local auction for Coherent EFA 51 1800w CO2 laser

[Bluefan]

a few hour drive from me some guy sells a huge Coherent CO2 laser, complete with the books and vacuumpump. His first price is 400 euro, but that's negotiable. What would be possible with such a gas laser? It's a flowing gas laser, are these possible to run as a hobby or does it require huge equipment? Is converting it to a selaed laser possible and running it pulsed? I though I read that CW slead and flowing gas lasers are designed quite differently.

Would the laser be interesting for parts should the guy not be able to sell it and drop the price?

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

There's no way you could have something like that in your home, at least not if you hope to power it up and run it. I'm almost positive you'd need 3 phase 480V + a separate cooling apparatus of some sort to keep it from overheating. As for what is possible, lasers like that can cut thru a few mm of steel plate very quickly - at the place I worked where laser machining was done, they had a 1500W fast axial flowing gas CO2 laser (and several other large CO2 and Nd:YAG lasers) that was used to cut parts out of sheet metal. It drew 40KV (and who knows how many amps) and was hooked up to a cooling tower out behind the shop.

Unfortunately not the sort of thing a laser hobbyist could have in his/her home. Now this was back in the late 90's and I'm sure efficiency has improved on these types of lasers, so they are probably smaller and draw less power but still too much for setting up in an ordinary home.

As for what parts you may be able to get out of it, you'd probably get some real nice mirrors/reflectors made for use with CO2 wavelengths, maybe some electrical parts to use for other things, not sure about converting it to sealed gas - you might be better off just buying a sealed tube than trying to do that.