Homebuilt rgy laser using legos

[Emialias]

So having been not buying any new lasers yet, i continue to find things fun to do with the lasers i currently have.
A while ago i took apart a camera and found this little glass thingy that reacted with light in ways i knew normal glass wouldnt. So i tried pointing my lasers through it and got a pleasant suprise when i saw that the red reflected and the green went straight through!
Ofcouse the first logical move was to try to combine the beams.
That proved to be a difficult task.
Very difficult.
But i eventually got it!
So i went out of my way to try to find some way to mount such optics, and made many attempts at a setup. None of which were very stable.
Then i had an idea...
"Ya know, legos look very similar to the way ive seen some crazy dpss setups, maybe i can arrange such legos in a manner that i could just plug my handhelds in and ba bam, yellow!"
And i did.
And i was successfull.
And i took a video of it!

https://youtu.be/MlhmevWjmWw

Now on my youtube channel i have some other videos of my older prototypes.
I should really clean my dichro.


Also a friend of mine in bulgaria says he lives not far from a semiconductor factory, and he claims that he could get some 488nm diodes at 200mw for the outrageous price of $20 a pop. Doubt its real, probably some more 425nm

 

[dden4012]

Impressive Great idea to take advantage of the Lego layout. I used to spent days and days building imagined structures and spaceships. +rep young man.

 

[Antharak]

Great idea, I think I may buy some Legos.
+rep
Ed

 

[Dutch67]

Great idea, I think I may buy some Legos.
+rep
Ed

Everyone should have legos

Great job Merpie!

 

[Trendkilla254]

Great Idea. Thumbs up on the video. I'm going to pretend I didn't see the last part about the 488nm diodes. :crackup:

 

[Emialias]

Great Idea. Thumbs up on the video. I'm going to pretend I didn't see the last part about the 488nm diodes. :crackup:

he said hes gonna stop by the factory today to get an engineering sample
trying to convince him to make an account here

 

[H2Oxide]

I have found that Lego is actually a very good platform, even for semi-precision work. I've used Legos to build everything from motorized translation stages to single-slit diffractors:

It's obviously not suitable for sub-micrometer work, but its flexibility still makes it a very useful tool. It's great for general experimenting without investing in an optical breadboard/optical mounts/what have you. I think there's just a bit of stigma attached to it, which means most people won't even think about it.

+REP