First test on a DIY 40W CO2 laser

[Arayan]

Hello, where did you get the 40 watt tube from and how much did you pay? I remember a site a while ago that had huge 80 watt tubes for just a few hundred dollars.

...from ebay, 100USD eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

 

[Super Critical]

Reminds me of the joke about God vs the athiest. God says according to the bible, he made man from the dust of the ground in 6 days.

The athiest says he can do the same thing without God's help and begans to gather some basic chemicals and elements from the soil around him, putting them together in the correct order to create the basic building blocks of nature.

God stops him while he is gathering these things and tells him he is cheating.

The athiest asks what he means.

God replies, "Get your own dirt".

I agree you have to start somwhere. Are you going to make your own atoms?
Diodes and glass tubes are made by $1 million machines at factories. It isn't worth it to make just one and that's why nobody does.

 

[Bluefan]

Some people even managed to make a HeNe laser from scratch (and not only the people who invented them). Getting a tube is like getting a diode, you need to build everything around it. But it's also a fun challenge to build the tube yourself, it requires glass working skills, a vacuum system and pure gasses. Very few people are interested in that, but if you read sams laserfaq you'll find more than a few examples. The N2 laser is the easiest from scratch laser and many people have build one.

I'm just saying it can be done, not that building lasers out of bare tubes or diodes can't be impressive.

 

[Things]

People here have also made CO2 lasers, it's not impossible, just impractical since they're so cheap now anyway.

You can probably just use glass tubes from fluorescent tubes etc, and figure out a watercooling jacket for it.

 

[Arayan]

People here have also made CO2 lasers, it's not impossible, just impractical since they're so cheap now anyway.

You can probably just use glass tubes from fluorescent tubes etc, and figure out a watercooling jacket for it.

Here an amazing example of real homemade CO2 laser!! http://laserpointerforums.com/f43/successful-diy-co2-laser-made-scratch-52801.html

 

[Arayan]

I just finished to build the case and the control panel... next step a ZnSe beam expander
I'm sorry, pics and movie were taken by an iPod

 

[AnselmoFanZero]

I like the sound when its lighting the wood!

 

[LtKernelPanic]

Wow. That video makes me both want one and scares the hell out of me! I think I'll stick to my HeNe's and Argon for now.

 

[Arayan]

Thanks both

Can someone recommend me a better pump? Because this for aquarium is unable to circulate the water when there are too many air bubbles (for example, when it's not in use for a long time) and I must to remove them I manually

 

[Arayan]

A test with a ZnSe lens with a shell building from scratch.

 

[Arayan]

Unfortunately the lens is unable to focalize the beam the only thing that I obtained is a very very hight divergence!!!!!!!

I try to summarize the situation with a scheme

can anyone help me, please?

For mods: I have not edited the previous post so the forum report it as a new one and I not lose the opportunity to help, but if it's a problem I will edit

 

[piferal]

Fed..., I guess it's a plano-convex lens, and is properly mounted?

 

[Cyparagon]

They'll both look the same in far field. Are you sure you're not just missing the focal point? How does a red beam behave when sent through it?

 

[Arayan]

Thanks, tomorrow I'll try with a red beam, but it's strange for me because the beam diameter was steadily increased :thinking:

 

[AnselmoFanZero]

Sure the beam enters right in the middle? Try the red laser, but 650 to 10600 is like apples and M3 screws

First thing I would try, is flippin the lens round...

 

[Arayan]

Sure the beam enters right in the middle?

probably not just the center but closer, BTW tomorrow I'll try to move the lens. Thanks