Cheap Burning Lasers Not Always A Sure Thing
Its become a pretty well known fact that powerful laser pointers will have the ability to burn certain materials like lighting matches, burning plastic, popping balloons and other things like this. But is this really safe and are cheap lasers that burn too hot a safety concern? Well, unfortunately the answer can be yes, because lets consider, is it ever really safe to play with fire?
Now we can limit the risk by taking simple precautions like using safety goggles, thick gloves, ensuring nothing flammable is around your experiment, just some common sense to protect yourself or any onlookers. All in all a powerful laser that has the ability to burn things really is safe if not used improperly and you can even light things on fire safely as well.
The problem lies in some of the more cheaper laser pointer models that are out there today. They may be marketed as military laser pointers that are said to be very powerful and they can be, but they have a tendency to get too hot too quickly. With a high quality laser the burning effect comes from the actual heat of the laser beam at around 100mW or more to pop balloons. But with cheap lasers the actual laser body, batteries, diode, and crystal can become so hot they begin to melt or spark and this is where things can get a bit dangerous.
Now, any laser model that is manufactured with any kind of decency will never have this problem, but the lower end cheap lasers that cost $5 can be of concern. When something sounds like a deal that is too good to be true, it usually is.
Burning Laser Pointer
That being said, you can find some powerful burning laser pointers that are safe to use, 100% legal (which can be very important in the United States), and are just great fun. Brands like Wicked Laser models offer a rare look at laser pointers made with real users in mind as the quality and affordability is unmatched elsewhere. However you use your laser and whatever laser you decide to buy, be sure you are safe for yourself and others to really enjoy all that every laser has to offer.
