Ever since I was a kid, I fantasized about making a burning laser. Yeah, I'm a nerd. But hey, how cool would it be to build a high powered laser that projects a beam of light that can burn stuff?

I found a few plans for a class 4 carbon dioxide laser online, but since I have no fabrication skills and very little electronics skills, I'm wondering how difficult this would be.

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasercc2.htm

http://www.jarrodkinsey.org/co2laser/co2laser.html

http://www.amazing1.com/burning-lasers.htm

The inexpensive route would be to fabricate it from scratch, but I'm not that handy, so I was thinking it would make sense to just order the individual parts that are already fabricated like mirrors, mounts, laser tube, power supply, gas mixture, and vacuum pump. Then I would only need to put it all together and make my own water cooling jacket for the laser tube. I already have a Helium neon laser for optical alignment.

Is this doable for an amateur?

I've never let a lack of experience stop me! Go for it! Learn as much as you can and do it. You may make some mistakes, have setbacks, but that's just part of the process.

I'd love to see your results!

These are two Tesla coils I designed and built myself. Just thought they were of the same spirit, of power and danger, and you might enjoy.

That first one is well over 4 feet of lightning. I got it out to about 52 inches at times.

hehe, definitely doable. I went though a similar fascination phase, over the past couple of years, actually. I just don't have the space for it.

you'll need a focusing lens.

http://www.powerlabs.org/laser.htm

btw, that's awesome, Mr. Peabody.
I <3 tesla coils, VDG generators, etc. they have lots of potential

wow that second pic is 0.0

i love all you mad scientists

Holy shit that's dangerous!

Mr.P... Go on...just admit it...
That's just some air conditioning ducting and weavesilk...

awesome stuff

^^^ Hahahah!

I didn't mean to hijack this post! Although, I do admit, I like to show off my cool stuff. I was really meaning to show that it is possible for someone to learn stuff and apply it.

Oh, and another thing to add, if you're anything like myself some part of you may be under the delusion that stuff like this will get you attention from the ladies...... if anything it is a repellant. A fine repellant!!

You have renewed my desire to build a van der graaf generator.

Spartan do it. I built two handheld burning lasers. It was fun and exciting to see my hard work payoff. I've wanted to build the bigger cooled lasers really bad but it's expensive and I can't justify it yet.

I highly recommend you attain the highest quality focusing lens. That will make a huge difference. Glass not plastic.

OMG mr P. I want one. Please teach me the way of the force! I have always wanted to build a tesla coil and I have a spot in my garage that would be perfect for such a thing.

P, that is a styling man-cave you have there. And seriously, is there a better use for a man-cave than large, barely controlled electrical discharges?

I remember someone from Anonymous built a laz0r that burned trough wood. They wanted to use them to burn media cameras

I'll have to look if I can get my hands on the design, was pretty cheap and easy to get together

Google laser pointer forum

probably not.
that is awesome use of a man-cave

You aren't just building it to burn things I assume? Because you can get that much easier and faster and a lot cheaper than building a whole Co2 laser. I have red and near-UV ones which can cut tape, which would have been a big deal years ago, but the stuff you can get now just as easily is crazy. Some almost 3 watts handheld.

Still, good luck with your project!

And I would suggest doing quite a bit of research if you have not already, I'm assuming you already have. I suggest green for its brightness and power or visible UV for its glow in the dark recharging abilities. I'm not sure if visible UV is available in a cooled laser tube but they are awesome.

I have a handheld uv laser that I use to draw on a piece of plexiglass that is covered in glow in the dark paint. It charges the paint up instantly and is an awesome toy to have while tripping, as long as you wear the proper safety glasses.

Wow, thanks for the words of encouragement everyone!

I am serious about this project, but I might have to hold off for a while. My wife wants a baby, I want a burning laser. Go figure.



Umm, yeeeeah, it burns stuff at a distance with an invisible beam of IR light. Of course it's just for burning!



IIRC, UV lasers don't need cooling jackets. Apparently they are very simple to build as well. They just aren't destructive enough for my taste though.

By the way, Im loving that high voltage purple discharge in those pictures. Badass.

welp, it's not so much the wavelength of the laser as it is the power output and beam density. however, it would be very expensive to get a 30-watt UV laser (which would need some form of cooling); C02 lasers are relatively inexpensive

Yeah I was just thinking of the low powered home-built nitrogen lasers. For my purposes, a CO2 laser would be beautiful.

I wonder, would a 30 watt UV laser do some damage? It would have to at least give ya a sunburn right?

yea it would.
hell, a 30-watt red laser would do some damage