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Argon Lens

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wicked1

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My argon has no lens. The beam diverges, maybe an inch after 10 meters.. probably a little more.
If I measure the divergence, is there a way to find a lens which will correct it? Then I guess the problem is finding a way to mount it. The laser just has a brass tube at the end. (Omnichrome, from copier)

Thanks!
 





daguin

daguin

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wicked1 said:
My argon has no lens.  The beam diverges, maybe an inch after 10 meters..  probably a little more.  
If I measure the divergence, is there a way to find a lens which will correct it?  Then I guess the problem is finding a way to mount it.  The laser just has a brass tube at the end.  (Omnichrome, from copier)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Argon lasers are made for close-up work. They do not include a lens for "focus." What do you want to accomplish with the laser? If you are looking to "burn" then a simple lens will do the trick to "focus" the beam to a small dot. If you want a less divergent beam, look into getting a beam expander.

Peace,
dave
 
GooeyGus

GooeyGus

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I'm curious, what model copier exactly do those omnichrome 532's come out of?
 
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wicked1

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No, I don't want to burn things (I dont quite get the fascination after etching a line in plastic and popping a few balloons, lighting a smoke or 2... unless I can start a fire or cut through wood or something, whats the point).
I want to be able to bounce the beam around my house, or simply project it a longer distance. I guess a beam expander is what I need.
Actually, I thought this might be a common problem, and someone would say, "oh yeah, here's what u need".
The divergence makes the argon pretty useless for light show type stuff if you're projecting the beam across a warehouse or something.
 
diachi

diachi

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If it's diverging straight from the end of the tube, just get a convex lens with a long focal length, and place it infront of the aperture , and then move the lens forward until you get a thin(ish) collimated beam .
 
GooeyGus

GooeyGus

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One thing you might want to look into is getting better optics for it. I think some of those have single mode optics, which will reduce power but make beam quality better. Other have multimode (longitudinal, not transverse) which are for more power but the beam specs are a bit worse. Giving the mirrors a good alignment couldn't hurt either. I doubt it will help with divergence, but it's always good to know that you're all lined up! I cant really suggest anything more than that, as the divergence on all of mine is pretty spot on. Better than my HeNe's even.
 
GooeyGus

GooeyGus

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Nah... I think most of my HeNes are around 1.5mRad. The divergence isn't the amazing part, it's the beam quality of the HeNe laser thats so crazy  :eek:
 
diachi

diachi

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I thought HeNe's usually had like 0.2mRad divergance or something close to that :eek:
 
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wicked1

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I did align the mirrors when I got it. I got an ENORMOUS increase in power by doing it!! and a few more lines of color.
the divergence of the beam however is not great. Then again, I don't think HENE's are that great either. I can get my pointer focused to a point 100 yards away.. the tube lasers w/ no lenses are another story.

The beams are perfect, tho... no ovals w/ artifacts coming out of the tube lasers.
 
daguin

daguin

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OK you two -- hints?

What did you/do you use to adjust/align your mirrors?

Peace,
dave
 
GooeyGus

GooeyGus

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Well, the ALC60X has external mirrors so they can be easily aligned/adjusted for big gains, because they get knocked out of whack so easily. Most of the uniphase/cyonics/JDS tubes are all internal mirror. So, they dont really go out of alignment much but from what I've read, you can gently push on the mirror ends with a non-conductive (very important... lol) object to see if the power comes up or down. Other than that I dont think there's much one can do without opening the tube.
 
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wicked1

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Yes, mine has the external adjustment bolts.
I marked where I started, and made very small adjustments to each bolt. One at a time, both clockwise and counter, and see what gave me an increase in power. Then I'd put that back to starting position, and move to the 2nd bolt, then the 3rd. From there I figured out how it was out of alignment, and started dialing it into alignment.
It's been about a decade, but I think the site I got the basic instructions for this jig-free sort of guesstimation method was sams laser repair faq, or something. (I'm sure you guys know what site Im talking about)

Let me know if you have one of these. If I think about it for a while I'll be able to remember what I did, and give you a better explanation. I remember it was a scary process, because I lost coherent light all together a couple of times.
 
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