New to hobby lasers, what is next?

Hi,

I have just used laser to point out stars.
The only laser I own right now is a 5mW green CatEye laserpointer.

I know how to practise laser safety and I have a pair of 190-540, 800-2000nm OD4+ glasses to protect my eyes and so on.

I know there is a lot of scam companies so my question is where do I find decent lasers in the 2-3W range?

I thought about WL just because the nice host they got but every living soul advice me not to buy from them. Looked at Survival Laser and their S4 host but I have to do some soldering and that part I don't like

/Henke

First of all welcome to the forums! Make sure you check out the stickies in the various categories, and a lot of the links in the veteran users' sigs are really helpful too.

As for your question, I'm relatively new to hobby lasers myself, and until I get set up to start building my own, I would really recommend keeping your eyes on the Buy/Sell threads on this very board. I recently picked up a 2.3W 445 handheld from danefex and I'm very, very pleased with it. In my research it looked like if I wanted to buy something comparable from a company I would be looking at paying at least 50% more than I did, and the guys around here are great about prompt shipping and quick feedback. Who better to ask questions to than the person that actually built the laser you have in your hand? Plus, a lot of them are really quite comfortable with worldwide shipping if that happens to be an issue.

A lot of guys sell kits that do require a smidge of soldering but the value is great. I went for a completely good-to-go unit and just had to screw some things together, but as soon as I get my hands on some soldering supplies and a multimeter and whatnot I'll be doing more myself.

If you are really only in the market for something store-bought, I generally hear good things about SL. I don't have any personal experience with WL, but the prices are through the roof and it sounds like you basically are just paying a premium for good looking hosts. For the price of a 1W from WL you can easily get a solid 2W from around here, and I bet guys like Blord would be more than happy to put together something customized to what you're looking for, within reason.

Good luck, have fun, and be safe!

port513 said:

Hi,

I have just used laser to point out stars.
The only laser I own right now is a 5mW green CatEye laserpointer.

I know how to practise laser safety and I have a pair of 190-540, 800-2000nm OD4+ glasses to protect my eyes and so on.

I know there is a lot of scam companies so my question is where do I find decent lasers in the 2-3W range?

I thought about WL just because the nice host they got but every living soul advice me not to buy from them. Looked at Survival Laser and their S4 host but I have to do some soldering and that part I don't like

/Henke

Click to expand...

I believe the reason alot of people don't like wicked lasers is because of what they used to be. At first they lied about peoples orders and lost track of them , but why? The reason was that so many people ordered the S3 Arctic at once, it completely blew up in their face and they were unprepared. They had to make some of the earlier Arctics in a very short time to keep up with the demand, because of this the quality wasn't as good they lost orders, and it took some people years to get their Arctic. The Craze is over and I haven't had any problems with getting my lasers from Wicked lasers.The only thing I Don't like now is the fact that they are/were underspec, sometimes as low as 700mW. I see now that they are supposedly 1W certified, and are tested on a LPM before shipped. Either way they had some bad times, and they are way better than they were. I am not an enthusiast, or major supporter of WL, But they gave a 1W S3 Arctic for free, and when I said the 5mW core was dusty they sent me another one for free. Talk about good customer service ( in my experience anyways).

If you keep up with the buy sell section for a little while you'll find a good deal pop up on a +2W laser. I bought from several members and all have been trustworthy and helpful. Do take a min and introduce yourself in the intro section.

MichiganMan: I like their safety buttons and sequence etc and their host so maybe I'll try their green Krypton laser later on when I have some spare money

/Henke

port513 said:

MichiganMan: I like their safety buttons and sequence etc and their host so maybe I'll try their green Krypton laser later on when I have some spare money

/Henke

Click to expand...

I am unsure on how I feel about the Safety unlock code, It keeps people from messing with it, but it is also a little annoying to enter the sequence every time. To be honest anyone over the age of 8 could figure the password out just by playing with it.