Is there such thing as a universal Beam expander?

And if there is how the hell do you align it I would think a few screws around a mounting ring would make it hard to align perfectly.

But if this does exist what are some good ones?

What do you mean by "universal"? There's nothing preventing you from strapping a beam expander or even a telescope to the end of a laser with duct tape. You could align it by looking at the dot on the wall to see if it's visible.

Shining a laser through a telescope would work as a beam expander? I need to do more optical research... Lasers are so technical I'm finding

Rifter said:

And if there is how the hell do you align it I would think a few screws around a mounting ring would make it hard to align perfectly.

Click to expand...

Dragon Lasers has just what you describe. pictures in this thread


http://laserpointerforums.com/f49/dragon-lasers-new-beam-expanders-now-available-87990.html

http://laserpointerforums.com/f49/adaptive-optics-easy-add-any-hand-held-88432.html

http://laserpointerforums.com/f49/a...any-hand-held-unit-proto-type-done-89122.html

These threads have some interesting ideas in them. But yeah, if you wanted to, you could buy any beam expander and tape it onto whatever you wanted. What makes a beam expander special is that it is called a beam expander.

Rifter said:

Shining a laser through a telescope would work as a beam expander? I need to do more optical research... Lasers are so technical I'm finding

Click to expand...

Yes, you need to read more. Search for Galilean and Keplerian type beam expanders.

I'd loved to see a universal beam expander that would thread onto a standard 9mmx .5mm lens barrel for all the custom builds!

Wmacky said:

I'd loved to see a universal beam expander that would thread onto a standard 9mmx .5mm lens barrel for all the custom builds!

Click to expand...

I don't think that would work but I could be wrong. I think the beam needs to be collimated before it enters the expander.

chipdouglas said:

I don't think that would work but I could be wrong. I think the beam needs to be collimated before it enters the expander.

Click to expand...

In this case the beam would be colimated by the lens /lenses internal to the threaded barrel. The expanded would thread onto the end instead of a focus ring.

Wmacky said:

In this case the beam would be colimated by the lens /lenses internal to the threaded barrel. The expanded would thread onto the end instead of a focus ring.

Click to expand...

Then you'd have to lock the thread into the module some how, otherwise lens and expander would spin

Alright, then, negative nancy!

A little bit of thread locker is a small price to pay for a universal beam expander :san:

Greetings,

You could either thread for the aixiz a little deeper than normal or even better use a spacer so it will screw down tight. What I am doing with mine now, but since not all beam expanders use the same thread, you would have to have an adapter to fit each one .
Not very universal....can be done though.

cheers,
Moe

Hello.
Some times ago I have bought some Laserglow Beam Expanders.
Those expanders are originally made for the Hercules 532 nm series, so I was forced to unmount, decoated and recoated the three lenses for the 445 nm 9mm diode.
Then I have adapted the expander to use with the dear old Jayrob Frankenstein kit.
The biggest problem was to find a correct input beam size and the right input divergence, since the LG beam expander do not allow input beams bigger than 2 mm.
In my Frankenstein kit I use 405-G2 lens to collimate the beam. Most of the work was to find the correct input beam: a too large input beam line will cause a loss of power, since part of the line will be truncated by the small diameter of the input lens, while a too small imput beam line will create an undersized input beam, that cause damage to the coating of the first lens and noticeable reduction of the expander field (I.E.: nearest focal point too far from the beam expander aperture). Besides this, another big problem was the up/down, left/right centering of the beam: any little error cause truncated line and so a noticeable loss of power. But at the end of all the attempts, I have obtained a perfect beam field range, centered, powerfull, and with an acceptable loss of power (about 10% less of the initial value). Unluckly the decoating procedure of the lenses caused some damage to the structure of the glass itself (the lenses are boiled for several hours in a solution of hydrochloric acid at 212 F), so the lenses were not perfect as the original condition. Probably a virgin lenses set will have less loss of power. I have all the parameters of the LG beam expander lenses, but I was unable to find identical lenses from the major optical companies like Edmund Optics.
Now I'm working in a hybrid beam expander (half LG and half Jetlaser) for the Zaser (custom XL prototype) with the 3.5W new Nichia diode, and in a special 10x beam expander from CNI that allow an input beam size of 4-10 mm, ideal for example for the red diodes with wide output lines. This modified beam expander will be mounted in the Red Stubby C-Mount project from Jayrob, but both my projects are stopped because Angelos (Lazeerer) is disappeared again from the forum since 45 days, and he has my new red diode and hopefully his long awaited 4A driver, suitable for the 4W c-mount red diode and for the 3.5W 445 nm Nichia diode.
If You need some other infos I'm here :beer:

You can even hold a magnifying glass at a specific place away from it to expand it. Just pop out the lens and slap it on. I even saw a guy use his glasses... I dont recommend you use that though...