Green laser safety googles for 10$!?!?!?

My first reaction was that they did not cost enough.

Then, I saw Google had a FocalPrice cache of the exact same goggles for $26 +.

At $26, they should have provided some protection.

This appears to be the manufacturer:
AIGUANG OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD

Far too many people on this forum...
probably have no protection at all.

I would rather they have some protection than none.

LarryDFW

I can really care less if they didn't work well. I have certified goggles. W/e though, I don't feel like arguing either. I'm just saying that I think they work fine. People can see our varying opinions and make their own decision. I'll just say that I have two, and I believe they work great in every possible way. I just find it interesting the fact that you have little to nothing backing up your opinions other than that the price is $8...

What is the correct way to test then Tech? I'm curious

First of all, I have absolutely no doubt that they are dyed-in-the-full plastic (that's speculation of course ). Why would anyone bother making clear glasses and then coat them? Completely unnecessary, expensive work and coated glasses would be much unsafer, because they're susceptible to scratches. Just get acrylic granules and dye (I guess you'd even get pre-dyed plastic), put it into the extruder, melt & inject into the form, done. Someone who has them can test that by cutting a small piece off (from a corner). Actually just looking at them from the side should be enough.

The people who work with really high powered lasers in a lab will have glasses that are multi-coated to reflect the exact wavelength that the laser emits. This is a completely different type of animal.

As for testing: what is the purpose of these glasses? To reduce the intensity of a laser beam to eyesafe, comfortable levels. How would you test that? Do you need a spectrograph, an LPM, an interferometer? Not if you've got eyes. Point the laser at a piece of paper. Look at the dot through them. Is it dim enough to look at comfortably? Then you can use it for focusing. Shine a laser at the glasses. Put a piece of paper behind them. How bright is the dot (maybe compare with a 1mW laser dot)? Shine the laser at the same spot (near the corner unless you don't mind wrecking them) for extended periods, observe how much light gets through. How long until so much gets through that it's more than a 1mW laser (=unsafe)? If the laser does manage to burn a hole after a time, cover it with thick black tape afterwards.

If that's rocket science, it's on the level of a fireworks rocket.

The main point when working with lasers is:

DON'T LOOK INTO THE BEAM!

That is completely irrespective of whether or not you're wearing goggles or how much they cost. Because even the most expensive, globally multi-certified goggles will not protect you if one day you're thoughtlessly wearing the red ones when playing with your LPC...

Thank you ebert, and yes I did all those things^^ and everything worked great. (Including shining the laser directly at the goggles, both on the side AND, stupidly, in the middle. The side I shined for a long time, maybe 5-6 sec, and it still worked good. After 20 sec or so it turned black.)

Just for info: which color laser, what power, and was it focused to infinity or onto the goggles or...?

dr-ebert said:

First of all, I have absolutely no doubt that they are dyed-in-the-full plastic (that's speculation of course ). Why would anyone bother making clear glasses and then coat them? Completely unnecessary, expensive work and coated glasses would be much unsafer, because they're susceptible to scratches. Just get acrylic granules and dye (I guess you'd even get pre-dyed plastic), put it into the extruder, melt & inject into the form, done. Someone who has them can test that by cutting a small piece off (from a corner). Actually just looking at them from the side should be enough.

Click to expand...

So you are saying that most of the non certifed "Hobby Grade" glasses are dyed plastic? I never though about how they work , but never expected that theyre just dyed plastic...
Lets take the DL saftey glasses (<= Many people say that theyre safe) for an example:
Are these just dyed plastic? If not how do they protect?
Green and blue laser beam protection – Laser safety glasses :: Laser Safety Glasses :: Dragon Lasers

Sorry for being such a noob but I need some explanation here!

Best Regards
game-genie

In a nutshell: the eye has 3 different types of color receptors that are sensitive to red, green and blue light (it also has a 4th type which is much more light sensitive but doesn't allow for color vision - this type comes into play when it's dark). If all 3 are stimulated equally, you see white. If only one is stimulated, you see the corresponding color. In the end, all colors you can see are created by stimulating them to various degrees.

Substances have colors because they don't reflect all colors equally. A red one reflects only red and absorbs green and blue. A yellow one reflects green and red and absorbs blue.

In transparent substances, there is no full reflection but it is the absorption anyway that is the key property. Again: it's red because it absorbs green and blue. A substance that absorbs only green would look magenta, which is a bluish red.

So red goggles protect against green (but not red!) light because they absorb - swallow - green light. It's that simple. Complexity is introduced in the case of laser goggles because a) you should block only a small region around the wavelength in question, and not others, to result in high visual transmission, i.e. the glasses shouldn't become so dark that your view of other things is impaired; and b) the dye shouldn't degrade over time due to bleaching by ambient light or chemical instability (not a problem with synthetic dyes) and it also shouldn't (quickly) decompose in the intense light=heat of a direct laser hit.

There is also the possibility to create colors by interference (like in the proverbial butterfly wings) and so you can buy interference filters for various purposes as well. As mentioned, these can be very narrow bandwidth and are always pretty expensive. One can easily recognise them because light that's reflected off them has a different color than light transmitted through them.

game-genie said:

So you are saying that most of the non certifed "Hobby Grade" glasses are dyed plastic?

Click to expand...

Actually I'm convinced that all laser goggles, whether certified or not, hobby or pro grade, that you can get for 3-digit $$ figures are dyed plastic.

Alright, I think that black mark was just from a sharpie. Anyway, I just shined my diy Waterproof Green which has a 100mW O-like module in it (I think the power coming out is a little less since it goes through a clear glass lens in order to be waterproof). Anyway, from 5 feet away shining onto the goggles, it barely marked the goggles (I couldn't hold it TOO steady, but I kept it around the same area for like 5+ sec.). Then, I shined it right in front (about 1" away) and it immediately started to melt the goggles, but I had a piece of paper on the other side, and very little (and I mean VERY little... less than a mW probably) went through. I kept it on the same spot (as best I could - barely moving a mm) for a full 20sec. There was little to no change other than that it melted deeper and deeper (but 20sec lasting is pretty damn good to me).

So... I'd say these goggles are great. And to answer the question as to how they're dyed.... after the melt, the inside is still red...

btw, that electrical tape is a good idea^^ I think I'll cover it up JUST INCASE... but really, I don't think it's needed.

You can hold them absolutely still by just putting glasses and laser down on the table... btw, you're showing good dedication to the cause of investigative science :thanks:

Alright, I kept both on a table and a piece of white paper behind it. I kept it for a full minute and there was no visible change. I couldn't even see a green spec. I brought the paper REALLY close... and at about .5cm, you see a greenish-red dot (a very weak dot).

So yes... it held up a FULL MINUTE against my 80mW-ish green laser. It melted, but still held up.

(Maybe next time I'll check an hr. )

Check if it works as well with bluray too

Interesting. So If someone is too cheap to go certified at least they can get these. I told someone my friend paid 50 dollars for the safety glasses and was shocked. Eh I guess these are for people like them

Grix said:

Check if it works as well with bluray too

Click to expand...

Just checked and got similar results (using 110/120mW PHR). The dot was a little brighter than the green's was... but, it still protects fine.

I'm buying 6 lasers from Focalprice. I may actually pick up the glasses. I'm not going to be burning or shining reflective stuff but for 10 dollars I'll see how the are I guess

They're worth it. And yeah, some of FocalPrice's lasers are a great deal. I'd recommend these two in particular: 50mW 532nm Powerful Green Laser Pointer (Silver) $21.94 - Free Shipping and 30mW Green Laser Pointer Pen (Black) $14.62 - Free Shipping .

And, in case you'd feel like being generous, maybe before you order you could go through my referral link first? FocalPrice.com | The lowest Price for DS R4 lite,PSP Slim,Genuine Earphone,SONY EX71 EX082，PS2,Macbook Accessories etc.

(It'd help pay towards the glasses I semi-destroyed ).