You can buy million-watt tattoo-removal lasers on eBay, but don't

No kidding. They’re around $500-600 on ebay. Crazy.

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In this case it has to be a NIR 1064 nm laser, because he attached a frequency-doubling crystal to get 532 nm. The attachments can only be used to tune it to multiples of the frequency, or fractions of the wavelength. So the options are 1064, 532, 266, 133 nm, etc. Each iteration is at MUCH lower power than the previous and getting down to the 133 nm is hypothetical, at best. That’s a good thing, because as you go lower in wavelength, the individual photons are more energetic. A 266 nm laser, even in the milliWatt range, is really scary.

Also, it’s pretty likely, even wearing “proper” eyewear, he’s done the same thing to his retina that he did to the CMOS sensor on his camera by directing this laser on highly reflective surfaces.

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I get the impression he often uses a VR headset and looks at his video feed…he noticed the degradation of the camera right away…but yeah, just looking at the beam passing through air…

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Spaceballs, Laser Return

I love that guy’s channel, but I’d be scared to see his insurance premiums.

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I hope so. He said he was using the laser goggles rated for the YAG laser fundamental (though at a million Watts and OD6, a direct hit with the laser would still let in ~ 1W of laser power; goggles rated for total black at 1064 would cost more than the laser). However, he would need to change goggles when he went to the 532 nm second harmonic. Did he? :anguished:

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Hopefully. Most of the ample danger he puts himself in seems more down to sheer recklessness than ignorance.

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An infrared laser like this will be absorbed by a silvered mirror, and will vaporize the reflective part if it’s sufficiently powerful.

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I’m sure he did…I’ve watched a few of his videos in the past, my impression of him is that he projects an image of recklessness for humorous effect . Also, if gets too specific about protective measures that might imply the video was instructional rather than for entertainment and might lead to liability (my completely feckless speculation ). For something more alarming, here’s a KOR video I saw a while back. Note one of the lasers in use quickly melts holes in a balloon. These “laser pointers” sold online are often more powerful than specified as well, something that “styropro” has documented in one of his videos. WRT the KOR video, I did provide feedback to YT that this may be a dangerous project demonstrated, to no effect . https://youtu.be/-T_kebx_KWc

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image

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Mirrors that have a reflective material thickness similar to aluminum foil? I think we saw him punch through that…

Is this million watt or million joule? Because I expect a megawatt laser to do more than remove a tattoo; like, maybe the whole limb.

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Power ratings don’t factor in the energy of the photons or duty cycle. This laser uses pretty wimpy photons (at least for the fundamental wavelength - infrared photons are lazy) and has a very low duty cycle (millisecond pulses at 10 Hz, so single-digit% duty cycle).

If it was a MW laser at the second harmonic (530 nm) and continuous, then, yeah, aiming it at one spot would quickly penetrate the target and start tunneling through whatever is behind the target.

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That’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen styropyro play with, and that’s saying something.

I’ll have to send this to the company laser safety officer to watch him squirm.

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Thanks for the heads up. Cool video, will watch more.

Sure there is. Just coat the lenses with a half inch of steel.

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I’m sure there’s a joke here about this tattoo-removal laser being ‘armless, but I can’t quite get there…

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These come with glasses. Idiots don’t use them.

I actually own one of these, purchased to remove a Sturge-Weber mark before I found an identity thief on my ass and decided to keep Nature’s tat. The aftermarket lenses are $150 each (for mine) and they burn up amazingly fast.

I’d be scared to see his budget allocation! I’m sort of morbidly fascinated by the economics around having a profitable YouTube channel and Patreon that involves buying a $500 laser that destroys the sensors on two brand new video cameras during the filming of a single segment.

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I was hoping he would expand on the frequency multiplier concept. It reminds me of how we do IF mixers for radio.

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