DIY Laser defense Weapon for Sit-X

reply to post by Redge777


I'm not advocating the misuse of this item! I am pointing out with this thread that it COULD be a useful addition to a survival arsenal. And if you fire your 30.06 out the back door, a neighbor AND his cat may get killed.

And under a Sit-X situation, I doubt being worried about being a war criminal will be very much of a high priority on my worry list.

But it is good to note these things, as one should note a lot of things that we do. (Some people buy unregistered firearms, and others saw off shotguns.)



[edit on 30-9-2007 by NGC2736]

Originally posted by NGC2736
I would think it would require some power greater than three or four "D" batteries, but it might be a very useful idea.

If you combined the whole laser-torch assembly onto a digital camcorder (most have a low-power IR illuminator and 'nightmode' function) you have a perfectly good lo-tech night-vision and weapon capability.

In terms of user-safety the laserbeam would be visible on the viewscreen, as would any anemy IR nightvision light sources, plus a low-power IR lightsource to illuminate for the camera

would give you a definate edge in an urban/city X-scenario

There are good guides on Laser safety available on net.

If you do try experiments with lasers, please use protective eyewear. AND MAKE SURE THAT THE EYWEAR IS SUITABLE FOR THE LASER YOU ARE USING. You need different goggles for IR and Nd:YAG Lasers.

Ps. I think i'll stick to the 6kW Nd:YAG lasers i have access to

reply to post by northwolf


I hear that! Those little lasers are nothing compared to the one I work on every day.

Mazak Space gear U44



[edit on 30-9-2007 by angryamerican]

reply to post by angryamerican


Too bad they would never scrap one of those babies out so you could get your hands on the parts.

Mounted on a swival on an ATV, you could have a real humdinger.

reply to post by NGC2736


The U44's laser is huge It uses 40000 volts of juice and can cut up to 1/2 inch piece of steel. To be honest thow as impressive as the U44 is it isnt even close to a big cutting laser. as industrial lasers go it is small. at $400000 a pice its a real bargin to.

Originally posted by angryamerican
reply to post by NGC2736

 

The U44's laser is huge It uses 40000 volts of juice and can cut up to 1/2 inch piece of steel. To be honest thow as impressive as the U44 is it isnt even close to a big cutting laser. as industrial lasers go it is small. at $400000 a pice its a real bargin to.

Well, that's just a tiny bit over my budget for toys I like.

Seriously, what makes the cost so high? Is the material it's made from that exotic, or is it the cost of the technology itself?

And as a side note, could an array of smaller, and cheaper, units combine to form a higher powered "blaster"? (And how would you focus them all on a target? Hmmmmm? )

! I'd have to agree on this one.

LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED EMISION OF RADIATION!

**********************************************************

Extreme Caution should be used in this idea, reverse engineering a DVD burner to a Laser Weapon is extremely dangerous!

Treat this idea the same as you would a loaded gun!

Know what you are doing at all times.

DANGER MIRRORS REFLECT LIGHT!

DANGER LASERS HAVE FANTASTIC RANGE!

DANGER GASOLINE, AND OTHER FLAMMABLE LIQUIDS CAN IGNITE ON CONTACT.

WARNING YOUR EYES ARE VERY FRAGILE< IT ONLY TAKES A MILLISECOND TO BLIND YOURSELF OR SOMEONE ELSE!

EXPLOSIVE ORBITAL RUPTURE COULD BE POSSIBLE.

USE OF ARC WELDING GOGGLES SHOULD BE USED BY ALL IN EXPERIMENTAL ZONE>

Originally posted by NGC2736

Originally posted by angryamerican
reply to post by NGC2736

 

The U44's laser is huge It uses 40000 volts of juice and can cut up to 1/2 inch piece of steel. To be honest thow as impressive as the U44 is it isnt even close to a big cutting laser. as industrial lasers go it is small. at $400000 a pice its a real bargin to.

Well, that's just a tiny bit over my budget for toys I like.

Seriously, what makes the cost so high? Is the material it's made from that exotic, or is it the cost of the technology itself?

And as a side note, could an array of smaller, and cheaper, units combine to form a higher powered "blaster"? (And how would you focus them all on a target? Hmmmmm? )

It's the parts and the engineering, then the power supply and the optics.

Great find, i needed a new project to work on, thanks.

ProTo

reply to post by NGC2736


Time of development and production largely. These things don't exactly come off an assembly line. The longer something takes to build, more precision parts involved which in turn take time to produce [meaning they cost more], and more human time spent translates to a higher price.

>
I have this coffee mug




[edit on 30-9-2007 by apc]

Originally posted by NGC2736

Well, that's just a tiny bit over my budget for toys I like.

Me too!!!!

Seriously, what makes the cost so high? Is the material it's made from that exotic, or is it the cost of the technology itself?

The U44 is a C02 laser the beam bounces off 7 different mirrors to get to the torch body. thats over 12 feet of tunnel the beam is traveling in. If the beam varies even a little it will touch the sides of the tube also known as bellows and start a fire. In fact that is exactly what happened a month ago. I think the cost is a combination of the tech and the material. to handle 40000 volts you can only use the best material. To think up how to handle 40000 volts takes the best minds.

And as a side note, could an array of smaller, and cheaper, units combine to form a higher powered "blaster"? (And how would you focus them all on a target? Hmmmmm? )

I would think that could be done but to be honest I wouldn't know how, but it seems doable to me. I have heard of beam splitters so there must be a combiner I would think.

[edit on 30-9-2007 by angryamerican]

reply to post by apc


thank you, thank you, and ummm.,........ did I say thank you??? I have been messing around with lasers trying to get on of my pointers to light a cig but to no avail.

I am gonna try this stuff and order stuffff......lasers are kewl

I am pleased by the interest in this, thanks all. I have learned a bit so far, and for that I'm glad.

A lot off very good information has come up with this thread. I wasn't aware of how many folks had an interest in the subject.

I'm looking forward to hearing how the builds turn out. What problems were encountered, and how they were met.

And always, safety first!

Now these things we're looking at are the homade zip guns when it comes to laser weapons.

Google MTHEL, and see what the bad boys will have. Though it won't be very mobile. I'm betting there's a little brother to this that is mobile and yet deadly.

Hi, this is my first post here. I have a little experience with lasers. A long time ago I had ran a couple of different industrial welding and cutting lasers. One of which was a rather old (about 25 years old now) 5kw CO2 laser that sucked about 35000 volts. The beams on these things cannot pass through any substance without generating a lot of heat. The one I worked on had a glass hole on the bell housing where the laser exited. It had to be liquid cooled while in operation. When it exited the beam was about the size of a quarter (25 cents) and hot enough to melt the surface of a sheet of plexiglass in less then a second. The beam is much to hot to use glass lenses to focus it so it was bounced of a series of highly polished brass mirrors which where also water cooled. The last mirror was concave and focused the beam into a pinpoint that was extremely HOT. It could burn a whole in an inch of titanium in a matter of seconds. It’s the type of laser that could fire a sustained beam for a long time. The whole contraption was about the size of and SUV not including the power and electronics cabinets. I ran some other types of lasers that just fired pulses and where much smaller in size. But they where only capable of making very, very small pinpoint holes. It amazes me how lasers are shrinking in size. I have no doubt that we have the capabilities to build very powerful hand held lasers. They must already exist.
I will also stress the safety factory when messing with lasers. I got a few instant suntans when a beam got scattered by something hard in the metals I was welding. Always wear eye protection.

reply to post by nervehammer


Welcome to ATS, nervehammer. Glad my post was interesting enough to get you started posting.

Yeah, it seems that technology in this area is moving pretty fast. I wouldn't doubt that handheld laser weapons are already here, though not put out in sight. Maybe still in testing or something.

Again, glad to have you aboard.

What kind of area-denial capability could you create with just a few of these laser-diodes and a disco-ball?

Originally posted by citizen smith
What kind of area-denial capability could you create with just a few of these laser-diodes and a disco-ball?

What a thought! Call it Medussa, because any way that you tried to approach it, you were likely to be hit.

but to run all the time, this would take a lot of power; at least if it were in the range to do fairly serious damage.

reply to post by nervehammer

Welcome to the club Nervehammer. As a fellow laser operator I would also like to give you a special welcome. I love my job and it sounded like you did to. I think you will enjoy ATS survival forums. were a great bunch of friendly folks and most of us like and want to share what we know. If you have any questions don't hesitate to post them or when you get enough points U2U them to me. I'll help if I can