CO2 gas for laser - Source

[twelti]

Does anyone have a good source for CO2 blend for flowing laser tube? I have been looking but struck out so far. It doesn't help that there is apparently a Helium shortage right now. One company that does have it said they are only selling to hospitals and large accounts right now because of that.

 

[Cyparagon]

C'mon, man. You're not even trying. Go to a party store or a dollar store or amazon. I found a tank in 5 seconds on google.

 

[twelti]

Thanks for responding. As I said, I'm talking about a blend of gasses. They don't sell CO2 laser blends at a party store (unless parties have gotten a lot more "rad" since I was young! I have searched on Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba, various commercial companies (mostly they don't respond or want you to have an account and buy in commercial quantities etc.), and other sources. No dice. So, you are making your own blend? I have seen it done on Youtube but was hoping to avoid one more complication. Still, it DOES all you to tinker with the blend. How are you doing it?

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Corporate CO2 laser blends are a trade secret, and vary slightly. You won't find one just floating around, but your best bet would be to go to a gas outlet like airgas and ask. It won't be cheap though if you want something of reasonable purity. You can just use pure CO2, the lifespan just wont be amazing. I believe it's a particular blend of CO, CO2, and some other trace gasses in commercial tubes.

 

[twelti]

I wonder if I just procured the individual gasses, and went into a welding or neon sign shop and asked then to blend it for me...?

 

[twelti]

I found this on Alibaba:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...?spm=a2700.7724838.2017115.169.66a442a7M899yF

 

[Cyparagon]

The ratios are also available from a 10 second google search. Make your own. It's not hard, and the ratios are not critical. One guy here got his exhaled breath to lase.

 

[twelti]

I may try that, it is hard to find a blend from these industrial sources, if you don't own a business

 

[twelti]

SOLVED
I found a supplier. SCI Analytical (http://scicalgas.com/). They will mix whatever you need and ship it. Prices seem reasonable, and they are very hobbiest-friendly.

I'm going to start with a known good mixture and get everything else working, then maybe experiment with my own mixes.

 

[mojo_1234]

Are you building your own CO2 laser from scratch? In case of flowing tubes the purity of the laser gases (CO2 and He) isn't as critical. Even "small" tubes are producing tens of Watts. And to make your own mixture is quite simple: Just get CO2 (party) and some He (ballon gas) and fill a simple ballon. This easily allows you to optimize your gas mixture (and is by far less dangerous -> no chance to blow up everything because of excess gas pressure).

 

[twelti]

Yes, I have seen that done on YouTube, using a balloon and calipers or something to measure diameter and calculate volume. I probably will try that but just thought this would be simpler to start. Does the pressure in the resonator change as the balloon deflates?

You didn't mention N2? Is that not normally part of the mix (if only to reduce the amount of expensive He that is used)?

 

[twelti]

Just want to say that I still have an almost full tank of CO2 lasing gas mixture and a regulator and other misc stuff if anyone is interested. I hear helium is very scarce these days so this gas will be hard to source (it has some helium in the mixture).

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

I know this thread is old but long ago, i helped a guy on here who said he got his breath to lase.
Then, I was using a mix of 10% CO2, 5.6% N2 and 84.4% He. I think I found that in Scientific American
back then.
HM