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This is my first serious attempt at firing my DIY gas laser. I decided to make a new thread for this portion of the journey ![Big grin :D :D](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png)
If you want to take a look at the build notes/pictures, I posted it on a website here http://home.gci.net/~thundersqueak/CO2_Laser.html
The setup is a Yellow Jacket Vacuum superevac pump, lots of tubing, a 15kV neon sign transformer controlled by a variac, and of course the laser head. I also wore safety glasses just in case I got lucky :shhh: I didnt hook up the cooling system at this time, just wanting to make sure I didn't have leaks and such.
I switched on the pump and let it hit 30", which it did in a matter of a second, so far so good. Then switched on the variac and ramped up the power... and wouldn't ya know it, the tube glowed![Big grin :D :D](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png)
The center was a very bright pink with a lovely purplish aura that the camera picked up on. Hard to take a picture of the pink with my phone (only camera I had handy at the time).
That is it for tonight, next time I will hook up the cooling system and run some gas through it, I just wanted to share my progress.
Btw, I also discovered that the voltage travels up the gas line if I open the needle valve, which has a metal knob on it.... and all I can say is ... OUCH! :crackup:
:thanks:
:wave:
![Big grin :D :D](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png)
If you want to take a look at the build notes/pictures, I posted it on a website here http://home.gci.net/~thundersqueak/CO2_Laser.html
The setup is a Yellow Jacket Vacuum superevac pump, lots of tubing, a 15kV neon sign transformer controlled by a variac, and of course the laser head. I also wore safety glasses just in case I got lucky :shhh: I didnt hook up the cooling system at this time, just wanting to make sure I didn't have leaks and such.
I switched on the pump and let it hit 30", which it did in a matter of a second, so far so good. Then switched on the variac and ramped up the power... and wouldn't ya know it, the tube glowed
![Big grin :D :D](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png)
The center was a very bright pink with a lovely purplish aura that the camera picked up on. Hard to take a picture of the pink with my phone (only camera I had handy at the time).
![bda4e3c7.jpg](http://i1260.photobucket.com/albums/ii565/ThunderSqueak/projects/CO2%20Laser/bda4e3c7.jpg)
That is it for tonight, next time I will hook up the cooling system and run some gas through it, I just wanted to share my progress.
Btw, I also discovered that the voltage travels up the gas line if I open the needle valve, which has a metal knob on it.... and all I can say is ... OUCH! :crackup:
:thanks:
:wave:
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