Hello all! New here, Just got around to an intro..

[mdbourg98]

Hi,
Welcome to LPF enjoy and be safe always.
Rich

Thank you thank you, I'll try.

 

[Commander J. Bloodmaker]

I recommend jumping on the mazon or the bay and finding some cheap 20mw-50mw tin pin diodes of your fav color. Then buy the boards of your choosing for those diodes. If you are getting into this hobby you will find just how variable it is. Read up in the pages here. Lots to learn, on what seems from the outside like a simple hobby. Learning how each diode you pick works, will reduce frustrations on your usage. An just a wink wink, if you are looking to make a death star laser, no one here will help, but they will all show up with beer and help you destroy the moon with it. I will say, a telescope will not survive high powered lasers ( everyone gets this idea, (( thans youturd))m even me))m and can even explode, literally.

What brings you to lasers?

 

[mdbourg98]

I recommend jumping on the mazon or the bay and finding some cheap 20mw-50mw tin pin diodes of your fav color. Then buy the boards of your choosing for those diodes. If you are getting into this hobby you will find just how variable it is. Read up in the pages here. Lots to learn, on what seems from the outside like a simple hobby. Learning how each diode you pick works, will reduce frustrations on your usage. An just a wink wink, if you are looking to make a death star laser, no one here will help, but they will all show up with beer and help you destroy the moon with it. I will say, a telescope will not survive high powered lasers ( everyone gets this idea, (( thans youturd))m even me))m and can even explode, literally.

What brings you to lasers?

Thank you for the friendly greeting. Ill be sure to look around a bit.

ADHD. Very bad ADHD and shiny things..

 

[Commander J. Bloodmaker]

Thank you for the friendly greeting. Ill be sure to look around a bit.

ADHD. Very bad ADHD and shiny things..

oh those shiny things just pull us in, oh they do. It's the whole reason I ever liked lasers, then it evolved. When I was a kid, lasers were very prohibitively expensive. You had to figure out where to get crystals and etc. With the advent of the diode laser, we can now afford some very high powered lasers, with a clerks pay. Not that I'm a clerk, lol. I remember when I was bout 13 or so, My friends dad had us help him build a very crude, but extremely powerful co2 laser. It literally took up most of his garage. We would fire it out back into the woods behind his house. They owned all the land all the way to the hyway. Almost half a mile of dense woods. Well one day we some how had this huge supply of co2. Idk, I was a kid, where'd it all come from? So his dad let us blast stuff all day long, we even tried to see how many trees it would burn through. Yes it was burning holes straight though trees. Death star power, Idk, I only handed tools, never got to touch it, but to flip the go switch and turn the knob on the co2. His dad was some teacher if I remember right. Cool guy, got me hooked on lasers. Showed us a nitrogen laser, waaaaaaaaa, lasers with air!!! The coolest one was this huge ruby laser he had, idk I was a kid, how big was it? It would literally blow a hole through a thin sheet of veneer steel, with one pulse. This thing sounded like a crazy popcorn machine when running.

There are so many kinds of lasers, don't let the diode fad rule your fun. Old Russian yag vessels with crystals can still be found for under $2000. They are out there.

 

[bd1323]

Welcome mdbourg98, glad to see another face on the forums. I second everything Commander J. Bloodmaker said above, I ended up getting hooked on gas lasers due to the first laser I bought off of eBay turning out to be a multiline argon, but am learning that due to space constraints and my habits of impulse buying shiny things and trying to make them work I probably need to start looking more at diodes myself....unless I jump into something else first....but the warm glow of a tube will always have a spot in my heart and I highly recommend trying at least one while you still have the laser bug. For cheap, HeNes OUO (of unknown origin) from eBay are the way to go, the ones that don't work still have often have some useful parts.

With a little electrical experience which it sounds like you have if you can score or build a cheap P/S, you can pretty much guess the tubes that will work with it by tube length and wavelength and then buy surplus tubes or heads, in the last three months I've bought 6, 4/5 tested worked and 3 are at / near spec, one hasn't yet arrived - all but one listed as parts/repair items (I've been trying to get specific Alden connectors but keep getting working lasers!). Sam's Laser FAQ is an amazing resource for researching what will work.

I do have to say I have never felt older than when reading your introduction, as I know about as much about forums and etiquette as someone who grew up before the MySpace generation! Still trying to figure out if this one is for me or not .

Have fun and hope to see the outcome of some of your projects!

 

[Commander J. Bloodmaker]

Welcome mdbourg98, glad to see another face on the forums. I second everything Commander J. Bloodmaker said above, I ended up getting hooked on gas lasers due to the first laser I bought off of eBay turning out to be a multiline argon, but am learning that due to space constraints and my habits of impulse buying shiny things and trying to make them work I probably need to start looking more at diodes myself....unless I jump into something else first....but the warm glow of a tube will always have a spot in my heart and I highly recommend trying at least one while you still have the laser bug. For cheap, HeNes OUO (of unknown origin) from eBay are the way to go, the ones that don't work still have often have some useful parts.

With a little electrical experience which it sounds like you have if you can score or build a cheap P/S, you can pretty much guess the tubes that will work with it by tube length and wavelength and then buy surplus tubes or heads, in the last three months I've bought 6, 4/5 tested worked and 3 are at / near spec, one hasn't yet arrived - all but one listed as parts/repair items (I've been trying to get specific Alden connectors but keep getting working lasers!). Sam's Laser FAQ is an amazing resource for researching what will work.

I do have to say I have never felt older than when reading your introduction, as I know about as much about forums and etiquette as someone who grew up before the MySpace generation! Still trying to figure out if this one is for me or not .

Have fun and hope to see the outcome of some of your projects!

Yes like the last line from above say, show us laser porn!!! I love laser porn!!! LOL. Don't matter what kind, I'm always happy to see a fellow laser enthusiasts projects. From pens to death stars, i like.

 

[mdbourg98]

Yes like the last line from above say, show us laser porn!!! I love laser porn!!! LOL. Don't matter what kind, I'm always happy to see a fellow laser enthusiasts projects. From pens to death stars, i like.

Only plan I really have right now is putting an audio exciter on a mirror and seeing what happens, may be cool

 

[bd1323]

For sure it will be, I'm excited to see how it turns out ! That's on my list to mess with too at some point. The experimentation part is the best to me, sure it's easy to buy a low cost projector these days - but it is so much more rewarding and fun to start messing around and learning how stuff works by doing.

Now you've got me wanting to find a shiny old pair of tweeters and finally break down and get a function gen to play with to see what happens .

Speaking of death stars...this monstrosity is beyond my current skills but every time I run across it on eBay I think it is just begging to be turned into or put inside of a death ray equipped model of the Millennium Falcon...20x1+ watt pulsed 405nm phasers in a neat package almost in the right shape...if only I wasn't so short on time, skill and patience

 

[Commander J. Bloodmaker]

Only plan I really have right now is putting an audio exciter on a mirror and seeing what happens, may be cool

Try those aluminized mylar wall tile stickies. I have them plastered all over my walls and doors. I set lasers on a table, set the lines to the mirror tiles ( all crinkled and stuck) and set the fan on high and let it vibrate the table. Sweet effects on the ceiling. Like a mini laser show on my walls and ceiling. I also use cpu fans with a mirror or stickie tile attached to make cones of laser light in the fog machine smoke. Learned that last one from spyropyro channel. Lol

 

[Commander J. Bloodmaker]

For sure it will be, I'm excited to see how it turns out ! That's on my list to mess with too at some point. The experimentation part is the best to me, sure it's easy to buy a low cost projector these days - but it is so much more rewarding and fun to start messing around and learning how stuff works by doing.

Now you've got me wanting to find a shiny old pair of tweeters and finally break down and get a function gen to play with to see what happens .

Speaking of death stars...this monstrosity is beyond my current skills but every time I run across it on eBay I think it is just begging to be turned into or put inside of a death ray equipped model of the Millennium Falcon...20x1+ watt pulsed 405nm phasers in a neat package almost in the right shape...if only I wasn't so short on time, skill and patience
View attachment 73164

Id like to own that huge mass of awesomeness. Lol.

 

[icecruncher]

Try those aluminized mylar wall tile stickies. I have them plastered all over my walls and doors. I set lasers on a table, set the lines to the mirror tiles ( all crinkled and stuck) and set the fan on high and let it vibrate the table. Sweet effects on the ceiling. Like a mini laser show on my walls and ceiling. I also use cpu fans with a mirror or stickie tile attached to make cones of laser light in the fog machine smoke. Learned that last one from spyropyro channel. Lol

If you haven't looked at Lumia wheels, that may appeal to you also. Some very cool effects can be done with any laser and a Lumia wheel or two.

Also the polymer water balls (the kind that get 50x bigger in water overnight) have very beautiful effects when you shine a laser through them, especially if you can find a way to rotate them slowly while doing it. Similar to Lumia

You currently sound like you are headed down the path that will eventually take you to high end graphic laser projectors. Lots of money but they can do things with scanners you can't accomplish any other way.

Have fun along the way and watch your spending, It can escalate rapidly!

 

[Commander J. Bloodmaker]

My spending escalated as soon as I decided to dive in. lol. In a few months I have spend more than I want to look at in the bank book. I have had a blast building and buying all kinds of lasers. Even made a few bucks building some 445-450's. Not that I am a laser seller, just friends wanted one, so I dictated a few rules and those mentally mature enough to have one, I made one for them.

As for high end projectors, some day, oh lord some day. I have been looking at them since another post where the op was into them. Seen a few that will project holographic stuff in motion. Way to costly for me to just play around in the laser room or basement with. lol. I eventually want to build a ruby or get an old russian yag vessel. Right now the weathers warm so I am taking a short break from building and researching lasers to get back to my bike building. Engines and lasers are both pricey hobbies I love.

I will totally check out the lumia and poly balls. I am looking at different strontium aluminate powders for when winter comes. Going to make some resin doped with strontium items to fluoresce. Plan on making a chalk board like sheet of different colors too. That's my winter plans this year.

 

[icecruncher]

I will totally check out the lumia and poly balls. I am looking at different strontium aluminate powders for when winter comes. Going to make some resin doped with strontium items to fluoresce. Plan on making a chalk board like sheet of different colors too. That's my winter plans this year.

If you are into GITD laser stuff, check out dkumpula on PL

He has several GITD projectors and always has a very cool display at SELEM. The Projectors run at a very slow scan rate and may take 5 - 10 min to draw the image on the GITD background but with the strontium paint it will glow for quite a whle

Good example below:

Combining Glow in the Dark Art with Traditional Laser Graphics . . and more

Hey folks, Several threads in the past week have discussed advancing the laser art form. In that light, I wanted to share something that I've spent hundreds of hours working on over the past year - how to successfully combine traditional RGB graphics with glow in the dark laser art. Easy...

photonlexicon.com

as a side note - he also builds some of the best projectors you will find.