DIY Death Ray
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Death Star Conception
In his day-job, Travis works on the world’s largest military laser. But how come no one has actually built the phasers and laser guns of science-fiction? The guys decide to build a laser death star that combines multiple off-the-shelf laser lights into a weapon. It has to be powerful enough to burn steel and powerful enough to blow stuff up. Their goal will be to blow up an explosive charge from 100 feet away (analogous to a real IED in Iraq).
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Red Laser
The Rednecks begin with a simple red laser pointer. But when they add a magnifying glass, they can focus the laser beam even more tightly… powerful enough to pop a balloon… powerful enough to set fire to a gunpowder charge.
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More Power
But a red laser isn’t powerful enough for Travis – or for a Death Ray.
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Mannequin Laser Test
With some ingenuity and some blue lasers, the guys are able to create a laser gun. Then they take the gun outside and fire it at a mannequin target.
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Charred Target
The guys don’t know it, but Rog has placed a large explosive charge inside the mannequin. Instead of burning a hole through the plastic, the mannequin bursts into flames. The Blue Laser Gun is a success.
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From a Distance
But the guys have a more realistic application of the laser guns. They want to make a simple, cheap and effective device that will blow up bombs and IEDs from a distance.
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Lots of Lasers
To make that happen, they will need to multiply the lasers’ power. They won’t need a bigger laser… they just need a lot of them.
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The Death Star
The guys gather up every laser they can find – red pocket lasers, green laser pointers and Blu-ray lasers – and decide to put them in an array where they can focus each laser on the same point. Technically, this is called “incoherent aggregation.” The Rednecks call it “The Death Star.”
