I have always wanted a HeNe laser and that dream has finally come true. In fact it has manifested itself in the form of a beautiful Melles griot 05-LHR-911.



Isn't it pretty? I know the photo is fuzzy, but the rest are better

But anyway, what I really like and find cool about this laser is that it was manufactured in September of 1988. That's 6 years older than me! This laser is 23 years old! I know that probably isn't too exciting and very commonplace for most gas laser enthusiasts, but I think its "the stuff".



The PSU is the Brick style 05-LPM-379-1. And boy is this thing a brick!



At first I thought wiring the PSU was going to be very intricate. I was joyfully mistaken! Luckily I had a spare 3 wire grounded cord on hand. All I did was look up a photo of a US AC Plug's pinout and the colors were matched up on the ground and I was able to go from there.



I can't describe how nerve wrecking it was plugging it in for the first time! And it didn't help that my father screamed "Boo!" as I was plugging it in.

But behold! Beautiful, beautiful photons!



I know it says it has a maximum output of 5mW but I know from reading that these units put out 1-2mW. Mine makes my LPM jump between 1 and 2mW so I will go ahead and assume this puts out 1.5mW



Here's the dot across my room. When the dot is expanded like this, I can definitely tell the color difference when compared to 650nm



I'm definitely going to be looking in to getting some bare tubes. I really loved my experience with HeNes thus far!

Anyway, heres just a nice close up of the logo and model number



... And one last shot of it running



BEAMSHOTS!

gas is great

Yeah I really like the wavelengths available from gas. Hopefully one day I'll get an Argon laser.

Ahhhhhhb HeNe!

No noise
Very little heat
No duty cycle
Beautiful beam spec's
Unique wavelengths

Pure laser candy

Peace,
dave

You're that bastard that sniped this on ebay for $12.40!! jk

Great deal. the seller listed his next one and I negotiated the price for $31. should arrive next week.

Actually that wasn't me! i got this for $35. I saw that one went for $21 with shipping and I almost cried. But I still feel $35 was a nice price for me

Awesome that you picked one up! I really love mine!

Oh... Ooops. My bad

I was winning at 10 bucks, and went on ebay to raise my bid, but there was only 5mins left so i didn't bother.

5 mins later, i get a message on my phone saying i've been outbid, and 2 seconds later, the listing's ended!



Still, I guess $31 isn't bad...

You got sniped.

Nice laser Fret. Welcome to the gas side.

I know... Post #5

Wait... both input wires are white? Isn't there a phase issue when you mix up AC polarity?

EDIT: Oh, one's yellow...Just remembered I wasn't living in Korea anymore lol (they have 230VAC there)
Does anyone know which one's the hot line? (White or Yellow)

IIRC there is no polarity.

Thanks, TJ, I do enjoy the gas that has been given to me.

As for the wiring...
IIRC, When I stripped my cord, it had a black, white, and green line. I just connect green to green, white to white, and yellow to black.

I used this photo as a guide.

Gas laser are the best! There is something about them that puts off the real element of a laser for me.

For all those that may be interested....Melles Griot lasers that are 'RED' 632.8nm are lable: LHR or LHP.

Here is a handy link to identify the industrial HeNe's that you may see for sale. It doesn't cover every one you'll find but quite a few of them.

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserhcl.htm#hclmghl

Congratulations on your first HeNe. Your traveling down the gas laser road now.

Per the (American) National Electric Code, grounded conductors aka Neutral must be white or gray. Ground is green and any other color is "hot".

I just got mine as well. Exactly the same as yours.

There's something weird, though. I left it on for 5 minutes, and the head got unusually warm. I thought it was weird, and left it on for another five, and it was too hot to hold. I had to wait for it to cool down.

HeNe's aren't supposed to do this, are they? Even my bare tube only gets mildly warm after several minutes. Does yours get hot after a few minutes as well?