300mW+ 650nm C6 build! (Pic heavy)

So, here's my first build thread. Not my first build though, I have a fair amount of experience with building, but I've never posted a thread before.

So, this was a build I did for a friend for $60 (not much more than the price of the parts) and I decided I should take some pictures while I was building it and post them here. It took approximately 5 minutes to put together.

All of the parts


Put the module in the heatsink and screwed in the set screw


Put the top parts of the flashlight together around the heatsink


Used a fingernail clipper to cut off the rough edges of the driver, but left a little bit so I could tap it in the pill without any glue


Ready to solder the driver to the diode


Massive solder gun :na:


Got some electrical tape around the bare wires


Screw everything together and we're done


In goes the 18650...


Out comes the laser!


Closeup


Burns pretty well for $60






Used some boiling water in place of fog or smoke since I don't wanna light anything on fire




Can't really see the beam even in the dark because of the wavelength...

:crackup: i wish i knew what was going through your head as you came up with the microwave and water solution to get "fog" or in this case steam!

Great job, im doing one of these soon. What is the driver set to?

Livinloud said:

:crackup: i wish i knew what was going through your head as you came up with the microwave and water solution to get "fog" or in this case steam!

Great job, im doing one of these soon. What is the driver set to?

Click to expand...

428 mA
Would have gone with 478 but this is for a friend, not myself.

ahhh i see, i think i have a 478mA driver for mine. darn now i forget. i know i have a 1.8A and believe a 568mA and 478mA? darn, need to check before i build it and kill a diode

Great build for only $60 and a few minutes time. I am going to have to put one of these together soon.

Nice job! +1

nice build I really like how the heatsink seats flush with the bezel.

Nice job which driver did you use?

^^ just noticed that too.

Where did you get that heat sink?

Mohgasm round linear driver @ 428mA, and I believe the heatsink is an extended C6 heatsink by survival laser, but I could be wrong. I've had this thing sitting around for months

ahhh looks like it could be a SL one but now they only make them in copper

Livinloud said:

ahhh looks like it could be a SL one but now they only make them in copper

Click to expand...

That's a bummer. I always hated the flush heatsinks... I wonder if there are other places that sell extended aluminum ones?

not sure but i know ill be looking for them now :beer:

So using 1x 18650 with this linear driver works just fine for this diode?

mrcrouse can do them and http://laserpointerforums.com/f64/eudaimonium-s-machine-shop-73749.html

yeah i know both of them can handle it but not sure on the cost of them