- Joined
- Jul 9, 2015
- Messages
- 248
- Points
- 43
I have been on here for a little while now and just wanted to say hello properly. I am 34 and have been a laser hobbyist since I was in high school. The first laser experience I had was when my high school's shop teacher showed me his red HeNe laser and told me about how it worked, wish I could remember the specs but it was quite awhile ago. He saw my interest so during studyhalls he would give me passes to come down to the shop and experiment with the HeNe. Around that time, laser pointers were becoming the cool thing to have so I purchased my first laser, a low power probably 2-3mW 670nm dark red laser pointer. Then after that my shop teacher got a green laser when they first started coming out, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Not to mention he paid something like $500 for it. Not sure if it was Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO4 FDDPSS back then but it was 3-4 mW and I think it was 532nm from what I remember and powered by AAAs like my 670nm pointer. Took me some years later to buy another red laser this one I still have a 4-5 mW, 635nm pointer. Finally after they got cheap enough I got my first green laser a 30 mW Nd:YVO4 FDDPSS 532nm pen-style. Then after that I got a Laserglow 125 mW portable 532nm. My most recent acquisition is a skylaser PL-445 2+W 445nm from laserbtb and that is my first Class IV.
I have studied laser safety all along and since I have been safely operating IIIb lasers for awhile I took the next step into the amazing world of Class IV lasers. I love my PL445 and the intense power it has. I am fascinated by it every time I power it up. I treat it as a loaded gun and never take any chances and always wear my safety glasses because I have learned early on to respect lasers and their hazards. Anyway, I will attempt to start doing some beam photography as I have never tried that before and see how that goes. Well, hello to all you laser enthusiasts and glad to be a part of this great community! I have learned a lot of new things reading some of the posts on here and look forward to entering the exciting arena of building my own lasers at some point in the future.
I have studied laser safety all along and since I have been safely operating IIIb lasers for awhile I took the next step into the amazing world of Class IV lasers. I love my PL445 and the intense power it has. I am fascinated by it every time I power it up. I treat it as a loaded gun and never take any chances and always wear my safety glasses because I have learned early on to respect lasers and their hazards. Anyway, I will attempt to start doing some beam photography as I have never tried that before and see how that goes. Well, hello to all you laser enthusiasts and glad to be a part of this great community! I have learned a lot of new things reading some of the posts on here and look forward to entering the exciting arena of building my own lasers at some point in the future.
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