Best way to clean my laser?

Hello laser pointer forums again, After dropping my laser on the floor today and getting a bit worried as it kinda malfunction a lot turning it self off, it soon worked fine. But I noticed the dust was showing more since that accident. When I'm in a dark room, and shine it at a wall 5ft away, I can see a large circle diameter of what looks like dust from the laser. The dot is fine. When I point the laser into my hair, I noted that the laser hits a only a tiny fraction of the lenses, as why it has such a large dusty circle glow. Should I worry about cleaning this? you can only see it at near by pointing at while material, and the beam and dot shows just fine.

Also, If I ever figure how to take the small top off, it looks like the "lens" or w/e is like 1cm under the top, and screwed in. There's 2 notches on both sides like if there's a special tool to unscrew that. Kinda like -O- So it would be kinda hard to take it off unless a cotton swab will do for cleaning it...and that's IF the top thing is what it appears, a 3mm thick piece that screws off, and doesn't pull out the whole laser.

Try canned air first, to see if you can blow the dust away. If that doesn't work try rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab.

Careful with the canned air. Some lenses are lightly glued to the mount and you may disrupt/misaligned/damage the lens if you're not careful.

that is just what mine is doing. got the light specs around the dot when i shine it on a wall.
i was able to take my lens completely out of the setting and clean it.
used the isopropyl and cotton.
but that didnt really help.
so i am wondering if it is caused by the lens and should i upgrade to better lens.
or is it the diode itself.
mine is a 5mw pointer.
maybe i should replace the lens but with what kind/type/size?

I should mention, Using my air compressor (200PSI tank + air control = constant air stream at any power) did nothing. But just a cotton swab with nothing on it, down the hole, moved it a tad on the lenses, pointed it at a wall, was flawless, Only a dot. None of that grainy crap around it

For those that remember me, I'm still looking for cheap FDA approved green laser pointers. Skylasers had some, but due to faulty circuit, they improved them and still need to release them on the forums. Till then, they put illegal ones for the USA on their site.

lightfoot500 said:

that is just what mine is doing.  got the light specs around the dot when i shine it on  a wall.
i was able to take my lens completely out of the setting and clean it.
used the isopropyl and cotton.
but that didnt really help.
so i am wondering if it is caused by the lens and should i upgrade to better lens.
or is it the diode itself.
mine is a 5mw pointer.
maybe i should replace the lens but with what kind/type/size?

Click to expand...

Funny coincidence, this happened to me too! I was unfocusing my laser yesterday, and I noticed these big dust spots. I took out the lens module (I didn't unscrew the lens, I just used a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol) to clean it. It didn't do much. So I did the same to the actual diode window, and it worked. Make sure to be careful not to break the fragile glass window, though. Also, be sure to dry the alcohol off with the other end of the Q-tip, and (important!) DON'T turn it on for at least 5 minutes after this!

-Mark