This 40W Homemade Laser Shotgun Is Pure Insanity

This 40W Homemade Laser Shotgun Is Pure Insanity

Just because you can make something at home, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Today’s example? A laser ‘shotgun’ that uses a lens to combine eight 5W lasers into something that should definitely spice up your next PowerPoint.

The terrifying death machine was built by YouTuber styropyro, who has a long and detailed history of messing around with lasers. This particular rig uses eight 5W lasers, mounted with parallel beams onto a giant heatsink and powered with a big battery. The result is a fairly legit laser gun, capable of bursting balloons and setting fire to pieces of wood.

To put the 40 watts of laser power in perspective: the most powerful laser you can buy off the shelf is 0.005 watts; the US Navy’s prototype laser cannon, powered by a warship and capable of shooting down drones, is 30,000 watts. In all fairness, a lot of the power of the laser shotgun is presumably lost, as the light is scattered somewhat by the optics. I still wouldn’t want it pointed anywhere near my eyes, though.


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