DIY: Star Trek Blu-Ray Phaser...
- Thread starter K'riq Sa
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As much as I love lasers, I had a 50mw green laser pointer, and just playing with it one day, it bounced off a mirror and hit my brother about 2 inches below the eye.
I put it on sale the next day and took $100 loss on it. If I had blinded my brother the guilt would have been too much for me to bear. That day I realized how dangerous these devices are, and I've had to fight the urge to get another one. They are more dangerous than loaded guns IMHO.
Right, because temporarily blinding your brother with a green laser pointer would have been SO much worse than accidentally shooting him in the face.
In related news: I bought an airsoft rifle for 35 bucks once on my usual boyish obsession with guns/toys/guns-that-are-toys. I have twice in my life faced the wrath of my wife and my cousin via the business end of that gun; my wife shot me in the balls from a range of 30 feet, which--BELIEVE ME--is a fair sight more painful than a laser pointer.
Too bad this isn't TNZ.
A 50mw laser beam is NOT a temporary blindness inducer, it's a PERMANENT ONE! Depending on where you get hit, it would damage any part of the retina, and you'd have a big freakin' hole in your peripheral view, and if you were unlucky enough to get hit in the macula, well, there goes your high resolution sight. The laser pointers you are thinking of are those weak ass ones that are <5mw (meaning you're lucky if you get 1-2mw out of one) and yes your eye would most likely be fine from getting spotted with one of those. The one I had you could see the beam easily in indoor lighting and would pop balloons and light up matches! Yeah, that's not going to damage your eyesight at all
. And if you're thinking of the dazzlers that the military uses, those are calibrated to be OUT OF FOCUS so you hit your target with an insane, but diffused amount of light that is supposed to cause only temporary blindness (no long term effect studies have been done)I have a couple of firearms, a 20 gauge Winchester shotty, a .40cal Beretta 96, a .22 Caliber Daisy C02 pistol, and my bro has some cheap spring powered airsoft stuff, like a fake M16 and a fake airsoft no name gun. I'm not stupid enough to treat my firearms like toys and would NEVER EVER in my fucking life EVER point it at my brother who I love dearly and is like a brother to me
. NOT EVEN playing around. I don't even do that with the toy guns!!! Anyone that is fucking dumb enough to play around with loaded firearms deserves to shoot their foot off for being complete imbecils.As for the pain factor, well, when I used to shoot old phonebooks, I found that the .40cal FMJ could cut thru three phonebooks and half into another from a distance of about 12 feet. The .22cal CO2 powered pellets could go in about 1" into a phonebook which was more than I expected, and the "airsoft" bb's would just bounce off, even when shot inches away. I didn't have the 20 gauge at the time yet, but I'm sure all that would be left is shredded newspaper with a shell like the Federal #2 Buckshot.
Why do I mention all this? Well, I decided to shoot myself in the hand with the "weak" airsoft, and dear God that was frikkin' painful like a mutha! worse than the sting of a Paintball! And this is a round that won't even penetrate a phonebook shooting it from 12" away! BUT the pain went away in a few mins and I don't remember having even some light bruising. So yes they hurt, but dangerous? Hardly.
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Not from what I've read, but in that case I reiterate for consistency:
Permanently blinding your brother (in one eye) with a laser pointer would have been SO much worse than shooting him in the face with a pistol.
But you're stupid enough to treat a permanent-blindness inducing laser like one?
Well, I was thinking more about the "brains splattered against the wall behind you" factor. But, yeah, I suppose it would also be rather painful to get shot in the face.
In the interest of consistency, I suggest you take the most powerful airsoft weapon you can find on the market and shoot your brother right in the eyeball with it, then shoot him in the balls with a 50mw laser pointer, just so we have a good side by side comparison of which one does more permanent damage.
Perhpas the take away is that Lasers, even in the Mw range have to be treated more carefully than an ordinary toy.
I thought it was understood by now that laser's in just about ANY range are not toys? They are, technically, tools, not toys. The only temptation is that they're slightly more fun than your phillip's head screwdriver, but probably just as dangerous if mishandled.
Of course, comparing them to a loaded gun is another matter entirely.
Of course, comparing them to a loaded gun is another matter entirely.
Some people treat laser pointers as toys.
If you think these can be dangerous look at this:http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Spyder_III_Pro_Arctic_Series-96-37.html
If you think these can be dangerous look at this:http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Spyder_III_Pro_Arctic_Series-96-37.html
^ But does it have a stun setting?
unfortunately only burn setting.
I-Am-Zim
Captain
I've got a 1w 808nm infrared laser laying around in my shop right now that I've been contemplating putting into one of my Art Asylum TOS phasers. A 1w laser will pretty much punch through anything you put in front of it. So it would be rather dangerous. I also have one of those TNG type II phaser laser pointers that I bought at a convention back in the late 90's and it is just a plain old 5mw red laser pointer. And I have a Kenner Star Wars Han Solo blaster that I put a 5mw red laser pointer emitter in the tip of many years ago and it still works. I use those to torment my cats on a regular basis. It's a lot of demented fun to watch them go after that little red dot at full blast only to run smack into a wall
. These high power laser diodes are extremely dangerous and certainly shouldn't be treated as toys. If I do put the 1w laser in my phaser, I plan to see what types of materials it will burn through and how long it takes. I know a 300mw laser will pop a baloon from across the room and light cigarrettes and matches. So what will a 1w (1000mw) laser do? Should be interesting.
. These high power laser diodes are extremely dangerous and certainly shouldn't be treated as toys. If I do put the 1w laser in my phaser, I plan to see what types of materials it will burn through and how long it takes. I know a 300mw laser will pop a baloon from across the room and light cigarrettes and matches. So what will a 1w (1000mw) laser do? Should be interesting.
Yes, the problem with Lasers is that few people know the dangers of anything >5mw and therefore treating weapons like these as toys. With 50mw lasers becoming entry level, the potential for blinding yourself/someone else is staggeringly high. I suppose a fair comparison would be with C02 Air Guns, both can instantly blind you permanently and both can sting you pretty bad in the skin. The higher powered C02's (.22cal + >500fps) can be as lethal as a real firearm.
Kinda makes you think the Army would do well to develop a man-portable 1-2KW laser as a sniper weapon. I doubt it would actually burn holes in human flesh at that power level, but it might not need to if you can successfully light your target's pants on fire.
I-Am-Zim
Captain
I don't know why that hasn't happened already. I saw a show on the science channel one time about that big anti-missile laser the military had mounted on the nose of a 747 to test out. In that documentary, they showed a 10-watt helium-neon laser mounted on a testing table. It was about the size of a shoebox. Pretty much the same type that our science teacher had back in high school. Except a whole lot more powerful. The man demonstrating the laser took a piece of white paper and passed it in front of the beam. It sliced through the paper like a hot knife through butter. That may not sound very impressive, until you see that it takes a 300mw laser several seconds to burn a tiny hole in a piece of black electrical tape. That same laser would take all day to burn through a piece of white paper. If 10w will do that, just think about what 1-2kw would do. Burning through human flesh would not be a problem at all. Now I don't know how big the power supply would have to be, but it seems to me that a 10w laser mounted in an M-16 type armature would be a pretty effective weapon. Especially for a sniper.
Some M16s do have a 500mw laser mounted on them for sighting and/or target designation; these are the size of TV remotes, though.
Apart from a bolt-on device the size of a grenade launcher, I was thinking something more along the lines (and the size) of the lazerzookas from Akira. The Manga version, IIRC, was powered by an ordinary car battery with transformer, so such a device wouldn't be all that infeasible for combat use (in fact you could probably mount such a device in the casing of a Stinger missile using the same power supply, give you a good thirty seconds of firing). If they could boost it to 2 or 3kw with that portable supply and add some optics to get the beam properly focussed, you could easily parlay that into an ultra-long range sniper weapon, especially since the laser makes no noise at all and won't alert your target or his friends to your presence until AFTER you've already burned his legs off. Talk about intimidation: no gunshot, no warning, one of your guys just bursts into flames for no reason at all.
And of course, if you're not overly concerned about little things like the Geneva Conventions (and we don't seem to be nowadays) it would be even simpler to use lasers to simply BLIND enemy gunmen, effectively removing them from the battlefield without actually killing them. Seems a bit cruel in a way, but it's gotta be better than smearing their brains all over the pavement, right?
Apart from a bolt-on device the size of a grenade launcher, I was thinking something more along the lines (and the size) of the lazerzookas from Akira. The Manga version, IIRC, was powered by an ordinary car battery with transformer, so such a device wouldn't be all that infeasible for combat use (in fact you could probably mount such a device in the casing of a Stinger missile using the same power supply, give you a good thirty seconds of firing). If they could boost it to 2 or 3kw with that portable supply and add some optics to get the beam properly focussed, you could easily parlay that into an ultra-long range sniper weapon, especially since the laser makes no noise at all and won't alert your target or his friends to your presence until AFTER you've already burned his legs off. Talk about intimidation: no gunshot, no warning, one of your guys just bursts into flames for no reason at all.
And of course, if you're not overly concerned about little things like the Geneva Conventions (and we don't seem to be nowadays) it would be even simpler to use lasers to simply BLIND enemy gunmen, effectively removing them from the battlefield without actually killing them. Seems a bit cruel in a way, but it's gotta be better than smearing their brains all over the pavement, right?
I am uncertain what to do with a 1 W laser after the initial burning of things.
I-Am-Zim
Captain
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