Making a very powerful burning laser from an old DVD burner is easy. It will light matches, burn through cardboard and melt plastic (burning through it if allowed). The light is very intense.
Instructions
1. Use a pair of pliers to pull on the tip of a marker until the entire felt tube comes out. Rinse the marker until there is no more ink in it. Dry the marker inside and out. Use a small screwdriver to pop off the back end by inserting it into the marker and pushing the end cap until it pops off.
2. Open a sacrificial DVD burner. Do this by unscrewing every screw on the case that you can find. Do not forget to check for hidden screws under the stickers. Some cases will (rarely) require you to pry at the face plate of the DVD burner to remove it before the rest of the case will open.
3. Look in the open case where the DVD tray typically sits. There should be a clear, flat diode that is on a platform that can move to read/write on the DVD player. Remove the circuit that holds the diode, but not the diode itself. You may have to cut wires and undo screws to get at it. Strip it down until it is a flat mini-circuit board.
4. Get a sacrificial clothes iron. Clamp it to your workbench vice (unplugged) so that the flat, "hot" side faces upwards and is level. Secure it so that it does not wiggle around. Make sure that you are not standing close enough so that hot solder and parts do not run off onto you or your feet. Turn the iron on the lowest setting.
5. Get two pairs of forceps. Place the chip (circuit board) on the iron with the components on the top. Use one pair of forceps to hold the chip on the iron and the other to grasp the part(s) that you wish to remove from their solder. Raise the temperature in increments, and try again with the forceps to see if the solder has melted enough to remove the part(s). Make sure that the heat does not travel from the iron through the forceps, since metal likes to let heat dissipate through it quickly. Once the laser diode is removed and cooled, go to the next step.
6. Cut two wires so that one is 6 inches long and the other is 1 inch long. Strip two the wires up to 1 centimeter from both sides of each wire. Solder each of these two wires to two separate metal leads sticking out of the laser diode. Insert the diode (wires first) into the marker, and glue it in place so that the flat laser side is perpendicular to the cylinder and points straight out. Glue on the diode with cyanoacrylate (similar to Super Glue).
7. Cut a 5-inch square of aluminum coil. Use your forceps again to grab the wires from the still-open end. Hold the wires together and against the inside wall of the marker. Keep the longest wire sticking out of the marker. Wad up the aluminum foil into a ball that is slightly larger than the marker. Slip this ball into the marker so that it firmly contacts the exposed end of the shorter wire.
8. Aim the laser to a safe location and clamp it in place. A water-soaked rag will work of a little while, though the light will still burn through it. Strip a third wire on both ends that is 4 inches long. Cut a loop of resilient plastic from a disposable water bottle and make a loop that is as wide as the marker. Tape the loop.
9. Use more cyanoacrylate glue to glue one wire into the inside of the loop, without getting the glue on the exposed wire. Make sure that the wire goes into the loop at an angle. Glue the outside of the loop onto the marker with the wire on the lower inside of the loop. Glue the other wire in a similar way but at a right angle to the first wire, right above the first so that if you squeeze the loop, the wires touch to complete the circuit (a simple switch).
10. Run the free end of the third wire to the flat side of a AA battery. Tape the wire on and slip this into the marker. Cut a notch into the end cap for the wire to sit in and then put the cap back on (if you are confident that you can pull the end cap off again).
Tags: into marker, Make sure, Make sure that, sure that, burn through, flat side
