Advice on disassembly

[Phaser1966]

Hi,

I’m new to the forum but have owned various lasers (red 650 & 635, green, blue). I’m also and electrical engineer by profession so not completely clueless. But I never tried to disassemble one of my lasers. My latest purchase is a supposed 2w blue pointer, and it seems to perform as expected.

Maybe I watched too many youtube videos, because I already tried to take it apart and am now stuck and am not sure what to do next. I just wanted to study it with thoughts of a potential upgrade. I got it partially apart but haven’t been able to get the internals out containing the diode module. Does anyone recognize the generic type of laser that can give me some advice? I got it partly unscrewed and it stuck. Tried to abort and screw it back in and it got stuck again. Now it looks like the diode is pushing out the top from trying to screw it back in, and it won’t go in any further. When I reassemble like it is, it now won’t focus to a dot since it’s closer to the lens. My thought was to explore putting in a NDB7A75 and new driver to get closer to 5w. Been trying to be gentle on it using vice jaw protectors, but it keeps slipping. Wasn’t sure how hard to force it.

I know, I’m an idiot for breaking my new toy, but mainly trying to learn.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[hakzaw1]

Most 'store made' lasers are hard to open--Most of mine are JLs and glued together-- JayRob has had some luck-- but when heat must be used none of the still-good parts are always damaged--too.

I would think that if you bought a member-made host the building would be much easier..
In UK is Odicforce-- who sells kits-- a good way to learn w/o doing any damage== and DTR has kits too.

Have you made an 'intro' and placed it in our welcome/newcomers section??
IF you put a general location in your profile AND in the title of the thread you might hear back from members near you and.. you cannot beat 'hands-on' help==
Our older forum had our locations under our avatar every time we post --but this new one does not (BOOO!!)

One thing about that may cause a member to miss a LEM because nobody knew where the members were located--boo
The organizers can only do so much.

SHOULD you happen to live close to SELEM{Newton NC] (google selem laser) you should go- SELEM is the best and biggest laser meet in the world- I made 5 in a row and we travel 17 hrs by car to get there and found the travel cost to be a great deal--I won 3 door prizes worth about $500 each my 1sT 3 events)
Check out the ytube vids on any LEM ( like SELEM-UKLEM_ CalLEM etc) hope to meet you at a LEM--- ha( I have met > 100 laser folks at LEMs-- no other way to do that IMHO--)

HOPE TO MEET YOU AT A LEM--Hak

 

[Phaser1966]

Thanks for the quick reply. I should have joined here first and asked before spending any money. I managed to brutally get it screwed back in as far as it would go, and reseated the diode so I can once again focus to a point. Learned a little in the process. But looks like I’ll have to abandon any plans of upgrading this one. Burns pretty good, but this one just whet my appetite for something with more power. I guess this is how the addiction begins?

 

[BowtieGuy]

Like Len mentioned, most store bought commercial (Chinese) lasers seem to be assembled using generous amounts of an epoxy type glue, most of which seems to be impervious to most disassembly methods.

I've disassembled many lasers, and most of the time, the best and sometimes only solution I've found to work is heat, and a lot of it; professional heat gun type heat, and not hair dryer heat.
I've found that strap wrenches work pretty well, and usually won't mar your nice finish; be sure and use one that will hold up to high heat such as leather or similar.

Hopefully you haven't damaged the threads on your host, or it may be nearly impossible to get it apart without damage.

Good luck!

Edit: Yes, this is how your addiction begins.

 

[paul1598419]

These are ubiquitous on Chinese sites. It looks similar to the LPS H2, but is much smaller and the heat sink is brass, so it won't take much of an upgrade in power. Hope you didn't pay a lot for it as these tend to go for less than $50.