How To Build A High Powered Burning Laser Pointer

***UPDATE PLEASE READ*** If you are going to build a laser the curcuit used in this video is a BARE MINIMUM. Although the one I made in this video still works fine to this day, you will probably want to add a small capacitor (anything over 10v 16uf is fine)in parallel with the diode to even out any voltage spinkes from the battery. To build a well regulated circuit check out www.laserpointerforums.com for some great, easy to build, current and voltage regulated circuits for lasers. You can buy pre-made drivers for lasers off of:
sales.lasingpix.com
One thing to note is the prices of the diodes have jumped from $13 to $19.50 but you can buy the diodes off of sales.stonetek.org


In this video I show you how to build a homemade high powered burning laser.

Parts:
You can get 100ohm potentiometers off ebay for pretty cheap
You can get you switch and battery holders at any radioshack
You can get your laser diodes at laserpointerforums.com for less than half of the price of pulling them from a DVD burner (and a heck of a lot easier)
You can get AixiZ modules from Ebay Seller aixiz_lasers

A few tips
-DO NOT LET ANYTHING SHORT!
-When you have turned the pot so the brightness turns high, don't even think about turning it more to make it more powerful. If you do that the power will go from 100mW+ to .1mW and your diode will be screwed
-buy more than one diode cause they can break by simply touching them sometimes, too much current to the diode or a ton of other things so you will be safe bbuying more, and if you have extras build more modules and sell them to your friends for even more fun! (go ahead and charge $100 for them so you can be rich)
-Buy goggles for these things! Goggles cost around $40 and are easily worth it, your eyes are worth more than $40 and if you get hit in the eye by this thing without goggles on, you're screwed.