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FrozenGate by Avery

My DIY orange laser






Hi, I watched the video on YouTube, that is the first laser of your type, I have ever seen, absolutely genius. For those who do not have the money for an orange He-Ne this is a great alternative.
 
Gordon Shumway said:
For those who do not have the money for an orange He-Ne this is a great alternative.
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pGChc.gif





Um

This setup costs a LOT more than an orange HeNe, sir.
 
Very impressive project, and such a beautiful wavelength; thanks for sharing your neon laser with us! :beer:
As Curtis said, we'll be looking forward to more of your projects in the future, and maybe some of your lathe skills also!
:gj:
 
Cyparagon said:
Um

This setup costs a LOT more than an orange HeNe, sir.
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I would not agree. If you make it from scratch (and it is possible if a good neon sign shop is nearby) it won't be more expensive than an orange He-Ne. For building this laser from scratch you need an old He-Ne tube with electrodes in the side arms (not coaxial one), a 10-15 kV DC source, a couple of doorknob capacitors and a toroidal transformer wound with a thick coaxial cable on the big ferrite core. The thyratron can be substitudeted by a sparkgap.

Well, anyway this is my IMHO, prices can vary. He-Nes of the colour different from red or green I saw at eBay at least for 1000-1500$ and this semi-DIY neon laser cost me nothing.
 
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Laserbuilder said:
...this semi-DIY neon laser cost me nothing.
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Sure. But no one else here has that laundry list of equipment you've mentioned at their disposal. It would have to be purchased, and that would still cost more than a orange HeNe.
 
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Well, maybe. I won't argue. Anyway, 1000$ is a fortune for Ukraine ar any former USSR country. A gold vapour laser was offered to me for 4000$ in Ukraine.
 
Yeah it was nice of a guy to fill it for you. Although neon from a sign co is nowhere near that you would need to make a quality laser. I think the last hene we had done cost us about two grand to refill. Helium 3 is godaweful expensive. Helium 4 is generally too inefficient to do anything other than red weakly in a large tube. We used barium getters in ours and usually for red a couple torr of a mix of both helium and a mix of Neon 20/22.

If you want to do one on the cheap though you can use natual helium and natural neon. The key is just to make sure you get all the hydrogen out. The getter can usually get the rest. :)

Ones built from scratch generally don't last long because the cathode starts to sputter quickly
 
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Sorry, my apologies...it is a great setup for those that desire an orange laser and cannot find a proper laser tube. :thanks:
 
I missed reviewing this the first time because I was in the hospital. As usual, you have resources that are not inexpensively available to anyone I know here. It could be done, but it would cost!!! Nice presentation. ;)
 
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