Most laser diodes don’t like it for thermal reasons. Reminds me of when I needed to put a few holes in the bottom of my trash cans for rain drainage and there was this very handy .22 lying about. This build gives you around 250mW or so, it’s pushing the laser diode a bit but should still be OK for long periods of time.You can pull off burning tricks from up to 25ft or so with careful focusing.Yeah the heatsink is overkill, but the whole goal is to build a laser from a dead computer.The laser didn’t burn me because it is red, red light gets distributed through the red flesh so it doesn’t cause burns easily. In this instructional guide, we will be learning how to build a high powered laser system out of simple household materials, which, in this case, are a broken down desktop with a DVD drive. I was hoping he was cutting plate steel or Al sheet, but alas, i need to save more pennies.Just rescue 20 of these and aim them at the same point. One problem was that lasercutters aren't cheap, especially not for hobbyists who want a large cutting area.
Would be more interesting to see actual experiments that require powerful lasers…At least 16x DVD writer? Lay the desktop computer on its side and open the cover; this should be relatively easily done by unscrewing the... 2. The laser diode we will be using will be extracted from the DVD burner itself, saving us more money on parts. Brilliant.As a kid, I found a big fresnel lens designed to turn a 19″ TV screen into something, uh, bigger, I guess. There are also sealed units that don’t need flowing CO2 but they have less power.You could probably get started cutting metal for about $600, with a self-built CNC setup at around $3000.You will be able to burn leather, I have done this using DVD diodes, but you need some goggles, or a CNC type thing :),On a similar note to Abbott’s: Could this be modulated (via PWM or such) so as the beam to be visible in the air, while itself being harmless?I realise this video focuses on cheap laser construction… and hats off to that. Welder’s goggles are a must, but the budding mad scientist must remember that when you’re the only guy with a racoon tan in a place without ski hills. You could power a few(4-6) of these off the same PSU without too much trouble.Looks about as powerful as a magnifying glass in the sun.Power consumption for a laser diode out of a dvd recorder is so low that a typical pc power supply can run 100+ dvd sized diodes without breaking a sweat. heh heh…@xeracy – output power is somewhere between 100 and 200mW, probably. there are 2 differnt sorts. Steps 1. @Jesse, He pulled the northbridge heatsink off too, but it was half the size. Wood is great for many projects, but hand-cutting is difficult and time-consuming. To create this article, 10 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. The quality of optics is really all over the place depending on your budget.… or you could just use a couple of fiber-based power combiners. or what its being over-driven to?That heatsink doesn’t look like it’s a very good fit. It exploded!” and start picking fresnel lens shards out of the back yard.You know, I’ll bet the arduino guys look at me like I look back at the teenagers who played with dynamite. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.If the diode does not fire, check to make sure it is not cracked.In case no light comes out, check your wiring make sure none of the (-) and (+) terminals have been reversed.If the diode or drive start overheating, make sure they are properly tucked into the heat sinks.if you see any smoke come out immediately disconnect the device form the electricity, and allow time for it to cool off and all excess charges to bleed out before examining it.Always use laser goggles! Check out the video after the break to see the laser cutting tape, burning plastic, and lighting matches.wasnt burning hand, laser isnt that strong, it wont cut through metal@terc – saw that too.. lit the matches then stuck his hand in front of the beam to show em off.any one fancy a guess as to the laser’s wattage?

This article has been viewed 31,399 times. Nice design Drake!yes,this movie is ok, but how can we increase the watt for this laser source only using some DVD write laser diode and mirror, lens??

They’re not that expensive. The laser in our case will be powered by the desktop's power module (or PSU), which will eventually give an output of 250 Mw.

If you had a 1m^2 magnifying glass, it would be delivering 1000 watts of power.Not that it matters, but I think he’s using the NorthBridge heatsink and not the GPU heatsinkAll of you people are seeming to forget is that he is just using available parts. A few pine boards to make a frame and I discovered it could fry things much larger than ants. This laser is about a fifth of a watt. : Put in 4 AA batterys in the battery pack, and fire it up!

Also, attempting to double the power to eight bulbs teaches you a lot about circuit breakers and introduces you to the physics of waste heat faster than you can say “Did you see that?