laser grade marker from a while back

[DakotaDaNative]

my dads been in construction for a while and he pulled out this laser grader or marker and was showing me. theres a 5mW laser mounted in the head which spins and makes a line across the wall,floor, and ceiling. its used to get straight walls and ceiling tiles and he said 10 or so years ago it was worth 6,000 brand new. http://s826.photobucket.com/albums/zz183/DakotaDaNative/grade marker/grade marking laser/

 

[Don't Laze Me Bro]

Jeese... With $6,000 he could get a 3W 532nm taht would do the same thing... Or a PAIR of herc 500's!

 

[laserboystuart]

6,000$ just for 5mW :thinking:

wow how times have changed...

stuart

 

[DakotaDaNative]

yeah i know right i was surprised when i looked at it and saw the specs. but the thing is its a pretty handy piece of equipment its self leveling and once its spinning you can move the beam line and my dad said he was running it when they were building a meijers grocery store and it was hitting from wall to wall a couple hundred feet.

 

[MrRay]

yeah i know right i was surprised when i looked at it and saw the specs. but the thing is its a pretty handy piece of equipment its self leveling and once its spinning you can move the beam line and my dad said he was running it when they were building a meijers grocery store and it was hitting from wall to wall a couple hundred feet.

I'm pretty it is more then 5mW... wall to wall and visible?

 

[DakotaDaNative]

yeah dude i bet you own like 5 of these things i guess ill have to take a pic to prove something might not waste my time though

 

[laserboystuart]

yeah dude i bet you own like 5 of these things i guess ill have to take a pic to prove something might not waste my time though

come on dakota, be nice! he was only stating his opinion

stuart

 

[Trevor]

I can understand his skepticism. Let's say the building is 60m wide by 30m deep. Let's also say that the laser's dot diameter was 3mm all the way around the building (miraculous 0mRad divergence optics was why it cost $6,000 ). The perimeter would be 180m (180,000mm). Times the diameter of the beam to get the power distribution (roughly) is 540,000mm². 5mw / 540,000mm² = 0.000009259 mW/mm².

That sounds like it would be really, really dim in a big room like that, according to my epicly rough back-of-an-envelope calculation.

-Trevor

 

[laserboystuart]

according to my epicly rough back-of-an-envelope calculation...

rough calculation?!
thats better than any damn calculation i can do!

stuart

 

[DakotaDaNative]

yes that is a great calculation i will have to see what kind of optics are in theyre one day. and yes my dad said he had to cover up almost all of the openings in w/e building. and he wasnt really stating his opinion he just didnt trust the information provided like twhite828 said SKEPTICISM. and part of the cost would be the fact that this peice of equipment is what gives the the line to lay all of your cement to (GRADE LINE) which is very very helpfull. thanks for the interest guys i should get a video of it running soon if i get it working because you set the speed of the rotation and the control isnt working.

 

[Kenom]

I've fixed so many of these things it's pathetic. Ran into them on job sites, saw the output as a measly 5mw and told the owner that I could upgrade the lasers in them to anything from 5-200mw. When they find out that they can increase the visibility on their laser levels, they usually jump on it. Especially when they are really expensive. Most of the ones I've seen have got a mirror mounted on a electromagnet. The vibration from the magnet provides whatever line they want.

 

[laserboystuart]

see peeps, he wasn't lying.

stuart

 

[Asherz]

see peeps, he wasn't lying.

stuart

Who said he was lying?

As Kenom said, if you Dad still uses it it could be worth upgrading it with even something as little as a 10mW green module, as long as the standard size of the module is 12mm then any of o-likes green modules will fit in there without much effort.

Fiddling with the input voltage to the module could be a pain though, with some luck the laser in there has a built in driver maybe, and the input too that driver is something like 4V+ which means you could run an module easily by just removing the current one.

Sorry I'm getting carried away

 

[daguin]

You usually don't want any more power than needed. People are working at the level of the beam, usually without any eye protection.

In the olden days, we used these to level ceilings. The units were so low power that we had to use a "card" at the wall to "see" the line.

Peace,
dave

 

[laserboystuart]

Who said he was lying?

not lying exactly but people had their doubts.

stuart

 

[DakotaDaNative]

YES YES YES!!!!:wave: that is pretty cool kenom i figured you could pop a higher rated laser in there to increase visibility also cuz that just makes sense. and daguin my dad has the cards you speak of and i think its cool that you have worked with them also. he also has a meter that beeps when hit which i probably could use later ill have to get the specs and share. and he had to hang a sign that said WARNING LASER IN OPERATION and how cool would that be to have hanging on your bedroom door but he lost it :cryyy: thanks for the interest guys :thanks: wanna help populate one of my other threads that seems hopeless so far----->http://laserpointerforums.com/f44/interested-laser-power-supply-49941.html

thanks again--->DaKoTa