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This article was published on June 29, 2016

This terrifying DIY laser bazooka can melt through steel


‘Makers,’ as they’re affectionately known, are often innocent tinkerers that like to take things apart, hack them and put them back together. Drake Anthony is certainly a maker, but his focus on lasers that could probably kill you makes you wonder if he’s more Tony Stark, or Bond super villain.

Either way, his DIY laser projects are super cool.

His newest one, a 200-watt laser bazooka made from old DLP projectors is fully capable of melting the metal housing on a tower PC, and just looking at it without a welders helmet could cause severe eye damage. Staring into the light without protection would be 33-million times more intense than staring directly at the sun, according to Anthony.

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The DIY creation uses four 50-watt lasers focused through a massive lens, a total of 200 watts. For comparison sake, the FDA limits all non-medical lasers to a max rating of 0.5 watts  and the average laser pointer is a rather wimpy 0.005 watts. Anthony’s, on the other hand, is 400 times as powerful as the FDA limit and let’s just say it shouldn’t be used without guidance from a trained professional — or a dude in his garage on YouTube.

via Gizmodo

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