Alright, today we’ve got two different methods of making your own burning laser pointer at home in very little time at very little or even absolutely no expense whatsoever (if you’ve already got a low-power
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green laser pointer you can modify you won’t have to spend a penny). The first one presumes that you’ve got a low-power green laser pointer (these are relatively inexpensive these days–cheapest one I see on Amazon is this one for $14.92) that you’re going to modify by disassembling it and disabling the power-limiter component on it with |
a soldering iron (you need a soldering iron, yes). The second one shows you how to construct a very powerful laser pointer out of a small Maglite flashlight (the kind that runs off of 2 AA’s) and the laser diode from a DVD burner. This one happens to be my favorite because it’s SO easy to get ahold of a DVD drive (must be able to write/burn DVD’s) for either VERY cheap or for free–if you’ll get a broken one from a dump or off Ebay, odds are excellent that the diode works just fine and it’s something else that’s broken, those diodes almost never break, it’s almost always some type of moving part (i.e. a motor) within the drive that broke, or you can just buy a used-but-working one for VERY little.
Or you could just do this: 1000 mW blue laser pointer that melts flesh…
This is an update I’m making a few months after I published this article–since then Wicked Lasers has come out with the most powerful laser pointer ever made: a 1 watt (that’s 1000mW) 445nm blue laser pointer called the Spyder III Pro Arctic Series (click here to see it) that they’re selling for $197.97 (two videos demonstrating it are below). I realize this is an article on how to build your own on the cheap, and that’s below if you just want to scroll down and skip to it, but I know you guys love this stuff (if you’re reading this article I presume you do) and you just have to know about this: a 1 watt hand-held laser is, first of all, fucking insane, and secondly, 200 bucks is a hell of a deal considering how much power you’re getting as dollar-per-milliwatt (aka “bang for your buck”) goes.
You really ought to check this out, plus they’ve got some other ones on their site that are putting out 50 or 100mW for under a hundred bucks now, so the money you save by constructing your own from scratch is becoming less and less now that the price-per-milliwatt on these things is dropping so drastically. Oh, and I’ve heard some people say that you can’t buy these things because they’re illegal in the U.S.: that’s complete bullshit, they’re perfectly legal to own and, Wicked Lasers ships to EVERY country in the world (they say so right here), and they actually guarantee (right here) that your laser will NOT get seized by customs (and if it does they’ll refund or replace it).
Anyway, here are a couple of videos showing what this thing can do: the first is the official video from Wicked Lasers demonstrating the Arctic Series in action, and the second is one of a guy using a similar laser (not the Arctic, but it’s still a 1000mW blue laser so you’ll get to see precisely what the Arctic can do since it’s the same for all practical purposes) to burn stuff:
Official Wicked Lasers Video
Guy burning stuff with a 1000mW blue laser
Wicked Lasers’ official site for the Arctic Series crazy-ass blue light saber thing…
Method #1: Modified low-power green laser pointer
Here’s the first method. Remember, you’re going to need:
- An inexpensive low-power green laser pointer.
- A pair of pliers (he uses a pair of needle-nose ones)
- A set of micro screwdrivers.
- A soldering iron.
Here’s what to do:
Method #2: Modified DVD burner diode + Maglite
One of the cool things about this one is that DVD drives use several different colored lasers, depending on how old your drive is and
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what brand it is, it could be either green, blue, or red (as show in the video). I suspect you could get this to run off of any type of flashlight that you want, including some of the bigger Maglites, but I don’t know why you’d want to as the small AA one is perfect for this. |
Here’s what you’ll need:
- A small Maglite (takes 2 AA’s–they sell these things EVERYWHERE, very cheap like 5 or 10 bucks or so).
- A DVD burner (he says 16x, I suspect you could go lower or higher and as long as it can actually BURN DVD’s, it’ll work).
- A set of micro screwdrivers.
- A housing for the laser (you can get the one he recommends here)
- Soldering Iron
Here’s what to do:
Additional Resources and Further Reading
The best place to go for research and asking questions about doing this sort of stuff is the Candlepower Lasers Forum.
Instructables.com has a whole area dedicated to laser pointer projects that’s got tons of stuff in it with 232 members as of now.
HacknMod.com has a really cool pages with 6 different laser pointer projects/hacks.
28 responses so far ↓
1 nix // Oct 31, 2009 at 6:55 pm
i found laser and all things i need Except driver…where to gind that???
2 nix // Oct 31, 2009 at 6:55 pm
where to get*
3 Mind Blaster // Dec 19, 2009 at 4:08 am
4 alex // Jan 19, 2010 at 2:27 pm
soo i bought a green laserpointer 5mw 532 nm i assume and its a little different than your laser in your video im trying to find the component to heat up to make it a 100 mw green laser was very interested in your project, cant seem to find wut to heat up not sure what Q1 C2 R4 R5 and R8 mean help please.
5 Are these people for real? // Jan 24, 2010 at 7:20 pm
[...] useing dialup, if you want to you can wait for this video to load or you can try this similar site: the site) what i want to know is who do these people think that they are fooling??? (if this is for real [...]
6 gary // Jan 25, 2010 at 8:19 pm
the first method where u turn the green lazer into one by tightening the screw and burning the one part, will that work with a cheep little 2 dollar red lazer from walmart? runs off of four little watch-battery like things?
7 Randall // Jan 31, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Alex, the laser he used will probably have different markings than your laser. Gary, I just dissasembled my $2 laser and, no, it won’t work.
8 Alex // Feb 26, 2010 at 1:21 pm
ok i was just wondering about the screwdrivers on the second one if there is a specific set that would help more than another?
9 Andrew // Feb 26, 2010 at 5:55 pm
No, just a set of mico-sized screwdrivers like the kind you would use on eyeglasses–hardware stores will all carry them.
10 Alex // Mar 2, 2010 at 1:54 pm
ok thanks for the help
11 kyle // Mar 11, 2010 at 8:45 am
Which diode # do I have to burn out. Your video was a little blurry to see which one it was. I have a green laser pointer that uses 2 aaa’s
12 Tominator // Mar 12, 2010 at 11:26 am
That was totaly wicked. :happy:
13 Tominator // Mar 12, 2010 at 11:27 am
That was pownawesome:cool:
14 Cameron // Apr 18, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Do you guys know if an xbox 360 drive dvd diode will work?
15 Andrew // Apr 18, 2010 at 6:09 pm
If it’s capable of burning dvds then yes, it should work. If it can only read them then no, probably not.
16 Cameron // Apr 22, 2010 at 6:14 pm
see idk if it can actually burn them. i know its got a dvd reader, but the burner i guess ill have to find out
17 Itashi // Jun 1, 2010 at 10:19 am
So cool
18 Itashi // Jun 3, 2010 at 9:39 am
Can it work with any other colored laser? (“)>
19 Itashi // Jun 3, 2010 at 9:42 am
I like pie
20 Rookie95 // Jun 3, 2010 at 9:44 am
OMG I LOVE THIS LASER!
21 dale // Aug 21, 2010 at 11:25 pm
omg!!!!!!!!!!! i love pie to but i like pumpkin pie the most and then lemon pie and and almost eny other pie aslong as it has whip creem on it………….. ohyea the laser worked good shut up mom im wrighting stuff what no! im not looking at porn
22 mom // Aug 21, 2010 at 11:31 pm
what the hell is wrong with im gona fuckin beat the shit out of you ……. kill whitey!!!!
23 dale // Aug 21, 2010 at 11:37 pm
24 dale // Aug 23, 2010 at 8:38 pm
is there something like a dvd berner that will work
25 dale // Aug 23, 2010 at 8:40 pm
opps i was talking about a DS
26 blake // Aug 29, 2010 at 10:14 am
hey where can i get a pen like yours??? &ndd gary does it really work with a 2 dollar wal mart laser… what kind of brand laser is it on the video??
27 blake // Aug 29, 2010 at 10:18 am
hey gary does it really work with a 2 dollar walmart laser??? &ndd what brand laser is it on the video… its to blurry where do you get it
28 blake // Aug 29, 2010 at 10:23 am
please help???
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