- Joined
- Feb 28, 2008
- Messages
- 573
- Points
- 0
A while back I saw a post by Chris (Heuursciences) offering custom built YAG and CO2 lasers for sale. Having always wanted a pulsed laser, I took him up on his offer. It took a little while to get the laser after I sent payment, maybe a couple of weeks, because he had trouble getting some of the parts delivered.
But the laser arrived last Tuesday, and unfortunately that evening we had terrible storms here and I was without power for over 24 hours.....it really stinks when you just get a new laser (well, there is the option of battery power, but I was in the dark and needed my batteries for flashlights!) and you can't use it!
Anyway, my power was restored and I was able to fire up the laser and make a video, which really doesn't do it justice, as I'll explain.
When I opened the box I was expecting a plain, boring metal case of sorts, but I found this funky little blue box that Chris had built the laser into:
The laser came with a wall adapter, a box with a plug if I want to adapt it to run on batteries, some extra lens covers in case anything happens to the one on the laser, an instruction sheet and a pair of YAG glasses (originally not included but he added them because it took so long for me to get the laser) .
On the outside of the case there are all the typical warning labels (I also added a customized one of my own), a power light, a light on top indicating the laser is ready to fire, and the fire button. The laser also has a key and a switch inside to disable the high voltage. Kinda funny this laser would be perfectly legal in Australia (that is if some dummy in customs didn't think it was a bomb and try to blow it up)!
On to performance: The laser is rated at 3J per milllisecond - says on the instruction paper "3J at 1mS ~3.KW" Not sure what is meant by the "3.KW" - can't imagine he meant "kilowatt"......
So I used a piece of black foam core for the target, and fired the laser after it had charged for about half a minute. There was this loud "pop" and a flash of flame came off the foam core. I examined where the beam had hit, and being that the beam is unfocused, there was a circular area a couple mm wide where the material had been ablated away.
I wanted to see what it would do when focused, so I got a regular glass lens and set that a couple inches from the output window, at a slight angle, so any reflections wouldn't come back and damage the window. I let it charge for at least a minute and then fired it again, this time with a louder pop, and a big flash of flame, and this time it drilled a hole in the foam core (didn't go all the way thru, though).
Here's the vid (the YAG is in the first few seconds, hitting the foam core and popping a balloon. It was hard to film as the flash is so fast, and it's hard to see even slowed way down. A high-speed film or video camera would be great to film a laser like this, but all I have is a regular camcorder. I also used the nightshot feature, to see if it would show up better, but not really.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URUzWrQ8Iww
All in all a cool little laser - I love the loud pop and flash of flame, even if I can't adequately film it! I'm going to have to try it out on other things and see what it does. Quite a different breed if you're used to burning/melting stuff with a CW laser.....
But the laser arrived last Tuesday, and unfortunately that evening we had terrible storms here and I was without power for over 24 hours.....it really stinks when you just get a new laser (well, there is the option of battery power, but I was in the dark and needed my batteries for flashlights!) and you can't use it!
Anyway, my power was restored and I was able to fire up the laser and make a video, which really doesn't do it justice, as I'll explain.
When I opened the box I was expecting a plain, boring metal case of sorts, but I found this funky little blue box that Chris had built the laser into:
The laser came with a wall adapter, a box with a plug if I want to adapt it to run on batteries, some extra lens covers in case anything happens to the one on the laser, an instruction sheet and a pair of YAG glasses (originally not included but he added them because it took so long for me to get the laser) .
On the outside of the case there are all the typical warning labels (I also added a customized one of my own), a power light, a light on top indicating the laser is ready to fire, and the fire button. The laser also has a key and a switch inside to disable the high voltage. Kinda funny this laser would be perfectly legal in Australia (that is if some dummy in customs didn't think it was a bomb and try to blow it up)!
On to performance: The laser is rated at 3J per milllisecond - says on the instruction paper "3J at 1mS ~3.KW" Not sure what is meant by the "3.KW" - can't imagine he meant "kilowatt"......
So I used a piece of black foam core for the target, and fired the laser after it had charged for about half a minute. There was this loud "pop" and a flash of flame came off the foam core. I examined where the beam had hit, and being that the beam is unfocused, there was a circular area a couple mm wide where the material had been ablated away.
I wanted to see what it would do when focused, so I got a regular glass lens and set that a couple inches from the output window, at a slight angle, so any reflections wouldn't come back and damage the window. I let it charge for at least a minute and then fired it again, this time with a louder pop, and a big flash of flame, and this time it drilled a hole in the foam core (didn't go all the way thru, though).
Here's the vid (the YAG is in the first few seconds, hitting the foam core and popping a balloon. It was hard to film as the flash is so fast, and it's hard to see even slowed way down. A high-speed film or video camera would be great to film a laser like this, but all I have is a regular camcorder. I also used the nightshot feature, to see if it would show up better, but not really.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URUzWrQ8Iww
All in all a cool little laser - I love the loud pop and flash of flame, even if I can't adequately film it! I'm going to have to try it out on other things and see what it does. Quite a different breed if you're used to burning/melting stuff with a CW laser.....
