Needing some help with my first laser build!

[Lifetime17]

Hi FU,
Here are a few pics of a BDR-209 16x Blu Ray diode that i tore out of a sled. i'm running this at around 650mA which is the sweet spot for these delicate diodes.They usually fry at 700+mA's but very few can take it ,it's luck of the draw so to speak .Ther's also aSO6J 12x/405nm Blu ray diode that runs at 450mA to 700mW's with a G2 lens..

 

[An Elderly Woman]

I'm thinking actually cutting balsa wood at 3-4mm max. I'm not sure if that's realistic or not, but that's okay because if not I can just add a step to my process and switch out to a rotary tool to do do any heavier cutting.

Thanks for the response RedCowboy, I see what you mean, so especially because the distance I want to focus on isn't terribly far, the g2 does make more sense for sure.