Playing with my new 40W laser

[bobhaha]

Just got this bad boy the other day and had to make a video of it in action.

Sorry in advance for all the talking... I was just excited to test it out. But hopefully it helps shed some light (excuse the pun) on what happens when the laser meets different materials.

Without further ado... Here is my laser in action!



-Adrian

 

[Gryphon]

Judging by your set up you were VERY excited to get it up and running as soon as possible

 

[bobhaha]

Oh yes... please excuse the mess... We are in the middle of renovating our kitchen... Our garage doesn't usually look like that

 

[jimdt7]

You've got a bad boy there

JIm

 

[Blord]

That is awesome laser. Imagine that handheld :gun:

 

[532 with Envy]

Looks like good fun! I'v got a PSU and tube in my ebay shopping cart waiting for purchase. All I need to do is find a space in my room to put it.

Thanks for sharing the video!

 

[cheech226]

looks like a death ray to me! wow! i like it

 

[ElectroMagneticFreak]

Unbelievable!

I hope I don't annoy you with my noob questions, I was just wondering why it looks like you can see a beam in a yellow wavelength inside the tube if it is IR?

Can it be run in continuous duty? What brand of goggles are you using or what would you recommend for something of this power?

Thanks,

Aaron

 

[bobhaha]

It's actually a very distinct purple beam inside the tube. The beam is actually plasma (extremely hot gas) due to the discharge of ~50,000V across the two terminals. You can not see the lasers wavelength.

Yes it can be run continuously... but needs be water cooled.

I'm actually using my laser glow OD 7+ goggles suited for 190-532nm wavelength... but if you noticed in the video, I said plastics at this wavelength are opaque to the laser light. This means any plastic goggles will protect you from reflections. Even clear plastic!

Another random fact about this wavelength is that even if I got a direct shot to the eye I won't go blind. Well actually I will but nothing surgery can't fix. The lens actually will take the brunt of the lasers power and absorb the laser light before it can make its way in to the eye to damage the retina. Fortunately you can replace your lens... but you can't replace your retina!

 

[ElectroMagneticFreak]

Thanks very much for the detailed explanation. I watched the whole video and yeah that is really interesting and surprising about how any clear plastic is opaque to that wavelength.

I am going to see if I can figure out how to convert the 10.6 um to nm to see where it falls near the visible spectrum that I am more used to referencing with various wavelengths.

That makes sense now that what I was seeing was just the plasma...

Pretty cool stuff!

Edit: Is that 10600nm?

 

[bobhaha]

um stands for micrometers, and nm stands for nanometers.

So you multiply by a factor of 1000

So you get 10600nm = 10.6um

 

[Things]

This is a pretty good representation of what the tube looks like lit up:

Dan

 

[jcranmer]

I've really got to grab one of these someday. Of course I need a bunker to put it in.

 

[Cyparagon]

Things' tube looks a little reddish to me.

 

[LtKernelPanic]

Nice! I really want a CO2 tube but they scare the crap out of me. Someday though I'll get one.

 

[Meatball]

Dear Adrian,

Something I should've done with my tube back in the day was a little experiment.

1. Take block of dry ice (Or just buy it)
2. Place it in front of laser
3. Close the switch

Would this be the case of a CO2 emission wavelength being shot into a solid block of stuff that usually emits the wave? Would vaporization rates increase where the laser in incident? Could you suffocate if the vaporization rate increases? IDK

Let me know how it goes! :beer:

Sincerely,

-Tyler