Messages
14,125
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Have you heard of their laser camera? They created a camera which fires a short laser pulse into a wall. THe photons then bounce and some bounce back into the camera. Using the reaction time they can create fairly accurate footage. Its pretty sweet. MIT’s Laser Camera Can See Around Corners | TPM Idea Lab

Yup, I read about it a while back... very interesting technology that shows a lot of promise. With time I can see them improving it to the point where resolution would be a lot better, and also miniaturizing it for use in small spaces.

The concept is not in any way different from sonar, and the way bats navigate, except of course it's with light :D

Personally I'm more interested in how laser technology is progressing in terms of data transfer. IMO we're not too far off from where modern "high speed" internet would be a joke.
 
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Yup, I read about it a while back... very interesting technology that shows a lot of promise. With time I can see them improving it to the point where resolution would be a lot better, and also miniaturizing it for use in small spaces.

The concept is not in any way different from sonar, and the way bats navigate, except of course it's with light :D

Personally I'm more interested in how laser technology is progressing in terms of data transfer. IMO we're not too far off from where modern "high speed" internet would be a joke.
Yah. In order for us to have quantum computers we would need a quantum form of internet. This could only be achieved using quantum teleportation. Which needslasers to send entangled particles across wide distances. I feel so weird talking about quantum mechanics on a laser forum. I usually don't discuss any of my intrests in this kind of stuff because most people don't believe that I have correct information because of me only being 12. My laser knowledge included.
 
Joined
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Messages
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:crackup: I've had many one sided conversations where I would go on for a while, only to find my friends eyes glazed over. Not really a question of credibility, just not something that most people have an interest in.

I don't think we'll see a breakthrough to true quantum computing in the near future, it would be an incredible step forward though.
 
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Yes. Maybe towards the end of my lifetime. But at least they still have some basic ones such as the one at MIT that takes up a massive room. But quantum mechanics is still going to be applied to other things. For example, they are developing touch screens that use quantum tunneling to complete a circuit with the touch of a finger.
 
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Nov 30, 2012
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I'm sure if you are responsible and trustworthy they would not have issue. If they have an issue maybe they have reason to. All you can do is futher your study on the subject. Believe me, by the time your old enough to do as you wish, you will want to be young again...
-Shane
 
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Dec 31, 2012
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Waving a 2000mW 445nm laser around is about as dangerous as waving a loaded pistol around. Granted, blindness may not seem fatal, but it might feel fatal to some. The liability (read getting sued) and potential for damage is HUGE.

I am the father of two teenagers. Were I to see them operating a lower-power laser with care, safety and responsibility, BEFORE they came and asked me for a dangerous high-powered one, I think I would be much more open minded about it.

On the other hand, if they come home in excitement some afternoon, asking for $800 so they can buy a Wicked Laser that burns the ass hairs off (a properly restrained) cat at 3 meters, I gotta say, I would be disinclined to acquiesce to their request.

The advice already given to start with something smaller, be patience, and demonstrate to your parents you can handle a bigger one, seems sound to me.
 
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