o-like

[The Lightning Stalker]

Well, tonight I did some testing on the glasses as well as some cheap e-Bay ones. It seems they work
very well at 590-625nm. That is the rating on the LED I was testing them with, anyway. I will be able to tell for sure
once I get my ghetto-spectrometer working. More details on that in the diffraction glasses thread
They should work quite well even down to 635nm, but it's starting to get out of their range. Neither of them
work at 650nm, even though the one pair was specifically touted for it. Is there anything effective at
650-660nm for under $20? Needless to say, there is much more testing to do.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

OD rating lol.
ALWAYS ONLY buy safety goggles from a CE certified source with a rating of OD 4+

CE certification for what? Impact resistance? Ergonomics?

You need to ensure that your "CE certification" is for EN 207 and/or EN 208 -- laser safety certifications. Just saying "CE certified" means nothing. Likewise, saying something is "ANSI certified" means nothing too. To be certified for laser safety the goggles must be ANSI Z136 certified. Sites like this make disingenuous statements about certain certifications when they mean JACK SHIT for laser safety.

So stop with the "CE/ANSI certification" bullshit that so many shops like to push unless you have some meaningful certifications to provide.

Well, tonight I did some testing on the glasses as well as some cheap e-Bay ones. It seems they work
very well at 590-625nm. That is the rating on the LED I was testing them with, anyway. I will be able to tell for sure
once I get my ghetto-spectrometer working. More details on that in the diffraction glasses thread
They should work quite well even down to 635nm, but it's starting to get out of their range. Neither of them
work at 650nm, even though the one pair was specifically touted for it. Is there anything effective at
650-660nm for under $20? Needless to say, there is much more testing to do.

You know, you really need to be doing these tests on a laser power meter. Just eyeballing the power doesn't qualify your evaluation.

Also what Kookapeli aid is BAD INFORMATION. Nothing on those uncertified goggles guarantees that you'll be protected from a flash. If that were the case, why even have certified goggles at all? They're for flash protection as well. Don't give in to false assurances, especially with your eyes.

If you really care about your eyes, you should save up and buy something that is known to be good. You'll be spending $20 here and there for goggles that you have no verified protection rating for, risking your eyes in the process. You could also purchase a real LPM, so that you can perform real measurements to certify for yourself whether the cheapo goggles you've bought are really protecting your eyes.

 

[Bacon]

I had to make this tough decision when I started going over 70mW... I just got some OEM for burning/up close. Bionicbadger is right.

I enjoy messing with under 200mW without goggles for things farther than 15ft, but one eye is always closed even if properly terminated on something dark; avoiding the dot.

OEM has a real certification that us muggles can afford. But for sake of cheap stuff an Lpm would save you $ so you can test yourself and know for sure.

If you buy dl5 and arg your pretty much set for laser protection for life. And if your worried about ir than filters are cheap and should be on the laser anyways... Or ml7 and ylw. And it feels so good knowing I'm safe.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

If buying certified goggles, you should also consider the RB2 filter goggles. The main benefit of the DI5 is that it has protection around 800nm, whereas the RB2 has more protection at red wavelengths.

In particular, the RB2 has OD3+ at 635nm, OD4+ at 651nm-670nm, and OD5+ at 671-700. The DI5 is not rated for 635nm, but from eyeballing the graph has about OD2+ for 635nm; the goggles are certified OD5+ for 650nm-670nm, and OD5+ for 800-815nm.

The RB2 also has a higher VLT, meaning that more visible light of other wavelengths comes through -- making it easier to see what you're doing. The RB2 has a VLT of 35% versus 16% for the DI2. The DI2 might also cost more than the RB2 ($155 vs $180 list).

Unfortunately, OEM has really screwed up their ordering system. Their website is half-baked since they rebuilt it, lacking many of the products they had before. Now there is a notice on the front that they can't accept new orders because of supply issues; I wonder if they're just covering for website issues? I hope they fix their problems.

You may need to purchase red-filtering goggles through companies other than OEM such as (1, 2) for $140-155. Their prices usually aren't as good as OEM's unfortunately. For the first link maybe you can organize a group buy such as what has been done with OEM.

For ARG goggles, you can buy them for $85 from Aixiz which is a great price. The ARG filters are excellent and a pair everyone should own because they are relatively inexpensive for certified goggles, and they protect from 190nm to 532nm and has excellent VLT of around 50%. Aixiz also offers the DI4 red-laser protection goggles ($150); excellent protection, but they have very low VLTs of around 12% or something.

 

[Bacon]

True, After I paid them two days later they sent invoice with the WRONG MODEL! They corrected it quickly but from order to receiving it took ~5 weeks... Well worth it though, they use fedex so $80 goggles cost $100+ after all the factors come in.

There is also reviews around here LPMing goggles against 2+watts 445 and 500mW+ 532 (filtered) on some uvex cheapos.. I have some uvex goggles and they work good (The orange tint). I trust them for 405-532nm but again not certified. but its great for family/friends to see what a laser can do.