Start with an old (or new) DVD drive and a laser housing for a few dollars, This is important because the LED laser into he DVD id focused to work inside the DVD drive. So with the housing you can re adjust the LED to a beam

Start like many good projects by taking it apart mostly a bunch of screws if you need help there you may not want to continue.

Once you get inside you may find the board secured by special screws like I did in this Sony DVD burner. I was able to finesse the board off the post without the correct tool

Here are two DVD burners they look a bit different but they have mostly the same components. Inside the lasers ride on two rods, these will be cool for something, I just don't know what yet..

The lasers are in this sled somewhere. I use the mirrors to point to the Laser LEDs You'll see what they look like below, so once you know their shape and three pin layout on the back, it's not too hard to find them on the sled. There will be be two or three one may be CD which would be IR, so be careful you can go blind with those DO NOT look into any LEDs

The sled is sort of glued together, using pliers and a knife I pryed the laser LEDs out easily with no damage

The LED is glued into the sled, so I used two pliers to rip apart the sled material. The LED just falls out as you twist the pliers

 

The Laser hosing comes with a laser in it. It's in there tight too. I tried this trick using a pen end as a plastic punch and then used pliers to press the laser out. This did NOT work however, I ended up putting the housing on the anvil over a hole. Then put a drill bit in upside down so that the flat end of the drill bit that's normally in the drill was pushing against the laser, then smacked it with a 2x4  It was really in there good

Once the Laser LED is out I soldered longer leads onto it for use in the Mini Mag flashlight housing

With the longer leads attached it kinds looks like a 'bug' from a 70's TV show. I uses the insulation off a much larger wire to keep the long leads from touching

Once the Laser LED is placed in the housing and then inserted into a Mini Mag body for power the laser lights up. It is many times brighter than a typical weapons light. The pile of garbage parts left over. But at least you salvage something from a dead drive. Most DVD burners I've used up have lost motors before the laser has any trouble

So they weren't cutting lasers. They were just very bright. i pointed one at a thermometer for a while with no change in temp but they sure look weird to a digital camera

I imagine it's just a matter of time before I get into trouble with these so I'm putting them away. DO NOT try this or anything like it at home.