Laser Shape mysteriously changing?

So i got a laser off of eBay. It is a green 532nm "star laser pointer", when i opened it it worked just fine, a very bright green dot. When you take off the lens on top, it turns into a bright "mini flashlight". The next day i took it apart by twisting the caps off, and looked at the diode, then i put it back together. Later I tried to burn a thin black piece of paper, didn't work, so i took off the lens, and burned a hole through the paper, no fire though, i had to put the paper really close to the diode so i could be effective. I burned 3 holes into the paper, then threw it out, making sure it wont light again, i put it in some water, and turned on the laser, to see that the raw beam ( without the lens) turned into a huge spot, like i have a galaxy template over the laser. It doesn't even show the beam come from the laser, I put the lens back on and saw instead of a dot its shaped like a ring, brighter around the edges, and a light layer of green around and in the ring! Did i do something to the diode? Is it dusty, its new so it couldnt dust up so quickly

Pictures are worth 1000 words. What laser do you have? Be thorough. The more info we get the better we can help

The 532nm laser pointers are DPSS. If you actually saw the diode, that means you had the crystal set off
and it is out of alignment. I think you just saw the crystal set and thought it was the diode. Otherwise
there would be no green at all, but only IR which looks like a faint red, but can burn your eyes. They are
not supposed to be taken apart like that. I think either the lens got knocked out of alignment or there is
some junk that got down in there.

That's what happens when you burn things that close to the lens - soot gets on the lens and distorts the beam. Google lens cleaning - should clear most of that up.

Im not sure how powerful it is, but its at least 100mW i think, also how do you post pictures

Here is a pic of the laser with the lens

So it's a nice round dot with the lens removed? If so, then there is a smudge on the lens. It looks bad
enough to be seen if you look through the lens. Spray it down with some SLX alcohol a couple times and
let it dry.

Its bigger than a dot, like a small flashlight, but with lots of "markings" inside the circle, this is without the lens by the way.

Photo of the Diode...

That is the crystal set. The diode is actually underneath there. DON'T try and remove it. The alignment is
critical. Don't try cleaning that part, either. All you need to do is clean the front lens. Flush it with SLX
denatured alcohol and don't touch it with anything. It is probably an acrylic lens and very easily scratched.
We don't want to scratch it any more than it already may have been.

Isnt S-L-X denatured alcohol toxic? Also what does it do? I dont have any so im getting some today, i just want to be sure if i know what im doing. I will need instructions for what and how to clean the laser.

Also im thinking that maybe the ring is coming from dirt in the edges of the lens, and i think that the crystal set is smudged so thats why it had the wierd pattern, what i think we need to figure out is how to fix the wierd shape of the laser without the lens(it could be that its out of alignment), so its not like the wickedlasers torch.

Cycol said:

Isnt S-L-X denatured alcohol toxic? Also what does it do? I dont have any so im getting some today, i just want to be sure if i know what im doing. I will need instructions for what and how to clean the laser.

Click to expand...

It's only toxic if you drink it. What it does is dissolve grease and flush away contaminants
that may be on the lens. All you have to do is put it in a clean spray bottle and spray it on
both sides of the lens and let it dry. Repeat as necessary until it is clean.

Cycol said:

Also im thinking that maybe the ring is coming from dirt in the edges of the lens, and i think that the crystal set is smudged so thats why it had the wierd pattern, what i think we need to figure out is how to fix the wierd shape of the laser without the lens(it could be that its out of alignment), so its not like the wickedlasers torch.

Click to expand...

Post a pic of what you're talking about. If the crystal set is messed up, there is nothing we
can do about it anyway.

I fixed the lens so it doesnt have the ring anymore, now the crystal set has already been posted, its the most recent pic i have posted, if you want to see it again, here