Need help before buying my first 1w 445nm

Hello all,

The past 2 years I have owned lasers I have only bought into cheap ebay pens and 301's, for safety and price reasons. Now that I have been around and operated these lasers for a while and learned about safety and the importance of goggles, I have decided that it is time for me to get a more high powered laser. In terms of protection, I ordered 190nm-540nm Eagle Pair OD 4+ goggles from survival lasers, which should arrive in the next few days. These past few days I have been looking around the forums for advice on quality and budget 1w 445nm's and I have come down to a few choices. Sci-fi lasers, Laserbtb, and Blord are the 3 manufacturers/people are I have decided that had a good rep, good lasers, and a good price.

A few questions I had before buying included:
Is it worth it to spend $35 extra for the LaserBTB host for the same power lever?
Are these 501b hosts known for durability?
Is 1w enough for general burning/stargazing, or should I could up a few extra for a better experience?

Any and all advice is welcome, and thanks all for being the go-to forum for all my past and present laser interests

That's way too much for stargazing, stick with a low power green for that. If you go pointing this in the sky you will attract attention to your location, and remember it's illegal within 10 miles of an airport or in the flight path of an aircraft, you don't have to point it at an aircraft to break the law.

For burning it should do ok, my 1.5W 445nm burns good, it can burn through a DVD case and light matches very easy. My 3W or so 445nm will instantly burn or smoke anything and is a fire hazard, I have to say the same is true of my 1913mW 450nm, it makes a smaller dot so higher power density, it can also set stuff on fire. I find a 405nm can burn very good at much lower power and greater distance even though they don't look so impressive, mine is 590mW, a 500mW - 1W 405nm can focus to a small enough dot to burn at 80 or 90 feet. The beam from all of these except the 405nm is very bright and impressive. Don't look at the dot up close or while burning, use your safety glasses. Be sure to avoid any direct contact with the beam, I even use extended focus rings on mine.

Alan

yeah stick with lower power greens for star gazing(i know i live next to a small airport so i basically never get any time to try them out unless its like 2AM) i have 3 501's(as of today and haven't had any issues with them.

Ok, I decided to go out and buy a 1w 445nm from Sci-Fi lasers. I will just use my 301 for pointing at stars. I live no where near an airport, so I think I'm good in that sense. Any of you guys have positive experiences with thejoker recently?

I got two of the 3 watt lasers. They are strong! There was a problem with the delivery.... The post office screwed up. But he made sure I got the lasers.

Hi'
501B's are an easy build they can hold 2 cells or one cell depends on the diode your powering .