Safety glasses from dragonlasers.com

Hi, newbie here, with what I'm sure is a repeat question (however I've looked around, and I can't find an answer to it).

First, to sum up what I have, will have in a few days/weeks:

I have a handful of cheap dx.com/yourlaser 5mW lasers in blue, green and red.
I also have one green 50mW laser, and will be getting blue 30 and 50mW lasers soon.

I've not yet tried any laser above 5mW though (unless they're not rated correctly), as I figured it's fun to see, and I want to be sure I keep on doing that.

I've ordered a few pairs of these, from dragonlasers.com.
I got the first pair already, and just doing a visual check, they seem to be blocking blue and green 5mW lasers pretty much entirely. The red one goes through completely unchanged, as far as I can see.

However I've now read a few of the threads on this sub-forum, and they mention IR. These glasses have 0 OD for IR, as far as I can see from the graph.
From what I could gather from these posts, the IR thing seemed to mainly be a problem for green lasers.

• Did I screw up and buy the wrong glasses here?
  
• Will I be somewhat safe with my glasses, as long as I don't order any higher powered green lasers? (So maximum 50mW of green)
  
• Would I also be safe with blue lasers up to 1W? Or am I then pushing my luck?
  
• How much do the devices that measure the intensity of the laser beams cost, and where can they be bought?
  
• Is there a typical ratio of effect between green and IR for green lasers? A way to ballpark how much IR I'd be beaming my eye with, should I be so unfortunate as to hit my eye with the 50mW.

Sorry for all the questions, what surely are answered elsewhere, and the lack of a proper structure to the post.
I hope to become a better poster in the future.

the IR from >50mW lasers is usually quite small, you should be fine if you take basic safety precautions

i am not familiar with DL glasses, but if you plan on using 1w blue, you should invest in additional eye wear specifically for it from a more reliable source

Eagle Pair® 190-540nm Slip Over Laser Safety Goggles

is quite popular amongst people here

the current eyewear you have should make a green dot look almost invisible on any surface, they are not designed for red so that would be unchanged

I tried the eagle pair and the cheap shit, believe me, you wont enjoy your laser unless if you have a certificated goggles.
No headaches after using, you feel safe while burning, and it looks cool.

Dagh said:

Did I screw up and buy the wrong glasses here?

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They're probably fine for what you need.

While there is IR in the green laser output, it's substantially less than the green laser output. Most of the IR is concentrated in the same beam as the green light. Unless you're shining the laser directly at your eyes you're probably not going to be exposed to much IR.

You'd have to buy the green + IR-blocking ones from somewhere else like OEM Laser Systems (they're revamping at the moment so the product page isn't up). They'll also cost substantially more.

I bought some of those goggles in a group buy years ago, but I don't use them much. Most of my green lasers have little IR output, and it was hard to work with those goggles on. Personally I don't consider the IR a substantial threat to my vision, and am more concerned with the green component of the lasers.

Will I be somewhat safe with my glasses, as long as I don't order any higher powered green lasers? (So maximum 50mW of green)

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For the most part. The IR in cheap greens is usually about 1/5 to 1/10 the power of the green. Avoid shiny surfaces as usual with lasers of that power.

Would I also be safe with blue lasers up to 1W? Or am I then pushing my luck?

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For your 445nm blue lasers, the goggles should be fine. 445nm lasers produce no IR so don't worry about that. Also, an OD rating at or above OD 2.5 will protect you above 1W. I think the Eagle goggles protect far above OD2.5.

How much do the devices that measure the intensity of the laser beams cost, and where can they be bought?

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You can buy a laser meter to measure the output power of your lasers. They're a nice tool, but they do cost a bit. An inexpensive meter that is pretty decent is the LaserBee, which you can buy on eBay or the LPF forums, or through Jerry on the forum (you need 3 posts or something to qualify).

Is there a typical ratio of effect between green and IR for green lasers? A way to ballpark how much IR I'd be beaming my eye with, should I be so unfortunate as to hit my eye with the 50mW.

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It depends on how poorly made the laser is. Some have filters so there is virtually no IR. Others have no filters and do a poor conversion, so there is a lot that is emitted. I'd say expect maybe 30% the power to be IR in cheapo pointers, and going down to maybe 15% in a cheap, but decent pointer. High quality pointers from CNI, etc. will have good filters that allow virtually no IR out.

You can also buy laser IR filters (such as on eBay) and put them on your green lasers. That can help a bit.

hoo7h: Don't beg for rep. That's just lame.

Thanks for the thorough reply, it was very helpful