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- Dec 10, 2013
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Welcome to the party. Lighting a match from 20 feet might be possible, depending how well you can get it focused and how powerful the laser is. My (not lpm'd but from a reliable company) 1.6 watt 445 can light a match from probably 15 feet or so, but I'm not sure if it was even focused. After 6 or so feet they don't really focus well anyway as divergence on these diodes is pretty bad :crackup: so all you see is a very thin line beam where the diode shape starts to show.
If distance burning is more your thing you might want to consider trying a 405nm. You can get them up to 500mW easily in handhelds and although it's not as much raw power as 445s, the beam profile is so much better that after a certain distance the better beam divergence outweighs the pure power. There are a variety of YouTube videos of people burning things with 405s from quite a distance.
I also wouldn't trust a uvex pair of glasses for lasers of this calibre. To give you some idea of what 1+ watt of focused laser could do to your eyes; I have small burn holes in my carpet and one of my chairs, from merely turning the laser on and not keeping it moving (this is at infinity focus). If that beam hits your eyes for a split second it will ruin them, and who knows how long uvex glasses would hold out (theyre not even designed for laser use).
If distance burning is more your thing you might want to consider trying a 405nm. You can get them up to 500mW easily in handhelds and although it's not as much raw power as 445s, the beam profile is so much better that after a certain distance the better beam divergence outweighs the pure power. There are a variety of YouTube videos of people burning things with 405s from quite a distance.
I also wouldn't trust a uvex pair of glasses for lasers of this calibre. To give you some idea of what 1+ watt of focused laser could do to your eyes; I have small burn holes in my carpet and one of my chairs, from merely turning the laser on and not keeping it moving (this is at infinity focus). If that beam hits your eyes for a split second it will ruin them, and who knows how long uvex glasses would hold out (theyre not even designed for laser use).
