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FrozenGate by Avery

hi guys!

E

Eddie H

New member
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
24
Points
3
I just got access to my old email account and can't remember if I introduced myself or not. My name is Bob (the Eddie Hitler was a character from a sitcom, I am NOT a nazi!), I've always had a less than academic interest in physics but am fascinated by all things EM. Since I discovered TEA air lasers it's opened the door to whole world for me. I used to associate lasers with Sci-fi or multi-million pound/dollar labs, now I'm basically trying to make EVERYTHING lase!!!
My main focus of interest atm is microwave pumped CO2 slab lasers, largely because I've found such sparse information about them and also partly because of the simplicity and affordability of them. My main reason for coming here is for advice on optical resonators for such a system, as I do struggle a little with the maths and a simple decimal point error can make a masterpeice into a paperweight! I hope you'll accept a mere mortal into your "council of gods" that these forums are! In awe of many of you!
Yours sincerely,
Bob :)
 





Hi Bob,
Welcome and enjoy this fabulous forum.Here you will find many fine folks and and abundance of info. We also have search bar for referencing different topics. So be safe always and a good pair of Survival safety glasses are always in order.
Rich:)
 
Lifetime17 said:
Hi Bob,
Welcome and enjoy this fabulous forum.Here you will find many fine folks and and abundance of info. We also have search bar for referencing different topics. So be safe always and a good pair of Survival safety glasses are always in order.
Rich:)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the warm welcome. Since introducing myself I've been basically browsing randomly rather than searching and I've learned more in 24 hours than I had in the year before! I'm all too aware of the appropriate eyewear, unfortunately I had the sore path to learning that one!
Having suffered from arc-eye (once through ignorance then once again through a faulty welding mask), I was already well aware of the damage photons are capable of and did indeed get the correct eyeware for the laser I'd got. It was a 1.6W 445nm diode, so naturally, I got the 445nm blocking glasses.
Long story short, they do indeed block the blue light, so I used a luminous (ZnS, at a guess) powder to allow me to see where the beam was pointing. It gave a rather intense dot and seemed ideal.
The container of this powder wasn't quite sitting correctly so I got down on my knees in front of it to adjust the stand it was on.
Suddenly, the thing tipped forwards and was just at the right angle between the beam and my eye to give me an intense flash, which shocked me as I was wearing my goggles.
Within the next 20 mins or so I had tears streaming from my right eye and a gritty feeling when I blinked. I immediately recognized this as arc-eye although I didn't understand how it was possible, even without the eyewear a blue laser surely wouldn't cause that, rather deeper damage.
My best guess at what did happen is that the emitted light from the powder was a particularly intense burst of infrared, though, as I mentioned, I'm not very good academically so I could be totally wrong.
Luckily my eyes had pretty much recovered within 24 hours and I've done the grid test with no blind spots or issues so I believe I got lucky, as the actual arc eye I had took a good 2 to 3 days on both occasions.
Anyway, now I'm as aware of what I'm lasing as I am the beam itself, ie, I wear the correct goggles whenever I'm near a laser but I still don't look directly at the spot other than through a camera!
 
Could it be possible that said powder actually lased itself having been pumped by the 445nm? If so I may try to see if I can get it to become a large crystal or see if it'll make a dye.
 
Eddie H said:
Thanks for the warm welcome. Since introducing myself I've been basically browsing randomly rather than searching and I've learned more in 24 hours than I had in the year before! I'm all too aware of the appropriate eyewear, unfortunately I had the sore path to learning that one!
Having suffered from arc-eye (once through ignorance then once again through a faulty welding mask), I was already well aware of the damage photons are capable of and did indeed get the correct eyeware for the laser I'd got. It was a 1.6W 445nm diode, so naturally, I got the 445nm blocking glasses.
Long story short, they do indeed block the blue light, so I used a luminous (ZnS, at a guess) powder to allow me to see where the beam was pointing. It gave a rather intense dot and seemed ideal.
The container of this powder wasn't quite sitting correctly so I got down on my knees in front of it to adjust the stand it was on.
Suddenly, the thing tipped forwards and was just at the right angle between the beam and my eye to give me an intense flash, which shocked me as I was wearing my goggles.
Within the next 20 mins or so I had tears streaming from my right eye and a gritty feeling when I blinked. I immediately recognized this as arc-eye although I didn't understand how it was possible, even without the eyewear a blue laser surely wouldn't cause that, rather deeper damage.
My best guess at what did happen is that the emitted light from the powder was a particularly intense burst of infrared, though, as I mentioned, I'm not very good academically so I could be totally wrong.
Luckily my eyes had pretty much recovered within 24 hours and I've done the grid test with no blind spots or issues so I believe I got lucky, as the actual arc eye I had took a good 2 to 3 days on both occasions.
Anyway, now I'm as aware of what I'm lasing as I am the beam itself, ie, I wear the correct goggles whenever I'm near a laser but I still don't look directly at the spot other than through a camera!
Click to expand...
I might come across as a little paranoid but nobody lost an eye to paranoia!
 
Eddie H said:
Thanks for the warm welcome. Since introducing myself I've been basically browsing randomly rather than searching and I've learned more in 24 hours than I had in the year before! I'm all too aware of the appropriate eyewear, unfortunately I had the sore path to learning that one!
Having suffered from arc-eye (once through ignorance then once again through a faulty welding mask), I was already well aware of the damage photons are capable of and did indeed get the correct eyeware for the laser I'd got. It was a 1.6W 445nm diode, so naturally, I got the 445nm blocking glasses.
Long story short, they do indeed block the blue light, so I used a luminous (ZnS, at a guess) powder to allow me to see where the beam was pointing. It gave a rather intense dot and seemed ideal.
The container of this powder wasn't quite sitting correctly so I got down on my knees in front of it to adjust the stand it was on.
Suddenly, the thing tipped forwards and was just at the right angle between the beam and my eye to give me an intense flash, which shocked me as I was wearing my goggles.
Within the next 20 mins or so I had tears streaming from my right eye and a gritty feeling when I blinked. I immediately recognized this as arc-eye although I didn't understand how it was possible, even without the eyewear a blue laser surely wouldn't cause that, rather deeper damage.
My best guess at what did happen is that the emitted light from the powder was a particularly intense burst of infrared, though, as I mentioned, I'm not very good academically so I could be totally wrong.
Luckily my eyes had pretty much recovered within 24 hours and I've done the grid test with no blind spots or issues so I believe I got lucky, as the actual arc eye I had took a good 2 to 3 days on both occasions.
Anyway, now I'm as aware of what I'm lasing as I am the beam itself, ie, I wear the correct goggles whenever I'm near a laser but I still don't look directly at the spot other than through a camera!
Click to expand...
Eddie H said:
Could it be possible that said powder actually lased itself having been pumped by the 445nm? If so I may try to see if I can get it to become a large crystal or see if it'll make a dye.
Click to expand...
Eddie H said:
I might come across as a little paranoid but nobody lost an eye to paranoia!
Click to expand...
Just a tip, you can hit Edit on a post to combine all of your posts into one :)
 
Snecho said:
Just a tip, you can hit Edit on a post to combine all of your posts into one :)
Click to expand...
Thanks! I'm just getting to know my way around and my phone's seen better days! I'll fix it when I get to the laptop tomorrow. 🙃
EDIT: My laptop appears to have done a breaking update and has lost several drivers (I really shouldn't leave it for 6 months at a time between using it!). I WILL come back and tidy up my posts asap, unfortunately it looks like today's agenda is repairing my phone and laptop rather than lasing. :/
 
Last edited:
Eddie H said:
I just got access to my old email account and can't remember if I introduced myself or not. My name is Bob (the Eddie Hitler was a character from a sitcom, I am NOT a nazi!), I've always had a less than academic interest in physics but am fascinated by all things EM. Since I discovered TEA air lasers it's opened the door to whole world for me. I used to associate lasers with Sci-fi or multi-million pound/dollar labs, now I'm basically trying to make EVERYTHING lase!!!
My main focus of interest atm is microwave pumped CO2 slab lasers, largely because I've found such sparse information about them and also partly because of the simplicity and affordability of them. My main reason for coming here is for advice on optical resonators for such a system, as I do struggle a little with the maths and a simple decimal point error can make a masterpeice into a paperweight! I hope you'll accept a mere mortal into your "council of gods" that these forums are! In awe of many of you!
Yours sincerely,
Bob :)
Click to expand...

I do not see anything about where you are... I would think you would like to meet other members in person.
Sadly this newer forum does not show our location below our avatar every time we post anything-- and of course it is in our profile info too. (Also when we put our cursor on your forum name the location shows
Here I suggest adding a location in your INTRO's title like --'Hi guys--Bob is here from France (or whatev)'
For starters the other my own a laser meter and can test any laser any time for no cost to you. You would be able to see their collection too.

SO first finish your profile then edit your intro or make another intro.. normally you do not like second threads of the same topic but for this it is no problem.

I went to SELEM >10 yrs ago and was hooked on these meets since then-- SELEM is one of the oldest (+14yrs afaik) the biggest ( now with > 100 attendees counting their family or any friends who come with (free at SELEM btw)

I have seen exotic rare old timey gas lasers- got a pointer repaired free when I found that the maker was at SELEM-=-lucky me!!

Only a few months later I rented an old warehouse and hosted a LEM of my own.

Just one of the most awesome things at LEMs is that NOBODY will ask you 'why lasers dood'? 'I dont get it'
and 'why so many... isn't one laser enough?' and 'What good are they?'-sheesh!

These meets always have a BS&T 'room' or table somewhere so we can Buy-Sell & or Trade laser things--

I am guessing I have met 100 laserists at SELEM ( 5 years)

and a few legends like Dr Sam-and many more.

LEMs happen all around the world too- search UKLEM and SELEM Laser to get any idea and see some ytube vids from LEMs... hope to meet you in person someday at a LEM..

hak
 
I've updated my location now, I'm struggling with a broken phone ATM so I'm having trouble adding more, I will return and add much more once this pandemic calms down enough to get my laptop back. Hopefully once all this has passed I will get a chance to be much more involved in the lasering community.
 
Ah. Another UK member. We have several here. Good luck on your isolating in place. I've been doing that for well over a month now.
 
Thanks :)
I think this could possibly be one of the worst countries to be in during this thanks to how irresponsible our government are being. Up in Scotland we're apparently slightly better at dealing with it than the rest of the UK but overall it seems to be "too little, too late". The government refused ventilators at the beginning of the month and NOW Boris the clown is begging the USA for them. It's a total farce!
Stay safe folks!
 
A little late to the party... but..
Welcome to the Forum Bob.
Enjoy the Forum and stay Laser Safe.

Jerry
 
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