I did have a chat at lunch one time with an optics engineer about high powered lasers and it scared the shit out of me for life. That said I’m not operating with any institutional concerns. I personally have a lot of experience with dangerous machinery like CNC machines, plasma cutters, welding, etc. And I don’t have kids or pets or roommates to worry about. So I use good judgment and wear laser safety goggles.
The laser itself has a 5mm focal distance and the housing is rectangular with something like a 40mm square footprint. This means that you can’t directly see the spot it creates, and this seems to help a lot. It’s mechanically very solid so I don’t expect it to tip over. It is also poorly columnated such that it diverges pretty quickly when not pointed at a target.
All this works fine for me at home, but I suspect a university would need more safety structure around it.
Goggles are an important first step -- if the wavelength is long-enough, you can sometimes get away with quite-inexpensive goggles.
The short focal length helps, but you're starting with a lot of power. Careful with specular reflections, especially off of concave objects that might refocus the beam.
The hard part with these things are that the beams are invisible and the damage (especially at near-visible wavelengths) can be instant without a lot of power.
Yes, all good advice thank you! Luckily there is no metal underneath the mechanism or in the fabric I cut, so that reduces the likelihood of specular reflection. But thanks for the tips.
The laser itself has a 5mm focal distance and the housing is rectangular with something like a 40mm square footprint. This means that you can’t directly see the spot it creates, and this seems to help a lot. It’s mechanically very solid so I don’t expect it to tip over. It is also poorly columnated such that it diverges pretty quickly when not pointed at a target.
All this works fine for me at home, but I suspect a university would need more safety structure around it.