Greetings from Italy!

Hello LPF, I just joined your community and I'm here to introduce myself.
I'm 37 years old (as you might notice from my username ) and I live in Italy. English is not my language, I'll try to write correctly but please forgive my mistakes!
I've always been really fascinated by the natural world and sciences, especially physics and chemistry; I got my first laser in 1993, it was a weak (but not easy to obtain) red diode. I used it for my high school's final physics exam... I did my demonstration but the examiner had no idea what I was talking about, since she had never seen a laser before!

Currently I have a few more pointers, green and red; the most powerful is a green pointer I bought from a street seller in Rome... I have no idea of its true power. Of course I've never looked into the beam or reflections, but even just looking at the dot puts a strain in the eyes after a couple of seconds. I know there's no way of knowing its power unless using a LPM.
What is weird with this pointer is that while all others I see for sale have a sticker saying <5mw, this has a sticker that says <100mW. I was surprised to find a sticker like that on a laser being sold in the streets.

Anyway... I have other more powerful lasers coming soon (not from WL thanks to you guys). I'm getting the goggles first, just in case the temptation gets too strong!
I have no experience with high-power lasers, but I do know about items that need respect - one of my other hobbies is studying nuclear physics and radioactivity, and I have a decent collection of radioactive samples, some pretty strong; and those too need respect and strict safety precautions. And I value my eyesight a lot!

Well, that's mostly it about me for now. I'm sure I'll like it here (I've actually been a lurker for some time before joining)!

Cristian

Hello christian. Welcome to the forum. If you don't mind me asking, what do you have on the way? We love pictures and links

Sure... first to come will be a SFCG 100mW and a 1.5W+ SF501B. But I'm waiting for confirmation of shipment of the goggles before finalizing the order, just to play it safe.
Then as soon as it's available, the SFCR 200mW. That, too, only after ordering the goggles

I have the sfcr and it's a great laser. Joker is a great member and sci-fi awesome service and products come highly recommended. It's good you know the seriousness of the 1.5w laser. They should all be respected, but the big boy needs some extra precautions. Well be safe and have fun. If you ever have any questions I'm able to answer, I'd be happy to do so.

Tmack said:

I have the sfcr and it's a great laser. Joker is a great member and sci-fi awesome service and products come highly recommended. It's good you know the seriousness of the 1.5w laser.

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Thanks. I chose Joker because I've read all the positive feedback here, and because he's closer to me than US sellers, and shipments from him arrive quickly I've just registered here, but I've been reading for some time.

They should all be respected, but the big boy needs some extra precautions.

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Well, I'm planning to always use goggles (me and whoever is with me, I didn't order only one pair of goggles..), keeping the laser in a drawer without batteries (with the batteries in a different place in the house, and with a big danger label stuck on the box), and of course never letting anyone else use it, no matter how much they want to. Am I forgetting something?

Your going to need a finger print lock box, with retinal scanner. Oh and a pit bull guarding the box. you got it covered man. Just be careful is all. The only one of those things I do is keep it out of reach of my son. I wear my glasses when burning or metering the 1w 3w and the super bright 532s, bug otherwise just be careful.

You seem well informed about safety. Although accident happen, your precautions will serve you well. Keep them up