HI ,
I am new to building your own lasers , tho I have been in love with laser for ever

I was browsing on here , and thinking of getting a custom built laser from one of the members, due to it seems like its cheaper , and you get better quality lasers . I just do not know the difference , other than the obvious cosmetic differences between the two options for focus control. Can anybody explain?

Thanks in advance

If I've understood you correctly, then you are right, it is the obvious and purely cosmetic.

The conical adapters would provide a bit more heatsinking as it's connected very close to the diode, where a lot of heat is being produced.

Oh yeah, there's that too (sorry, wasn't thinking)

ah.. thanks so much ... I was considering buying that laser and then swapping over the included focusing ring , for a cone ... I was thinking it just looks more my style that way , but if it adds a bit of functionality as well , its icing on the cake .. Now Im crossing my fingers the laser I have my eye on does not sell in the next two weeks till payday lol

conical ones are funner to mod. If you get them with holes drilled in them, you can fill with glow powder and epoxy, or tritiums, or leave them open for extra grip. The main idea with a focus adapter is to be able to focus the beam without frying your fingertips. The bigger the focus adapter, the easier to avoid fingerfrys.

this will reflect on my new ness ,but may i ask what are tritiums? cosmeticly i assume they are the cool neon looking things but i dont know what the word means or how they are made

What are they going to heatsink? The lens?

The only way it will heatsink the diode is if the lens is screwed all the way down and the focus ring is making contact with the diodes heatsink.... But who will want a laser torch?

It's basically a glass tube filled with radioactive material, also known as hydrogen-3.

More info here..

Click here

What? You mean the teflon tape I put on the lens is not to increase thermal conductivity to the lens?!

Seems like someone didn't attend science class during school.

The lens is screwed into the lens cativity aka the diode module, where there is HUGE amounts of heat being produced. Said heat is usually transferred to the surrounding heatsink & lens barrel and dissipates to the air from there. With the additional focusing adapter, the heat has a further path to the large focusing adapter, providing additional heatsinking. Furthermore, when used with a G-2 lens, which he is, the adapter can be screwed in further to contact the host heatsink and provide even more heatsinking.

I'm not the only one who sees it this way:

Here let me help you with a picture, maybe pictures might help you visualise it better:


If you don't see, especially with a G-2 lens he's using, how it will provide better heatsinking, I suggest you see past ur grudges and open your eyes.

But if you still want to be stuck up on being a rude asshole. Congrats.

And let me guess, your Bill Nye the science guy right? You know everything and are never wrong.

Is the OP using that host and lens you pictured? Cause I never saw him post that? You gonna build him a laser that cost $150 in parts and can be built in less than an hour and sell it to him for $375?

You really are a piece of work man. Just another know it all.

I never said I was always right. And I'm not wrong now either.

I'm an undergrad student in science with an internship as a Research Specialist in my field. And who are you? A Fedex worker?

My prices are cheap considering the monster diode it has and how I over-engineer my builds with care and concern, always improving. I don't build it "in an hour" because I actually meticulously build them. It takes me 4-6 hours with breaks to finish off a meticulous build. When someone nitpicked about my "cold solder joint", I resoldered it right away. All my customers and people who actually have dealt with me only has great things to say.

I want to see you spend $150 and build a 2.5W+ laser and sell it for $150. Let's see it buddy. You haven't even build one over 2W, don't make me laugh.

Do you think setting the current higher on a driver makes you any better a builder than anyone else?....

You slammed that wire onto the driver and threw solder on it.

I have built several 2W+ build. Let me link one for you.
My 1.86/2.08W Custom Ehgemus 445!

That one did 2.1W in the end, and this was before the abundance of 2W+ diodes. Oh did that make your comment wrong? Yes, yes it did. Once again you go making ASSumptions before you know anything about it. I have also built several other 2W+ builds, just never did a write up on them.

Your "monster diode" didn't cost a penny more than any other diode out there. Just because it was a good one doesn't justify the price. Your ripping people off. A build that cost me $150 in parts I would sell for $225 TOPS. I would feel like a scam artist charging your kind of prices.

Once again, your a know it all little punk. Who makes an ass out of himself alot.

Oh yeah, you also admitted to building your first successful build (on the third try) about a month ago. And now you call yourself a pro builder and advertise your products as pro lasers. Built by a pro. From complete noob to a PRO in 1 month! good god kid, you are a prodigy.

Ignore list guys. There has been too many bannings around here lately.

I don't care, this kid needs to be set straight.

Then by all means, in these 2 years you've been on this forum, never created 1 build near 2.5W? Out of how many sellers/builders have build a laser of this magnitude on this entire forum in its entire lifetime? I can name about 2 other single-diode builds.

Again dude if you think you're so good, go build one 2.5W and over in your Maglite LOL. Let's see it bro, less talk, more action.

Kid? I'm the same age as you, ignoramus

YOU need to be set straight:
1) You started the trolling/rudeness in this thread
2) On top of this, you're absolutely WRONG in this thread and
3) After all this, you're still pumping your pride to satisfy your inferiority complex

Ryan, there is no difference between building a 2W build and a 2.5W build other then the fact that you get a more efficient diode, which as of lately just started popping up more frequently. in the past, hitting 2W was considered efficient.

Also, just because somebody is a long time member here, does not mean they have to build the most high power laser they can, some people like to just build for fun. And enjoy their lasers.

Anybody that's built a few lasers can do what you did in that build. It's all about the right diode, which you lucked out on.

Or wait did you buy a projector and harvest the diodes and bin them for efficiency and output like the pro's do? I'm not the one boasting my superiority and professional grade builds, which yours are not by any means.


EDIT: dear god, thank you Joe.

Personally, I'd rather have a super sexy host at a mild power, then a boring host spewing a 2W+ beam.

I didn't "luck out" on getting that diode my friend I'm not divulging any info to you, but I can do another 2.5W build tomorrow if I want. I do plan to, but not so soon, as I'm engineering a couple of new hosts to fit the other monster diode.

Unless you're saying I can "luck out" on these diodes all the time from DTR or something, great, I guess I'm that lucky huh.

My builds are top-notch. I won't say their professional, I merely used the word "Pro Shop" because Pro Shop means Custom Shop, at least in Sports language. Doesn't mean the stringer at the Pro Shop is a Professional, it just means you can customize your build like you're the Pro.

No doubt that 2Ws are common, but 2.5W+ is incredibly rare. And tbh, none of Jake's builds are that interesting or even cosmetically appealing to me. Even the nice kits from Jayrob ended up as a bunch of parts slammed together with no engineering. Still using crappy brass modules with a 2W diode I see. The copper modules I use have 3x the thermal conductivity than your brass junk. No wonder you sell your builds at "$150" LOL, great "quality". Congrats.

Me too actually, that's why I sold my 2.5W+. It does give you huge bragging rights tho

Once again, unless you are buying projectors yourself and picking out the good one's you aren't doing anything special.

Maybe you paid somebody more money for a better diode. Who knows? But it's not like you are manufacturing these diodes yourself.

And you consider your own builds top notch. How about a review from a respected member around here? try that out. See if they think your pricetags are worth it.

Selling a 2.5W laser to a noob doesn't give you any credibility on your work.

Who has said your builds were top notch? Show me a link to somebody who bought your builds and knows what they are talking about and said it was a "top notch" build.

And no, that's not how it works. your calling yourself a pro hoping to lure in the noobs by the word pro. You have no right to label anything you do as "pro" until it has been proven.

Ok, so going back over this, what makes building a 2W laser any different then building a 2.5W laser?

Lets hear it ryan. what do you do different in your 2.5W builds than my 2W build?


Are you ordering 2.5W diodes from a new un-known source that nobody else on the forum knows about?

Let's hear it. Almighty lord of the lasers.

And once again bragging rights? Do you have bragging rights on that diode? Did you make that diode yourself from scratch? if not you have NO bragging rights on that diode, since that WAS the only SPECIAL thing about that build.. Anyone who's built can build that same exact 2.5W laser you did, it just might not make 2.5W.

I'm not wasting my time to explain to you every little thing I do to my builds. But all I'm saying is that I sell my builds at what they're worth based on the market, this ultra-rare 2.5W diode is worth loads and you think I'll just let it go for $150? With the hours I spent and the effort I put it? You're a joke.

My builds ARE top-notch and I've shown a tiny skillset teaser in my Linear heatsinking thread. With people like you around, I really don't want to divulge anymore tips when I don't even get appreciation for them.

You sure think very highly of yourself while telling me that I'm the one that does.