Multiline Argon laser cheap! Michican, USA

crazyspaz said:

Hahaha, you gotta stop worrying man! There's nothing special you have to do with the plug. Here's my EXTREMELY temporary solution

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Wow, scary. If you burn your house down - dont' call us.

hwang21 said:

I believe this was the picture from the seller (it hasn't arrived at my doorstep yet): Flickr - Bad, bad panda! Come on. We want photos.

EDIT: aaand it seems Flickr is down for the moment

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That is exactly what both mine looked like when I pull them.

Personally I would snip the wiring completely off and just short the pins listed above. Otherwise you have this STUPID cable hanging off the back that you don't really need.

But, keep the plastic casing they connect to, like Mario said, to make shorting the correct wires easier.

Plastic casing the wires connect to? Can you provide a pic?

I use a regular old PSU wire for the back of a computer, or your standard home appliance wire that you can buy in 6ft lengths at Wal-Mart. The wire may get warm and flimsy, but that's about it.

It's not like you're running some crazy water cooled 3 phase 220V ion.

Depends, but you'll want to keep the lengths short or the voltage drop could prevent the laser from running. If the wire is getting warm at all, you're gonna have pretty bad voltage drop. It's not so bad on 220V as you've got overhead, seeing as most small heads run at about 100V nominal.

hwang21 said:

Plastic casing the wires connect to? Can you provide a pic?

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Look at this one DSC_0073 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

You can see that the top connector on the right, has a screw on piece of plastic

If you look at the bottom connector it doesn't have one and so has male pins, the bottom is what you will connect the umbilical to and will go to the argon head.

When you get it, unscrew the top connector. It will have that long wire attached, you can again, see it in the picture.

The plastic connector on top has the pins numbered on it. Cut off the wire you see in the picture. Cut two pieces from it, about 1-2" long.

With the plastic connector in your hand, take the two short pieces of wire and poke one into hole number 12 and the other side of the same wire into hole 13 and make sure they make contact with the metal connector inside. Do the same with 36 and 37 with your other piece of wire. You only need an inch or so of wire. Screw the plastic connector back on.

If you look at this picture: DSC_0076 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

You can see where the Argon originally plugged into the unit, at the bottom of the piece shown. It is clearly labeled 120v 20a, it is not a problem plugging it into a standard 120v outlet, just cut off the old plug and use the correct plug.

No new wiring needed, no changing gauge on the Plug. The ONLY time you should have to worry about this is if you run a longer cable from the plug on the unit (it is only about 18" long) THEN use a heavy duty extension cord as listed above.

Things said:

If the wire is getting warm at all, you're gonna have pretty bad voltage drop.

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Not true at all. It only takes a watt or two to heat the wire. For example, 100A with 0.05V drop is 5W of heat which can make the wire quite warm. A 1V drop might be a problem for some low voltage applications, but it is negligible for mains.

Dude, chill out about the darn wire....

Without seeing what connection your PSU has it's hard to say exactly what you'll need. if it's a cut wire like in the pic above just go get a heavy duty grounded 15A plug and you're good. if it's a T0-20 A plug you can lop it off and do the same. If it has PC PSU style C-14 (IIRC) input jack get a heay duty cable and you'll be fine.

I do highly disagree with those saying an 18AWG cable is fine to use and they can do so if they want. Any cable that gets so hot it's limp is dangerous.

I know my argon's PSU draws 2A by itself with the tube current off so at full power, with 10.5A to the head, it's pulling 12.5A from the wall. An 18AWG cable is rated for 10A. That's asking for trouble. I realize you normally don't run an argon at full power for more than a few minutes (and usually can't unless you have one helluva an exhaust fan to keep the thermal protection from kicking in) but anything over 8A to the head is maxing the power cable's rating. I ordered a 25' 14AWG PC power supply style cable (NEMA 5-15p to IEC C13) for 12 bucks plus shipping from monoprice (item 5295). Personally I figured if I've spent close to $500 on a laser I can spend another 15ish on a power cable that may be a bit overkill but won't potentially melt and burn my house down.

Ooook so 14AWG power cord will be fine to play it safe, but what about splicing it? Is twisting the wires together+solder+electrical tape (600V, I'll have to see if there's any other ratings on it) enough?

EDIT: I'm expecting to receive it on Saturday

EDIT #2: wait... doesn't http://www.flickr.com/photos/21947863@N05/10129146033 show a standard wall outlet socket (NEMA 15/20) for the laser? :thinking:

Nope, that's a TR-20. Trust me, i was at the place where that photo was taken, I have seen both units (mine and yours). Just buy an adapter of amazon, this really is not a big of a deal as you are making out to be.

On another note-I am getting 5 lines from mine at idle, and 6 at full power...but I have seen a seventh, in between the farthest violet and the one down-where there's a sort of "empty space", compared to the spacing of the rest of the lines. I'm guessing this was once an 8 line, since there are these spaces/voids between the outermost lines and one in from each. so it goes

l l l l l l

any way to get the other one, or hopefully, two, lines to come in? Or is it just my tube is past its prime, and can no longer produce them?

I'm not finding any TR-20 to NEMA adapters on Amazon... can you link me please?

I think the number of lines that comes in depends on your current and tube pressure

LtKernelPanic said:

I can spend another 15ish on a power cable that may be a bit overkill

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Absolutely. That's your choice.

If you insist on using OD8 goggles for your 100mW pointer, so be it. But don't tell everyone else that OD2 is inadequate protection.

LtKernelPanic said:

Any cable that gets so hot it's limp is dangerous.

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How?

If you're assuming that anything that is hot is a fire hazard, may I point to the bore of the laser itself? The plasma is several thousand degrees. Why doesn't that burn your house down?

The argon just shipped, supposed to arrive at my doorstep on Monday. Excited

Sooo anyone have any idea about whether the electrical tape will melt when I splice the cables and solder the wires together?

It may get warm and "slip" if you were to touch it but you will be fine. I have mine run though a 18ish gauge 10 foot extension cord with no issue.

again: STOP worrying about the wires! it will be OK! Remember, you just got an Argon for under 200$...wiring is no big deal