HeNe Creation - Check it Out

[Cxrazy]

I made this yesterday. Built it from scratch using parts from other things I had taken apart.

Thanks to daguin for helping me locate a power supply, and this forum for inspiring my love of lasers.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Looks Steampunk. I love it.

 

[532 with Envy]

That is pretty tight looking, a very nice way of mounting the tube.

I don't see any Ballast Resistor though, wondering if you need one. Seems not as it's lasing, i'v just always seen them on bare tubes.
:gj::kewlpics:

 

[SLPbum]

Nice looks like something telsa would have had in his stash of things
+1

RDCII

 

[Cxrazy]

That is pretty tight looking, a very nice way of mounting the tube.

I don't see any Ballast Resistor though, wondering if you need one. Seems not as it's lasing, i'v just always seen them on bare tubes.
:gj::kewlpics:

The resistor is in the box below.

 

[anselm]

so does it lase at all, or is it just a glorified lamp?
Anyway it looks very nice.

Incredible, my dad used to have that same radio/amplifier thing way back then....

 

[Lotus_Darkrose]

The miniature scroll saw of the future! That looks awesome man. I wonder if you could find/make a glass enclosure that fits snug to the sides of the hobby box and the height of the tube.

 

[532 with Envy]

The resistor is in the box below.

It was my understanding that the resistor has to be within 3" of the tube.

 

[Cxrazy]

The resistor is right on the underside, about 3" away from the contact on the tube.

And it lases wonderfully. The beam is of finer quality than any of my other handheld lasers. It is very skinny. Also the beam's color is a more orange red than the typical red produced by a diode. Interesting to see.

In the dark, with fog, you can see the beam shooting straight up at the ceiling like a bar of light. It has (in tiny sharpie) "1.3" on the lasing end of the tube. So i'm assuming it is approximately 1.3mW; potentially less due to all the movement and jarring it could have been exposed to since measured.

I put some mirrors on double sided tape around the room and zig-zag'd the beam across the ceiling. Very cool.

I'm glad people like it! It took me an afternoon of deliberate tinkering.

 

[jcranmer]

That thing is great! Makes me want to start messing with HeNE tubes.

So what did the brackets originally comes out of? I really like the scissor like way it holds the tube.

 

[Bluefan]

Be carefull with the exposed high voltage

 

[Flaminpyro]

Very cool I like the steampunk look it has :beer:
try and find some kind of insulating cup to cover the highvoltage
sticking out there you don't want someone walking up and going how cool and then touching it, do you know CPR...
very good 1+ guy

 

[BennyF]

Looks awesome i like how your HeNe tube is real short. Both of the tubes i have are probably about twice that long. Is there any way you can give us a good beam shot?

 

[Cxrazy]

If anyone has an example of what they mean by a cap, or something to limit the exposure of the high voltage contacts, I would like to see it.

I have shocked myself a few times with the residual discharge remaining at the tube after its unplugged, but its high voltage low amps, just startling more than anything.

It does worry me that someone might unwittingly touch both contacts and shock the shit out of themselves, but in another mindset one might simply give regards to Natural Selection...

I will attempt to get a beam shot. I saw something on this webforum, I believe, that mentioned placing some glycerine into a pot of hot water to create good laser viewing smoke. Any truth to that? And where would one purchase glycerine?

 

[Benm]

Be carefull with the exposed high voltage

I figured the same thing!

Good if you have friends that just have to play with everything and need a corrective action once in a while

 

[LtKernelPanic]

Sorry to hijack but I'm thinking of doing something similar and was wondering how long a disconnected tube will hold a charge. Could you attach alligator leads onto a beefy resistor and use it as a bleeder resistor?