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Which Laser Would Be Best For Heating?! Help (laser no0b!)!

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iambubbathedog

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So I'm looking at the lasers on this site here, specifically this page:

X-Series - Novalasers Inc.

Which would be best to raise the surface temperature of a black wall to about 86F or slightly higher (just the spot where it's pointed at temporarily), but not too much higher so the wall wouldn't burn?

Thanks to any helpful responses!
 
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Jacob32123

Jacob32123

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None of those are even close to being able to heat up anything really. If you want to heat up anything like a single brick quickly, go on ebay and pick up a >50 watt co2 laser.

Remember your goggles
 
I

iambubbathedog

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Let me expand on this I guess. I'm buying thermochromic paint (changes color at 86F). I keep my place around 70F at the very coldest. I want to shine the laser on the wall and hopefully get the paint to change color. Do you mean mW?
50W seems like a lot...but I guess it sounds right.
 
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rhd

rhd

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Jacob32123 said:
None of those are even close to being able to heat up anything really. If you want to heat up anything like a single brick quickly, go on ebay and pick up a >50 watt co2 laser.

Remember your goggles
Click to expand...

Might be cheaper to just take a 445 KasEO diode array, point it at the wall, and run each diode at 2W ?

I'm suggesting this approach, largely because I want to see the photos ;)
 
G

geoffy0404

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Jacob32123 said:
None of those are even close to being able to heat up anything really. If you want to heat up anything like a single brick quickly, go on ebay and pick up a >50 watt co2 laser.

Remember your goggles
Click to expand...

would safety goggles even help at that point of a 50Watt laser? :p
 
Jacob32123

Jacob32123

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geoffy0404 said:
would safety goggles even help at that point of a 50Watt laser? :p
Click to expand...

Yes. Laser gogges would give you a few seconds to get out of the way in the case of a reflection off a window for example.

All bets are off if you get directly in the beam of a co2 laser

and yes, I mean 50 watts. I think any laser might take a while to heat up a brick wall even at 50 watts output
 
AJ_Dual

AJ_Dual

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I see what you want to do. You want to be able to "draw" on the wall.

Unfortunately, with most any handheld laser, you're going to have some problems.

1. Even the most powerful 1000mW on up handhelds have a hard time heating/burning at any great distance, because it's very difficult to hold it still long enough, or move it in a steady slow line to heat or burn anything. The shaking keeps the spot moving and it won't heat/burn reliably.

2. The most powerful lasers that are reasonably priced will be visible blue 1000mW+ 445nm lasers, or IR lasers that can be 1000-2000mW. The problem is that they tend to have wider divergence, and no matter how carefully you focus, may not get a hot spot at more than maybe a dozen feet.

And the IR laser in that power range is insanely dangerous, since you can't see the beam, and it's way, way, above the threshold to do eye-damage, which can be as little as 15-20mW.

3. Even if you do get a warm enough spot, can focus it right, and hold it slow and steady enough to draw on the thermochromic paint, the line between heating and simply burning the paint will be a very fine one indeed.

4. DPSS green 532nm lasers generally have tighter beams with lower divergence, but getting one that's powerful enough to reliably draw on your wall will be well over $500, maybe even $1000... or more.

What I think you should consider is getting glow in the dark paint, and getting a "Blue Ray" (violet) 405nm diode pointer. It will draw on GITD paint amazingly well. The short wavelength violet beam, even at a modest power like 10-20mW will make trails on the GITD paint so bright you can see them even with room lights on. Maybe even sunlight.

And you'll be able to do other cool stuff like make shadows with spotlights, stand in front of it setting off a strobe light etc. Jump in the air right during the flash etc.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: ‪SolarColorDust.com Canvas Painted with Glow Dust for Laser Drawing‬‏ - YouTube

I think this is an ad or demonstration for a high-end very strong GITD powder, but even Rust-O-Leum GITD paint is often sold in hardware stores (Home Depot & Lowe's if you're in the USA)

Also, instead of heat, there are also photochromic powders/paints you can use too, which will leave dark purple trails when exposed to UV, or near-UV 405nm laser light.

Here's an example of that: ‪SolarColorDust.com Canvas Painted with SCD for Laser Drawing‬‏ - YouTube

Simply put, a laser won't always deliver HEAT reliably to make a physical change that relies on temperature, but they will always reliably deliver LIGHT to create changes that need light energy to drive them. :D
 
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geoffy0404

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I don't want to ruin your project but couldn't you just paint your wall with GITD (glow in the dark) paint and use a 405nm blu ray, to play with the changing of color. and as far as I know it would be regardless at what temperature you keep your house :p
 
Wolfman29

Wolfman29

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The problem is, you would need to find out how quickly the wall will dissipate heat, as we calculate heatsinks, in degrees per watt. Then, you could, using a 50W CO2 or a 1W 445nm laser, could figure out how diverged of a beam you need to get in order to raise it to just barely above 86 degrees. And that is some pretty heavy calculations that are necessary.
 
I

iambubbathedog

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AJ_Dual said:
I see what you want to do. You want to be able to "draw" on the wall.

Unfortunately, with most any handheld laser, you're going to have some problems.

1. Even the most powerful 1000mW on up handhelds have a hard time heating/burning at any great distance, because it's very difficult to hold it still long enough, or move it in a steady slow line to heat or burn anything. The shaking keeps the spot moving and it won't heat/burn reliably.

2. The most powerful lasers that are reasonably priced will be visible blue 1000mW+ 445nm lasers, or IR lasers that can be 1000-2000mW. The problem is that they tend to have wider divergence, and no matter how carefully you focus, may not get a hot spot at more than maybe a dozen feet.

And the IR laser in that power range is insanely dangerous, since you can't see the beam, and it's way, way, above the threshold to do eye-damage, which can be as little as 15-20mW.

3. Even if you do get a warm enough spot, can focus it right, and hold it slow and steady enough to draw on the thermochromic paint, the line between heating and simply burning the paint will be a very fine one indeed.

4. DPSS green 532nm lasers generally have tighter beams with lower divergence, but getting one that's powerful enough to reliably draw on your wall will be well over $500, maybe even $1000... or more.

What I think you should consider is getting glow in the dark paint, and getting a "Blue Ray" (violet) 405nm diode pointer. It will draw on GITD paint amazingly well. The short wavelength violet beam, even at a modest power like 10-20mW will make trails on the GITD paint so bright you can see them even with room lights on. Maybe even sunlight.

And you'll be able to do other cool stuff like make shadows with spotlights, stand in front of it setting off a strobe light etc. Jump in the air right during the flash etc.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: ‪SolarColorDust.com Canvas Painted with Glow Dust for Laser Drawing‬‏ - YouTube

I think this is an ad or demonstration for a high-end very strong GITD powder, but even Rust-O-Leum GITD paint is often sold in hardware stores (Home Depot & Lowe's if you're in the USA)

Also, instead of heat, there are also photochromic powders/paints you can use too, which will leave dark purple trails when exposed to UV, or near-UV 405nm laser light.

Here's an example of that: ‪SolarColorDust.com Canvas Painted with SCD for Laser Drawing‬‏ - YouTube

Simply put, a laser won't always deliver HEAT reliably to make a physical change that relies on temperature, but they will always reliably deliver LIGHT to create changes that need light energy to drive them. :D
Click to expand...



Wow! Thanks! A lot of useful information! I think I'm gonna give up on the covering it with thermochromic and just put the GID paint in another room that I won't be sleeping in lol
 
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iambubbathedog

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geoffy0404 said:
I don't want to ruin your project but couldn't you just paint your wall with GITD (glow in the dark) paint and use a 405nm blu ray, to play with the changing of color. and as far as I know it would be regardless at what temperature you keep your house :p
Click to expand...

I wanted the black to clear to cover it so I could sleep at night if I wanted haha
 
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Foshizzle45

Foshizzle45

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geoffy0404 said:
you dont have to destroy your wall lol[/url]
Click to expand...

lol. This is true, If you paint it on your wall, it would TOTALLY ruin it, and it would glow just with light shining in the room, and once it would be on there, it would be extremely tough to paint over it once you get bored with it, (trust me, eventually you will)
 
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