For reference, a standard laser pointer is 0.005W, while a laboratory laser is 0.5W — meaning it can still damage your eyes even if you're only staring at the spot of light on the wall. The laser bazooka, meanwhile, is 400 times more powerful than the most dangerous lab laser. The total power consumption is nearly a kilowatt, Styropyro says, or roughly the same as a microwave oven.

Appropriately enough, the device was built from scrap metal and the blue laser diodes ripped out of some broken DLP projectors. The lasers from the projector are run through an optical component called a knife-edger, which combines them into one retina-searing beam that can toast a piece of 2x4 in seconds. In fact, the the resulting beam is so powerful, our homebrewed mad scientist also had rig up a special welding helmet just to operate it. In other words: don't try this at home, kids.