I’ll say right off the bat that I already have some nice Laser protection glasses (goggles?) that someone gave to me; he said they were for green lasers.
So what is the best bang for my buck on a Laser from one of the usual places? (BG, FT, GB, etc.)
Under $25, I would prefer 18650, solid build is a must, and of course I want as bright as possible.
The vast majority of the ones I see on places like banggood don’t have any reviews, so I was wondering if any users here have experience with a good budget option. Also, if someone here wants to sell me one used, I’d be open to that too.
Subscribed, I’d like to buy one as well, but have heard that the high powered lasers really aren’t as “high powered” as they claim to be. Same way they exaggerate the lumen output on our flashlight, they do the same for the wattage of the lasers (or so I’ve read). I’d like to buy one that can light a match and is very visible.
I have heard kind of the opposite. There’s some law about them needing to be under 5mw or something, and it’s easier for the Chinese to not limit them. So they advertise as only 5mw, but many times they are much higher. I had a very cheap one that you could easily see the beam in darkness, but it was built like crap.
Most people who want a burning laser should never have one. Just let him find it himself if he’s really intent on it. Don’t assist them in damaging their eyes or worse, other people’s eyes.
It takes quite a bit of power to catch most things on fire.
While I would usually agrees with this, this guy a overly cautious about everything, almost beyond OCD. If he had this laser, he would probably but 3 sets of glasses for him and each family member. Sometimes he is beyond ridiculous with things. He is a doomsday prep kinda guy. I’m sure he wants the laser for the end of the world mankind vs democrats or zombies or whatever.
Well, really, both you Pilotdog and Yourrid are right.
Lasers labeled as 5mW are often “overspec” higher than 5mW, especially green 532nm ones. But when you are actually searching for something high power then it’s almost always less, sometimes much, much less then
claimed. Unless your buying from one of the few good sellers.
N10sivern, but he specifically wants one that can catch things on fire. There isn’t really any practical need for that at all.
A lighter is much more reliable, cheaper, safer. If someone wants to set things on fire at a distance, they usually don’t have good intentions in mind. And still their are better, quicker ways. Flare gun, molotov cocktail.
It can be fun to play. For any of us, a Laser is really just a dangerous toy, but so are many of our other “toys”. for many people an ATV or big lifted truck is really just a toy, and can be very dangerous. Obviously I wouldn’t advocate giving a laser to an irresponsible person or child, but I also wouldn’t assume that just because he wants a laser than can burn that he has cruel intentions.
Whatever Chinese laser you buy that is rated 5mw or under it will definitely be way above that.
We’re talking approximately 50-100mw for green and up to 200mw for red. Which stresses the need for quality saftey goggles. Since you’re looking for maximum brightness go for 532nm.
If all your willing to spend is $25 or under then it does not matter what you end up buying. Most, if not all of them are the same across the board, with the only difference being the host. Larger host have more desirable characteristics such as longer duty cycles and usually interchangeable diffraction gratings. I have owned my 303 ebay cheap laser for over three years and it has never let me down, with no perceivable change in brightness over the course of those three years, YMMV of course.
How much would I have to spend to get something of any quality?
I am very much interested in a better quality host, but I really don’t care about being able to burn things or not. The one I had before was awful. It took 2xAAA and fitment was terrible so you would have to shake the thing to get it to work.
I was wondering if anyone had a specific listing they bought from that the host and laser were of known decent (won’t break in two days) quality.
Do people make lasers in P60 pills? That would cut out the cost of the host, but I imagine the cost of custom building the module would still make it much much more expensive.
Just wanted to add (as far as I understand) safety glasses are not just to protect you if the laser get pointed directly in your eyes. Damage can happen even when looking at the beam or the spot where the laser is pointing. You should always have them on when using them.
Green lasers are more expensive to produce than red or blue/violet, however the eye is more sensitive to green, so it takes a lower wattage to appear as bright. If your goal is to damage things with a laser on a budget, red seems to be the way to go.
Obligatory warning: a lot of people don’t realize just how easy it is to damage your eyes with these things. If it can start fires, there’s a good chance the reflection off of any surface (not just shiny ones) can damage your eyes. You may not even realize you’ve done it at the time, and there’s no repairing the damage once it’s done. Everyone nearby should wear safety glasses designed for the wavelength of that particular laser.
Edit: the other thing to be aware of with green lasers is that they work by using an IR laser diode to stimulate the emission of green light. Good green lasers have a filter that keeps any significant amount of IR from coming out the front. Bad ones sometimes don’t, and that IR can more easily cause eye injury than visible light if we’re talking about power levels that can burn things.
I don’t mean to come off as testy, but I didn’t make this thread to discuss glasses or even general laser safety. I care about that, but that’s not my question here.
So far I have gotten 1, maybe 2 replies that actually attempted to answer my question.
Does anybody other than M4X have a budget laser they can recommend?
Blue would probably be cool, but if the entire beam isn’t visible I expect it to be useless outdoors (and I expect to mainly use it outdoors). I assumed green would be the best candidate for a visibly bright beam.