Question regarding salvaged diodes

Hello all, first time poster long time lurker

So I'm screwing around with some diodes that I salvaged from CDRW drives and I had a couple questions. I got gifted 24 of these drives, and I've gutted them for the parts. I have grabbed out all the lasers that are attached to their own tiny heatsink and glued onto the main sled, then there are diodes that are basically part of the sled. I've cut those out and played around with both. So when I got the infrared one working with a current of 148.5mA via an LM317T configured as a current source with a 10.1 ohm resistor and an input voltage of 5v from a hacked ATX PSU.

My question is, after I left the IR diode (in a case and with optics) on the back of my palm, the setup couldn't even heat my hand. Any thoughts? From the research that I've done, at this power it should at least have the energy to warm my hand (don't worry, my hand wasn't the first thing i tried).

Thanks all!

Regards,
Chris

Unless you're a dark-skinned individual, you won't feel near IR very well, if at all. The light is reflected or transmitted by your skin. I've put my hand in the beam of a 40W diode bar, and only felt a slight warmth.

short version.......,,, no!!! lol

IR likes dark things, it will be easy reflected by most colors and white.

Goggles much Bro?

Chris, please post a introduction, what part of the world are you in?