Argon cooling question.....

Whenever I run either of my argon lasers I always let the fan run for a little while after I turn the laser off, and then I turn the fan off when the air is fairly close to room temperature. Is this necessary? Will it prolong the life of the tubes? I just hate to shut the whole thing down when the fan is still putting out hot air like a hair dryer!

Anyone else who has an argon do this? I don't recall ever seeing anything about doing that on Sam's FAQ...

I do the same thing. I let the fan run until the air coming out is cool, then I shut the whole thing down. I dont know if it helps anything, but I know it cant hurt anything!

I do the same thing. There are two reasons for this.

The first is that when you turn off something that is generating heat, it will often "heat up" more at first and then begin to cool down. The heat that is deeper inside the tube is spread without being "siphoned off" by the air flow. The middle of the tube is hotter than the surface that has air moving over it. You see this phenomenon with cars. Sometimes a hot vehicle will "boil over" AFTER the car is turned off.

Second, the OEM fans that I have harvested all had some sort of delayed shut off. I figure if the equipment manufacturers are leaving the fan on for awhile after the laser is turned off, I should too.

Peace,
dave

The thermal stress can be an issue if you're shutting it down from full power. I let mine idle a minute or two before shutting it down, and then leaving the fan on until the air is warm.

For some reason it just didn't seem like a good thing to do by shutting the whole thing down from full power, but yeah, I've seen some cars overheat after they have been turned off.
Guess I had good thinking on doing that!