- Joined
- Aug 14, 2011
- Messages
- 1,109
- Points
- 0
Hello everyone. I've been lurking for several days now and thought that I'd introduce myself.
Like many of you, I've always been a fan of science and learning, and like any aficionado of sci-fi, I have aspirations of turning my garage into a mad scientist's lab.... I just have to convince my wife now that building a Tesla Coil is a good idea, so what better way to do it than constructing a superdestructo laser of doom! (tm) :evil: :shhh:
All kidding aside, I've been itching to start building my own lasers and ended up finding my way here. I have a bit of an electronics background and can readily identify the business end of a soldering iron, but nothing too in depth. One of my goals as part of the process of understanding lasers is to become proficient at understanding and assembling the electronic components.
I bought my first laser pointer back in the early '90s when I was in the service, and thought it was absolutely amazing. It was a red pen style, and not very powerful (It has long since passed and unfortunately I can't remember the exact power). If I recall correctly I think I purchased it for around 100 bucks. Good times... good times...
I'm starting to think about what I want to do for my first project, and I'm thinking about perhaps a 150-200mW red laser (from what I can gather, red diodes seem to be the least expensive as well as the most forgiving), but I'd eventually like to explore the entire spectrum as I progress down the path of laser enlightenment. Who knows, maybe even gas lasers are a possibility someday.
I've found these forums to be incredibly helpful and informative, so thank you all for your contributions. I can only hope that I will be able to do likewise in the future.
Thanks a lot and I'll see you around the forums!
Like many of you, I've always been a fan of science and learning, and like any aficionado of sci-fi, I have aspirations of turning my garage into a mad scientist's lab.... I just have to convince my wife now that building a Tesla Coil is a good idea, so what better way to do it than constructing a superdestructo laser of doom! (tm) :evil: :shhh:
All kidding aside, I've been itching to start building my own lasers and ended up finding my way here. I have a bit of an electronics background and can readily identify the business end of a soldering iron, but nothing too in depth. One of my goals as part of the process of understanding lasers is to become proficient at understanding and assembling the electronic components.
I bought my first laser pointer back in the early '90s when I was in the service, and thought it was absolutely amazing. It was a red pen style, and not very powerful (It has long since passed and unfortunately I can't remember the exact power). If I recall correctly I think I purchased it for around 100 bucks. Good times... good times...
I'm starting to think about what I want to do for my first project, and I'm thinking about perhaps a 150-200mW red laser (from what I can gather, red diodes seem to be the least expensive as well as the most forgiving), but I'd eventually like to explore the entire spectrum as I progress down the path of laser enlightenment. Who knows, maybe even gas lasers are a possibility someday.
I've found these forums to be incredibly helpful and informative, so thank you all for your contributions. I can only hope that I will be able to do likewise in the future.
Thanks a lot and I'll see you around the forums!
