Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

So my long awaited HGM5 arrived today after a fairly long (25 days after paying) wait. The laser was packed pretty well and I was very excited to get it up and running.

I slowly unpacked the laser and removed the fiber cable, foot pedal, laser safety glasses and high speed shutter. I then extracted the main unit which, upon first glance, appeared to survive shipping. It was shipped ground and the package was 140lbs.

I opened the cover and began to inspect to make sure nothing was wrong. I'll let the pictures explain the rest. Sensitive viewers may want to turn away.... there is broken glass involved.


Everything looks great here! The insides are very tidy and the unit is in good shape. The laser was making 2.7W (for 30 sec.), without any modifications, the day before it was boxed up and sent to me.


Then I noticed a dent....


Hmm... this dent doesn't look good... especially not on that side... uh-oh...


Yup... you guessed it. My worst nightmare was revealed.


The brewster stem is shattered due to the box being dropped on it's corner on the side that contains the tube. I'm currently looking for a new tube so if anyone has one laying around or has access to one, I would greatly appreciate it. It doesn't necessarily even have to be the HGM tube... any tube I can get for a decent price that I can run with this PSU would be great. ALC68, even a Lexel 88 tube can be powered with this supply (I think).

And the unit looked to good out of the box... it's a shame how one little piece of glass breaking basically turns the whole thing into scrap.






I can keep dreaming about these 4W of argon power.... at least for the time being. I should have a new tube very soon.  :'(



:'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

Re: Ugh....

holy crap, wasn't it insured?

Re: Ugh....

Yeah it was insured... so everything will work out. But still... I waited forever for this thing and I was so damn excited to get it going. Now it's probably going to be another couple weeks to get the new tube to me, and a couple hours of work to swap it all out. :-/

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

wOah those argon are damm complex il get a rgv first!9

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser..

Unlucky !

My argon tube arrived today as well, doesn't seem to be damaged, but the PSU probably wont get here till tomorrow, so I'll find out then

-Adam

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

NOOOOOOOOOOO :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( WHY!!!?!?!?!?!

Oh man....4W tube, gone in an instant.Damnit....What a tragedy.We feel your pain man :'(

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

A better angle...



I dont think this tube is quite bit enough.... ;D (Just to give you an idea... the tube in the picture is the size of the smaller air cooled lasers that most users here have)

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser..

someone had Mcdonalds today~...i think


That looks kinda complicated, how long do you think it will take to fix it? :-?

when/if you get it fixed post some pics and video of this thing in action I'm sure it will be awesome ;D ;D ;D

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

He should've removed the tube and pack it separately.

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

...How many lasers do you need!?


shame about the long shipping and the bad surprise, good luck getting a new tube I'll be waiting for some sweet beam shots

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

Switch said:

He should've removed the tube and pack it separately.

Click to expand...

Much easier said than done... and really, the tube was probably safer inside the unit than anywhere else. I don't think much else could have been done to prevent this, other than crating the unit in a wood crate before shipping. Just bad luck... oh well.

In other news, I got a quote from a laser company to repair the broken Brewster stem and completely re-gas the tube. The quote came in at $1,150 so its not too bad... if the cathode is bad it would be another $500, so I'm looking at $1600 for basically a brand new tube. If I decide to do this, I may end up selling my Prometheus to finance the repairs. The price of the prometheus, plus the money I will get from the insurance should cover most of the costs on the repair, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what becomes available as far as tubes in the next few days.

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

You KNOW that I feel your pain. I've lost a copper vapor and TWO helium/cadmium lasers to the shipping gods.

Unfortunately, this is the chance we take when dealing with used glass tubes in gas lasers. Without the original packing pieces and crating/packaging the glass is subjected to significantly more impact and movement than when shipped new.

On a more positive note, I received a yellow He/Ne, intact, today I haven't measured it yet. It is probably less than 2mW, but it does lase a beautiful yellow.

Peace,
dave

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

I don't feel your pain. My insane jealousy of you having a nice laser like that has been satisfied by the early death of your tube!!! Mwahaha .. I'm kidding. I would have ranted and raved like a beast. I DO feel your pain.

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

Yeah, there's nothing worse than being really excited when you see your next laser arrive, only to find that something's wrong and your gratification will be delayed! Knock on wood I've never had anything broken, only lasers that didn't work properly, or needed stuff I didn't have laying around to get them running. I can see what a let-down you have there. Hopefully you'll find a new tube soon.

Re: Ugh.... (pics of my new 4W  Argon laser...)

I've sourced a brand new tube, but it's $2k.... a little more than I want to spend but I can borrow the money if I really want to fix it that bad... hmmm..... :-?