You can make a pretty powerful laser by yourself

May 3, 2013 18:21 GMT  ·  By

Lasers aren't as rare as they may have been a couple of decades ago, but they're no less cool. Especially homemade lasers capable doing some actual damage. Granted, the damage is to balloons, but it's no less spectacular.

Who wins when you pit a Blu-ray laser against 100 balloons? Well, the answer should be fairly obvious, but you can watch the video above if you're not sure. You should watch it even if you're are.

The nice part is that you can build a laser like this yourself, as long as you have a Blu-ray player to gut and some skills with a soldering iron.

Not that you should; lasers above a certain energy level are illegal in most places and you're likely to do some damage to your eyes or burn something up if you're not careful.