Any cheap caps to increase attenuation factor of 445nm?

I will be soon buying a ~1.5W 445nm, most likely with tree sets of 5OD rated goggles... But Just for funzies I wondered where you can buy these "training wheels" to increase the attenuation factor without me disassembling and adding more circuitry to add power mode switches.

I guess since every host is different; is there some big circular filter I can just re-size and "machine" my own cap?

Those "training caps" don't attenuate the power by more than about 1/2 if that -- which is far too little to make much difference, at least as far as sparing your eyes or much else for that matter. They're a cheesy gimmick that only the likes of Wicked Lasers would push. Your OD5 goggles will also have more than enough attenuation to keep things safe. I'd also be worried that the back-reflections from the training cap might damage the laser.

On top of that, I'd say that if such a cap attenuated 90% of the light (to make it easier to handle) then it's going to have to dissipate that as heat. That's approx 1.4W of heat in a small spot. That cap will likely fry. As you know, even goggles don't hold up to continuous laser radiation at high powers...

That said, you can get some pretty neat effects by just shining a laser through a tiny hole, though I don't think it will do what you are wanting it to do, which is cut the power by physically chopping off a large part of the laser's cross-section by shining it through a tiny pinhole.

Ahh, I knew it was too good to be true! I did not know wimpylasers started this. Just heard about it in another article... I was hoping that by some magical science mysteries there were optics to reduce power without all the heat. (Thats right; go to hell thermodynamics) ohh, my I just punned myself:crackup:

I think Ill just play it smart and get a lower powered 445 Instead of my crappy rig slipping off and sauteéing my seeing balls to delightful blind flavor.

-case closed!