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40W CO2 Laser Photos

LORDJET

LORDJET

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Very nice Frothy! Those Co2s are way, way cool. I have been looking at those sealed tubed ones for some time now. Those have to be easier, and much less fussy than the flowing gas design:cool: Where did you get the tube? Looks like some I've seen on Ebay.
 





Pieznice29

Pieznice29

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Nice setup, in jealous of your optical table :p
Your tube looks exactly the same as mine except hard sealed at the ends. How much did it cost?
 
Arayan

Arayan

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very nice CO2 laser :)
I noticed that the power supply lacks the connections to a control panel ... the tube works in that way? :thinking:
 
FrothyChimp

FrothyChimp

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The power supply will run as is using the test button. You can connect TTL+ or TTL- signals as well as PWM to control the laser as well as interlocks if you wish to use them. The tube is a common Chinese manufactured tube costing me a couple hundred dollars including the power supply.

The optics table is all we really need at work. We have no need for vibration damping or anything like that. It's just used for testing purposes.

The chiller failed on Friday. The pump circuit won't engage the pump and throws a watchdog alarm so I messed with that a bit on Friday. I've narrowed the issue down to one of the circuit boards so I'll see if I can get it running again. I don't know when I'll be able to video it as it's still a lab for work so I may need to tear it down to open up room for system testing while I work on the chiller in between work.
 
T

Things

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I can vouch for those cheap Chinese tubes on eBay, mine cost around $180 total including shipping, and it was packaged VERY well.
 
J

james1095

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CO2 lasers are quite safe as far as higher powered lasers go. It's more of a heat beam than light, the lens of your eye can't focus it so it's far less dangerous. You can feel heat from diffuse reflected sunlight too, or a radiant space heater.
 
Trevor

Trevor

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james1095 said:
CO2 lasers are quite safe as far as higher powered lasers go. It's more of a heat beam than light, the lens of your eye can't focus it so it's far less dangerous. You can feel heat from diffuse reflected sunlight too, or a radiant space heater.
Click to expand...

Well, the energy can't actually get into your eye. So instead of having a laser cooking your retina, it's cooking your cornea. Not a big improvement, really.

Not exactly "safe."

-Trevor
 
J

james1095

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There's a HUGE difference between a tiny focused spot permanently vaporizing a bit of your retina and diffused heat on your cornea. Any high powered laser is dangerous, but a 100mW visible or near IR beam is far more dangerous than 10s of Watts of CO2. A single flash from a 100+mW laser "pointer" will give you a permanent retinal burn, an accidental flash from a CO2 beam may hurt, but is a lot less likely to do permanent damage. Additionally plain plastic safety glasses are very effective at blocking the CO2 wavelength.

Again, I'm not trying to imply that a 40W CO2 laser won't hurt you, but they are no worse than the crazy modified pointers kids are waving around casually, and they're a lot less portable.
 
Trevor

Trevor

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james1095 said:
There's a HUGE difference between a tiny focused spot permanently vaporizing a bit of your retina and diffused heat on your cornea. Any high powered laser is dangerous, but a 100mW visible or near IR beam is far more dangerous than 10s of Watts of CO2. A single flash from a 100+mW laser "pointer" will give you a permanent retinal burn, an accidental flash from a CO2 beam may hurt, but is a lot less likely to do permanent damage. Additionally plain plastic safety glasses are very effective at blocking the CO2 wavelength.

Again, I'm not trying to imply that a 40W CO2 laser won't hurt you, but they are no worse than the crazy modified pointers kids are waving around casually, and they're a lot less portable.
Click to expand...

No. Read the FAQ.

Here's an excerpt, since you don't RTFM:

The beam is TOTALLY invisible. While the 10.6 um wavelength can't reach the back of the eye and the retina (unless the front part has been totally obliterated), the eye can still be permanently damaged since the transparent tissues like the cornea and lens are quite sensitive to increases in local temperature - and have limited or no ability to sense there is a problem until it is too late.
Click to expand...

40W of laser power directly to the eye will instantly cook your cornea. It is far more dangerous than these "modified pointers." CO2 lasers post a serious fire hazard and will easily cut human tissue (there's an anecdote somewhere on the FAQ where someone ducked under a beam and ended up with a delightful scar on their forehead).

So, please shut the hell up and stop disseminating false safety information; when you do, you put people at risk.

-Trevor
 
J

james1095

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No need to be rude... I have read the FAQ, in fact I personally know Sam and have contributed sections over the last decade, although admittedly small compared to the vast amount he has written.

I said several times that ANY high powered laser is dangerous. My point is simply that there is no reason to fear CO2 any more than any other high powered laser. Watt for Watt it is not AS dangerous as shorter wavelength lasers, and it is easier to protect yourself from it. I never said anything about 40W directly to the eye, we were talking about accidental reflections. 40W to the eye for any length of time will cause serious damage, period. 40mW of visible or near IR to the eye will damage your retina.

For the record, I have several 1W 445s of the type people are building into pointers that I've built into lab lasers. One of those easily lights cardboard on fire from across the room and cuts materials. I have kept my skin out of the beam for obvious reasons but I have no doubt that it would cause some serious damage. In addition to these risks, direct and diffuse reflections can blind you. I'm honestly amazed that there haven't been more reports of injuries from these things.
 
Trevor

Trevor

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james1095 said:
No need to be rude... I have read the FAQ, in fact I personally know Sam and have contributed sections over the last decade, although admittedly small compared to the vast amount he has written.

I said several times that ANY high powered laser is dangerous. My point is simply that there is no reason to fear CO2 any more than any other high powered laser. Watt for Watt it is not AS dangerous as shorter wavelength lasers, and it is easier to protect yourself from it. I never said anything about 40W directly to the eye, we were talking about accidental reflections. 40W to the eye for any length of time will cause serious damage, period. 40mW of visible or near IR to the eye will damage your retina.

For the record, I have several 1W 445s of the type people are building into pointers that I've built into lab lasers. One of those easily lights cardboard on fire from across the room and cuts materials. I have kept my skin out of the beam for obvious reasons but I have no doubt that it would cause some serious damage. In addition to these risks, direct and diffuse reflections can blind you. I'm honestly amazed that there haven't been more reports of injuries from these things.
Click to expand...

Here's why I'm jumping on you:

A single flash from a 100+mW laser "pointer" will give you a permanent retinal burn, an accidental flash from a CO2 beam may hurt, but is a lot less likely to do permanent damage.
Click to expand...

A direct comparison of the beams to the eye. That "flash" may also leave facial tissue around the eye scarred, in addition to likely doing irreparable damage to the surface of the eye (unless you somehow acquire a tissue donation or your cornea has abnormally good healing ability).

People land here from Google looking for laser safety information. A lackadaisical attitude toward safety won't help anyone, and can get people injured.

-Trevor
 
J

james1095

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Accidental flash, meaning diffuse or semi diffuse reflection off of an object. I didn't mean to imply that it was harmless and that one should be casual, only that far less powerful shorter wavelength lasers can do as much or more damage, and yet I see a lot of people being frighteningly casual with those.

Honestly I find it somewhat terrifying and irresponsible to build a pointer capable of cutting and burning things, but there are plenty of people advocating and doing that here.
 
Trevor

Trevor

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james1095 said:
Honestly I find it somewhat terrifying and irresponsible to build a pointer capable of cutting and burning things, but there are plenty of people advocating and doing that here.
Click to expand...

*nods*

-Trevor
 
BShanahan14rulz

BShanahan14rulz

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That was a bad place for a page break. Maybe could you go back and modify your original post? I too thought you were talking about accidentally bouncing 40W of IR into your cornea until I went to page 2.
 
FrothyChimp

FrothyChimp

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I fixed the chiller and made a video of the CO2 in operation. I've got some editing to do but it will be up soon. I'll tell you now, that sour apple jolly rancher candy never stood a chance.
 
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