Whats the best burning laser?

Im looking for a laser that i can show off to my friends like able to light up a cigarette or melt plastic. Ive been researching lasers, it looks to me like 200 mW would be enough.. but im not sure... if you could recommend sites and products that would be very helpful.

~thanks

A 200mw would probably be well enough to melt plastic a light a cigarette and i think even ~100mw would be enough, but this kind of thing is really dangerous and you should never try to light a cigarette in your mouth, pointing the laser at you or anyone else. And for any kind of burning or playing with lasers of that power, safety goggles are a must because a direct contact from the beam to your eye or even only a reflection can cause heavy permanent damage to your eyes. That said, high powered green lasers usually cost a lot but if you want something cheaper, dealextreme has a 200mw for 120$ which i heard will probably output something around 120mw, which i guess would be enough for your needs but the quality of the units is kind of bad though (ie: never drop, get dust in, get smoke in, etc.). And please, get goggles

yea i was planning on getting goggles when i bought the laser. =D

I'm not sure about lighting cigarettes, but melting stuff sure ;D

I can melt plastic, light matches, pop balloons and cut through garbage bags with my 150mW but it only makes a cigarette smoke from the tiny dot it creates on the tobacco.

Lighting matches is way more impressive than lighting cigarettes anyway!

2kew4u said:

yea i was planning on getting goggles when i bought the laser. =D

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a wise man one said 'buy your goggles first' or something to that effect . what is your budget?

My budget is around 300-400$ but you know everyone wants to save money.

Andy_con on here from the vids i just saw for around 200 dollers USD you can get a 220 mW red that is really good at burning and popping.

The WOW factor is definitely, perhaps... quadrupled, with a green laser. Honest suggestion from a money point of view, DX is your best bet. Get the 200mW they have and you wouldn't ever be sorry. and at $120 it's very reasonably priced. As for goggles, you can go hi-tech and get a pair of professional laser goggles or just go and grab a bunch of $0.99 (something around $10 shipping though) red sports goggles from eBay. Works just as well

If you wanna do things right though... get a nice Nova or Optotronics laser and get one of their goggles... and that, my friend, would be the IDEAL WOW! Trust me... I know

GL and keep us posted;
DDL

millionaire said:

Andy_con on here from the vids i just saw for around 200 dollers USD you can get a 220 mW red that is really good at burning and popping.

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Well i took your advice... lets see how it turns out...

I might buy a dealextreme green 200mW later... (they were out of stock...)

Oh yea i need goggles LOL can someone PM me a link to some cheap 650nm goggles =P

Well it looks like I'm too late, but if you were interested in just burning at a set distance, this would probably rank among of the best portable lasers for burning: http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1186274798

For red lasers you'd need blue goggles, or green would work I think.

Have found a few on eBay... but I haven't ordered any yet... :-/

--DDL