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Laser to heat metal

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MrUmunhum

MrUmunhum

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Hi group,
Brand new to Lasers. Looking for help selecting a Laser I can use to heat metal.
The idea is to use the heat to remove studs from engine blocks.
So heat to red hot but not to melt them.

Any pointers? Also would like How Tos URLs for Lasers.

Thanks for your time.
 





Misanthrop

Misanthrop

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You will need over 50Watts of Infrared laser light to do that within a reasonable timescale.

Lets put this into perspective.. a 1mW keychain pointer which im sure you've seen before speaks for itself really, not very bright, and not powerful at all.

50 Watts is 50,000mW.

You will require water cooling, a huge power supply and upwards of 3,000ish?
 
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sopark4000

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Honestly using a laser for this specific application seems impractical. Is there any reason you can't use another source of heat such as an oxy-acetylene torch?
 
MrUmunhum

MrUmunhum

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sopark4000 said:
Honestly using a laser for this specific application seems impractical. Is there any reason you can't use another source of heat such as an oxy-acetylene torch?
Click to expand...
Trying to limit burning up everything around the area.
 
Ablaze

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I suggest you get a nice soldering iron to do the job.
 
qumefox

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Hmm.. If your trying to get studs out, shouldn't you be heating the block.. and cooling the studs?

Either way, a laser is about the most impractical, expensive, and dangerous way to go about this there is.

With a torch. you don't have to worry about setting the wall on the opposite side of the room on fire.. for instance.. much less people that might be exposed to it.
 
sopark4000

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I agree with the soldering iron idea. As misanthrop pointed out you would need at least 50W of IR to do the job and as qumefox pointed out this is pretty much the most dangerous, impractical and expensive way to go about this. You are better off finding the highest power soldering iron you can buy and using that, but because I have no experience with the application you need it for I can't make any guarantees. Pretty much all I can guarantee is that a laser is not the way to go.
 
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qumefox

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Um guys. He's heating ENGINE BLOCKS.. Soldering irons aren't going to cut it.. a propane torch MIGHT do it but most likely the best tool would be an oxy-acetylene torch.
 
sopark4000

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Ablaze said:
I suggest you get a nice soldering iron to do the job.
Click to expand...

qumefox said:
Hmm.. If your trying to get studs out, shouldn't you be heating the block.. and cooling the studs?

Either way, a laser is about the most impractical, expensive, and dangerous way to go about this there is.

With a torch. you don't have to worry about setting the wall on the opposite side of the room on fire.. for instance.. much less people that might be exposed to it.
Click to expand...

qumefox said:
Um guys. He's heating ENGINE BLOCKS.. Soldering irons aren't going to cut it.. a propane torch MIGHT do it but most likely the best tool would be an oxy-acetylene torch.
Click to expand...
Yea but he's trying to heat a small part of it.
 
qumefox

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....

Think about it sopark.. The goal is to heat a small part of a LARGE hunk of metal.. without heating the entire thing..

The only way to accomplish this is to apply a LOT of heat VERY rapidly.
 
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Guyfromhe

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What about some sort of induction coil? I don't know enough about engines to know where the bit he wants to heat is exactly or if that would be possible to get a coil around it..
I don't think 50W of laser would heat a piece of metal that is any significant thickness to red hot (as the whole thing would act as a heat sink) and you would likely end up melting a tiny spot / hole in it rather than heating up a large area.
 
Misanthrop

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Guyfromhe said:
What about some sort of induction coil? I don't know enough about engines to know where the bit he wants to heat is exactly or if that would be possible to get a coil around it..
I don't think 50W of laser would heat a piece of metal that is any significant thickness to red hot (as the whole thing would act as a heat sink) and you would likely end up melting a tiny spot / hole in it rather than heating up a large area.
Click to expand...

Penny Vs Coherent Laser Diode - YouTube

It was n't even operating fully and it melted through a penny.

Also.. not heard of this stuff?

http://www.stoodyind.com/Catalogs/FISC/current/05catpg467.pdf
 
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sopark4000

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qumefox said:
....

Think about it sopark.. The goal is to heat a small part of a LARGE hunk of metal.. without heating the entire thing..

The only way to accomplish this is to apply a LOT of heat VERY rapidly.
Click to expand...

I get it. I'm just saying that it doesn't help this guy answer his question. But either way would it be possible to use a spot welder to quickly heat the spot and melt it. I don't have much welding experience but based on what I know I would think that instead of using the regular weld rods you could try using something that wouldn't melt. I don't know if thats possible but if it was that would be a decent way to deliver an extremely large amount of energy to a small spot in a short period of time.
 
qumefox

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We aren't welding here, nor is any melting wanted. The goal is to remove a seized stud from an engine block. My guess is the guy has a seized exhaust manifold stud he's trying to deal with, and doesn't want to pull the motor or do a lot of other dismantling of things to deal with it properly.

The objective would be to heat a localized portion of the block where the stud is to make it expand, then cool the stud itself, so it will shrink.. which will hopefully increase the tolerances enough that the seized stud can be unscrewed.
 
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