Thanks! (from a newb in Michigan)

Hi guys,

As a quick follow-up to my Welcome / Intro here:

I just made a small ($20) donation to LPF in honor of those of you here that have given me such a warm welcome (including Laser Chick).

One additional thing I've learned since my first post.....the beam and color from a 1W 445 is so beautiful in real life, it can nearly make a grown man cry. :drool:

-jeff

I'm not sure why but it seems like everyone is assuming his 532nm is actually 5mW which is extremely unlikely. If you can see the beam easy in a darkened room a cheap 532nm pen could output up to 100mW and that's about the same brightness as a 445/450nm blue lasers beam although the greens spot will be brighter. Keep in mind you cannot guess a units output, it must be measured (especially 532nm because of the IR content).
I love pen style lasers and in fact just built a PLTB-450B into a gold laser 66 pen yesterday with LED indicator light and over 2W peak (haven't posted it yet) but if you are interested in any kind of on time it's NOT the way to go. I would suggest at least 1W and we can help more if you tell us specifically how long you would like to be able to keep it on and if the size of the laser matters to you.
Really great introduction as others have stated. +4 REP to help get you going.
By the way, what makes them dangerous is people don't realize they are dangerous and can easily blind you or someone else if they are careless but you don't sound careless to me at all and I think you'll get lots of fun/enjoyment out of it. I personally don't think of them as being more dangerous than a firearm. I think people are more dangerous than everything that can be dangerous. Unfortunately some people give lasers a bad name when it's the person who should take all the blame.
Don't be surprised when you get a blue one you feel the need for a red and violet etc....lol. it's what happened to most of us