Thinking about getting into holography.

Hello everyone,
Lately I've been thinking about getting into holography. I don't have much experience with developing film but today I picked up two books about the subject("holography handbook" copywriter 1982 but I imagine not much has changed.)

The appeal is two things I enjoy: science/lasers and art.
I picked up an 7mW HeNe from Jefferythe00 a few months ago and I would like to make use of it in this application.
Questions: I've read a few threads here on the forum about possibly some kits and others use optics readily available at Edmonds etc.
is there a down side and limitations to kits?
Thanks
Jefferson

I would take a quick look at PL forums also.

There is a section devoted just to holography over there, FYI

My knowledge on this is VERY limited. But, I think the lasers need to be polarized to work properly and create Holograms.

Thanks, I also found a holography forum. Seems like I can use my HeNe but I will need optics to defocus the beam spatial filter to obtain a Gaussian beam? I'm still reading into it. Some sets ups use a beam splitter others don't.
I'll check out PL. I don't have an account with that forum.

I gave it a few attempts a few years back but found that my house isn't vibration dampened enough to do holography. I live right off a major trucking route and the vibrations are enough to totally screw up exposures. Make sure you can set up a proper optical table with vibration mounts or live in a still enough location. Footsteps in the room is enough to cause problems.

I have a pretty good cement basement on a quite road. I was still going to build a sand table. I found some good info on integraf.com. I might buy my chemicals and photo plate there.