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- Mar 10, 2013
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Hello everyone.
Before I begin, I'd like to apologize for the semi-roughness of this post, the pictures are not all aligned, and there are a lot of them, and I forgot to change the title to say it was pic heavy. I also took these on an iPhone as it was the only camera I had that takes decent digital pics at the moment.
So...long ass post....Don't look back...we're doing the forbidden here...hang on and hope you don't smell your socks!
Ok, so here we go...I took apart my damaged PGL-III-A yellow in the interests of science ... but only after saying all the appropriate prayers to the gods of lasers of course!
I highly recommend you do not do this yourself. It is quite difficult and is very easy to screw up things inside irreparably!
I started obviously by removing the tail cap and the battery, as well as the shutter. (it just unscrews like the tail cap, though the label may be covering it slightly)
a peek inside:
Everything seems happy, and I'll note the collomating lens on this is simply fantastic. not a scratch on it and has awesome divergence.
I had to remove a few blobs of epoxy around the edge securing the lens pill to the host so it would remain in focus. after i used a probe and a pair of pliers to unscrew it. I'll add that it was quite difficult, and even with the aid of acetone to soften the adhesive, it was quite hard to unscrew as it got in the threads. make sure you scrape all of it out before start, and be prepared to fight and be patient, if you rush it you could nick the lens. you will likely tear up the pill a bit, but as long as its in a safe area it shouldn't matter. just take your time and be patient with it.
Lens mount:
another peek inside:
After there was a brass retaining ring holding the module inside, i used similar methods to remove it, afterward tipping it upside down allowed the module to slide out freely.
sliding this bad-boy out:
The bare module itself:
A few shots of the driver(s):
note the pot on it. clockwise increases power, and counter-clockwise reduces it, its only about a turn so a little goes a long way. Though I'd recommend leaving it be.
The brass retaining wall of the forward module is threaded, it just unscrews and slides off the front:
the inside:
closeup on the ppKTP copper mounting block/heatsink, as well as the IR filter and corrective optics in the front:
unscrewed the IR filter and forward optics, probably including the OC:
Reverse side of IR/OC:
unmounted copper block containing ppKTP lasing NLO/crystal:
The eye of the tiger! looking through the KTP to check its general condition. As you can see, though it is nonlinear you can still see through it better than the finest window:
KTP exposed in it's copper block:
All of it together:
Phew! OK long post, cant get any deeper yet due to an epoxy seal between the copper and aluminum parts, I might try to tackle it later to get at the deeper guts, but I hesitate to do so as then i'll lose the rotation for the KTP. but hey...I've already had to go this far right?
So.....I dug in a little deeper...turns out the module unscrews from the back, a flick of the flathead to remove a ring of epoxy and BAM! it unscrews to reveal the 808 C-mount pump diode.
while on the inside....another refocusing optic to prep it for the Nd:YAG.....
corrective optic removed:
You can see the Nd:YAG crystal in there rather cheesily put in, and its loose. low and behold this is my problem, and yet the hardest thing to get to. They YAG is lightly adhered to two small blocks of copper which were dropped into the front (aluminum) part of the module, then the brass rear and corrective optics+diode. this allows the aluminum part to be rotated freely to get your alignment with the ppKTP crystal! Quite a most ingenious design for initial setup from the way I can see the body of the module works. anyways, a flick of my screwdriver quickly removed my nemesis from its hiding place.
both crystals safely removed without scratching and preserved in a high purity acetone bath to remove contaminates before storage:
Anyways...thanks for sticking around to watch! its been a long involved process, and I hope this can help someone else if theirs ever breaks down. If someone would like me to document the insides/teardown of another laser, or do reviews I'd be happy to do so :beer:
In the meantime I'll be preserving the crystals from this beast, perhaps someday i'll rebuild it bigger and better than it was before. but first i need a new set of IR protection.
Cheers!
Before I begin, I'd like to apologize for the semi-roughness of this post, the pictures are not all aligned, and there are a lot of them, and I forgot to change the title to say it was pic heavy. I also took these on an iPhone as it was the only camera I had that takes decent digital pics at the moment.
So...long ass post....Don't look back...we're doing the forbidden here...hang on and hope you don't smell your socks!
Ok, so here we go...I took apart my damaged PGL-III-A yellow in the interests of science ... but only after saying all the appropriate prayers to the gods of lasers of course!
I highly recommend you do not do this yourself. It is quite difficult and is very easy to screw up things inside irreparably!
I started obviously by removing the tail cap and the battery, as well as the shutter. (it just unscrews like the tail cap, though the label may be covering it slightly)
a peek inside:
Everything seems happy, and I'll note the collomating lens on this is simply fantastic. not a scratch on it and has awesome divergence.
I had to remove a few blobs of epoxy around the edge securing the lens pill to the host so it would remain in focus. after i used a probe and a pair of pliers to unscrew it. I'll add that it was quite difficult, and even with the aid of acetone to soften the adhesive, it was quite hard to unscrew as it got in the threads. make sure you scrape all of it out before start, and be prepared to fight and be patient, if you rush it you could nick the lens. you will likely tear up the pill a bit, but as long as its in a safe area it shouldn't matter. just take your time and be patient with it.
Lens mount:
another peek inside:
After there was a brass retaining ring holding the module inside, i used similar methods to remove it, afterward tipping it upside down allowed the module to slide out freely.
sliding this bad-boy out:
The bare module itself:
A few shots of the driver(s):
note the pot on it. clockwise increases power, and counter-clockwise reduces it, its only about a turn so a little goes a long way. Though I'd recommend leaving it be.
The brass retaining wall of the forward module is threaded, it just unscrews and slides off the front:
the inside:
closeup on the ppKTP copper mounting block/heatsink, as well as the IR filter and corrective optics in the front:
unscrewed the IR filter and forward optics, probably including the OC:
Reverse side of IR/OC:
unmounted copper block containing ppKTP lasing NLO/crystal:
The eye of the tiger! looking through the KTP to check its general condition. As you can see, though it is nonlinear you can still see through it better than the finest window:
KTP exposed in it's copper block:
All of it together:
Phew! OK long post, cant get any deeper yet due to an epoxy seal between the copper and aluminum parts, I might try to tackle it later to get at the deeper guts, but I hesitate to do so as then i'll lose the rotation for the KTP. but hey...I've already had to go this far right?
So.....I dug in a little deeper...turns out the module unscrews from the back, a flick of the flathead to remove a ring of epoxy and BAM! it unscrews to reveal the 808 C-mount pump diode.
while on the inside....another refocusing optic to prep it for the Nd:YAG.....
corrective optic removed:
You can see the Nd:YAG crystal in there rather cheesily put in, and its loose. low and behold this is my problem, and yet the hardest thing to get to. They YAG is lightly adhered to two small blocks of copper which were dropped into the front (aluminum) part of the module, then the brass rear and corrective optics+diode. this allows the aluminum part to be rotated freely to get your alignment with the ppKTP crystal! Quite a most ingenious design for initial setup from the way I can see the body of the module works. anyways, a flick of my screwdriver quickly removed my nemesis from its hiding place.
both crystals safely removed without scratching and preserved in a high purity acetone bath to remove contaminates before storage:
Anyways...thanks for sticking around to watch! its been a long involved process, and I hope this can help someone else if theirs ever breaks down. If someone would like me to document the insides/teardown of another laser, or do reviews I'd be happy to do so :beer:
In the meantime I'll be preserving the crystals from this beast, perhaps someday i'll rebuild it bigger and better than it was before. but first i need a new set of IR protection.
Cheers!
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