My Homebuilt HeNe Laser Lamp
June 20th, 2009When I was in middle school, I read all about Light Amplification by Stimulated Emissions of Radiation (lasers). I saved up almost $100 for a crappy laser pointer (now they are practically giveaways). One book, the Laser Cookbook, was all about projects you could do with lasers. One, which every middle-schooler would love, is making a laser gun (a harmless one, but cool nonetheless). But it required a Helium Neon laser tube, and some fancy circuitry for a power supply and a big-ole hip holstered battery pack. But after spending all my lawn mowing money on that crappy laser pointer I couldn’t afford to build the laser gun. Thus the interest slowly faded away…
Many years later, I found a Desktop Helium Neon Laser Lamp Build tutorial on Hack N Mod, and BAM! I got so excited! I new where to get most of the parts, but not the laser. After searching the webs, I found Meredith Instruments which had good information and the parts I needed. But the everything there new, and more money than I wanted to spend. Searching the internets some more, I kept seeings “Sam’s Laser FAQ.” So I read that to learn how to actually put a laser and power supply together. Then I found his HeNe Laser Kit 2 and saw the price! It was just what I needed, and it had those brackets I could not find anywhere.
So I bought one of those kits, went to Hastings Plastics Co. and got my acrylic mirror sheets cut so I could mount the laser. I also got acyclic solvent from them to glue the pieces together. I lined up the laser on the acrylic and drilled some holes to mount the brackets. Glued the pieces together. Soldered the switch to the power supply. Connected the project box base to the mirrored stand. Done.
I made a complete parts list of all the parts I used and where I got them. I pretty much copied the Hank N Mod tutorial. Though my wall power adapter came already connected to the power supply. Finally, here is the pic of my HeNe Laser Lamp:
Now where the heck do I put it?
Tags: hack-n-mod, lasers, Tinker
June 20th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Pretty sweet, maybe you could sell them, too.
April 28th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
How large can u make this? Could u make this a large standing floor model like 4 or 5 feet high? Also, how hard would it be to make a double laster lamp with maybe two different colored lasers or maybe 3?
April 28th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
“laster” meant laser….
May 4th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
John, I don’t think they make lasers that large. You could make the allusion of a large laser if you shot the beam though a gas filled tube or some other translucent material to get the beam to show. Making a double or more laser lamp would require a larger power supply. If you connected the lasers in parallel, it will drain more current. The power supply would have to be able to deliver that much current. You would also want the lasers to be identical as possible, otherwise the circuitry gets more complicated (the voltage across each laser would be the same, so if the lasers required different voltages and the ballast resistors would have to be selected appropriately).