Lab and garage-less friends, where do you work with lasers?

[julianthedragon]

This might come off as a dumb question but I wanted to open it up for discussion nevertheless. I've wanted to get more into custom builds and the hands-on electronics side of this hobby for a while. My "excuse" that I've only realized consciously recently is always that I don't have the proper space to do it. I can't work out of a garage, or a special lab space. I have my bedroom and basement at home. Not proper ventillation, and not great places to make a huge mess, set anything on fire, or even shine a powerful laser around as things currently stand. I've found amazing resources about building, and the electronics and physics that go into building lasers on here, that I'd love to put to use. I wouldn't start with machining custom parts or anything crazy, just fitting a diode or dpss module into a host, connecting a driver, power button, the basics. Are there lots of others here who build lasers in less-than-ideal spaces, and if so, what are your experiences? Should I throw out all these concerns and just go for it?

 

[paul1598419]

I set up a bench in my living room about 15 years ago that I use to build lasers. It isn't large as it needn't be to accomplish this. It is about the size of a small desk.

 

[Ricker]

Just make sure you have an adequate beam stop and lock the doors when you are powering up a laser that could hurt your potential unexpected companies eyes.

 

[RedCowboy]

A small room/space is ok, just make it safe, a few good ideas are:

(1) Laser safety glasses to attenuate the wavelengths you will be working with.
(2) A beam stop, a brick or cinder block works well and you can use a tube such as a length of pvc to make a spot hider for your beam stop.
(3) Good safety habits, such as locking the door when lasers will be in use so nobody will walk in.
(4) I like to block any windows just in case a beam/mirror situation results in a beam hitting the window area.

It's also a good idea to store lithium batteries in a metal enclosure, I use an old steelcase file cabinet and if your lasers don't have any built in safety features such as an aperture shutter or keyed safety, safety dongle, ect... then consider removing batteries when not in use or unplugging/locking out any lab lasers.

Again good safety habits, you can come up with your own to suit your situation, then always follow them, because an accident will happen when you least expect it.

Stay safe and happy lasing.

 

[Eidetical]

Look at your closets. Maybe everything can be hung higher so you can sit at a bench underneath. Locked door is great advice. A light-trapping beam dump on a heavy base right in front of a mounted laser is good to let you walk away for a few minutes so pets won't have access to the beam.

 

[Ricker]

I have some beam dumps for sale Here. Will have more up soon too.