Visible beam without the pain

I have been researching into lasers and like the idea of a safe one, using the Class I anywhere is safe and that's what I need. But that's not it, I need a red beam, something seen with the naked eye and all I read is that people like to burn stuff. I need a red laser beam, not dot and need it safe.

I read a few comments about filters, I suppose these filter the strength? Would that work?

Red lasers are old, but red means something, the colour means danger and that's what I need. So while other laser colours may do the trick, I'm looking for a trick to get what I need.

Thanks.

The problem comes from the fact that class I is terribly low powered. You could instead use a 5mW laser, its got alittle more power but its still eye safe. Couple that with some beam enhancers like smoke or fog and you should be good to go. And i dont mean a thick blanket of smoke, a little bit of smoke and ample time to diffuse into a room can drastically increase beam visiblity without making the room look foggy.

What exactly is your application?

I want to use it in my shop, as a barrier. So people see a red line (a laser red line) and think ..o0 better not go there! See, instantly people will understand from the movies that its not a good idea to cross the beam (it might cut me in half?!), it could trigger and alarm and its red, which means stop and that's what I think will work.

Imagine this was my boutique, the bar bit, the entrance is obvious and so imagine a laser right across that area:
http://www.galerieversailles.com/MyImages/BAR 138B - Complete.jpg

The problem is that people set barricades like rope or wooden surfaces that swing down i.e physical barriers. But I thought that it would be better if you could just walk through the barrier but that it be obvious it was not for crossing.

I see videos on youtube of leather wallets being burnt on impact and people going blind, as it was for a shop I didn't want anything dangerous. So I can't have smoke but it might not be terribly bright, like outdoors bright, its indoors and moody. Yea!

I just don't get how commercial clubs like this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg6e8jn8zEI&feature=player_embedded#!) use these lasers and nobody goes blind!

from what I can see in that video you linked the air in the club is foggy so they probably used smoke machines.

You will not get a low powerd visible laser beam without any help from some fog or wathever.

edit:

There might be a way but it will not really be easy and it won't be only a simple laser.

using a humidifier (ultra sonic ones are quite and can produce a decent stream of vapor) on one side and some sort of suction device on the other side (like a small vacuum cleaner) you can probably make a stream of fog trough wich you shine the beam wich then makes the beam more visible.

It should somehow be possible to then 'recycle' the water so you don't need to fill the tank constantly.

This is probably still an unpractical solution but it is the only thing I can think of wich will let you make a 5 mw beam visible without being completely in the dark.