Just got my first laser above 5mW...

Ok, yeah, it's one of those "laser 303" variants.. I didn't know at the time and it was cheap with a coupon code..

BUT... for what it is.. is impressive for a beginning laser-ite (laserholic? laserfan?). Of course the sellers website stated 5mW... uh-huh. The sticker on the host states <200mW. Doubt that too.

Going with this as a general guide, and assuming it is correct: What can certain mW of laser do

This cheap thing should be about 100mW, probably 80mW more realistically. But we all know I am just guessing based on a chart on the internet, so.. yeah that. I'm certain it is nowhere near to 200mW, as the beam is somewhat hard to see in a daylight lit room indoors. Outdoors however, green lightsaber.

I am able to light matches, albeit with the heads sharpied black, it cuts through black electrical tape, but slowly, and etches and smokes black cd cases.

My thought before it arrived was to disasemble it and either pot mod it or replace the module. Think I'll just leave it alone. My brother has a green pen laser that takes standard 12mm modules, and I'm sure his is in the 5-20mW range.. perhaps I'll convince him to let me upgrade that to play around.

So since I am going on vacation (to Northern Michigan) next week, I'll be sure to play around with the new laser, but I look forward to placing a few orders and getting some DIY builders parts and constructing my own lasers from here on out.

I guess say what you will about the "laser 301/303" models... if you get a decent one, it does certainly draw one into the hobby and create a fascination with laser technology.

And yes, I use safety glasses for this wavelength laser.

Hi JasonJ, welcome to the forum :wave:
With those lasers it is pretty much luck of the draw. Most of the time you get a halfway decent one but other times it is a bit of a lemon
The sticker showing <200mw mainly is to show what class the laser is and liability. Remember that 5mW, 15mW and 60mW are all <200mW
Always makes me laugh when you see a garbage laser at some cheap China site at <10000mW for $49 They actually are correct as the laser will meter at 55mW which is <10000mW
Anyways, enjoy the laser, have fun, be safe and please use the laser responsibly.

Good point.. "lesser than" is quite literal!

I am actually surprised that this silly thing made it through customs as well, it says "laser" on the packaging, and came with a battery and charger (which I promptly threw out as garbage: 4800mAh Ultrafire? um, no).

Yeah it seems I got lucky on this one. I wont be ordering another one for any reason, as from here on out I'll just build them or upgrading existing ones.

I will say one thing, there must be a lot of IR coming out of it, holding a match with my fingers a good inch or inch and a half away from the beam, I can feel heat and tingling on my skin. No Buenos amigos.

That is great you know about IR. Unfortunately many people new or sort of new to the field of lasers do not. Be sure that your safety goggles protect your eyes not only from the green spectrum but the IR spectrum also. You sure don't want to harm your baby blues!!