Burning Momentary Lasers

With the advancement of laser technology, high power lasers are becoming more powerful at reduced sizes. What seemed impossible only several years ago is now a reality. Powered by only two AAA batteries, pen-sized high power momentary lasers are capable of blasting a brilliant laser beam visible for miles. More interestingly, higher powered models are also capable of melting through dark plastics, slicing through trash bags, cutting electrical tape, popping balloons, etching leather, and much more.

To see a burning lasers in action, check out our section dedicated to laser pointer videos.

As with all technical gadgets, you have to do a little research before pulling that credit card out. This article was written to help laser enthusiasts, like you, learn more about burning lasers, which ones are powerful enough to burn, and tips to making your already powerful laser extremely powerful.

Green Lasers: A laser pointer's ability to burn is heavily dependent on the power output or "mW". Green lasers are usually available in the market between 5mW - 150mW. Not all high powered lasers can burn. Lasers in the lower power range will not have this ability. They do, however, offer users an amazingly bright green laser beam especially in complete darkness. Burning lasers is a named reserved only for the higher powered models.

In general, burning green lasers begin at 95mW or above. At this range, the lasers at close range should light matches, cut through black trash bags, and more. What happens when you go above 95mW of power? As you increase in power output, the laser beam becomes brighter and more intense especially in darkness. Secondly, they are better and faster at burning.

Let's take a 95mW and a 125mW green laser as an example. While both will light matches, the 95mW takes about 3-5 seconds. The 125mW green laser will only take 1-2 seconds. Below is a power capabilities chart of our green lasers. The first row lists the power output needed to achieve a certain capability. The first column lists the laser's capability. Please take some time to review the information below:

Red Lasers: High power red lasers have the potential to burn. However, due to the relatively large beam diameter, red lasers will not burn at its default configuration. You will need to add an external convex lens to help focus the laser spot. Green lasers have focusing lenses within the laser module allowing the beam diameter to be small enough for burning.

The simple trick of using a convex lens to focus a beam of light works for green lasers, red lasers, portable laser systems and the sun. While green lasers already have small beam diameters, it can benefit from an even smaller one. The rule is, the smaller the beam diameter, the more power you have in a concentrated dot, the better and faster it will burn.

A convex lens is a lens capable of focusing a beam of light into a fine, pin-point dot. While you may not know it, a magnifying glass is a double convex lens and is perfect for this application. While I was a kid, I used to have a large magnifying glass with me and would love burning things in the garden. Simply place the magnifying glass under the sun and find the focal point, the point where the spot is the smallest, and burn away! Below is a visual representation of how light is focused via a convex lens.

Here are the steps to finding the focal point of a lasers. The cardinal rule is you MUST wear protective laser goggles. High power lasers are very bright and long term exposure of even a reflected laser beam can be damaging to your eyes. Also, due to the brightness of high power lasers, there is a lot of glare and scatter which makes the laser spot larger than it really is. To protect your eyes and see the laser spot without the glare, wear protective laser goggles. Note - laser goggles are wavelength specific, that is, green lasers require green laser goggles. Red lasers require red laser goggles. Sunglasses do not work for protecting your eyes.

To find the focal point, shine the red laser beam into the magnifying glass. The location of the focal point depends on the size of the magnifying glass and the curvature of the lens. Place a piece of paper directly in front of the magnifying glass where the laser beam exits. With the lasers on, slowly move the paper away from the magnifying glass. Making sure you have laser goggles on, look at the dot on the piece of paper. As the paper slowly moves outwards, the beam diameter will decrease in size. Keep moving the paper until the dot is the size of a pin / needle. This is the focal point and where the laser is best at burning.

Portable Lasers: Portable lasers are the ultimate burning machines! Portable lasers are flashlight-sized lasers capable of emitting extreme power outputs. The larger size allows us to equip each portable laser with heavy duty laser diodes making our red, infrared and green portable lasers very capable of burning. Each portable laser is also equipped with a focusing mechanism making burning more intense. Get a glimpse of what our portable lasers can do in the below video.

To see more burning videos, check out our laser pointer videos section.

Burning Tips

1. We get many customers asking why their high power laser is not burning. The number one reason is because of the battery. Many of our customers get very excited when the laser arrives in the mail. They pull the AAA batteries from their television remotes or reach into their cabinets for some AAA batteries they purchased several months to several years back. Because these batteries are partially drained, the laser will not operate at its optimal burning potential. Make sure to put brand new, branded alkaline AAA batteries (such as Duracell Advanced batteries) into your high power laser .

While rechargeable batteries can be used with our high powered lasers, they are not recommended. This is because a fully charged set of rechargeable AAA batteries only output 1.2-1.3V of power. Brand new alkaline batteries, on the other hand, output more than 1.5V.

2. Keep your hands steady! In order for the laser to burn, you MUST keep the laser spot on the same exact spot for at least several seconds. Lasers are capable of burning due to the bombardment of light causing friction and heat. Laser may also take several seconds to reach its advertised power output. Considering these two factors, it is essential to keep the laser beam and spot steady. For optimal results, mount your laser on a stand, tripod or hold it steady on a stack of books.

3. Wear protective laser goggles at all times. You will enjoy and appreciate your high power laser much more with laser goggles on. This is true especially if you plan on doing a lot of burning. Wearing laser goggles not only protect your eyes from the bright laser beam, it also allows you to see the laser spot without all the glare and scatter.

4. Dark, ideally black, non-reflective objects are easiest to burn or melt through. A laser is just a beam of light. If pointed at a white or reflective surface, the laser will just bounce and reflect off. However, if the laser is pointed at a dark, non reflective surface, the beam of light will be absorbed causing friction and eventually heat.

5. If an object is not burning, a trick is to color the object with a black marker. This is especially useful for lighting matches and popping balloons.