I've been playing with these lasers for a few years now and some of the one=
s=20
I've extracted from DVD burners have been quite impressive.

Equally impressive have been the blu-ray ones I've extracted from old Xbox=
=20
drives - they have *just* enough power to melt insulating tape when focusse=
d=20
at around 80mw. More importantly, a few tests zapping them across some=20
photosensitive PCB laminate produced some rather interesting and usable=20
results.

There is a whole community out there for people who enjoy playing with=20
lasers - http://laserpointerforums.com/ - everything from cutting lasers to=
=20
how to build your own high powered lasers from scratch :)

Dom


-----Original Message-----=20
From: RussellMc
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2013 8:47 PM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: [EE]:: DIY LASER cutter / engraver using DVD burner LASER

Ref via Hackaday

http://jenslabs.com/2013/12/16/what-can-you-cut-with-a-300mw-diy-laser-cutt=
er/

Useful albeit low powered DIY LASER cutter.
Many "DIY" projects are of the "bolt together this commercial stuff" style.
This one utterly relies on premade components (300 mW LASER diodes are
seldom made at home) but has a good DIY component and produces a useful
device with functionality far different from that of the equipment that
it's made from.

--=20
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