ALC60X Argon (my first argon laser!)

[James_Lehman]

Multi line Ar lasers put out a beam that is OBVIOUSLY cyan. :na:

It's two thirds of the way to white light!

All you need is red.

James.

 

[Alshere]

You only have an optical LPM? Someone here might be willing to lend you a meter or meet up with you to meter the laser.

I have thought about asking. As I know there are a couple of members in Ohio.
I am waiting to see how big a tax bite I get.
I would rather have my own.

 

[LSRFAQ]

A piece of advice, if you want it to live long, ditch the dryer duct and get the fan close to the laser head. Your core temp will be way too hot this way. 60x/532 was not designed for the airflow a uniphase or SP round head has. Air is ment to be sucked out the top, too.

core temp should be 750 F max measured on the tube wall with a IR thermometer, and even that is TOO hot.

Steve

 

[bryce007]

A piece of advice, if you want it to live long, ditch the dryer duct and get the fan close to the laser head. Your core temp will be way too hot this way. 60x/532 was not designed for the airflow a uniphase or SP round head has. Air is ment to be sucked out the top, too.

core temp should be 750 F max measured on the tube wall with a IR thermometer, and even that is TOO hot.

Steve

so you'd recommend mounting the fan right on top instead of using the dryer duct?

 

[LSRFAQ]

so you'd recommend mounting the fan right on top instead of using the dryer duct?

Within 1 foot usually. The squarrel cage ones go onto a rectangular plenum. If your using a rotron patriot or major we use a 1" tall ring of pvc sewer pipe.

Plans for the rotron design are back stage at Home Page - www.LaserFX.com

The cavity is stiff enough to take the small amount of vibration.

450 CFM is the usual minimum fan, a P2B3-XXX series Rotron is cheap, well underated, widely available used, and does a great job


Every right angle bend in dryer duct is a 33% loss in throughput.

The other concern is making sure it does NOT suck back in its own hot air.
This becomes a problem if you build a box around it.

Its designed so a large amount of heat goes through its baseplate, you can get away without cooling the base, but in the machine it was designed for it sat on 10 pounds of aluminum slab.

Steve

 

[Cyparagon]

What is the ideal core temp?

 

[LSRFAQ]

What is the ideal core temp?

All we know when we made the measurements 10 years ago was 750'F at 10A, running with measured 450 cfm air, 1650 watts of power on a brand new 106.5V high power tube. The correct answer is as low as possible, because colder gas lases better.
(actually we did the numbers in deg c, but...)

Stability is best when heat goes out the baseplate.

Lower is better because it is less stress on the ceramic to metal seals.

The most stress occurs at startup and shutdown. It is better to idle the laser at roughly 4 amps then it is to shut it down.

I was talking to the factory at the time and have some data I agreed not to mention.

Steve

 

[aryntha]

hmm. Not about a 60x, but on my ArIons (sure, they're 2214 uniphase heads..) I usually run the fan after shutdown until the fan blows cold before turning off the fan...

Is it better to run them idle during this time? (i.e., can i be 'cooling it down too fast'?)

 

[bryce007]

yea I'll have to see about modding it to get rid of the dryer hose.

I also run my fan for about 10 minutes after powering off the argon.

 

[blackspirit]

amazing shots there!

Makes me wanna hurry up and get a power supply for my JDS Unit. But got a Group buy to commit to.

 

[diachi]

hmm. Not about a 60x, but on my ArIons (sure, they're 2214 uniphase heads..) I usually run the fan after shutdown until the fan blows cold before turning off the fan...

Is it better to run them idle during this time? (i.e., can i be 'cooling it down too fast'?)

Run it in idle for a few minutes until the air from the fan has cooled down a bit and then turn it off and let the fan run until the air is cold. Also note that the cathode stays lit when you turn the tube off, you need to disconnect the power supply from the mains for the cathode to turn off. It still produces heat otherwise. Not that it's a huge amount.

 

[LSRFAQ]

I have thought about asking. As I know there are a couple of members in Ohio.
I am waiting to see how big a tax bite I get.
I would rather have my own.

Where in S. Ohio, I'm in Ft Wayne , when I'm not in Ft Wayne, I'm in Akron and when I'm not in Akron I'm in Dayton.

Steve

 

[bryce007]

I hadn't powered this laser on for a couple weeks, so I fired it up tonight. BTW, I did end up mounting the squirrel cage fan on the top of the box, and ditched the dryer duct.

For the first time ever, I noticed the "over current" light come on starting at around 3/4 power. I've never seen that light come on before, even when running at full current. Anyone have an idea as to why it's now coming on?

 

[Meatball]

I assume it was warmed up in time? How many hours have you yourself put on it?

 

[bryce007]

I assume it was warmed up in time? How many hours have you yourself put on it?

I've put about 7-8 hours on it. I let it warm up the same every time I fire it up, so I'm confused as to why the light is now starting to come on.

Edit:
Small update. I tried it again this morning, and noticed something else. The "over current" light starts to dimly light at about half power (45-50mW). I also observed the max power output (95mW) at about 3/4 of full current. I bumped it up to full current to check the power, and I didn't notice any increase. The only thing that's changed from two weeks ago is that it is about 10 degrees hotter in my room now.

 

[diachi]

I've put about 7-8 hours on it. I let it warm up the same every time I fire it up, so I'm confused as to why the light is now starting to come on.

Edit:
Small update. I tried it again this morning, and noticed something else. The "over current" light starts to dimly light at about half power (45-50mW). I also observed the max power output (95mW) at about 3/4 of full current. I bumped it up to full current to check the power, and I didn't notice any increase. The only thing that's changed from two weeks ago is that it is about 10 degrees hotter in my room now.

Check the tube current (at fullpower) and tube voltage (at 10A) on the panel at the side of the head and tell us what those readings are.