Printing is declining

Posted Jul 31, 2025 22:06 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)
In reply to: Printing is declining by malmedal
Parent article: Help for OpenPrinting needed

The video shows a 2W laser? Anyway, even 500mW is still Class 4.

Lasers are absolutely unique in their danger to eyesight.

You can't really do yourself a lot of physical harm with a laser. If you accidentally get a 2W laser beam on your skin, it'll be a bad burn/cut. If you're really unlucky, you might get damaged tendons or bad bleeding. It might suck, but it likely won't be life-changing.

But if you get that beam into your eyes? It's instant eye damage. With life-changing consequences and no real treatment options.

So if you want a DIY project, please just avoid lasers. Really. Laser safety rules are written in Braille.

Printing is declining

Posted Aug 1, 2025 10:20 UTC (Fri) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172) [Link] (2 responses)

> The video shows a 2W laser?

The text in the video says it shows a 500mW laser, and that he has a 2W to make it faster on *order*.

I am not arguing that this is a good idea, or in any way safe, just that this is a thing that is being done.

But I must say I am actually a bit surprised at how few reported laser injuries there are compared to the number of projects I see. With other dangerous projects, like lichtenberg wood burning, there are several fatalities each year. Not sure if this is inherent or just that the laser people somehow have more respect for the dangers. The majority of the laser injuries I have heard about have been to uninvolved bystanders, e.g. somebody pointing a strong laser at a crowd or something.

Laser dangers

Posted Aug 1, 2025 11:48 UTC (Fri) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link] (1 responses)

Part of it is that the most common form of laser injury is eyesight impairment; lasers very rarely kill or leave obvious marks. Someone who notices their eyesight being bad after a laser exposure may well delay getting an eye test, and then attribute their loss of vision to age, instead of injury.

Laser dangers

Posted Aug 1, 2025 13:49 UTC (Fri) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172) [Link]

Probably part of the issue, yes.