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Gas Lasers? Tell me about them please :)






I'm rather new to this site, and i was wondering how much a 500mW-1W laser would cost. I also was wondering which type of laser is cheepest (CO2, Argon, or HeNe)

Thanks
 
get yourself a 1W IR diode... you can probably find one for $50

If you want a gas laser, it's a bit more difficult. HeNe's only go up to a few mW's max (I think the strongest was close to 200mW). CO2 lasers are great, but I dont think they make anything as low as 1W. Usually a 10W will be the lowest power CO2 laser you'll find, and they are invisible. Argon will get you where you need to be, .5W-1W, but it wont really be cheap. Probably a minimum of $500 for an HGM5, which will do about a watt CW with factory cooling. With increased cooling they can do a bit more (some go over 4W), but will really need a ton of cooling. The HGM5 requires 240V single phase. From there you can get a water cooled lexel which will run on single phase and do a few watts. Anything much bigger than a lexel 88 will be 3-phase.
 
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I was thinking around $50-$100. And does anyone know if their is a store that sells these kind of things?
 
Then a laser diode is your only option in that price range. And yeah, your local gas station sells laser diodes. Sometimes you can get one free with a 10 gallon gas purchase.
 
Our local gas station has LD for 2.99 next to the register.

Wal Mart wants a buck more, They carry Laser Diodes in the pet department.
 
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