I know. Seems silly to me, but everyone is different. I'm all into the cheap way out, just not with my eyes.
Tech_Junkie is correct.
Why anyone would trust their vision to a gel is beyond me. One of the considerations here should be the not so subtle, implied, fact that when you publish a gel design, someone may get the idea that your "published plans" a for OD3 or OD6 are safe.
That person then makes a pair of goggles, then they get a laser that self Q-switches, or use your idea in a lab that has a low average power, but high peak power, laser, then the Gel bleaches in about 300 nanoseconds, the light passes through, and then the dye unbleaches back to normal. Yes folks, dyes can bleach and snap back at high power levels.
You folks who do not see the implications of your "FREE WILL" attitude should leave the safety gear design to physicists, engineers, and chemists who understand the damage mechanisms of dyes in plastic hosts.
You have NO CLUE about the testing required, its more then a few seconds of exposure, its more then a spectrophotometer shot.
if you think a DPSS pointer can't self Q Switch, I have news for you. The first green pointers produced the high fields required for doubling with the early, crude, low cost, KTP by SELF Q-SWITCHING. I have photos of the thing running some place.
A flaky coating on the cavity inside a pointer can cause self Q-switching, as can a oscillating driver.
Very high peak powers can be generated in a malfunctioning laser, and its the peak that matters, not the CW.
Most people who will want Gel based goggles will not own a NIST TRACEABLE power meter with enough resolution to do the required measurements. I assure you Gels come from the lowest bidder plant, and no two batches are remotely the same. I started out in laser shows, and we hung enough gels to know that most fade in a few months of use, and blues fade to clear very fast, on the order of weeks in a conventional theatre light.
What happens when the Chinese find its cheaper to stack gels then run a injection mold, sell the damn things on fleabay, and innocent people will get hurt?
LISTEN TO A OLD FART WHO HAS BEEN DOING THIS FOR 20+ YEARS NOW, GELS HAVE HIDDEN PITFALLS YOU ARE NOT AWARE OF. YOU CANNOT MORALLY ADVOCATE A GEL BASED GOGGLE.
We are our brothers keeper, and I will see to it that ANY attempt to publish such a design on this thread or elsewhere will see the attention of MODS or Coldshadow.
I have the professional credentials to back that up.
Steve