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Moire LASER effect with a handmade laser

Moire LASER effect with a handmade laser
Here below is a photo capture of this effect, at times the effect darts off onto the wall 90degrees from the screen. It is very impressive!. It has not and cannot come back at me from while watching, it is safe to do this though I would recomend that it is not setup in an area where other people might bump into the setup and upset the beam path from the intended direction.

I have made a metacafe video showing it in operation


Disclaimer:
There is a danger of being exposed excessively to laser radiation as with any laser project, yet the beam/effect has never done a 180 turn and come back at me in the viewing area. I would assume this would be attempted by responsible knowledgeable persons who are fully aware of the dangers of experimenting with lasers.
 
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Step 1Lighter Selection

Lighter Selection
I had been accumulating all my dead lighters for quite a bit of time with no idea what I would be doing with them till I happened to notice these very cool patterns reflected by my laser from certain types of plastics. I found that the green and blue (blue is best) gave some noticeable patterns. Look at the blue lighter! I have been using it for some time now and it is full of "laserpit" gouges from the beam!
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40 comments
Feb 15, 2008. 10:28 AMflips30240 says:
I fully agree with girrrrrrr2.
Jun 18, 2008. 5:20 PMiq_abyss says:
I second the motion.
Aug 31, 2008. 2:08 PMviacin says:
Third
Mar 7, 2009. 11:15 PMrovinghermit says:
forth
Apr 2, 2009. 12:17 PMdenimchief says:
fifth
May 20, 2009. 12:08 PMgfella says:
sixth
Aug 20, 2009. 1:31 PMmarc00703 says:
Seventh
Sep 1, 2009. 9:04 PMAdamMunich says:
eighth
Sep 2, 2009. 9:08 PMHerminator says:
ninth
Mar 18, 2010. 4:01 PMFootball viking boy says:
I guess I'm tenth
May 23, 2010. 12:39 PMPikminRed says:
ELEVENTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ELEVENTHS
 I IZ ELEVENTHZ

Aug 3, 2010. 1:24 PMbelgvr says:
twelfth
Aug 24, 2010. 10:51 PMCyborgGold says:
Thriteeeeeenth.... ooh, scary... and I hope you are getting the picture by now Laserco, lol
Sep 2, 2010. 7:45 AMAdamMunich says:
14'th
Apr 20, 2011. 1:39 PMgrundisimo says:
fifteenth.
Apr 25, 2011. 2:53 PMyanni.vee says:
16th
May 29, 2011. 8:19 AMpeetar_webster says:
17th
May 30, 2011. 12:16 PMbelgvr says:
18th :D
Jul 21, 2011. 7:42 PMgrundisimo says:
Infinite-th. I win.
Dec 9, 2007. 11:05 AMgirrrrrrr2 says:
you should post an instructable on how to make the laser... becuase i like the design of it...
Feb 14, 2009. 6:11 PMelectfire says:
I agree
Apr 21, 2011. 2:43 AMdenimchief says:
I second your agreeance and third gir's comment.
Aug 6, 2009. 8:47 AMajn142 says:
your video has been removed from metacafe. thought you should know, as i was looking forward to seeing the video, and i'm sure other people were too.
Mar 30, 2009. 7:37 PMdouglastheman says:
yeah he should
Oct 22, 2008. 6:18 PMwazza says:
IS the green litter melt too? Cause as I have understood, it must be the litter's plastic that melt slowly On you pics the green litter seem not at all melt. Could you explain us how to obtain a moving moire pattern without any melt or moving of the reflector.??? Thanks a lot
Dec 7, 2007. 12:50 PMActionTekJackson says:
I've wanted a high power laser forever, but I can't see spending the wicked laser price for one. I've noticed that parts to build one are significantly cheaper and I do have a bit of electrical experience and understand basic schematics. Though I've never seen any good tutorial on building your own laser. Do you think you could message me with a list of parts that I must have, or even better direct me to, or make an instructable on it? ;-)
Sep 12, 2008. 6:15 PMLew8 says:
i will make an instructable soon on how to make a 200mw dvd burner laser, but in the mean time all you really need is 2-3 aa/aaa/c/d batteries a torch to house the enclosure an aixiz module 12x30 5mw from mfgcn.com or aixiz.com (they do ship to uk by the way), a 5k potentiometer (smaller is better) and a laser diode from a 16x dvd burner for max power. then connect everything in series withe the can of the diode as the gnd and adjust the pot in series with the diode until a bright red light floods out dont djust any further. instructable coming soon!!!
Jan 21, 2008. 11:11 AMconundrum says:
hmm. my idea of using a high powered resistor to get much the same effect (it works by heat basically) seems to have vanished. I really must get around to trying this with a laser pointer sometime, it might be pretty useful. -A
Nov 13, 2007. 1:22 PMandrewnonymous says:
man i want one of those, how much did it cost you to make it?
Nov 10, 2007. 2:48 PMJamesRPatrick says:
Any danger of ignition with high powered lasers?
Nov 4, 2007. 5:53 AMgmoon says:
This is a nice effect, but I wish you had a little explaination about what a moire pattern is, and how you achieved the results with your setup...

(Note: If that's in the video: I don't generally watch video segments for basic information, only for dynamics that can't be done otherwise--sound, movement, etc. I personally find it irritating to watch a videocast for build information--I'm NOT taking notes on a subject, when text is a much more effect way of communication specifics... Sorry, just my little scree for the day.)
Nov 4, 2007. 10:01 AMgmoon says:
You should add this to the instrucable! (I knew what they were already, as I've worked with halftone screens in offset printing...but many people wouldn't.)
Nov 4, 2007. 6:42 PMgmoon says:
You surely can edit a published instructable (and don't call you Shirley, right?)

Just go to your 'you' page, and each instructable will have an (edit) link.

Re: metacafe--yes, I see you solved it. So you must have also figured out how to edit ;-).

About the moire patterns: I really don't know what's happening, but I suspect it 's related to multiple reflections from the plastic surfaces (clear plastic and glass reflect from both the outer and inner surfaces. This might be causing an interferometer type of effect, where the resulting two beams are just slightly out of phase.
Nov 6, 2007. 4:42 AMgmoon says:
Sent you a PM as a reply, yesterday.

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