That's a cool start. I think thicker would add to the weight.
Stupid question but why do a lot of the pictures you see of lasers being used are taken in the bathroom LOL? Its like the most reflective room in the house.
Yeah, alot of the pics get taken in the bathroom so that I can get a little incense/smoke for the beam, without getting the smell elsewhere. There can be thicker/more metal used with just a little more time to build. Think "men in black", "noisy cricket" for the slimmer design. It weighs about 1/2 of what a Ruger .22 weighs as it is. Keeping the shipping weight down is one of my design considerations. Edit: actually it weighs 2/3 of what a Ruger .22 weighs. You would have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger to heft one twice the weight of this. It can be made to look larger without adding too much more weight. Especially if it had a polymer addition to the grip.
Thanks for the feedback! I just installed the new smaller ddl pill/driver. It's a burner. >300mw for sure. Burns wood if it has a brown color. I need to add the sharks-fin front sight , which gives more old-school raygun look, and I may use pachmayr polymer grips over the stainless, if it would look/work good. Something like this maybe............
Keep the suggestions coming friends and we will soon be enjoying the final design.
I'm accepting suggestions for the price shipped in the U.S. and whatever I decide would then add applicable shipping fee for international as neccessary for the expected 32 ounces final weight.
Edit: oh and Glenn what diode are we going to put in your Raygun? GGW, LPC, or a Greenie?
I don't see one of these passing UK customs' X-Rays, even if disassembled :cryyy:
Looks amazing, only comment is that it needs to be a bit thicker in the middle. From an electronics perspective, any chance you can make it so that it can take 1x 18650, or so that the CR123s could be in parallel? That's quite important for people looking to make high-efficiency lasers, because the LavaDrive won't take over 6v.
Oh, another idea, if you were to buy a bag of Polymorph beads, you could mould the handle or sell the polymorph, so people could fit the handle to their own hands. It is an insulator, however so I'm not sure how useful you'd find it thermally.
Yes, no problem doing the longer batteries, with a slightly different design, as well as parallel cr123 batteries. Polymorph looks interesting, I will hopefully find a good solution there. Larger diameter in the middle is possible too. It is always so much easier to design and build the model that follows the prototype because you can avoid some of the pitfalls that always come up with prototypes. The best way to ship to the UK would be 2 packages that separate some parts, identifying the novelty item/" LED flashlight" as "gift". In place of the LD would be a working LED. I will recommend that shipping international be done for someone who is an experienced DIY builder with at least one successful "flashlight" host build. And that would apply to U.S. builders too.