Vintage red...and it's gone!

[cistercian]

I built a 20mw 640nm laser into a maglight back in 1998 or so.It was expensive..280 dollars or so.And it was a "second"...slightly defective.I loved it.And last week, it gave up.Total diode FAIL.
I am still sad it's gone.I have much less money today for lasers, but I purchased another high power red so I still had one.
It cost 14 dollars.14 freaking bucks!100mw pen from laserlands.It took 10 days to arrive and is the ubiquitous newwish host.It will not burn with it's fat ,pudgy ,yet well collimated beam.A decent lens caused holes in electrical tape and also burned holes in dark paper.As a long range pointer it is excellent.
It is not as cool as the big d cell maglight laser I lost.
But it is 5 times as powerful with better beam quality.And 14 freaking dollars!!!
What a great time to be a laser geek!!!I tried my 7 dollar 405nm newwish thru the same lens.It also burned, but less than half as well.But it burned white objects...tres cool.I should note,for the sheer hilarity, that the 405 made the glass in the compound lens I used glow so I could visualize the beam in the glass!

The 100mw pen is pretty cool.I await fog for serious red epicness.

I hope you enjoyed reading this.
Best wishes!

 

[midias]

You can pick up a 300mw red laser diode for about 15 bucks.

 

[Benm]

Somehow i would have fitted that old maglite hosted laser with a new diode, just for sake of nostalgia. Its probably not even that good a host in design if its from that era, but i'm sure it can be restored to something that produces a decent beam.

 

[cistercian]

The mag host is FAIL, it is just too big.I am building a 20 mw red using a diode from a copy machine...with the copiers laser optics.It yields a big 5mm beam with excellent divergence.I built one of these in a box years ago and it works really well.This build will be built in an aluminum tube host that will accept AA cells.
I figure 3 months to build it...because of other projects.
I was just tickled at how inexpensive high powered complete pointers have become.
I can't wait for cheap green diodes.

 

[sinner]

The DVD-ROM's diode is a low power red too i guess 20mW , so u can also replace it i with that too.. but LPC-815 is a 300mW and it has very good beam specs aswell..

 

[midias]

You can always get a LPC diode for <$10 and run it at low amperage.

What form factor is the diode?

Or build a 15mw 635nm

Opnext Japan HL6322G96-A 15 mW 635nm Laser Diode | eBay

 

[cistercian]

You can always get a LPC diode for <$10 and run it at low amperage.

What form factor is the diode?

Or build a 15mw 635nm

Opnext Japan HL6322G96-A 15 mW 635nm Laser Diode | eBay

A 635 would be sweet.But I am using as many copier parts for the build as possible...for the hilarity.The lens,diode, and housing are all copier parts.
The heatsink of the old one was made from a large scanner pulley from a copier!

It looks like a 5.6 mm ld.