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First Post!

H

hutch123

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May 1, 2008
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Greetings!

I've been interested in lasers for most of my life, but I've been out of it for many years.

I've just discovered this forum, and I'm amazed at how far technology has advanced over 20 years....back when I was doing lasers, the best you could do as a HeNe 0.5mw tube for several thousand dollars, or you built your own. Burning lasers at home.....well, you had to have a LOT of $$$ to make that happen, and had to be comfortable handling very high voltages around water...

I actually built a Rhodamine 6G dye laser from scratch - including machining mirror mounts, etc. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in one of my many moves....the only thing that I still have from my early days is a 15mw HeNe head from an old IBM laser printer. Very big printer - printed 120 pages per minute in the mid-'80s. I'll have to see if it still works.

At any rate, I've been lurking for a few weeks, and the bug has bitten me again! Time to show my kids the new solid state lasers (and how to handle them safely!).

Looking forward to participating, as much as my time allows!
 





M

Murudai

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Apr 28, 2008
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Wow, and with experience like that I'm sure your participation will be most valuable ;)

Noobs like me need all the help we can get :p
 
styropyro

styropyro

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Jun 13, 2007
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You are going to love the new lasers you can build these days. You can build a 200mW red laser for under $30 now, I'm sure that is going to be a step up from a .5mW HeNe for a few thousand dollars.
 
H

hutch123

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May 1, 2008
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Heh heh - yeah, there ain't any school like the old school....unless you want a +200mW burner or any frequency below 650nM for less than $10k..... :)

I'm looking forward to learning some new tricks - and given by just how helpful I've already seen the participants here...I doubt it will take much time to catch up. I'm amazed at the high levels of cooperation I've seen, just by reading through the existing posts.

My first project will be to see if I can harvest the red burner from an old HP DVD burner I had lying around.

My next one will be to build a violet pointer from a blu-ray diode. Very awesome color!

After that, I'll move into green, then other colors.

Of course, I'll have to do the work myself.....and I'm sure the wife will be pleased that I've returned to experimentation!

Thanks to all for the warm welcomes!

-Joe
 
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