You're bringing drama where there is none. I'm done responding to your continued off topic harassment. Go back to your "fight club", please stop bringing such conflict into everything else, and keep it about lasers. Or holography (in my case).
Any countertop or table is suitable for making Denisyuk type reflection holograms like those above. It's been shown that many laser pointer lasers can be used to record them, despite common thought. I encourage others here to try it, and will do whatever I can to support your efforts if you do.
Wasn't being defensive. Just didn't want to spend 15 minutes typing out the basics of gas lasers to save you 5 minutes of searching for your answer on this site or Google. And your questioning my reply told me you didn't bother to look at my profile or any of my other posts, or click on my...
Great start! DCG is really time consuming and difficult because one has to get the film preparation right as well as the exposure stability. But it doesn't have to be perfect to be really cool.
Gordon Gould coined the acronym LASER before the first one was built. Ted Maiman originally called his invention an "atomic radio light". Bell Labs pushed the phrase "optical maser" for a few of the first years.
Look at your closets. Maybe everything can be hung higher so you can sit at a bench underneath. Locked door is great advice. A light-trapping beam dump on a heavy base right in front of a mounted laser is good to let you walk away for a few minutes so pets won't have access to the beam.
I got my first laser pointer as a gift in the mid-'90s. I think it was made by Apollo.
The first pointer I bought was this battery operated He-Ne made by RMF Products in the early '80s, bought after I first joined this forum.
Can you use a volume Bragg grating? I make those in photopolymer material and could make something for you for free if it helps get me 100mW of SLM at 520nm. Wasatch Photonics sells a 1200 lpm Bragg grating for 830nm for about $400.
Continuous lasers melt things. Because pulsed lasers vaporize, they're generally used for drilling holes. Your cheapest option is probably the conventional approach, even if you break a dozen drills. Pulsed lasers are used to drill pinholes easily down to 5 microns in stainless steel.
Deja vu?
I remember how expensive green laser pointers were when those first showed up. A few years from now similar things will be available, but for now Mr. Farbe2 is freakin' KING !!!
You did your own anodizing too?!? Truly awesome.