200mw to eye

Here, here. Let it go:horse:
If he's not going to listen about the safety glasses, then let him it be. I doubt anyone will want to be helpful to you when you don't want to protect yourself, so good luck with your laser(s).

Dude. USE. YOUR. FREAKING. GOGGLES. ALL. THE. TIME.

Remember, if you can see light at all, then yes, it is reflecting off of whatever surface you see it on. If the light did not reflect off of the match, then you simply would not see it. The match would just be a black shadow; you wouldnt be able to see it.

Always wear safety goggles when performing dangerous activities with a laser capable of outputting >5mW.

If you are burning ANYTHING, no matter what it is, even if the light doesn't seem too bright, wear the goggles.

If the light reflects into your eye, it WILL cause damage to your retina, and it WILL cause damage faster than the human eye can blink.

Once your eye is hit, there is no going back. Even if you are hit for the shortest of time, and you blink instantly, your eye will still be damaged. Although it is possible that the human eye can slightly heal itself after being damaged by light, it can't fix itself that much. If hit by a laser beam, the retina of your eye is damaged. This can cause partial blindness of the eye, often times characterized by having blind spots in your vision. Sometimes, you can't even tell that they are there. A good way to tell if you have blind spots is to look at a piece of paper with lots of words on it (like a newspaper) up close. You can sometimes see that you have a blind spot(s) if there are spots that you can not see that there is text on the paper.

In worse cases, a hit to the eye by a laser can cause total blindness.

A laser is very dangerous, and should be treated as if it were a loaded gun. Treat it as so. When using a laser, you should be aware of your surroundings; what is particularly shiny/reflective, what is not. When using a laser in close-quarters conditions, all persons in the room need to be wearing goggles. Yes, that means the operator, as well as all other people in the area.

At the moment, I would not suggest purchasing a laser. You need to educate yourself first. I had multiple years worth of laser knowledge before I ever actually bought one myself. My first high powered laser was a 100mW 532nm. Before I bought it, I knew exactly what it could do, and how easy it was to cause physical harm to myself or others. I knew about the physics behind the light of the laser itself. I knew all of the components within the laser, what they do and how it was set up. I knew the danger of direct hits, as well as reflections. The point is, I made sure that I was well educated before I put a laser into my own hands. You should do the same. I'm not saying you need to wait YEARS before buying a laser. But, give it time.

Also, just saying. I know a person that caused eye damage to himself after a direct hit with a 5mW laser, after long exposure to the eye. That is only 5mW. Imagine 200mW, 40 times stronger than a 5mW laser. That is some serious power, and is not to be toyed with.

Trust me, education is a must before handling a high powered laser, no matter how old you are. I have seen grown adults treat lasers like fools, all because they simply were not educated about them. And, for the record, I'm only 16. Proud hobbyist in the world of building and firing lasers. I could not have gotten to this point without the information that I had learned prior to purchasing my first laser. And, I learn new things about lasers just about every day.

Enjoy the hobby, my friend. Just make sure you enjoy it in the presence of a nice set of goggles.

Dude. STOP TALKING AND WEAR YOU GOGGLES AT ALL TIMES!!! I REPEAT ALL TIMES!

Eradicator said:

Dude just stop, go buy a lighter if you wanna burn stuff so bad. You should not have a laser, you are way to ignorant for it.

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Hahahahahaha that made me laugh really hard.... I can't understand people arguing on a matter that is for his own good and still doesn't get it.

Fatalas how old are you?????

norbyx said:

Hahahahahaha that made me laugh really hard.... I can't understand people arguing on a matter that is for his own good and still doesn't get it.

Fatalas how old are you?????

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Only 15,you?

I am almost 38.... My advise to you .... Play it safe, you are very young and your eyes have to be with you for a long long time, also take the advise as they give it to you. Don't argue, if you aren't going to accept the advise than there is no sense in asking the question in the first place.


Take care

I got another question,

Can you use laser with diffraction grating without goggles ?

And second one, about this question many people 've discussed ,but there is no single opinion - At what distance can you use laser on objects such as walls,bricks,wood,leafs,trees,etc(not shiney objects)?
I have one quote from norbyx

Now power, a 1w laser, in my case, can be used without goggles just if shined at the sky or at something that is far far away (say 100 feet or more)

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Well if your laser is 200mw so 20~ft is that distance at which you can use your laser pointing at non shiney objects and not looking into the beam for long(not more than 10s)?

FatalaS said:

I got another question,

Can you use laser with diffraction grating without goggles ?

And second one, about this question many people 've discussed ,but there is no single opinion - At what distance can you use laser on objects such as walls,bricks,wood,leafs,trees,etc(not shiney objects)?
I have one quote from norbyx

Well if your laser is 200mw so 20~ft is that distance at which you can use your laser pointing at non shiney objects and not looking into the beam for long(not more than 10s)?

Click to expand...

I think that you could say that at 20ft you could be safe pointing it at non reflective surfaces

your also comparing apples to oranges....if it was a 200mW 445nm compared to a 1W 445nm then id say yes you can view it at 20ft but i have a odd suspicion we are talking about a 532nm and i would never view any 532nm without glasses. the chance is even if its 200mW, about 30-50mW of that if not more could be 1064nm IR.

why not play it safe and just always wear glasses unless pointing into the sky?

Because then you can't see the beam
I was told there was a think you can buy called a beam dump or a beam stop that if pointed at that, it is safe to admire the beam/dot without goggles, is this true?

i use a brick as a beam stop. i only use mine to do exactly what the name implies....stop the beam. i keep it behind the object im burning so i dont burn my wall or anything on accident. not sure if they have a beam stop that absorbs the light making it safe to look at :thinking:

i guess if you angle the beam stop at 45 degrees (away from you) then look at the beam from the other side (side away from the angled beam stop) you'd be safe but still need to worry about beam reflecting off other surfaces

Yes the beam dump usually used in high power lasers as the reflection on any surface would be harmful. I personally think that it all depends on the power of the laser we are talking about. In this case a black thick piece of velvet would be enough to trap the dangerous reflection of a 200mw laser.
If it was a 2000mw than the things would change a lot, the velvet could catch fire. In that case a DIY beam dumb would be great.

Okay thanks for the answers .

With my lasers I want to be able to admire the beam without having to always wait till night time to shine it into the sky with the risk of a neighbour dobbing me in.

The 45 degree angle thing is a good idea. With the velvet, would that make it safe to glance at the dot? Not that I'd be staring intently at the dot, but if I did while looking around I'd be okay? With a 650nm 200mW laser for example.

Well I don't have a red 200mw laser to tell you if it would be safe or not but I can tell you that the reflection of the dot wouldn't be so strong. Now... Question, how would you be positioned in relation of the dot? I mean if you hold your laser in your hand and you are say 3-4 meters away of the dot than there is no problem but if you are like at 30cm from the reflection than the problem will be present.

That's good. Er, I'm not sure exactly, I'd probably be about a meter away but the actual 'dot' might be a bit further away depending where I put the velvet (or whatever it be).