Hi all! Happy New Year - will read comments later. The beam dump turned out well, but let's make it even better. Does anyone have a good, easy solution for a metal end cap in stead of plastic? I can't weld aluminium - or any metal for that matter... And how do I fix the iris diaphragm to the front of the beam dump in a lighttight way without obstructing its function? Any input is appreciated!
for your purposes (since its not going to have heavy use, need to be load bearing, etc), I hink super glue or something similar will work. There are metal glues that ive seen that should also handle high heat. you could also try proper sealant, resin, etc. You can make a metal cap and just glue it down using one of those things! I think that should work for your purposes!
I used my older camera for filming this ;) And zoomed in from far away to lower the light energy entering the camera. Luckily it handled it just fine without burned pixels!
@@aarongreenfield9038 I'm assuming 532 and not 520nm... Nice 🤤 I build array handhelds at 10W+... Simply looking at the dot can cause damage, class 4 are no joke. Been building all sorts since 2007 and store them like a firearm, including the smaller 3b's 💥
@@ZeroMass. Yea, I won't mess around with it unless have the reds on. I also have a one watt argon: (It's hard to explain how inefficient that one is lol) and a 1064nm yag that doesn't mess around. I have many more in between, but these are the standout ones worth mentioning.
All of it. Thus, a 3 watt laser will experience 3 watts of heating. That's not much unless highly concentrated on a tiny spot. But spread out by the plumb bob, it will be just 3 watts of heating; barely detectable.
@@brainiac75 oh wow I got a response! Honestly, I think I like this better. It allows you to have a little fun while being serious :) Thanks for the videos!!
Drilling tip: You should have a separate drill bit set for plastics. Just take the cheapest set (or an old one) and dull the bits with a file. They will not catch the plastic and spin it around any more nearly as easily.
And there was a mistake wih the gold color. Normal HSS and HSSE (the one with Cobalt in it) don't apeare visualy different. The color is caused by a Titanium aluminium nitrite (TiAlNi) coating whitch makes it more durable.
@@The___Lamb there are no direct references to what we are talking about, so it doesn't matter - whoever gets it gets it, and if a child understands, we know it's not because of us, but more unfortunate circumstances
The main cone is the only thing that really needs to be heat resistant, I wonder if using black 3.0(with a black 2.0 primer coat) on the inside would help absorb more of the light.
Not necessarily, if the laser doesn't hit the tip it will spread out somewhat but it will still focus on a smallish area, however that area is only at the back and you would be able to use black 3.0 forward of the furthest forward a reflection from the cone will reach the wall to catch tertiary reflections
Instead of using black paint you can coat the inner surface with soot/carbon from burning candle or kerosene etc. The amorphous surface is similar, but not as good as vantablack which will significantly reduce the reflections and make the beam dump even better. PS: Happy new year!
I have done A LOT of spray painting in my life, and one thing that makes the biggest difference in the end result is the cap. You can buy different caps with different spray patterns from graffiti and art supply stores. Some spray larger spots, some spray tiny spots, some spray straight lines (calligraphy cap). You can buy adapters to use them on male spray cans (the cap goes on a stem) to adapt it to the standard caps (the stem is part of the cap). Bombing Science is a good site if you're in Canada, or Art Primo in the US. Small, detailed jobs like spraying the inside of that pipe, would be a LOT easier if you used a fine cap.
3:10 Drilling plastic with cobalt bit, Eating soup with tungsten spoon, Hunting squirrels with a Schwerer Gustav... No matter how it comes, overkill is always fun !
Yep, I have seen professional models with an extra, hollow cone on the inside in front of the diffuser. Would trap even more light. I may need to experiment further, though it really isn't needed for my laser's power level. For now...
@@brainiac75 I mean, I don't think you'll need to deal with daW or stronger Lasers... Am I weird for using Dekawatts Or Hektowatts? Does anyone younger than me even know those SI units... have they even heard of Dekagrams and Hektograms before? Have they heard of decigram then?
For not being a craftsman, you did a great job! Always good to use a guide when cutting metal. Don't be afraid to cut plastic with low pressure and slow speed!
The easier way. Take an empty aluminium can. Add a little sand. Plug hole and shake. (Aiming to roughen the inside bottom) Tip can on side. add a little black paint while the can is on side or nearly so. (can should be nearly empty.) Roll can along flat surface for several revolutions) Tip out excess paint.
It won't look as good and I would be super paraonoid about accidentally puncturing the can but that does sound quick and easy and like it should work fine.
I've had to align laser beams many many times. One time, I made the mistake of using my hand as a beam dump for a 200mW 532nm laser. It burnt a small blister into my hand. We had a lab where there were burn marks on the wall from someone using a 2W IR laser without a beam dump. A piece of black anodized aluminum makes a good beam dump.
Hello from the UK from a fellow science fan & laser builder. Great project Brainiac75, i built you project to your method & specification & made 2 small modifications, i extracted the variable aperture assembly from an old film camera & mounted it to the front of the beam trap using a piece of 5mm black ABS plastic with a circle cut out of it to fit the aperture mechanism into snugly,i then used some fast cure resin to fix permanently in place, i found some small adjustable height rubber bottom feet on screws with plates on the top that had self adhesive pads on ebay that gave me a professional quality beam trap i could use at any distance & beam divergence combination that was an adjustable height. Keep up the great videos.
Great tips. The variable iris is already on its way (as mentioned at the end of the video). The variable height feet are a nice touch. Thanks for watching!
5:01 for de-burring an Aluminium hole, try using a dremel/drill with one of those (carbide?) grinding cones... They are usually a pink or blue-ish color I think?
Instead of a simple aperture, how about a tube from the aperture to just before the tip of the plumb bob? Maybe some baffles could be added to better trap the scattered light.
@@tejasdixit4417 Instead of having a lot of space between the entry hole and the tip of the diffusor cone, you could put a pipe on the inside from the entry hole to the tip of the diffusor. That way no scattered light can come out of the entry hole.
The trapping of the diffused light would definitely be improved. A tube all the way to the plumb bob would be very effective but also requires a very level and precisely aligned laser beam. A few centimeters of black pipe extending on the inside of the aperture would work well and still be practical. Thanks for the tip and watching!
You could even add a series of square aluminum plates with apatures to the inside to reduces the lights ability to bounce all the way back to the front. Maybe cut them like a + sign and bend the tabs at a 90°angle, then use high temperature adhesive to hold them in place.
XTC is a high temperature/heat resistant coating formulated specifically to protect metal surfaces operating at temperatures from 500°F (260°C) to 1500°F (812°C). With proper preparation, XTC provides outstanding adhesion, film integrity, weathering, and thermal shock-resistance throughout this entire temperature range, and is guaranteed not to burn off!
I learned about laser safety and beam dumps from you. Then I saw backyard scientist working with that absurdly powerful IR laser without much safety at all. I was so nervous watching that. 😂
Since the innards are basically enclosed and won't ever be touched. Once you figure out an all metal design Instead of painting the innards with black paint, try exposing them to a poorly burning kerosene flame. The flame will deposit a VERY black layer of soot that will be perfectly matt. It probably isn't as black as vanta black (though since it is basically the same material it is probably close) but it is blacker than any paint can be, it's super cheap and should be fairly heat resistant. Also, thought this would be hard to do with stock parts, having the aperture be a steep cone leading into the hole in the center will reduce the risk of the beam reflecting back at you (as opposed to the aperture being a flat wall with a hole in the center) as you are lining up your beam with the hole.
For what it’s worth- I’m a grad student in an optics lab and we use small beam blocks that are essentially stacked razor blades as our beam blocks. They work quite well on our class 4 lasers and are pretty cheap, around $50 usd. Thorlabs part LB1 if anyone is interested.
A simple Raman Horn design is much simpler and works in all but the most extreme cases. Just bend some anodized conduit with crimp at the end or sheet metal that has been folded in half. The beam is diffused and attenuated at each bounce and the horn shape ensures that it propogates into the horn.
Why have a laser if it is turned off? ;) The point is to have a laser beam without an extremely bright laser dot scattering light all over the place - and a place to point the laser without starting fires/burning holes. For my use, it is to film the laser beam from any angle without having the laser dot burn up pixels in my camera's sensor. And making sure the laser beam does not burn my interior either... Watch my video 'Monster magnet meets laser...' for practical examples where I really should have had a proper beam dump. Many lasers also need some time to warm up to be stable at full power. Turning it on and off is not always a good solution for experiments. Thanks for watching!
Try to paint the inside and out side with muso black. With muso black absorbs aprox 90-99% of light, the beam dump will be super effective and with the addon of a cone in place of the eyeris no light will bounce. You can also and some texture on the inside to trap some more light
I don't have any strong lasers but if I did, this is good to know.... Anyway, learned an important laser safety lesson from an expert as follows: "Do not look directly at laser beam with remaining good eye..." sure, it's supposed to be funny but makes the point to be careful and you'll remember it. Anyway, Neat video... Thanks for posting!
If you need a quick and dirty way of achieving a similar result you can get a stack of utility blades and glue them together. Then simply pass them over a candle to accumulate soot and viola! works extremely well.
Nice safety device, now send it to styropyro for more... extreme testing! Jokes aside, if you make another video on beam dumps, I'd like to see a comparison to the brick painted with the same black paint.
I bought a "200" mw laser off ebay, but the PSU alone was a mains powered one and it even had TEC cooling, looking at your channel and just how powerful it was I suspect it was more likely to have been a 1000 mw laser which explained why it absolutely destroyed the blast plastic I had bought it to engrave
You should start a spray pass from off target while constantly moving the can sideways until it’s again completely away, so to let large blobs goes to backstop. Not always happen but sucks when it does
@@brainiac75 In theory that would have been best, but adhesion isn't a problem in this application. More work than what it is worth. Also, if you have any problems with the paint burning through, (i don't think you will) look for a paint designed for car exhaust manifolds. In the US it is called "header paint" and is commonly available in auto parts stores. It is only about twice as expensive as what you used but can handle higher temperatures, over 1000C.
I wonder if you could have a system which is attached to a laser, and flips one of those in the beam if you need the beam to be somewhere safe. Why wouldn't you just turn the laser off though?
Covering the inside of the tube with baffles would be even more effective. In addition, covering everything inside with soot. Opening hole would be almost a perfect black body.
A further addition you should add if a few internal baffles (thin sheets of painted Aluminum) with a hole about .5mm bigger than the initial hole, it will catch mor of the reflected light letting less escape, this will be mire important with higher power levels.
One improvement could be to use the black 2.0 brand paint (similar to vantiblack) but andvery light absorbent and will withstand the heat I’ve seen it done in something similar before.
Pretty cool video :) I saw a different video about the blackest black paint, I think it was called Munro. I bet you could figure out some sort of cool experiment combining lasers and that paint.
It is amazing that EM waves, RF or light can be terminated by similar devises. I had a few microwave terminations that had a conical graphite center inside a waveguide, just like your beam dump, altho, I would call it a termination as well.
It is a cool feature, although it might be a little dangerous as it may seduce people to skimp on using the glasses, thinking the beam safely cought, while a minor misalignment or the classic wrist watch can still get a reflection to your eye. Also for even stronger lasers, I would suggest adding a aluminum plate to the back part, as the plastic stopper can easily be molten. I once wanted to save money for buying an expensive mirror mount and 3d-printed one from PLA. it worked just fine, but at some point I had the 800nm 50W CW laser (unfocused to 25mm diameter parallel beam) graze the edge of the mirror due to a slight misalignment. The mirror is since them molten to the mount and can no longer be removed from it :-P
*@Braniac75* I think you can improve the dump, take some thick steel wool, make it black (either with paint or sut from a fire), then add it around the walls inside, the chaotic shapes should trap much more light.
Could work if the steel wool is thick enough. I have burned normal steel wool with my class IIIB Hercules laser. I guess it would work on the inside of the walls as you mention. The diffused light from the cone does not have high energy density. Thanks for watching!
@@brainiac75 You probably have some kind of metal working company nearby, with a metal lade or mill or something, they produce a lot of metal shavings as a biprodukt that they just throw away, so you can call them & get whatever amount, material & thickness you want, probably for free too. Good luck, and thanks for uploading :)
Thanks! I was surprised too. The spillage usually 'drowns' near the laser dot. But it is after all not overexposing the camera, so probably not much energy in it. Though I have noted higher power readings when the laser is nearer the laser power meter. Probably because the spillage is picked up too. Thanks for watching!
@@brainiac75 Ah, super cool! I'm sure that spillage adds up! I wonder if you built some funky funnel mirror to better capture that spillage if you would capture 5.. maybe even 15% extra power measured?? ..It's so hard to guesstimate living with logarithmic eyeballs and then fudging for sort-of linear cameras!
If you can scatter the light inside of a hollow object, it's not all that important to paint the insides black. A certain (small) proportion of the beam will be turned into heat at each reflection. Surface roughness will scatter the light and the heat will absorbed all over the place inside.
aluminium needs a primer to adhere properly , matt paints tend to flake easily , but still this is easily re-coated , a tip ,if sand is mixed with the matt paint,black sand,it may help scatter light reflections inside the trap,if the trap were made like a silencer,some may think hubble telescope but a series of baffles to allow the beam in but stop light getting out ,the bumpy surface of sand + paint again would help diffuse and reflection making and specular beams hopefully get trapped inside a baffle section,baffle sections are made from large washers painted with the light scattering paint / sand mix,in a series of washer spacer tube washer spacer tube ,spacer tube is a piece of tube small enough to fit inside body tube,body tube is best round in this case ,if thin wall aluminium tube is used the small sections can be cut and split to make "c" shape spacers to go between the washer baffle plates,hubble used razor sharp inward facing light baffles to trap as much light as possible,but the idea is very much the same,and would be very efficient for a laser trap. Bumpy surfaces don't reflect light with great beam density it tends to scatter , some light reflector shades use this to spread light more evenly,like in green houses to stop spot reflections,the matt surface would help as said to absorb the light along with a matt coating to further minimise light energy density. This method would be far and above any light trap on the market,and if one exists like this expect to pay BIG £$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£ for it, A further boost could be done using black matt ceracoat used to coat firearms with a ceramic coating of high temp resistance and resistant to peeling or flaking,used for motor bikes too,some real tough shit there.still well below the highest end trap cost. Make a baffle trap large diameter for best results 4-6 inch tube 12 inch long will be a veritible black hole.
would a second conical baffle (open at the front) help - at the moment there are many 2-bounce paths out - onto the cone, onto the wall, which is a diffuse surface, then out the hole again. sort of like [>>]
It should be easy to make a DIY Gas Shielding unit from MIG welding parts. The parts would be an Argon cylinder, regulator, solenoid valve and a home built nozzle. This would prevent oxidation/ burning of the work piece and eliminate smoke that could block the beam.
I am looking to make a new beam dump myself. I have the idea of putting a bunch of carbon fibers tightly packed and glued on a backing kind of like a carpet. I am hoping it behaves a lot like carbon nanotube based black pigments. Good video as a beam dump is a good thing to have for laser safety.
Very nice. Been wondering what would be an easy way to do this... Eventually black tape and paint on flat surfaces indeed just isn't enough. Simple and effective. Much thanks.
A great contraption; I would have also sprayed the entirety of the front plastic with the aperture just so it was matte black too, probably absorb alit more light inside and out
Hard to tell, since I always have laser safety goggles on with a 1500 mW laser... Probably looks way worse in real life, where the laser dot's brightness is not limited by the camera/screen.
Instead of spraying the inside with blac paint, it might have been more effective to 'blue' the metal. Basically you heat it up, and quench it in a bath of vegetable oil. A thin coating of blue-black oxide forms on the surface, which is very resistant to heat. It would also seal the metal and make it much more resistant to any form of corrosion.
Why are the commercial one's so expensive then? Are they using vanta black or something? Probably something not quite as black but more heat resistant I'm guessing?
Why can’t you make a round tube and have the insert slide into the tube like a gun suppressor with baffles ever 1/2 inch or so , wouldn’t that block all the light coming back out ?
The texture of the square feet is very similar to the diffuser they use on anechoic chambers. Maybe if you put them inside the trap, it would "absorb" even more light?
Hi all! Happy New Year - will read comments later. The beam dump turned out well, but let's make it even better. Does anyone have a good, easy solution for a metal end cap in stead of plastic?
I can't weld aluminium - or any metal for that matter...
And how do I fix the iris diaphragm to the front of the beam dump in a lighttight way without obstructing its function?
Any input is appreciated!
Happy New Year Ingenious Sir!
I am faster than you
for your purposes (since its not going to have heavy use, need to be load bearing, etc), I hink super glue or something similar will work. There are metal glues that ive seen that should also handle high heat. you could also try proper sealant, resin, etc. You can make a metal cap and just glue it down using one of those things! I think that should work for your purposes!
The idea of an aperture sounds smart, I can't wait to see it!
Hi! Happy new year!! :)
These lasers are so strong that I feel like I need safety glasses to watch it.
Even though I know it's safe, it is disconcerting to watch the camera get flashed by a laser lol
ahahagagagagahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahagalolmao
The crazy part is that the dot in real life is thousands of times stronger than a normal screen can show :) Thanks for watching!
I used my older camera for filming this ;) And zoomed in from far away to lower the light energy entering the camera. Luckily it handled it just fine without burned pixels!
Don't worry your are behind a screen, unless your are the camera man
"I will go for round ones. Don't want it to look like something crafted in Minecraft." ~Brainiac 2020
Yes
Not sure why he did that :/
I was about to type the same😀😀😂
_Minecraft is liiiiife_ . But not for Brainiac75
(shrugs)
So funny
Thief: *breaks into brainiac’s house*
Brainiac: “Be careful when using high powered lasers and sharp objects”
HAHA this one did it!
He would probably not know anything and hurt himself XD
Brainiac is a kid compared to styropyro
@@carnage8381 *blinds thief* “haha alright im already bored!”
Nach dem Training will Jörg etwas vernünftiges essen
"6 inches is handy and adequate"
That's what she said.
The only thing I am proud of
1 meter would be optimum, though, but also too cumbersome to handle, so yeah. Overall I agree.
Oh yea sound adequate na max size
I am worthy
I just bought a 3 watt green laser, and for some reason it seems more dangerous than a gun.
Legit 3w or china spec "3w"?
@@ZeroMass. Legit coherent lab laser module.
A gun only hurts what you point it at. A 3w laser can bounce off something and blind an unintended target instantly
@@aarongreenfield9038 I'm assuming 532 and not 520nm... Nice 🤤
I build array handhelds at 10W+... Simply looking at the dot can cause damage, class 4 are no joke. Been building all sorts since 2007 and store them like a firearm, including the smaller 3b's 💥
@@ZeroMass. Yea, I won't mess around with it unless have the reds on. I also have a one watt argon: (It's hard to explain how inefficient that one is lol) and a 1064nm yag that doesn't mess around. I have many more in between, but these are the standout ones worth mentioning.
I love it how you're stressing safety in every Video, but also doing it in an educating and interesting way!
Have a great 2021!
I'm interested in seeing your beam trap operating with a thermal probe attached, so we can get an idea of how much energy it's converting to heat.
All of it. Thus, a 3 watt laser will experience 3 watts of heating. That's not much unless highly concentrated on a tiny spot. But spread out by the plumb bob, it will be just 3 watts of heating; barely detectable.
Ah, a fresh video from my favorite laser expert! also a "beam dump" sounds pretty funny yet cool
hey subscribe for no reason!:)
Yeah, I think many would call this a beam stop to avoid the giggles associated with the word 'dump' x) Thanks for watching!
@@brainiac75 oh wow I got a response! Honestly, I think I like this better. It allows you to have a little fun while being serious :)
Thanks for the videos!!
Drilling tip: You should have a separate drill bit set for plastics. Just take the cheapest set (or an old one) and dull the bits with a file. They will not catch the plastic and spin it around any more nearly as easily.
Wood bits and forstner bits work really good for plastic too
And there was a mistake wih the gold color. Normal HSS and HSSE (the one with Cobalt in it) don't apeare visualy different. The color is caused by a Titanium aluminium nitrite (TiAlNi) coating whitch makes it more durable.
"Be sure not to look directly at laser beam with remaining eye".
Remaining
"diffuser".... hmm it sure looks like something else LOL
Yeah I too thought it looked like a pyramid...
ouch
I'm glad to realize that I'm not alone
@@The___Lamb there are no direct references to what we are talking about, so it doesn't matter - whoever gets it gets it, and if a child understands, we know it's not because of us, but more unfortunate circumstances
Pointy egg on a stick
The main cone is the only thing that really needs to be heat resistant, I wonder if using black 3.0(with a black 2.0 primer coat) on the inside would help absorb more of the light.
Not necessarily, if the laser doesn't hit the tip it will spread out somewhat but it will still focus on a smallish area, however that area is only at the back and you would be able to use black 3.0 forward of the furthest forward a reflection from the cone will reach the wall to catch tertiary reflections
Instead of using black paint you can coat the inner surface with soot/carbon from burning candle or kerosene etc. The amorphous surface is similar, but not as good as vantablack which will significantly reduce the reflections and make the beam dump even better.
PS: Happy new year!
Hello. I am a moderator on laserpointerforums. I thank you for giving member Clansley a shoutout for his information.
It's not only cost effective to build your own things/equipment but you have the satisfaction of knowing *you* made it. :3
Yep, that feeling is priceless. And if it breaks you know exactly how to repair/replace it at low cost :)
I have done A LOT of spray painting in my life, and one thing that makes the biggest difference in the end result is the cap.
You can buy different caps with different spray patterns from graffiti and art supply stores. Some spray larger spots, some spray tiny spots, some spray straight lines (calligraphy cap). You can buy adapters to use them on male spray cans (the cap goes on a stem) to adapt it to the standard caps (the stem is part of the cap). Bombing Science is a good site if you're in Canada, or Art Primo in the US.
Small, detailed jobs like spraying the inside of that pipe, would be a LOT easier if you used a fine cap.
Dont try this at home
But try this at school
Americans and guns be like
Lol I’m gonna burn down the school
3:10
Drilling plastic with cobalt bit,
Eating soup with tungsten spoon,
Hunting squirrels with a Schwerer Gustav...
No matter how it comes, overkill is always fun !
Bringing up an AK47 to a knife fight.
Squirrel Hunting with the Schwerer Gustav must be a fun experience!
Thank you for sharing your solutions. This helps hit home the importance of having safety measures in place.
I reckon some baffles on the inside would improve this even more.
I thought the feet were baffles before he applied them!
Yep, I have seen professional models with an extra, hollow cone on the inside in front of the diffuser. Would trap even more light. I may need to experiment further, though it really isn't needed for my laser's power level. For now...
@@brainiac75 I mean, I don't think you'll need to deal with daW or stronger Lasers... Am I weird for using Dekawatts Or Hektowatts? Does anyone younger than me even know those SI units... have they even heard of Dekagrams and Hektograms before? Have they heard of decigram then?
yeah, like a hectogram is 100 grams
For not being a craftsman, you did a great job! Always good to use a guide when cutting metal. Don't be afraid to cut plastic with low pressure and slow speed!
The easier way.
Take an empty aluminium can.
Add a little sand. Plug hole and shake. (Aiming to roughen the inside bottom)
Tip can on side.
add a little black paint while the can is on side or nearly so. (can should be nearly empty.)
Roll can along flat surface for several revolutions)
Tip out excess paint.
It won't look as good and I would be super paraonoid about accidentally puncturing the can but that does sound quick and easy and like it should work fine.
Good tip. Better than just randomly pointing a high-powered laser at a wall or furniture as so often seen... ;)
I've had to align laser beams many many times. One time, I made the mistake of using my hand as a beam dump for a 200mW 532nm laser. It burnt a small blister into my hand.
We had a lab where there were burn marks on the wall from someone using a 2W IR laser without a beam dump.
A piece of black anodized aluminum makes a good beam dump.
The razor blade test is normal for seeing laser power.
Making a neat project out of a safety device makes me even likelier to stress safe use. A good last day of 2020.
Hello from the UK from a fellow science fan & laser builder. Great project Brainiac75, i built you project to your method & specification & made 2 small modifications,
i extracted the variable aperture assembly from an old film camera & mounted it to the front of the beam trap using a piece of 5mm black ABS plastic with a circle cut out of it to fit the aperture mechanism into snugly,i then used some fast cure resin to fix permanently in place,
i found some small adjustable height rubber bottom feet on screws with plates on the top that had self adhesive pads on ebay that gave me a professional quality beam trap i could use at any distance & beam divergence combination that was an adjustable height.
Keep up the great videos.
Great tips. The variable iris is already on its way (as mentioned at the end of the video). The variable height feet are a nice touch. Thanks for watching!
5:01 for de-burring an Aluminium hole, try using a dremel/drill with one of those (carbide?) grinding cones...
They are usually a pink or blue-ish color I think?
After that plumb bob and bolt atached to the end were painted black i had a very different idea of what it looked like haha.
Great video, I loved watching the build and test. I had no clue such a thing existed, it really does seem like a smart idea. Happy new year!
Ich mag sehr, wie du am Anfang gewisse Vorsichtsmaßnahmen erwähnst. Ein sehr tolles Intro, was du dir da ausgedacht hast :)
Instead of a simple aperture, how about a tube from the aperture to just before the tip of the plumb bob? Maybe some baffles could be added to better trap the scattered light.
Could you please explain you idea please. I didn't get it.
@@tejasdixit4417 Instead of having a lot of space between the entry hole and the tip of the diffusor cone, you could put a pipe on the inside from the entry hole to the tip of the diffusor. That way no scattered light can come out of the entry hole.
The trapping of the diffused light would definitely be improved. A tube all the way to the plumb bob would be very effective but also requires a very level and precisely aligned laser beam. A few centimeters of black pipe extending on the inside of the aperture would work well and still be practical. Thanks for the tip and watching!
You could even add a series of square aluminum plates with apatures to the inside to reduces the lights ability to bounce all the way back to the front. Maybe cut them like a + sign and bend the tabs at a 90°angle, then use high temperature adhesive to hold them in place.
XTC is a high temperature/heat resistant coating formulated specifically to protect metal surfaces operating at temperatures from 500°F (260°C) to 1500°F (812°C).
With proper preparation, XTC provides outstanding adhesion, film integrity, weathering, and thermal shock-resistance throughout this entire temperature range, and is guaranteed not to burn off!
7:07 Oh yeah... that's the shot right there... unf
It's quite satisfying to watch the beam disappear into that little box
I learned about laser safety and beam dumps from you. Then I saw backyard scientist working with that absurdly powerful IR laser without much safety at all. I was so nervous watching that. 😂
Since the innards are basically enclosed and won't ever be touched. Once you figure out an all metal design Instead of painting the innards with black paint, try exposing them to a poorly burning kerosene flame. The flame will deposit a VERY black layer of soot that will be perfectly matt. It probably isn't as black as vanta black (though since it is basically the same material it is probably close) but it is blacker than any paint can be, it's super cheap and should be fairly heat resistant. Also, thought this would be hard to do with stock parts, having the aperture be a steep cone leading into the hole in the center will reduce the risk of the beam reflecting back at you (as opposed to the aperture being a flat wall with a hole in the center) as you are lining up your beam with the hole.
"Don't want it to look like something crafted in Minecraft"
Me crafting this item in Minecraft: *Slowly puts down materials*
mans was so happy to talk about his drill bits, there pretty neat not going to lie
I love how you mentioned Minecraft in this video, also nice laser!
3:53 this frame hurt my brain
For what it’s worth- I’m a grad student in an optics lab and we use small beam blocks that are essentially stacked razor blades as our beam blocks. They work quite well on our class 4 lasers and are pretty cheap, around $50 usd. Thorlabs part LB1 if anyone is interested.
That's pretty ingenious. Very nice.
A simple Raman Horn design is much simpler and works in all but the most extreme cases. Just bend some anodized conduit with crimp at the end or sheet metal that has been folded in half. The beam is diffused and attenuated at each bounce and the horn shape ensures that it propogates into the horn.
It certainly seems to trap most of the light, but wouldn't you achieve at least as good a result by just not turning on the laser?
The purpose of the trap is so you dont waste the laser and you can reuse the trapped beams for later use.
@@junatah5903 Oh, I feel so foolish now. It's amazing how obvious it seems once you've been told, isn't it?
@@schell0118 yeah dont worry dude, common over sight. XD
Why have a laser if it is turned off? ;) The point is to have a laser beam without an extremely bright laser dot scattering light all over the place - and a place to point the laser without starting fires/burning holes. For my use, it is to film the laser beam from any angle without having the laser dot burn up pixels in my camera's sensor. And making sure the laser beam does not burn my interior either... Watch my video 'Monster magnet meets laser...' for practical examples where I really should have had a proper beam dump.
Many lasers also need some time to warm up to be stable at full power. Turning it on and off is not always a good solution for experiments. Thanks for watching!
@@brainiac75 whoosh
wooo that black paint looks really really nice.
Try to paint the inside and out side with muso black. With muso black absorbs aprox 90-99% of light, the beam dump will be super effective and with the addon of a cone in place of the eyeris no light will bounce. You can also and some texture on the inside to trap some more light
happy new year brainiac75
holy 0 likes but brainiac liked it :O
I like that vice you used for holding that aluminium for cutting it.
6:46 The paint finish looks very good!
I don't have any strong lasers but if I did, this is good to know.... Anyway, learned an important laser safety lesson from an expert as follows: "Do not look directly at laser beam with remaining good eye..." sure, it's supposed to be funny but makes the point to be careful and you'll remember it. Anyway, Neat video... Thanks for posting!
If you need a quick and dirty way of achieving a similar result you can get a stack of utility blades and glue them together. Then simply pass them over a candle to accumulate soot and viola! works extremely well.
Nice safety device, now send it to styropyro for more... extreme testing! Jokes aside, if you make another video on beam dumps, I'd like to see a comparison to the brick painted with the same black paint.
exactly what I thought
I bought a "200" mw laser off ebay, but the PSU alone was a mains powered one and it even had TEC cooling, looking at your channel and just how powerful it was I suspect it was more likely to have been a 1000 mw laser which explained why it absolutely destroyed the blast plastic I had bought it to engrave
A revisit to the lanthanide series would be great. The elements along with their chemistry is fascinating!
Brilliant work from the brilliant brainiac
A new years treat! Great, and very interesting video thanks Brainiac, happy new year!
You should start a spray pass from off target while constantly moving the can sideways until it’s again completely away, so to let large blobs goes to backstop. Not always happen but sucks when it does
Your paint preparation is entirely appropriate, and is exactly what I would recommend.
Glad to hear. Did consider some etching primer for aluminium, but the Rustoleum seems to be very forgiving ;) Thanks for watching!
@@brainiac75 In theory that would have been best, but adhesion isn't a problem in this application. More work than what it is worth.
Also, if you have any problems with the paint burning through, (i don't think you will) look for a paint designed for car exhaust manifolds. In the US it is called "header paint" and is commonly available in auto parts stores. It is only about twice as expensive as what you used but can handle higher temperatures, over 1000C.
Clever. Another approach is a stack of double-edged razor blades with the sharp edges facing the laser.
I wonder if you could have a system which is attached to a laser, and flips one of those in the beam if you need the beam to be somewhere safe. Why wouldn't you just turn the laser off though?
If you spray aluminium with oven cleaner foam (or any strong alkaline) it will etch the surface and leaves an excellent surface to paint.
Covering the inside of the tube with baffles would be even more effective. In addition, covering everything inside with soot. Opening hole would be almost a perfect black body.
4:19
Ya dirty boi ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
A further addition you should add if a few internal baffles (thin sheets of painted Aluminum) with a hole about .5mm bigger than the initial hole, it will catch mor of the reflected light letting less escape, this will be mire important with higher power levels.
One improvement could be to use the black 2.0 brand paint (similar to vantiblack) but andvery light absorbent and will withstand the heat I’ve seen it done in something similar before.
Pretty cool video :) I saw a different video about the blackest black paint, I think it was called Munro. I bet you could figure out some sort of cool experiment combining lasers and that paint.
i love how in some videos he turns the safety signs
It is amazing that EM waves, RF or light can be terminated by similar devises.
I had a few microwave terminations that had a conical graphite center inside a waveguide, just like your beam dump, altho, I would call it a termination as well.
*struggles the whole video building the laser trap*
10:35 "...and it was an easy build!"
haha LOVE your content!
now I know how a beam stop works. thank you
So basically what I'm getting from this is that you can make your own with a buttplug and the cardboard insert from some toilet roll.
Yes.
*n o*
Would a beam dump be more effective with the blackest black paint? I don't know if its heat resistant but it sounds like it'd be a perfect match!
3:29 Beautifully expressed. I know the feeling : )
I've got psychosomatic spots on my vision from looking at all those lasers now
It is a cool feature, although it might be a little dangerous as it may seduce people to skimp on using the glasses, thinking the beam safely cought, while a minor misalignment or the classic wrist watch can still get a reflection to your eye.
Also for even stronger lasers, I would suggest adding a aluminum plate to the back part, as the plastic stopper can easily be molten.
I once wanted to save money for buying an expensive mirror mount and 3d-printed one from PLA. it worked just fine, but at some point I had the 800nm 50W CW laser (unfocused to 25mm diameter parallel beam) graze the edge of the mirror due to a slight misalignment. The mirror is since them molten to the mount and can no longer be removed from it :-P
*@Braniac75*
I think you can improve the dump, take some thick steel wool, make it black (either with paint or sut from a fire), then add it around the walls inside, the chaotic shapes should trap much more light.
Could work if the steel wool is thick enough. I have burned normal steel wool with my class IIIB Hercules laser. I guess it would work on the inside of the walls as you mention. The diffused light from the cone does not have high energy density. Thanks for watching!
@@brainiac75 You probably have some kind of metal working company nearby, with a metal lade or mill or something, they produce a lot of metal shavings as a biprodukt that they just throw away, so you can call them & get whatever amount, material & thickness you want, probably for free too.
Good luck, and thanks for uploading :)
This was ridiculously informative. Thanks a bunch!
Good going! It's crazy how much spillage even the nice lasers have!
Thanks! I was surprised too. The spillage usually 'drowns' near the laser dot. But it is after all not overexposing the camera, so probably not much energy in it. Though I have noted higher power readings when the laser is nearer the laser power meter. Probably because the spillage is picked up too. Thanks for watching!
@@brainiac75 Ah, super cool! I'm sure that spillage adds up! I wonder if you built some funky funnel mirror to better capture that spillage if you would capture 5.. maybe even 15% extra power measured??
..It's so hard to guesstimate living with logarithmic eyeballs and then fudging for sort-of linear cameras!
Wouldn't a vertical cut or one in a shape of a narrow cross be easier to point beam at, while not releasing much more light?
i wonder if soot from a flame would also do a better job (as in, deposit candle soot in the aluminum)
If you can scatter the light inside of a hollow object, it's not all that important to paint the insides black. A certain (small) proportion of the beam will be turned into heat at each reflection. Surface roughness will scatter the light and the heat will absorbed all over the place inside.
You can use a diffuser or a 'toy' too.
aluminium needs a primer to adhere properly , matt paints tend to flake easily , but still this is easily re-coated , a tip ,if sand is mixed with the matt paint,black sand,it may help scatter light reflections inside the trap,if the trap were made like a silencer,some may think hubble telescope but a series of baffles to allow the beam in but stop light getting out ,the bumpy surface of sand + paint again would help diffuse and reflection making and specular beams hopefully get trapped inside a baffle section,baffle sections are made from large washers painted with the light scattering paint / sand mix,in a series of washer spacer tube washer spacer tube ,spacer tube is a piece of tube small enough to fit inside body tube,body tube is best round in this case ,if thin wall aluminium tube is used the small sections can be cut and split to make "c" shape spacers to go between the washer baffle plates,hubble used razor sharp inward facing light baffles to trap as much light as possible,but the idea is very much the same,and would be very efficient for a laser trap.
Bumpy surfaces don't reflect light with great beam density it tends to scatter , some light reflector shades use this to spread light more evenly,like in green houses to stop spot reflections,the matt surface would help as said to absorb the light along with a matt coating to further minimise light energy density.
This method would be far and above any light trap on the market,and if one exists like this expect to pay BIG £$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£ for it,
A further boost could be done using black matt ceracoat used to coat firearms with a ceramic coating of high temp resistance and resistant to peeling or flaking,used for motor bikes too,some real tough shit there.still well below the highest end trap cost.
Make a baffle trap large diameter for best results 4-6 inch tube 12 inch long will be a veritible black hole.
would a second conical baffle (open at the front) help - at the moment there are many 2-bounce paths out - onto the cone, onto the wall, which is a diffuse surface, then out the hole again. sort of like [>>]
It should be easy to make a DIY Gas Shielding unit from MIG welding parts.
The parts would be an Argon cylinder, regulator, solenoid valve and a home built nozzle.
This would prevent oxidation/ burning of the work piece and eliminate smoke that could block the beam.
I am looking to make a new beam dump myself. I have the idea of putting a bunch of carbon fibers tightly packed and glued on a backing kind of like a carpet. I am hoping it behaves a lot like carbon nanotube based black pigments. Good video as a beam dump is a good thing to have for laser safety.
I would love to see what you come up with! Love your laser videos.
Very nice. Been wondering what would be an easy way to do this... Eventually black tape and paint on flat surfaces indeed just isn't enough. Simple and effective. Much thanks.
I'm not sure if it would work but I think you should try and put Musou black or Vantablack in the beam trap.
First video I watch in the new year. Happy new year to everybody in the comments!
A great contraption; I would have also sprayed the entirety of the front plastic with the aperture just so it was matte black too, probably absorb alit more light inside and out
Happy new year Brainiac viewers🎆
I think every man can understand that shot of him opening his beautiful drill and tap set
if you use hydrochloride acid you can skip all the sanding with aluminum just wipe it on and wipe it off saves a ton of work
Happy new year brother
10:05 that looks unreal in the video camera... Does it look like that IRL?
probably even more insane
Hard to tell, since I always have laser safety goggles on with a 1500 mW laser... Probably looks way worse in real life, where the laser dot's brightness is not limited by the camera/screen.
Instead of spraying the inside with blac paint, it might have been more effective to 'blue' the metal.
Basically you heat it up, and quench it in a bath of vegetable oil. A thin coating of blue-black oxide forms on the surface, which is very resistant to heat. It would also seal the metal and make it much more resistant to any form of corrosion.
Why are the commercial one's so expensive then? Are they using vanta black or something? Probably something not quite as black but more heat resistant I'm guessing?
Why can’t you make a round tube and have the insert slide into the tube like a gun suppressor with baffles ever 1/2 inch or so , wouldn’t that block all the light coming back out ?
Rustoleum's high temp black is also good paint, applies very thinly, comes out matt, and is very hard wearing
The texture of the square feet is very similar to the diffuser they use on anechoic chambers. Maybe if you put them inside the trap, it would "absorb" even more light?