Hello everyone, I loved lasers since the day I got my first toy with a red laser diode in it, it was just amazing to have beam travel a long distance and produce the red dot on far away buildings and trees.
Anyway, I've lurked around this site for so long and viewed many threads about the types of lasers I wanted to know more about/build. I made a 500 mW IR laser with a LM317 driver a few weeks ago, which is also my profile pic. It's not portable and the heatsink is an obvious overkill, but I'm happy with it as it burns things and isn't bad for a first build. Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9vAB-ZHZlY&feature=youtu.be
Currently I'm gathering parts for a homemade CO2 laser, as I already have the glass tube, mirrors and a high voltage power supply, I just have to get or make a vacuum pump from somewhere. I'll create a thread if I successfully complete the build, when I get time for it.
Anyway, I've lurked around this site for so long and viewed many threads about the types of lasers I wanted to know more about/build. I made a 500 mW IR laser with a LM317 driver a few weeks ago, which is also my profile pic. It's not portable and the heatsink is an obvious overkill, but I'm happy with it as it burns things and isn't bad for a first build. Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9vAB-ZHZlY&feature=youtu.be
Currently I'm gathering parts for a homemade CO2 laser, as I already have the glass tube, mirrors and a high voltage power supply, I just have to get or make a vacuum pump from somewhere. I'll create a thread if I successfully complete the build, when I get time for it.