What's your purposes?

I want to hear your legitimate reasons and purposes for your lasers?
Other than presentations and burning stuff.

Define legitimate, it is a hobby for most after all.

For me, making as small and powerful as possible. :eg:
My best pulling close to 4W with a 35mm head and 200mm body.

The interest for most DIY'ers i'd say is in the build not what you
do with it...

There is no purpose to a pointer, especially the crazy high powered 445nm portables. They burn things up close, that's about it.

I have built a few lasers to try 3d laser scanning with David laser scanner, but that was not a pointer. They involved line generation optics and an adjustable shutter to get the beam as thin as possible. Power was not too important, and size was defiantly not important. There are a whole bunch of other cool projects that don't involve burning things but I can't think of one that would benefit from a pointer over a "lab" style laser.

Ilotrophic said:

I want to hear your legitimate reasons and purposes for your lasers?
Other than presentations and burning stuff.

Click to expand...

There is no logical purpose to it. It's a hobby.

Personally I just enjoy watching laser beams slice through the night sky a lot.

i get bored after i finish building a laser, build it and leave it

To quote someone else

:thinking: "to try and take over the world"

:lasergun:

mpwn said:

i get bored after i finish building a laser, build it and leave it

Click to expand...

I'll send you prepaid boxes, you can put your built lasers in there and I will safely dispose of them for you, no charge

lol ye ill try

When I built my first laser and put the batteries in and turned it on I was so exited and relived that is works. I felt like a little kid and I decided to make lasers a part of my life. Now I cant get enough of them. I feel it is very fun to build them and once your done it is 100% worth it.

does any1 else u 1 watt lasers as presentation pointer cause i do, the presentation doesnt last long lol

The first laser I built was the pinnacle and was for a science fair project. It was a ruby laser way back when I was 12 (1978-79). I don't even own any pointers. I have a couple of lab systems sitting in boxes and a few argons also sitting in boxes. I have a huge YAG parts collection because I really like pulsed laser systems. I also have a 40W and 60W CO2 system. As a hobby, I don't really do too much anymore as I work with lasers everyday and they just aren't that impressive now. I'm now involved with the development of very specialized laser systems for research. The development part is much more fun than the laser part these days. So my use of lasers is business and research.

mpwn said:

does any1 else u 1 watt lasers as presentation pointer cause i do, the presentation doesnt last long lol

Click to expand...

That sounds a little dangerous. What is it you are presenting?
I wouldn't use a 1000mW on a glossy board in a class room. I'd see a potential law suit coming in the future.

Ilotrophic said:

I want to hear your legitimate reasons and purposes for your lasers?
Other than presentations and burning stuff.

Click to expand...

I could be mistaken, but your choice of words sounds a bit accusatory. (as though you doubt the existence of any "legitimate" reasons that anyone may have for owning a laser) Thanks to a relative few morons out there, laser enthusiasts have gotten a bit of a bad rap lately. The news media's lack of knowledge regarding lasers, combined with their propensity for sensationalism hasn't helped any, either. Ignorance breeds fear, and fear is the news media's bread and butter. Notice the wonderful job they've done in demonizing private firearms ownership. Elimination of logic and reason seems to be their stock in trade.

So, do you have a genuine interest in lasers, or do you simply want to see if any of us can justify (to your satisfaction) our right to own them?

I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of folks on this forum are interested in lasers as a fascinating and accessible area of technology. I suspect that, for many of us that interest is a result of our broader enjoyment of other fields, such as electronics or physics.

Sure, there are some laser fans who are overly obsessed with "burning stuff", but they're generally kids with nothing better to do, and very little understanding of lasers in general. You won't find many of them here. I realize there are tons of "laser burning" videos on youtube, but the irony is that many of the uses that make lasers so essential in industry involve some form of burning. (etching, engraving, cutting, heat treating, marking, ablation, etc...) The same can be said of many lasers used in medicine.




Hey FrothyChimp, I like the quote in your sig:

"Back off man, I'm a scientist."


Another good one from that flick:

"Don't cross the streams."
"Why?"
"It would be bad."





-mega

I am using laser pointers as a portable and wholly self sustained source of laser light for lighting and other effects.
My first 532nm 5mw is currently being harnessed for a "vortex" generator for Halloween.
Two other of those cheapy red pointers are going into a "Liquid Sky" effect for along the floor (like in Aliens) as well.
I won't be getting any more before the 31st so that will have to do for now, but I am looking at getting another 532nm, a couple of 405nm, and probably higher powered reds to better balance the visual difference between the different colors.
Then I will be looking at converting or purchasing the hardware to construct small low profile "labby" heads that I can use for a multitude of beam effects and such.

Why do you ask ?
:thinking:

Ilotrophic said:

I want to hear your legitimate reasons and purposes for your lasers?
Other than presentations and burning stuff.

Click to expand...

Do I need it? No...

Do I want it? Yes!


http://laserpointerforums.com/f42/1-5-amp-445nm-phaser-build-62371.html

I love the light, that's why I like projectors, beam shows

The rest of the pointers and stuff is just for fun, I enjoy building them, though they have little use but being a safety hazard once built.