I didn't see it posted yet, but the very first person I saw posting a guide of a homemade laser was a user on Laser community going by the name "Stephanie"
She still has a site up, this is the original "guide"
DVD Laser « Transmissions from Planet Stephanie
I tried following it way back when DVD burners were the only way to get red diodes. I killed my first "new" little diode before I started sourcing them from broken computers...
I used to be into Laser Community a lot, but after the rift I left. I still have an original leadlight from wicked, supposedly around 35mW. I still have a CNI style fusion as well, I bought it soon after they stopped selling pot modded leadlights and started selling the good stuff.
A few years later Wicked started selling their own lasers which were total crap. Also, not too long after Wicked started selling cheap crap Dragon lasers came along. So Laser Community saw a great deal of posts like "My laser is broke!" and responses like "You should go to Dragon Lasers, it's a lot cheaper!" Lots of the participants in conversations like that were banned, Avery being one of them.
I guess all of that was already said, I hope I added something...
The member who helped me the most when I was getting started went by the name "Gadgeteer" over on Laser community. After I left I think he became a mod over there but I haven't seen him since. Anyone know where he went?
Also Psuedonomen, if I'm spelling that right, he knew his stuff well. BoomDog was one of the first on Laser community to build a laser scanner with a PIC programmer he got from RadioShack. I doubt he is the first, but he had a big thread on the community about attaching mirrors to spinning things. I remember him starting a "liquid sky" thread that consisted of a mirror assembly from a laser printer that was pretty big as well. I sourced many of my first "laser show" ideas from him.
I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but it's been a long time!