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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

silliness with a 40 mw Evo Pro

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Nov 21, 2009
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I have thoroughly my Wicked Lasers Evo Pro in 40 mw flavor, but burning had never occurred to me to try since the included power chart showed 46mw peak.
To my amusement, it pops balloons in 2 to 3 seconds...unsharpied.It also slices Hersheys wrappers nicely, and puts holes in garbage bags!It pits, but does not cut black electrical tape.I find all this hilarious and silly fun.The Hershey wrapper is really easy,and recommended for low power silliness.I have no matches, but I am guessing red ones will be easy.All these tricks at 1 inch range or 2 inches.
I am enjoying all this too much!
Painting clouds and distant mountains is my favorite sport, and never before have I owned a laser that burns anything.Epic laser.
I hope this information is useful to someone out there.
 





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Well, there's a good chance after some temperature variation that it could be doing even over 50mW.

Though honestly, a lot of the anecdotes on how much you need to burn, I find to be a bit off. I've easily burned dark items with 40mW. 30 -- not so much. It does depend on the frequency and color of the target of course.

Someone here was saying that a 250mW red won't burn white paper; I've found that to absolutely not be the case, and can burn white paper just fine with 150mW of red; sometimes it takes a while to "get started" but is certainly possible.

And for someone who just got into burning lasers, I'd say about that level is a good place to start. Mostly due to lower chance of a reflected beam causing eye damage as easily. (Let's say worst case 4% out a glass window, 1.6mW back; of course metal or mirrors all bets are off but if the beam's spread out, you've still got a better chance than if you're talking 400mW).

Now, I've got my 400mW PGL-III-C-532 on the way in GB#9 (waiting sucks. :p ) and honestly that's a bit of a scary situation, even at 2% reflectivity you've still got 8mW coming back in your face. Or possibly more if CNI stuff is overspec as it tends to be. It'll ALWAYS be a goggles-and-camera situation; and I'll have to handle it as if it's a Class 4, since depending on temp, it could be at times.

So no I'd say that 40mW is definitely a good place to be for someone's first burning laser. Sure you have to wait around a little bit but, so what? So overall I think this is a great recommendation. Too many people jump in to >IIIa lasers without getting a feel for them. Keep in mind though, 40mW can still blind you. But the "oops factor" here is greatly reduced from the 100mW-200mW "starters" a lot of people buy.
 
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its not always whether they can afford it, its are they willing to pay so much for something there not obsessed over YET:D
 
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You don't have to be a burner or high powered to be a valid 'laser guy'.

There are people here who collect 5mW pens of all different wavelengths. Other folks are into HeNe's that will pass 10mW if you're lucky.

I damn well like my 15-20mW JDSU 1135 and 1145's. They're brighter than you think they would be. Really.

And I wouldn't trade my 8mW 458nm ArIon, 2.6mW yellow HeNe or 3mW 612nm HeNe for anything. If you think they're not impressive, you haven't seen them. :)
 
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40mw seemed like a good choice to me for the ease of use without a minor reflection blinding me.I got it for beam visibility and lighting up clouds along with consideration for my budget.AA power really is a plus in this as well, but 40 mw seemed about right for what I wanted to do..and I was right.The burning is just a very minor attraction to me.I am very, very careful with it...and I understand employed stupidly it is capable of blinding me.But it is much safer than a 400 mw laser.
I have lots of good HV equipment that would easily feed a CO2 laser or big argon laser...and surplus units in the 40 watt range are surprisingly affordable.And if I wanted to burn holes in steel beams or boards that would be the way to go.But the dangers are just too much for me to enjoy it.Someday, I may get a bigger laser.But I am satisfied with the one I have.
Red balloons @ 4 feet .75 seconds to pop.@ 1 inch, nearly instantaneous.And I bored a tiny hole in a newspaper...but that took 15 seconds.This is good enough for what I want!
I should mention that when I was younger, I injured my eyes with a ultraviolet lamp from a blueprint machine.That and many years of operating high powered Tesla coils with unshielded primary spark gaps (epic UV danger) have ensured cataracts by age 60 at the latest.
I really like beam viewing, and I am comfortable with my ability to not hurt myself at the 40 mw level.I am not so sure about higher powers, where use of eye protection is mandatory.Just a minor specular reflection from a high power beam could be disastrous.
Bigger lasers are cool.But I really like being able to see, and I would rather the odds were not stacked against me.
 
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Good point, however dont get too comfortable, as mentioned above 40mW is more than enough to cause serious eye damage and retinal burns... I felt the same way when I got my first 5mW greenie, but then it just wasnt bright enough, so then 20mW, then 50mW now look at my collection:D Alot will change the longer you stay with the laser hobby.
@aryntha I agree with you there, some times the color alone is enough, I actually think about that all the time, I love my high powered lasers, but wouldnt mind having a 5mW 473nm just to toy around with. And you should send me a pic of your 458nm, im curious to the color compared to 473nm:D
 
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And you should send me a pic of your 458nm, im curious to the color compared to 473nm:D

I wish I could do a reliable side by side -- digital cameras are notoriously bad at capturing that end of the spectrum. I'll give it a try, but I have a feeling it wouldn't tell the right story.

Weirdly enough, the color difference of the text in my signature is pretty close to it. Nonetheless I'll see what I can get... I really need to get a HeCd one of these days, but they're so fragile, I don't know how I'd even get it here in one piece.
 
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Good point, however dont get too comfortable, as mentioned above 40mW is more than enough to cause serious eye damage and retinal burns... I felt the same way when I got my first 5mW greenie, but then it just wasnt bright enough, so then 20mW, then 50mW now look at my collection:D Alot will change the longer you stay with the laser hobby.
@aryntha I agree with you there, some times the color alone is enough, I actually think about that all the time, I love my high powered lasers, but wouldnt mind having a 5mW 473nm just to toy around with. And you should send me a pic of your 458nm, im curious to the color compared to 473nm:D

I strongly agree.I am acutely aware that 40 is dangerous, and the burning tricks drive the point home.I have played with lasers for 12 years and only now are they economical for me to enjoy powers over 10mw.I have seen class 4 lasers, and the beams are EPIC.But so is the danger.I think 100 to 150 mw would be fun too....but too dangerous for my taste.
Many here have and enjoy higher power lasers to which I can only say: rock on and enjoy the epicness of solid beamage!
But I like stargazing, and little blind spots from burns would make me weep.So I err on the side of caution.And applaud those with the bigger lasers, because...they really are cool.
 
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You wanna see some sweet beams check my pic album on my forum page, sadly I havent got to add my 473nm beamshots yet:(
@aryntha Yea that is what I had imagined, 473nm is a real light colored blue, so I figured(and hoped) that a lower wavelength would have a 'dark' blue look, dont get me wrong though I LOVE 473nm:D
I am also curious to see 500nm, but yes as you stated digital camera pics arent very good at getting a true to life image of the colors.

EDIT: Just seen you have 488nm as well! Man I wish I could see those three blue wavelenghts side by side in person:D
 
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Nov 21, 2009
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I have no decent optical way to measure my beam, but tests on the hershey wrapper seem to show sub 1mm beam size at 20 inches.Indeed, at the aperture, it is definitely sub 1mm.This goes a long way towards explaining the burning fun.
I have tried red matches, and sharpied matches.I saw smoke once with a sharpied one.No ignition.
This seems to validate it's 46mw peak power.
Also, to those that use the Evo Pros the epic energizer lithiums produce less power.I don't know why, but suspect the driver is set for power, and not merely current.The voltage of the lithiums is higher, and apparently the driver does not like that.Cheesy rav-o-vac alkalines work great.@ 25 cents a piece.
A most economically fed laser!
 
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Feb 10, 2010
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you do realize that for the $160 you spent on this weak 40mW, you could have gotten a 200mW beast from Rayfoss, or O-like, Rayfoss, only costs $150!
 
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you do realize that for the $160 you spent on this weak 40mW, you could have gotten a 200mW beast from Rayfoss, or O-like, Rayfoss, only costs $150!
You do realize he stated that he didn't want anything with that high of mW!
 




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