First Laser Build!

[Jimboy3625]

I made my first laser today and I feel like a new man!



The beam is very bright, it's running at about 850mW right now, the spot looks big but it's shining on a refrigerator that's reflecting a lot. I will be running this through some prism optics when it is mounted properly.

I also harvested some 660s from sleds tonight so the red build is next. Trying to decide if knife edging them together or using a PBS is best.

Thanks for the guidance John aka Polishedball!

[taggalucci]

Depends how big you want the beams to be.

[Jimboy3625]

Cleaned up the blue module a bit, mounted the P3 driver.



Built the Red module, went with 660s and I am going to knife edge them. I decided to go with the knife edge because I can build another one of these modules down the road and then PBS the two modules together eventually.



I still need to do all the convergence and clean-up, this is just a rough build.

Next I think I will mount these modules on a base plate with some dichros and galvos because I don't have my green yet, it's coming along slowly but surely.

[Song]

Nice work!!

Song

[Jimboy3625]

Finally decided to update this thread. It's been a long time, I'm trying to get this thing done for SELEM2012.

I decided to change up the red all together, I've got one Optnext HL6385DG and one LPC815 combined with a PBS now, running at about 400mW currently.



I finally finished my 445 with the correction prisms as well, currently running about 500mW.





I've got my plans all done, here is a rough layout of the base plate. When finished it will be 12" x 12" x8"





I'll try to keep the updates coming rather that waiting 9 months...lol

-Jim

[polishedball]

Glad to see you did something at work today.

[Jimboy3625]

Finally made some head way on my projector. I have the plate done, drilled, and tapped, most of the components at least rough mounted. I still have a lot of wiring to do and lots of clean-up but I couldn't resist firing up the green and lining it up on the scanners just once!






I'm getting very excited as this is coming together so nicely!

-Jim

[polishedball]

Nice, in case you didn't figure it out yet, if you loosen the allen on the scanner blocks you can rotate the galvos to get the beam straight out. Just be very careful as you don;t want to snap off a mirror.

[hakzaw1]

Mid way thru reading this I PMed JB about SELEM and PB needing a rider--duh!
I see you have met. Hope to see you both in Newton.

[polishedball]

waiting for tonights update; date night was a few days ago so we know ya have time.