High powered laser cutter help

Hello laserists! I'm working on recreating a project I a friend of mine saw a while back and was hoping you geniuses could provide some insight/build help. It was able to cut through skin so this could be dangerous with enough direct exposure, but that shouldn't be an issue. It was a re-purposed diode that was nearly infrared, which is crazy. It could have been from some military application or testing equipment that they didn't mention in the video, some ideas on what it might be would be appreciated! It was internal application of a larger machine I think.. Ive been researching as best as I can but haven't turned up much, so I thought to consult you guys. Hope to hear back. Thanks!
:lasergun:

That might be a high powered diode bar. They're pretty powerful and in the near-IR range (~808nm). Some solid-state laser systems are Nd:YAG types too.

If you want to do high-powered laser cutting, you should look into something like a CO2 laser. Beware that it is completely invisible; it literally outputs a heat beam.

Yea, if you're looking at just getting as much power as you can, it'd be cheaper to just get a high powered CO2 laser. Those are easily 20W and above.

If you want to get the same power using diodes, you're gonna need to put in alot of effort. It takes a lot of effort to get the optics and align the beams properly so that they all combine nicely. Not to mention that if you do it with IR, you can't even see the beam.

griffon666 said:

It was able to cut through skin so this could be dangerous with enough direct exposure

Click to expand...

Quit pestering the neighbor's cat; you're gonna get yourself in trouble :shhh: