Sorry for truncating/splitting your awesome post, I'm just not a fan of large walls of text. :undecided:
Now, 1W is the standard output level for someone who wants to get into the hobby. That's scary - for their own safety, the safety of others, and the future of our hobby. We're all a bit on edge.
And you have good reason to be, as too often you hear about newbies ending up with permanent blind spots playing with their brand new arctic.
More specifically to you, 2W is really nothing to sneeze at. It's an absurdly dangerous level of laser power. You're acting really cavalier about it - "it's not a 100W CO2 burner?" Right, it's not. It's also not a 5mW pointer.
That was intended as sarcasm towards the previous poster, who I believed was insinuating that I were some kid that had zero previous experience with lasers. I've done my research. I know what two watts can do. ESPECIALLY with the blue light hazard.
If this is your first non-pointer (>5mW) laser, I guarantee you that you're not prepared to handle it. You've not been working with lasers long enough to appreciate the risks involved. It's nothing personal. It's not age- or maturity-related. It's just that 2W of optical power shouldn't ever be put in the hands of someone who isn't experienced with lasers. Period.
This is not my first 5mW+ laser. I've been toying with lasers almost all my life, but I'll admit that I didn't get into the higher-powered systems until about half a year ago. Since then, I've built multiple 200mW+ systems and have had plenty of experience with operating higher-powered lasers. I'm actually paranoid about harming my vision, so needless to say, I always observe the proper safety precautions.
There have been photos posted here of retinal burns from a 60mW laser. You're looking at more than thirty times that output.
Believe me, I've seen PLENTY of pictures when I was researching goggles.
I won't say "don't make the same mistake I did," but please - don't let your learning experience (that you will have with this laser) cost you your vision in one eye because you hit your optical nerve while not wearing goggles because you wanted to see the beam for once.
-Trevor
I almost did actually, once. This was back a while before, a few days after I finished my first build. I was experimenting with the laser, doing random stuff (with my goggles on ALL the time, of course). I decided to shine the laser into a glass of water, but of course I couldn't see anything with my goggles on. Right as I was about to take my goggles of to get a better look, the laser moved a little and a specular reflection hit me square in my right eye. Good thing I still had my goggles on. Believe me, I won't be making any mistake of that sort again.
Anyhow, thanks for the precautionary post. I guess it makes me feel a little better knowing exactly how much people on these forums care for safety.
Laser discussions elsewhere on the internet always promote absurdly dangerous/self-destructive behavior with lasers. This gives me hope. :beer:
IMO after some power (200mW for blues), it starts losing the "WOW Factor", because people got annoyed by the incredible bright thing and start disliking it.
I'm building this labbie solely for personal experimental/learning purposes. Actually, I don't think I'm going to let anybody but close, educated friends even know about it. Don't want somebody to get a hold of it and end up frying their retinas...:tsk:
Why would you need a fan to cool it in the first place?
I've never built a two watt before, but I'm assuming that the diode generates a lot of heat. Also, I'm using a linear driver, which requires proper cooling for extended periods of use.
I was thinking about embedding the diode housing into a finned LED heatsink, so that way, in conjunction with the fan, would provide better heatsinking than a simple block of aluminum/copper used in handheld builds.
. I just don't want to my foreign (english) friends to be forbbiden to own lasers at all, because someone got "blinded" by a homemade unit.
