Argon laser meltdown

[kiyoukan]

still makes me sad. i would have given that thing a nice good home.
If any one has some gas lasers and want to send them to my adoption agency let me know, i will find them a good home.
They will lase their photons happily. and not collect dust in the corner.

 

[qumefox]

Poor 60x And Kiyoukan. You might get a chance still heh. I have 3 60x heads I need to see if I can get cobbled into working systems and sell.. That is if they'll light. They haven't been run in probably a decade. I know one has multiline optics, and the other two have normal 488 optics.

Also, if you want to know what happened here, the tube was overdriven with inadequate cooling, and it eventually ruptured one of the ceramic/metal seals. When the tube vented, the rest of the 'fireworks' are purely electrical. Had that been a normal PSU it would have shut off as soon as the tube vented, either by design or by frying itself driving a dead short. All the 'fun stuff' in the video doesn't really have anything to do with argon-ion lasers. It's purely the result of a 100V 20A arc eating way at materials. It wouldn't have mattered if it was a argon-ion tube, or a toaster..

 

[Flaminpyro]

Did you notice he covered up the cooling fins on both ends of the laser
with stainless steel hose clamps, so the fins could not get cooling air flow

I have a feeling this was staged to blow...
Jerry

 

[qumefox]

Did you notice he covered up the cooling fins on both ends of the laser
with stainless steel hose clamps, so the fins could not get cooling air flow

He didn't. That's how the 60x heads are made. Those heatsinks aren't bonded to the tubes. The clamps are what holds them on.

It works just fine when cooled properly, there's a large fan on top of the head that's pulling the hot air up and out of the laser. And with all the covers on, cool air flows over those heatsinks, and into the central box, where it it sucked out by the fan on top.

Yes that was intended to fail. He'd probably killed another like that before he took the video. He pretty much did /everything/ wrong to keep the tube alive. From his cooling method to his psu design and the amount of current he was ramming through it.

 

[weeba2kv]

Well, they have a thermal interlock I'm sure he bypassed, too

lol he disconnected it haha

 

[Cyparagon]

It's purely the result of a 100V 20A arc eating way at materials. It wouldn't have mattered if it was a argon-ion tube, or a toaster..

Nah, he's done a toaster too. There's a quick flash, and it's all over. I know what you mean though.

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

Judging from his videos, I believe that's his "thing": sending high current through random stuff.

 

[Lase]

What dead pixels.... It must be your Computer screen....

Nope, there's 3 dead pixels 'spots' on that video. It irritates me and I can't watch things like that.

Tried it on 3 different monitors my end. It's the video.

Lase