Post your random pics!

[DashApple]

Must get a good sound out of that! Very nice! :drool:

Thanks : D , Its definitely an improvement over my other headphones/ipod

 

[Alaskan]

Anyone else like laser pointers with expanders on them?

Left to right:

JetLasters 532nm 800mw 25mm lens

Ehgemus with PL520nm Single Mode 50mm lens

Mace of Doom with NUBM44 450nm 5W diode and 80mm lens

Ehgemus with NDG7475T 1W 520nm expanded to 127mm/5 inches using 150mm/6" lens.

These are my most used laser pointers, I have others but they don't have the expanders on them, I love expanded outputs for their low divergence - Even if I have to use electrical tape to put them together. What I need to do is ask Harold if he would be interested in machining some solid solutions for these. Wife was busy on her new iMac she got this Christmas

 

[RedCowboy]

Very nice, clean and tidy too, you're a well trained husband. j/k :crackup:

 

[Gabe]

Nice Alaskan! That PL-E really puts it into perspective how big those are. Jelly!

 

[Alaskan]

Here's the front side. I added one more Ehgemus made for me which is placed in the middle, third from the left (or right) which will contain a knife edge, it is part of a Fenix Tk75 flashlight I choose to power the diodes because it uses three X four series-paralleled 18650 batteries providing 14 amp hours of capacity at 8.4 VDC.

 

[RedCowboy]

Hey hey hey, you brought a new one out to play.
What is that beast in the middle? Is that your 520 x 4 build?

I am looking for some wider lenses but they need to be concave at the input and convex at the output, or a combination of the 2 with a spacer like the 3 element.

 

[Alaskan]

Ya, it was meant to knife edge 4 to 6 diodes but I think I'm limited to 4 the way things are looking right now. I haven't been moving forward with it at all, not sure what I am going to do right now, out of funds to continue with it for awhile, I used to work a lot of overtime, with the price of oil being so low, and my job supporting the oil field industry, things are getting tight in Alaska for a lot of us in this industry.

What will a lens with concave on one side, convex on the other help with?

 

[RedCowboy]

I know we are fracking a lot but the low oil prices are also part of a price war to try and drive Russian oil out of production is it not?

 

[Gabe]

I know we are fracking a lot but the low oil prices are also part of a price war to try and drive Russian oil out of production is it not?

I've never heard anything about Russian oil before, but I won't dismiss it. The way I understood it, people are slowing their oil and gas consumption, or at least your (the U.S.) government is slowing buying after agreeing to cut down fuel consumption by whatever year in that COP 21 meeting. So for Canadians, especially Albertans like me because we have all the oil, this reduced demand couples with a massive supply to make the value of our dollar drop like a rock, because oil and gas exports are such a huge part of our economy.

 

[Pi R Squared]

I know we are fracking a lot but the low oil prices are also part of a price war to try and drive Russian oil out of production is it not?

Yes that is correct and the Saudis are responsible for it, but not to worry, there will soon be war and the price will go back up.

Alan

 

[GSS]

Alaskan, maby its because I watch to much of the National Geographic channel, but every time I see your avatar and builds I picture you tying up the dogs to the sled or firing up the snow mobile and treking it to your plane to fly into the main local post drop off to pick up a diode or host and God forgive it was defective when you got back. Im not that dum but for the love and passion you have for this hobby, I think you would do it if needed Have you ever met Sue from "Life Below Zero", Alaska is not that small Lets hope you were never set up with her on a on line dating site lol. Really Really nice setup and hosted and expanded lasers and a awesome gift for your wife.:beer:

 

[RedCowboy]

I got that 40mm man made diamond in today, my camera just doesn't do it justice.
It's wild to think that if this same material came out of the ground with perfect color and clarity at this size it would be worth 100 million or more, pretty cool, I will have to fire a laser through it.

 

[micheal rosen]

I got that 40mm man made diamond in today, my camera just doesn't do it justice.
It's wild to think that if this same material came out of the ground with perfect color and clarity at this size it would be worth 100 million or more, pretty cool, I will have to fire a laser through it.

I'm sure you know, but just to be certain, you know that isn't a diamond, right? The largest synthetic diamonds are nowhere near that size, so I hope you didn't pay a lot for it.

 

[Pi R Squared]

I got that 40mm man made diamond in today, my camera just doesn't do it justice.
It's wild to think that if this same material came out of the ground with perfect color and clarity at this size it would be worth 100 million or more, pretty cool, I will have to fire a laser through it.

I'm sure you know, but just to be certain, you know that isn't a diamond, right? The largest synthetic diamonds are nowhere near that size, so I hope you didn't pay a lot for it.

Maybe it is a man made cubic zirconia. :crackup:

Alan

 

[micheal rosen]

Maybe it is a man made cubic zirconia. :crackup:

Alan

That's very possible.

 

[RedCowboy]

No I didn't pay much, 15 dollars, but a lot of the repeat buyers of this site are the same names, probably wholesalers and resellers, why this seller is hard to find I don't know, but these are not cheap glass, they look amazing and the cuts are perfect looking, the crystal is clear of defects unless you inspect it internally by shining a bright light through it any then you can find the random tiny imp, but it sparkles like crazy from my overhead light from the many angles of the cuts, it looks and sparkles like any diamond I have seen.

This is not the first site that comes up on ebay when searching for man made/lab created diamonds, I first find many that are 500-1000% markup but the description is the same.

I have bought cheap glass and coated glass imitation stones from ebay and the cuts look almost rounded, but these are sharp and the refractive character is something you just have to see for yourself.

Cubic Zirconia, Lab Corundum items in Bangkok Pretty Gems store on eBay!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corundum


These pics are not very good and my camera is just a 120 dollar cheapie marked down to 60 bucks when I bought it, but if I take my time later I can get some better pics.
I'm not unlocking any secrets of the universe here, this is just 15 dollars worth of fun.

With your safety glasses on you can see the laser beam split and make lines through the "gem" as you align it, it makes some pretty effects, safety glasses are a must.

With some fog you can get all the beams splitting out, I've posted pics with the smaller one splitting a beam before, I will put them at the bottom just for fun.

Old pics of small "gem"

Again this is just for kicks, everyone can take a little break sometimes and enjoy a bit of, hey that's pretty, it doesn't have to be important/serious to be fun.
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I missed your follow up question Alaskan, sorry about that.
All our off the shelf lenses such as G2, G7, G9 and the G-ball have a concave input and convex output.
My 25mm lens are 3 elements that I use with the raw diode output, yes there is some edge clipping but they slide zoom rather than thread as I use an expedient cardstock holder.
I understand focal length and have extended the burning range of our diodes far beyond what off the shelf lenses offer but I have a lot to learn about lens.
I am good at math and will be able to order by the numbers with AR coating once I understand better what is what numerically and the technical terminology and how it works, I know basics but lenses can get complex and efficiency is my goal because we already sacrifice beam quality for power with multi mode emitters.

I need a 100mm concave/convex to make a big G7 that grabs the diodes diverging output at a wider/longer position to focus energy at greater distance.

It is the most direct solution other than beam shaping first, but one lens changes how the next reacts....again I am still learning.

Now a relay lens expander like kobayashi used in his nubm44 that only lost 1/3 of the 6 watts and gave a good adjustable output would be nice, but I will go with cheap and easy for now.