How many watts could i fit into a 2 foot long half inch wide "pen" housing?

[Unown (WILD)]

Okay fellas I'm asking for a cease and desist on the arguing and insults.
Stick to the topic.
Xpolygon74 you have to understand that we take the hobby very seriously as lasers can easily be misused. We have very powerful diodes available to us now and anyone can misuse it to blind someone for life. When a new person comes on here asking for an insanely powerful laser in a small package we are naturally hesitant in providing information. We know nothing about you and we know nothing of how you will use this weapon. Yes weapon.
This is also an 18+ age restricted forum. Please provide your age and be honest. Sometimes we allow people younger than 18 if they show a mature attitude and respect the dangers of laser handling.
Lastly I think it will be fair to ask you why you want this laser so badly. Again be honest.
With all of that said please keep it respectful in here. Thank you

 

[Xpolygon74]

Okay fellas I'm asking for a cease and desist on the arguing and insults.
Stick to the topic.
Xpolygon74 you have to understand that we take the hobby very seriously as lasers can easily be misused. We have very powerful diodes available to us now and anyone can misuse it to blind someone for life. When a new person comes on here asking for an insanely powerful laser in a small package we are naturally hesitant in providing information. We know nothing about you and we know nothing of how you will use this weapon. Yes weapon.
This is also an 18+ age restricted forum. Please provide your age and be honest. Sometimes we allow people younger than 18 if they show a mature attitude and respect the dangers of laser handling.
Lastly I think it will be fair to ask you why you want this laser so badly. Again be honest.
With all of that said please keep it respectful in here. Thank you

I completly understand mate, im new here on this forum i came here seeking advice not to start arguments with other members i know thats not what this forum is for so i want to apologize, so far i like this community and its members and i feel like we are all grown here so there should be no reason to start arguments over stupid childish reasons, i hope in the future we can all get along, also sidenote i wouldn't call them "weapons" tho, yes they are indeed an eye hazard and can be very dangerous when handling especially if you dont use laser safety goggles but it's not like a laser can burn a hole through a building like in some sci-fi movie lol, also if your wondering im in my 20's mate

 

[julianthedragon]

Just a word of advice, if the mod with more experience in lasers and this forum calls them weapons and you want to get along with everyone I would just go with it lol. 1) Yes there are lasers that can punch through a building and 2) you don't have to get nearly that powerful to blind in a fraction of a second, which seems like a weapon to me if placed in the wrong hands.

To be fair, you asked "how many watts" you could fit into your hypothetical host but you probably should've put an upper limit on that. You said your intent was to make a "crazy" device to impress your mates right? So you could start by aiming for a reasonable power level and if you made a laser at all that would be pretty crazy. And maybe you could learn how to focus it to a dot and pop a balloon or light a match, that would be more than enough work and wow-factor to impress, especially for someone just starting with lasers. There's a lot of research and trial and error that goes into building a laser. The urge to pack as many watts as possible into a small package, especially with the odd dimensions given is well...unsustainable, noobish, dangerous. That's why some people are coming down hard on you. Not that you would know better if you're just starting, but I think the best thing to do if you really like it here is taking a back seat a bit and doing your own research, experimenting, reading past threads.

For example did you know that even with just one watt, you can start fires and burn straight through certain materials? Even something as simple as posting a more educated question and having less attitude might get you closer to the type of replies you are hoping for. Even the harshest members here don't pick fights with new members for no reason. I wish you luck and safety with your project for now though

 

[Xpolygon74]

Just a word of advice, if the mod with more experience in lasers and this forum calls them weapons and you want to get along with everyone I would just go with it lol. 1) Yes there are lasers that can punch through a building and 2) you don't have to get nearly that powerful to blind in a fraction of a second, which seems like a weapon to me if placed in the wrong hands.

To be fair, you asked "how many watts" you could fit into your hypothetical host but you probably should've put an upper limit on that. You said your intent was to make a "crazy" device to impress your mates right? So you could start by aiming for a reasonable power level and if you made a laser at all that would be pretty crazy. And maybe you could learn how to focus it to a dot and pop a balloon or light a match, that would be more than enough work and wow-factor to impress, especially for someone just starting with lasers. There's a lot of research and trial and error that goes into building a laser. The urge to pack as many watts as possible into a small package, especially with the odd dimensions given is well...unsustainable, noobish, dangerous. That's why some people are coming down hard on you. Not that you would know better if you're just starting, but I think the best thing to do if you really like it here is taking a back seat a bit and doing your own research, experimenting, reading past threads.

For example did you know that even with just one watt, you can start fires and burn straight through certain materials? Even something as simple as posting a more educated question and having less attitude might get you closer to the type of replies you are hoping for. Even the harshest members here don't pick fights with new members for no reason. I wish you luck and safety with your project for now though

Ah i guess you have a point, i just feel that one watt isnt that much, especially since other electronics run at around 50W or more, i was aiming for atleast 2 watts for the project since i didnt want a weakish laser for a housing of that size but i guess ill have to reconsider (also i had a 200mw laser pointer before but it couldnt do any cool burning tricks at all lol)

 

[WizardG]

If it couldn't burn it wasn't anything even near 200mW.

 

[bostjan]

I hope this doesn't sound condescending, but I'm not sure how many people reading this post will have a good grasp on what makes lasers dangerous, so I'm going to word this maybe a little bit like I'm talking to a kid... I mean no disrespect...

1W is not a lot of electrical power, but it's a hell of a lot of optical power to be focused into a point. If you think about the power density of 1W of light focused into a 10 µm wide beam, that would be 12 GW/m². Compare that with the maximum power density a household wire can handle of 545 MW/m² before it starts a fire. The laser has a power density more than 20 times what is considered safe for household appliances. Add in the fact that looking at a copper wire is a billion times less likely to blind you permanently and you might start to see why 1W of optical power in a laser is a pretty big deal.

Maybe you are thinking that you need something like a 60W CO2 laser to cut through plywood. Fair enough, but you are also using light as a cutting tool. It's generally less suited for such a task than, say, a saw. And while a 60W saw might not sound like it'd be able to give you more than a papercut, a 1200W saw isn't likely going to accidentally bounce off a shiny surface and light a rag on fire, burning down your flat, either. And, coming back to power density, a 1200W saw with a 7" blade has a power density something like 600 kW/m² along the cutting edge, about 1/20000 that of the laser. But, since light is rubbish at cutting, it doesn't seem like it. But imagine 20 000 circular saws cutting your retinas, because that's what it'd be like to get that 1W beam focused into your eye accidentally.

If you are interested in lasers as a hobby, then that's great. Lasers can do a lot of cool stuff. However, any approach that involves simply stuffing as much power into as small a form factor as possible just "for the LOLZ" is almost certainly a bad idea all around. Even most youtube videos I see where these people are talking about responsible safety with lasers, I see plenty of reckless behaviour, because it's ultimately all about the views.