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FrozenGate by Avery

Just got a thor ultra 3W and have a lot of questions...

I was replying to damenz, the OP? The original post had me concerned. Maybe too much? I will tone it done a bit if that was too much.
 





No need to, it's your opinion. His first reply was a bit long with multiple questions.
His burning fascination is a bit worrisome and to me it's obviously related to his lens issue..:unsure:
 
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The life situations should go in this order:
1) Sees handheld laser concept somewhere and curiosity is piqued
2) Gets online and uses search engines to obsessively research the topic and learn all about it and inevitably learn of safety
3) Looks for products that appeal and see what they cost and continue researching specifics
4) Buy nice 3watt Thor laser and enjoy and know how to care for it
 
Cataracts are opacities in the lens of the eye and have nothing at all to do with the retina. Don't fall prey to fear mongering.
 
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@parts&pieces i have read everything about safety before i even got my first laser as mentioned above.

I know my eye can get damaged if i look in the beam or if the dot hits my eye by reflections or whatever, if that's what you meant. Or did you really mean that my eye still gets damaged if i look at the beam / dot when its pointed at a wall for example or at a stick that i wanna burn ?

My mate said i can look at the dot when it's pointed at the wall or a object (non reflective object). But if i wanna burn stuff, then i should wear glasses and that was my question. Why does my eye gets not damaged if i point the laser at a wall and look at the dot but if i burn stuff my eye gets damaged when the dot is pointed at a object ? it makes no sense :(.

But i gonna wear the goggles then if my eyes get damaged when i burn stuff / point at stuff.

Edit: I just asked my mate for more information. He said when i burn stuff, the dot is closer to my head / eyes which will be dangerous. Now i am scared because i didn't wear the glasses when i was burning stuff outdoors. Is my eye now damaged ? cuz some of you said that when i get older i will realize the damage on my eyes...
Now i am rly scared.
 
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When your burning and especially when close to the object, the spot gets intensely bright.
You have to have noticed that by now and for that reason alone I would wear glasses besides an accidental strike to your eyes.
There's a pay off when using glasses as you can't see the beam and only a weaker spot but it's your only two eyes your protecting.
Burning far away outside isn't as bad as the spot spreads out and you can do without glasses as long as you are using your laser safe but still have to be careful of reflective objects.
Your eyes will get very tired when viewing a spot on the wall, but it's like looking at the sun. You don't want to stare to long.
As long as you don't get hit in the eye without glasses I wouldn't worry to much about eye damage problems popping up later on.
Come on, by now you should know the deal. There's a 1000 threads on this..
 
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Diffused reflections act like point sources of light and the intensity falls off as the square of the distance you are from them. Any bright light source may cause your eyes to feel like they are burning. Permanent damage is another story.
 
Paul and specially GSS thank you so much. Best answers and the best guys in this forum ever (i read GSS almost every where haha).

I rly hope that i wont see any damage at all when i get older (i dunno if this is a joke or not... i am rly scared). And yeah when i was burning stuff without glasses, i realized very huge yellow spots on my eye. They went away after a minute. I wont do this ever again and now i understand why i should wear glasses even if i burn just stuff outside. Because i am closer to the dot and the dot could get reflected a bit depends on what object i am burning.
Thank you so much for safing me. I thought i know everything already about safety cuz way before i got my first laser even, i read everything from the safety link and some stuff in this forum.
 
I have a 3 watt 445nm laser I used to burn wood with. Usually from about 4 feet and, because the reflections were diffused so that their intensity decreases as the square of the distance, I never wore goggles to do it and never had more than a little flash blindness, like you get for a moment when someone takes your photo with a flash attachment. I do wear my goggles when setting up lasers with cyl lenses or other situations where a specular reflection is possible. But, that is me.
 
A couple of things-

If you use a DMM to charge your batteries, keep in mind the voltage limit of nearly all 18650 cells is 4.20 volts. Anything over that begins damage to the cell, heat, pressure and eventually... rupturing.

Acetone will clean your lens (do not use acetone on plastic lenses) or 99% isopropyl. 91% seems to work OK as well. Use a clean q-tip and touch lightly. Make a circle from the outside perimeter of the lens and spiral inwards towards the center in one direction only (clockwise or counterclockwise) and avoid overlapping. If it's still not clean, use another clean q-tip and do it again. If it looks the same as it did after the first cleaning, the backside of your lens is dirty. If it still looks the same after cleaning the backside, your diode window (if you have one) is dirty. Use the same technique but be ever gentler on the diode window. If it still looks the same your lens or diode is damaged.
 
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I also had that question of glasses / no glasses at distance of about 1 meter (4 feet) for a blue laser, as I see opinions on both ends of the spectrum.
 
1. Buy a multi-meter from ebay, they are like 10 dollars, lion batteries are 3.7v but they float at 4.2v so when they reach 4.2v they are charged and you don't want to discharge to low either, also batteries sag under load so your driver may not regulate to full power if your batteries are too low so I usually recharge when a battery gets down to about 3.4v

2. Protect your eyes or you will be sorry, if you are seeing spots after burning that is what I call a clue, but don't wait for that, wear the laser safety glasses and if you want to see the burning without the glasses then record it and watch it on your screen where it can't hurt you because if you damage your eyesight you will likely have to live with it forever and it could get worse as you age so protect your eyes.
 
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