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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Broken CO2 Spiral

Joined
Feb 23, 2012
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Hey Guys,

Long time reader. New poster.

Got a 40w CO2 Cutter from China this past month. When it came it had a broken CO2 laser I was pretty sad about this. It's the spiral part inside that I think is some sort of method used to slow down the decay of CO2 thus allowing the whole sealed CO2 concept.

Regardless, Great Ebay experience from Rumi Shipping and they quickly sent me a new blub I installed it last week and have been having a blast cutting things of all sorts.

Just thought tho. Since the water jacket of the old laser is not broken What would happen if I ran some water through it and powered it up.?? Anything useful from this old bulb? Maybe the Mirrors?

I was thinking maybe I just fire up this big beast and see what happens..Any knowledge on this?

Regards,

Mo

P.S yes I have my nice think poly glasses on the whole time.
 





Joined
Jan 13, 2010
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Do you have photos? I think that spiral is just to circulate the gas. Shouldn't hurt the laser...
 
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Feb 23, 2012
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Untitled.jpg

Here is a picture of the broken part.

So should I power this laser up? Or is it pretty much to be considered dead?

Any value? What about the mirrors. I was hoping to combine a 650nm Red with my 10.6um. Could the output mirror be used for this?

Thanks in advance

Mo
 
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Dec 11, 2011
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That is painful to look at. Yeah the mirrors are always handy to have around, though I don't think they'll work like a dichro... OC mirrors are usually still >96% reflective to the lasing wavelength.

What's to lose if you fire it up? Just be sure your PSU can handle open circuit conditions!
 
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Yeah trust me, it hurt me wayyyyy more! I opened up my delish juicy new laser cutter only to see a broken LASER! the main part :(

Had to wait two weeks with a huge functionless tin box sitting on my desk. I almost shed a tear.

Anyways since I only have the one supply of the cutter itself I'll leave the tinkering until someone that may have already tried this jumps in and says the laser is fine. Then I'll buy it a new supply and make a huge CNC gantry laser cutter table. For now I'll spare the tube and keep it together.

Anyplace to get a Dicro for under $100 ? Only saw 1 choice on ebay for beam combining. That seems a bit expensive(although most optics are)


Many Thanks,

Mo
 
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I can't tell much from your photo. How much of it is actually broken? I can't tell if its just a piece broken off or the entire thing. Is the cooling jacket broken too or is it just the spiral thing.
 
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Both ends of the spiral have snapped off and the spiral can now freely flow up and down the laser shaft which includes the still fully intact water jacket.

But spiral is separated on both sides and snapped as well in the middle. (Assume basically a really mangled spiral)


Mo
 

LSRFAQ

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May 8, 2009
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From experience with the same design made by the origional domestic manufacturer:

One of two things happens. The glow discharge goes the shorter path, and tube is useless except for so called "Steampunk" displays.

It lases, but the beam is a little to very unstable because the return flow of gas is too fast.

The discharge causes cataphoresis, or pumping of the gas to one end of the tube because of the electrostatic fields acting on ionized atoms in the discharge. The Spiral is to make sure the discharge goes down the right path, while alllowing gas flow to circulate.

One cannot tell, unless one tries.

I'd increase the value of the ballast resistor a bit, before I tried it, but you may not have that option.

I do not think that a quick one second test will damage the PSU, but I have no idea about how the Asian PSU is constructed.

Steve
 
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