Custom 445 Polished Brass ~ Schweet!!!

Alright so I have been away for quite a while and decided to check back recently and found out about these super powerful blue diodes. And since I have always wanted a blue laser, I couldn't resist doing another build. However, I wanted something unique and different that was also portable. I see people use flashlights all the time and decided against it since I had the ability to make my own host.

Here is my build:

I chose brass because I really like how it looks, its easy to work with, and because it has relatively good thermal conductivity. Plus brass polishes up real nice

Here is the headpiece before polishing


And after


This was achieved by sanding with 400 grit, then 600, and finally 1200. After sanding, i used a dremel buffing wheel with green compound.

Tail piece


Middle tube with engraving


The threads on this are pretty fine, from trough to peak we're talking
.01inches


Completely assembled host minus guts


I would have went with a flexdrive but they are extremely scarce right now :cryyy: I ended up going with that aixiz/olike driver which, as most will already know, is not great. I do really like that the positive input is on the diode end of the board, which alows you to solder it to the case pin of the diode.

I modified it by soldering a 3.9 ohm resistor in parallel with R4 and by doing this I got a current draw from the battery of 1.55A with a freshly charged 14500. This should deliver about 1.1A to the diode. I soldered the board up to the diode which I had already pressed into the aixiz module, and then hit it with epoxy to make sure it would stay. The white stuff is thermal compound. (Don't worry, Its not as much as it looks.)


I originally machined a copper heatsink but ruined it in the mill by accident and didn't have any more :cryyy: so I went with aluminum.


Driver diode module assembled into heatsink


I then applied some thermal compound to the inside of the head piece and slipped the heatsink module into the head. I am using an aixiz 445 glass lens.


Final assembly was a snap, just threaded the battery tube on and loaded up a 14500 battery. Again, this is a case positive laser.


Completely assembled and ready to go!


Beamshots! These are non-enhanced shots with no smoke or prolonged exposure.




Overall I am very pleased with this laser, I love the looks and its very compact. I really like how clean the install is with this driver, it may not be the best in performance, but is very easy on the build side and is wire free. I hope that other, higher quality case positive drivers will pop up in the near future.

The cooling is great on this unit since the whole thing is made of metals that are pretty thermally conductive. I still keep it to a short duty cycle cause the driver gets hot.

Unfortunately I do not have an LPM but my guess is its pretty close to 1W especially if I were to use a G-1 lens.


Thoughts, comments, questions?
Thanks for viewing!

Re: Custom 445 Polished Brass Schweet!!!

Very nice.. I was thinking of doing this in copper and brass...
The only problem which made me hesitant is the tarnish..

Looks like gold :eg: gotta love brass.

Engraving is a nice touch :beer:

Re: Custom 445 Polished Brass Schweet!!!

Nice build. +1rep
How long is the runtime on a single 14500?

Re: Custom 445 Polished Brass Schweet!!!

Haha I almost bought some copper stock cause copper gets unbelievably shiny but like you said, tarnishes very fast. Brass should last a little longer and I can easily whip out the dremel and buff it again if I need to. But daily use should keep it up to par. Or maybe I could hit it with a light clear coat?

Run time should be around 20 minutes.

.7Amp hour capacity/1.8 average current draw X 60 = 23.33

Thanks for the kind words

Re: Custom 445 Polished Brass Schweet!!!

The main thing ive noticed with brass fresh off the lathe when
its at its best.. is that fingerprints are the biggest problem..

The oils left behind seem to absorb right in and tarnish first.
Same thing applies with copper, but copper will get ugly fast
and on its own..

A clear coat is nice but takes away from the feel.. You could also
handle it only with a soft cloth glove..

When you finish using it, a cleaning with alcohol will help with
the print problem, and to rid the tarnish some 'brasso' would work
well.

Regardless.. thats a sexy laser :drool:

Very cool build +rep,

Where did you get the engraving done?

Very nice, clean looking build!


I wish I had a lathe...and space for one

Very nice build the only thing i would do is make an adapter for the focus ring that way everything is flush. you did a really nice job with it and I'm sure you can make an adapter fairly easy if you wanted to.

Sexyness all the way over! +rep

I say let it tarnish up for a cool Steampunk look.

Asherz said:

Very cool build +rep,

Where did you get the engraving done?

Click to expand...

All of the parts were run on a CNC Mill including the engraving.

Nice build

Awesome build.:beer:

Very nice. Your will need to polish it weekly.

Excellent work. I love the engraving you did there. +1 sir

Beautiful work, engraving is awesome!!