Help with building my first laser?

Hi,
I recently have found an intrest in the awesomeness of lasers and i was wondering if i could get some information:
ive read all those dvd laser guides, and watched all the videos on how to make the dvd lasers, but all of them seem to use "aixiz laser housing", and that would be fine but they dont seem to sell them in australia. i was wondering if anyone can tell me some specifications to buying maybe a magnifying glass and using that instead, or some sort of alternative to laser housing, (do i really need the lens at all?)
diode is coming out of a 16x samsung burner
Thanks!

yes you need a lense, otherwise your laser wont be focused...

just buy an aixiz housing from kendall at High Tech DealZ, Simplifying the LASER Hobby!, theyre about $5 and free shipping anywhere in the world.

You need to put a diode in something so an aixiz module is inevitable. They don't sell aixiz modules in my country either so I can only buy them over the internet. Just do what hugo999999 said.

Start a business, order 10 and sell the other nine locally!

Get selling daddy warbucks!

Yeah it's always an option to order from Internet but I sort of want that as a last resort in case customs has issues with it, so yeah I was just wondering what magnification that sort of lens would be using (e.g. 20x)? And maybe I could make my own out of that..

seriously do not bother fiddling with magnifying glasses, just buy an aixiz module, theyre really cheap and customs will not take them as they have no laser in them... modules with lasers in them arent even controlled, only complete builds are.
hugo.

ok ill give that a shot, thanks