Help with building a laser

Hello people. I made this thread because I'm seeking for help regarding building my first laser. I've been reading a lot about lasers lately. I have spent hours on end (even when I should be studying for my exams, but now those are over-I think I did pretty well anyway XD ) trying to figure out some details, but I'm not 100% sure on everything (more like anything).

I have several questions and I wouldn't want to bother you people with huge amount of newb-ish questions by starting a new thread every time, so I'd really appreciate if someone who is experienced in building lasers is willing to help me through PMs. I have yet to purchase everything needed for a build (as I have some questions about that as well), but I started with buying a soldering iron and a multimeter today (It's a start lol). And yeah, I have checked the "The "I want to build a laser thread"" and many similar ones.

Thanks in advance

If more than one people are willing to help, then that won't a problem. The more knowledge I receive the merrier

If you want, shoot me a pm. I will be more than willing to help

I'm not a pro at builing, I'm starting to build lasers too (I have a lot of questions too, but most of them are solved). But some basic soldering stuff you should learn and buy IMO. You should buy some perfboards and learn to solder on them (If you are going to build you'r own drivers), desolder pump (really handy) and learn to read schematics

well i actually, just today, ordered parts for my first laser build, and i started with something really simple:

I got a nice 501B flashlight host with a copper heatsink (from blord), and a Oclaro 700mW 638 Diode (HL63193MG) from DTR's laser shop with the driver and lens in a module. All i have to do is connect the wires in the host to the wires from the module, and fix the module into place in the heatsink, then i'm basically ready to go!

now i did that cause i'm not really ready to to build everything from scratch (plus im lazy), but if you want to then go ahead, you'll learn more about laser building than i will doing it the easy way, and i think the challenge is worth it.

Better than PM'ing, just post your questions in this thread Sure some may have been answered before, but maybe some other newbie will stumble across this thread with the same questions. Maybe edit your first post with a numbered list of questions and people can answer what they know?

Nothing wrong with doing it that way Michael as most of us have probable built some that way. Just remember which way your battery or batteries go in and if you can mark the inside of the tail cap with a + or - to remember which end goes towards the cap. Once you own a few lasers it's easy to forget and blow a driver, diode or even both. I would recommend you get both a G and 3 element lens . Yes it's nice to say you have a lot of power but you will like the way the dot looks better with the 3 element. I think it's only about 10 for the 3 el. You will understand when you see the output for yourself.

Pman said:

I would recommend you get both a G and 3 element lens . Yes it's nice to say you have a lot of power but you will like the way the dot looks better with the 3 element. I think it's only about 10 for the 3 el.

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well i'm getting this one more for the colour than pure power, however that is a part of it, cause its always good to have more power right. i really just wanted a bright red laser with a nice beam, because the current red laser i have has like no beam... so im fine with just a 3 element (that's the one i have)

also, for the battery thing: im going to attact a regular (not laser) diode to the leads so that no current will pass through if i do a stupid and put the batteries in backwards. and marking the host is a good idea!!!

Idea: If you can fit a small four diode full wave bridge rectifier in your laser pointer, it won't matter which direction you put the batteries in, it will still turn on. Here's some I found on ebay, but you might have a lower voltage drop looking for some lower voltage rated bridges (or just build your own using four Schottky diodes which have uber low drop out loss): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bridge-Rect...Volt-Full-Wave-Rectifier-10-pcs-/281709620778

Forgive me for posting in yet another thread promoting green lasers, but for others wanting to build a laser pointer and considering red or blue, for the same amount of power, when looking at the beam from a red, green or blue laser the red and blue ones are about 10% as bright as green. The sensitivity of our eyes drops off rapidly on the bottom and top ends of the visible color spectrum, the further you go longer than >650nm or shorter than <445nm the less sensitive our eyes are to the color.


https://sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/diodes/oclaro-700mw-638nm-diodes

Hi fist of all safety glasses a must now for the equipment:
25w soldering iron,multimeter, test load,wire strippers,wire cutters,solder leaded 32/64 or closer,heat shrink,flux(flaming pyro),helping hands magnifyer, grounded ESD mat, ESD wrist strap, artic alumina compound, hex wrenches. These are the basics but as time goes on you will buy more stuff that suits you need. A LPMis also nice to have mine is made by Nospin it reads out to 5+W's Ophir thermopile and a led readout box in two colors red or blue depend on wavelength. DC power supply great for testing diode efficiency. Building is a great hobby I'm bitten by the laser bug myself it's an addiction by far. Read and read more there's tons on info here on the forum it's like one stop shopping. And all the vendors here are awesome people with great products to offer.
Hope this will help you pal have fun and be safe lasers are not toys.
)


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Hi Rosen don't smoke that stuff and lase it's a recipe for disaster. Just like drinking and driving. Have fun be very safe

Lifetime17 said:

Hi Rosen don't smoke that stuff and lase it's a recipe for disaster. Just like drinking and driving. Have fun be very safe

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oh jeez, dont wory i don't do that stuff, its just a joke. michael rosen is a kids story writer who is made fun of a lot for like no reason.

Wow that's cool Rosen be safe always by the way freaky pic . Enjoy buddy
)

Sorry for the late reply guys, I was pretty busy the last couple of days

crazyspaz said:

Better than PM'ing, just post your questions in this thread Sure some may have been answered before, but maybe some other newbie will stumble across this thread with the same questions. Maybe edit your first post with a numbered list of questions and people can answer what they know?

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Hmm that's a good idea. I'll make another reply when I edit the OP with my questions. That way I can get multiple opinions that will also be verified. I'll hopefully get around to it tomorrow

viliuks said:

I'm not a pro at builing, I'm starting to build lasers too (I have a lot of questions too, but most of them are solved). But some basic soldering stuff you should learn and buy IMO. You should buy some perfboards and learn to solder on them (If you are going to build you'r own drivers), desolder pump (really handy) and learn to read schematics

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I am pretty familiar with soldering, I practiced a bit in school. It's been a year since I have soldered anything though, so I might need to freshen up my skills a bit... Thanks for all the tips!

marcuspeh said:

If you want, shoot me a pm. I will be more than willing to help

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Thanks for your willingness. I will take crazyspaz's advice for now and post my questions here, but in the future, if I have a question regarding the matter I won't hesitate to PM you