Blu Ray laser worth the time?

I just finished salvaging a Blu Ray player for the blue laser, but alas, twas not what I hoped to find. Rather than a nice blue laser diode, I discovered a mess of mirrors, lenses, and other things I am unfamiliar with. I believe that the small extensions on the top, and on the right are the actual laser diodes, but i have no clue how to work with those.

Carefully remove the mirrors, dicros etc if you want to keep them for later use and then take out the diode(s). You will need a module to press the diode into and a host with a heatsink. The main diode is a 405 nm ie purple diode. Not sure which diode is actually in your particular drive, but if you want to make a laser it will definitely be worth it. :beer:

On the top-left part of the sled (in this image), you can see a components with three pins protruding upwards, soldered to a ribbon cable.

That's your diode. Remove it and the cooling block it's mounted in carefully. Cut the ribbon cable, use pliers to break the glue holding the block.

Follow a few "diode harvesting" videos, there's plenty around. Your best bet is breaking the block in half using two pliers, freeing the diode to be placed into a module and used in a laser build.