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Looking for a beam expander

rick2580

rick2580

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I just bought a 150 mW green laser from Optotronics and want to buy a 10x or 20x beam expander. Maybe someone has one they want to sell, or maybe someone can tell me a cheaper place to buy one. I am a newbie at this, so I don't know if they are generic, or if you can get an adapter, etc. Any help is appreciated!

Rick
 





rick2580 said:
I just bought a 150 mW green laser from Optotronics and want to buy a 10x or 20x beam expander. Maybe someone has one they want to sell, or maybe someone can tell me a cheaper place to buy one. I am a newbie at this, so I don't know if they are generic, or if you can get an adapter, etc. Any help is appreciated!

Rick
Click to expand...

I have an almost brand new Dragon beam expander with a Viper series laser pointer adaptor. Both the len cap and adaptor screw on and off. The body is made of two halves that screwed on together. You focus it by turning the two halves one way or another. I think the threading is in need of some lubricant because it squeaks when I turn them. If you want I can send you some photos of the expander. Dragon sell it for $89 without the adaptor. The link for Dragon's Beam expander is here.. You can have mine for $60 plus shipping. PM me if you're interested.
 
Last edited:
Maxi3D,
Your beam expander is designed for CNI lasers. rick2580's laser is an Optotronics. The beam expander will not fit the Optotronics laser without some custom machining or set screws.
 
I just found out about this, Bobhaha but it strengthens and focuses the beam. I saw a video on Youtube where the dot from 1000 ft shrunk to 1/10 the size.
 
rick2580 said:
I just found out about this, Bobhaha but it strengthens and focuses the beam. I saw a video on Youtube where the dot from 1000 ft shrunk to 1/10 the size.
Click to expand...
It does not strengthen the beam. What the beam expander does is increase the width of the beam by the expansion ratio of the beam expander. For example, if you have a 1mm beam going into a 5X beam expander, the beam will increase in size to 5mm. This effectively makes focusing the laser easier, and it lets you make a focus point which is not possible with a non-focusable laser.
 
A decent expander will cost more than your laser itself. So far the only expander I have seen with a universal type attachment is from dioptika for about 700 called the DBX. I almost bought it myself until I was educated in how expansion actually works, so now I am getting my plans ready to make my own 20x for about 150 (hopefully). You could get a cheap one like the dragon expander and try to get a member here to make an adapter for you.

I still have some things to research before I attempt the build but here is the link if you wanna follow along my progress. http://laserpointerforums.com/f49/dioptika-beam-expander-42814.html
 
Aha! Thanks Jimmy. I did not know that. I was lied to! You learn something every day, and every night if you're lucky.
 
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