That moment when you press the power button for the first time...

I managed to kill my 405 with a reversed battery (I'm kind of a pro at that now!) and I've really been missing it a lot more than I thought that I would.

I confess, I kinda like burning stuff. I always have.

I used to get in trouble in elementary school. I was THAT KID that discovered the magnifying glass and some paper were an incendiary combination. I was certain the girls would be impressed. Sadly, only a very few cared.*

Nowadays the younger version of me would probably be labelled a terrorist and kicked out of school under a zero tolerance policy of some sort or another.

I also liked to pop ants with my magnifying glass. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Ants) would probably protest me as well.

Nearly forty years later, I find that I enjoy many aspects of lasers. That light-saber-esque beam cutting through the sky is awesome. I nice, Gaussian TEM 00 dot with no artifacts is really neat. And yes, I still like burning stuff too.

I know it is only supposed to be 16 year-olds who like to burn things, but I am often told that I am immature so that must be it.

So I decided to try my first REAL build. Not just stuffing a green module in a host, but pressing a diode, soldering the leads, heat shrinking the wires and installing in a host.

I started with Survival Laser's ridiculously low-priced stainless steel kit. It is one of the best values out there and I can't believe it comes with that honking big copper sink and only costs $45!

With all the discussion about heat sinking and materials on the forum lately, I really wanted to use a copper module, but they did not come in today so I gave in and used a standard Aixiz module. I pressed it with one the press kits here on the forum, I forget which - sorry.

Since I wasn't able to use a copper module, I decided to go ahead and use the back of the module to increase the mass of the sink and increase the surface area of the module where it makes contact with the large copper heat sink that comes with SL's kit.

This made soldering a little more difficult but it wasn't too hard in the end.

For my driver, I decided to go with what I had - which was one of Moh's JAD kits set at 478mA.

I just borrowed the pill from the kit and it more or less screwed right in to the stainless host from Survival Lasers.

I stripped the wires and touched them together to hopefully discharge any capacitors that might be waiting to kill my nearly $55 405 12X S06J Bluray Diode and then I tinned the wires and diodes and sat my iPad down next to my soldering iron with LPF loaded up and made sure I had the green wire going to the negative pin and the blue wire going to the positive pin and soldered it up. I even remembered to pre-install the shrink tubing and the back of the module before soldering.

Then I decided that not only was it too difficult to wait, but I also needed to know now if it worked or not, so as to save time taking it apart in order to try and fix anything if it didn't work.

So, it was time for that moment...

I put the freshly charged 16340's in the host, screwed the tail cap in place, screwed in one of jayrobs G-1 lenses and pressed the clicky...

... And out came 545mW of pure, searing 405nm violet light!



Untitled by tsteele93, on Flickr

(Please excuse the condition of my bathroom sink... Embarrassing.


Untitled by tsteele93, on Flickr


Untitled by tsteele93, on Flickr


Untitled by tsteele93, on Flickr

I finished tightening everything down and took it out tonight, nice to be able to put a violet beam in the air again and also have that instant burn that comes with a highly focused beam of 405nm!

I was a little disappointed with the overall output, I expected closer to 600mW with 478mA and a G-1 lens. I suppose that I could try changing the resistor and going 500-525mA. But for now this is nice. It takes about 20 seconds to come up to 545mW and then it just sits there. Hardly moves even a mW either way.

Great host and great fun building this one! Thanks to so many of you who contributed!

Glad to hear it worked out for ya! I was waiting in anticipation for the results! D:

:drool: That host is pure ownage. and dont worry, your sink is spotless compared to the one in my fiances bathroom with all her makeup and crap

Glad to hear this turned out well! There's nothing like making your own laser from bare parts and having the beautiful beam shine out in the moment of truth. +1

Btw, as much as I rag on people about using (non-CO2) lasers for burning, I used to be a bit of a pyro when younger. I was a chemistry enthusiast and I liked making fireworks. I never had a single problem until one day I thought "why not use a cast iron coupling for a containment". It worked fine until I had the bright idea of "I should make a exiz nozzle for the stream!". I never realized that it would essentially turn in to a grenade. Well, when I lit it off it didn't work like a firework, it WAS a grenade. Luckily I used remote electronic ignition. I was 15ft away when it detonated. No shrapnel hit me, and in fact I never found any of the shrapnel. The concussion wave knocked me back about 10ft and left a small crater in the ground where the homemade grenade was. Six cars parked a few dozen meters away had their alarms set of from the blast wave and the window in the garage I was near was blown out. I was half deaf for about a week. That was the very last pyro thing I ever did. I never got in trouble but I knew when to stop. Scared me straight. I'll never divulge the recipe, but the fuel to be oxidized was Sucrose... yes, common sugar.

I hate to think about what would have happened in this day and age if someone did something similar. Oh the golden colored times of old....

Yeah, except that NON-copper module is just lame! JK! Great build. I've got the parts for one of these in 445nm sitting around somewhere, just haven't had the time in the last couple of weeks to put it together.

Again, nice build.

Glenn

PETA protests everything; they think meat is murder! Zapping ants is a normal part of childhood curiosity, but the animal rights kooks think the child is on the road to being a serial killer!

Great photos!!

Sigurthr said:

Glad to hear this turned out well! There's nothing like making your own laser from bare parts and having the beautiful beam shine out in the moment of truth. +1

Btw, as much as I rag on people about using (non-CO2) lasers for burning, I used to be a bit of a pyro when younger. I was a chemistry enthusiast and I liked making fireworks. I never had a single problem until one day I thought "why not use a cast iron coupling for a containment". It worked fine until I had the bright idea of "I should make a exiz nozzle for the stream!". I never realized that it would essentially turn in to a grenade. Well, when I lit it off it didn't work like a firework, it WAS a grenade. Luckily I used remote electronic ignition. I was 15ft away when it detonated. No shrapnel hit me, and in fact I never found any of the shrapnel. The concussion wave knocked me back about 10ft and left a small crater in the ground where the homemade grenade was. Six cars parked a few dozen meters away had their alarms set of from the blast wave and the window in the garage I was near was blown out. I was half deaf for about a week. That was the very last pyro thing I ever did. I never got in trouble but I knew when to stop. Scared me straight. I'll never divulge the recipe, but the fuel to be oxidized was Sucrose... yes, common sugar.

I hate to think about what would have happened in this day and age if someone did something similar. Oh the golden colored times of old....

Click to expand...

I used to use old CO2 cartridges from a BB gun and make my own gunpowder from sulfur, saltpeter and carbon.

Quite the explosion! I quit after a close call much like yours...

GAtkins said:

Yeah, except that NON-copper module is just lame! JK! Great build. I've got the parts for one of these in 445nm sitting around somewhere, just haven't had the time in the last couple of weeks to put it together.

Again, nice build.

Glenn

Click to expand...

Thanks Glen,

I received 8 copper modules in the mail today... Go figure. :scowl:

Sigurthr said:

Glad to hear this turned out well! There's nothing like making your own laser from bare parts and having the beautiful beam shine out in the moment of truth. +1

Btw, as much as I rag on people about using (non-CO2) lasers for burning, I used to be a bit of a pyro when younger. I was a chemistry enthusiast and I liked making fireworks. I never had a single problem until one day I thought "why not use a cast iron coupling for a containment". It worked fine until I had the bright idea of "I should make a exiz nozzle for the stream!". I never realized that it would essentially turn in to a grenade. Well, when I lit it off it didn't work like a firework, it WAS a grenade. Luckily I used remote electronic ignition. I was 15ft away when it detonated. No shrapnel hit me, and in fact I never found any of the shrapnel. The concussion wave knocked me back about 10ft and left a small crater in the ground where the homemade grenade was. Six cars parked a few dozen meters away had their alarms set of from the blast wave and the window in the garage I was near was blown out. I was half deaf for about a week. That was the very last pyro thing I ever did. I never got in trouble but I knew when to stop. Scared me straight. I'll never divulge the recipe, but the fuel to be oxidized was Sucrose... yes, common sugar.

I hate to think about what would have happened in this day and age if someone did something similar. Oh the golden colored times of old....

Click to expand...

Erythritol Tetranitrate was always my favorite... never tried nitrating just sucrose. Ahhhhh those where the days :eg: