Need help building blue burning laser!!

[AMooMooCow]

Hi! It's been a while. I've been über busy with my first career job. Things changed a little while I was gone, mostly just the diodes reaching into the 470-500nm range, so that's neat. I've been lurking a little but something happened that made me jump back in here.

I was building a wall clock and decided that I wanted to burn the face onto a piece of wood. I 3D printed a clock face with holes for numerals like a stencil. I started burning with my Spartan 445 but it was taking way too long and overheating just after it started burning really good. Solution: build a $200 laser. The strongest laser I've ever held was 1.4W, so I'm going with 3.5W sky blue NUBM07 - pretty color and it'll make a nice $230 wall clock.

I have all the parts I need to build it into an S4X host - thanks to all suppliers! Then I realized this isn't as simple as slapping a C6 together with a circular driver board. The question: how put driver in? Figure 1 below shows my driver and driver pill.

Figure 1 - SXD 4A Driver and Driver Pill
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So I still need some sort of thermal cement or epoxy. Any tips? Is there a certain way I should do this to minimize the risk of shorts? Should I buy a tiny alligator clamp to hold the driver on while the cement cures? Will the beam be pretty? Will it light a match? Where did I leave my keys?

I was hoping I could get this done before my boifriend comes over this weekend so I could show it off. So if I could order any materials on the Amazin Prime that would be fantastic. If you have any advice, hmu

Thanks!

 

[Anthony P]

I have had good results attaching drivers to heat-sinks using a layer of Kapton tape on the heat-sink to electrically insulate it, and then Artic Silver Adhesive for driver to kapton. AATA-5g sets in 5 min and bonds securely.
Please understand, I am not guaranteeing that this is perfect for you... just an idea for you to investigate.
Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[GSS]

Good to see you post
Isn't the NUM07 a gball lens? How are you going to focus it for burning?

 

[paul1598419]

I would just use Arctic Alumina thermal adhesive to bond the IC on the driver to the self on your pill. You will want to wire everything first as once the adhesive sets it is permanent. You won't be able to get it off intact after that.

 

[RedCowboy]

I pinch off about 1mm of insulation off my silicon wire and put it into the driver hole so it stops flush or just short of flush then solder from the open side, but you can also dab a little thermal compound onto the driver as well and I often do just to be safe.