O-Like 1.2W Tactical Laser Vs Sunglasses

Hi Guys,

I read a post a few minute ago that made me want to slap someone silly. A guy (who I hope has had the lesson hammered into him) ordered the 1.2W O-Like Tactical laser. For safety he decided to order some Oakley sunglasses. :banghead:

So I decided to do a quick experiment:

Take the laser in question and burn some sunglasses.

In the two pictures attached:

In one you see the results of the laser not really focused, from about a foot away, with three passes over the same area, over about 6 seconds time. The results are the huge distortion in the center.

In the second picture you can see some lines/scratches. This was the result of the laser focused, but never allowed to stay on any one spot for more than a fraction of a second.

On the second pass with the laser focused, it did make a rather amusing popping sound

Anyway to anyone even thinking about using sun glasses for laser safety :tsk::tsk::tsk:

Don't even think about it. Sunglasses are not a substitute for proper laser goggles. If you need proof just look at the pictures.

Good example

What's funny is, I originally ruined those clip ons by seeing what they can do vs the 250mW 650nm Cutie from O-Like. I was kind of annoyed at how long shipping was taking for safety goggles.

With the red, I did a quick test pointing laser away from me to the side, unfocused, terminating on a wall 20 feet away. Then I put the clip ons into the beam right at aperture to simulate worst case scenario. The dot on the wall dimmed a little, but not much. That was enough to convince me to wait.

I didn't even notice any problem with the clip ons until next day when I went to put them on. There was a tiny distortion on the lens... Really not noticeable except it was right in the center, and in my field of view... so basically I ruined my clip ons.

With this thread I hope they help protect someone else's eyes too, not just mine.

Not defending the Oakley buyer, but there is a huge difference in the optic quality of Oakleys vs. your clip-ons

No question about that, but I'm not about to do the same experiment with expensive sunglasses.

Either way, using even the BEST sunglasses you can buy to protect against lasers is retarded. Those clip ons lasted for 3 seconds before there was a hole in them... when focused.

Also some other LPFers have done similar experiments with sunglasses... result is always they same... sunglasses don't work for lasers.

I suppose they are better than nothing... but so is a leather jacket for stopping a bullet.

Hmm... i've tried doing the same thing on laser protective goggles with about 1 watt of 445, and it took a full minute to melt through those.

I think the main disadvantage of sunglasses is that their OD is to low to provide and protection, while they block all light making your pupils dilate too.

Most glasses will be burned by 1W of power .. as most absorb the light. The energy must go somewhere. It is actually evidence they did absorb some of the power.
So this really tells nothing about the glasses. Sure, I doubt they would block 90% of the beam. And we need more then 99.99% of the beam blocked.

DrSid said:

So this really tells nothing about the glasses.

Click to expand...

I beg to differ. This tells us rather explicitly... sunglasses < 1W laser

Yes .. but that can be said about any plastic glasses.

DrSid said:

Yes .. but that can be said about any plastic glasses.

Click to expand...

I note you said glasses, not sunglasses...

Anyway, the whole point of my post is to show that sunglasses just don't cut it when it comes to lasers. The same is true of ANY sunglasses or Glasses not specifically made to handle a hit from a laser.

We're kind of arguing over nothing here :na:

No .. I really mean that you can burn through most glasses specified for laser protection, as they are mostly from plastic and work by absorbing the specified wavelength.

Yes, but there is a huge difference in the amount of energy that's absorbed and how long it takes to burn through goggles specified for laser protection vs any sunglasses. Admittedly some sunglasses will last a pretty long time... but they still won't provide ANY meaningful protection.

Even a fraction of a second (what I would assume in an OOPS! accident scenario) is enough to start to leave a mark on the sunglasses.(The little scratches in the picture) That's with probably 90% or so of the energy not being absorbed. Imagine what that would mean to an eye.

Still not sure what we're arguing about here

InfinitusEquitas said:

Yes, but there is a huge difference in the amount of energy that's absorbed and how long it takes to burn through goggles specified for laser protection vs any sunglasses. Admittedly some sunglasses will last a pretty long time... but they still won't provide ANY meaningful protection.

Even a fraction of a second (what I would assume in an OOPS! accident scenario) is enough to start to leave a mark on the sunglasses.(The little scratches in the picture) That's with probably 90% or so of the energy not being absorbed. Imagine what that would mean to an eye.

Still not sure what we're arguing about here

Click to expand...

lol I can tell ya, my googles fell off, as I picked them up my knee hit the tail cap on my 1.6w 445 OOOOPS I fried my tear duct but lucky for me the spot it left already went away and today it just feels like I got pink eye

@TheReddish

Ouch. I'll pass on the experience. Accidents are the reason I'm so paranoid about laser safety.... no one has perfect control of their environment or even their bodies 100% of the time. Fair to say I'm more paranoid about lasers than I am about guns, guns i've played with even as a kid, more familiar with exactly how they work and what to expect I guess:undecided:

So far to date my worst accident was when a drunk moron shined a 50mW+ laser in my eye by accident. It was only for a split second, but I did have a bright/dark spot on my eye for about half an hour (a flash blindness spot). Nothing next morning, so if there was damage (I'm sure there was some) my brain compensated for it.

Problem is, the damage is also cumulative. Going to see ophthamalogist sometime in the next month or two for regular checkup, very curious to see how much lasers have damaged my eyes over past year.

I just am a bit paranoid sometimes, I have uber thin corneas so my laser surgery was a one shot, but at the same time, I poked my eye with some safety wire working on an aircraft, I went to the doctor and I swear to god never again, its like he used a tube from a scanner after dilating my eyes, I saw bar codes in my vision for a week and had a 3 day head ache just so he could tell if my eye had damage.

Sounds like you need a different doc... I mean none of the test are that pleasant, but they shouldn't leave you with an after effect of more than 24 hours...

One thing wearing glasses almost all my life has done is prevent me from poking my eyes out I guess Had one close call... if I wasn't wearing glasses I probably would have lost my left eye.