New Spectra Physics 168 5W argon ion

[GooeyGus]

My newest toy.... This thing is pure sexy. I forgot to bring my camera on the day that we hooked it all up and got it running, so I apologize for the iPhone picture quality. The pictures of the tube itself are from my good camera.

Anyway, I got a SCREAMING good deal on this that I couldn't pass up. I found it locally and drove about a half hour to pick it up. It came as a complete set with power supply, and it only has 525 hours total runtime, most of that was probably at idle or very near idle. It runs on 208V 3-phase, is water cooled, and should do 5W. In the pictures below we turned it up to about 2.3W, but didn't want to go any further as we were running it on a rotary phase converter. Hopefully this weekend I'll get it hooked into some 3-phase and get some pictures with 30A going down the tube, which should be around 5W output power. I'll make sure to bring my camera so I get some good pics!! Anyway, here she is!!

This is the anode end, which is actually the HR side. Most smaller air-cooled argon lasers have the OC on the anode side.

Cathode end, which is where the laser output occurs.

Little bit closer:

Lets kick the tires and light the fires!!

This picture doesn't do the tube justice.... it looks REALLY cool to see in person. I'll do a better job of capturing what the eye sees this weekend, if I get a chance to fire it up.

A little under 2.5W going into my power meter sensor head

Hope you liked the pics! Let me know what you think! I'll get some better pics of it running in a couple days.

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

5 WATTS ??? ML os SL ??? Nice buy !!!!

Mike

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

That looks awesome - I'm sure you will be able to do some serious burning with that thing, not to mention a very bright beam!

I'm guessing you don't have this laser at your house, being that it runs off 3 phase? Probably not the thing you can sit on your sofa like some of your smaller argon lasers... ;D

 

[Swordofsalvation]

holy crap, white laser power!!!!!!!!

 

[GooeyGus]

It's multiline  

And I could run it at my house, but I would need to throw together a phase converter (it is running on a phase converter in the pictures on a regular 240V dryer outlet) but it's not really safe to run it at powers more than about 2.5W on a phase converter, unless you're using a biiiig 3-phase motor and have a ton of amperage available. The reason is that the cathode voltage will sag allowing the tungsten to cool, it drops to a temperature of around 700 or 800 degrees where a phase change occurs and the metal is close to the consistency of butter (not really butter, but very very soft). This will cause the filament to physically sag and could ruin the laser. We were watching the voltage of the artificially created leg and it held steady at 220V but we still didn't want to push it. So, I can run it at home at half power max, or run it at my friend's shop (some of you may know him  ) where we can really give her the juice and run it up to max current.

 

[jayrob]

Dang dude! How about getting me a job where you work?
Jay

 

[MarioMaster]

Great that you got it in one piece Wish I lived not on the opposite side of the country or I'd come to see it

 

[daguin]

Boootifulllllll!

Peace,
dave

 

[diachi]

I wish someone around glasgow had one of these for sale :'(

Wish i wasn't in school so I could see more pictures :'(

You lucky thing !!!!! ;D

-Adam

 

[GooeyGus]

Well I didn't get the laser up and running on the 3-phase today.

We had a lot of issues. The water is a long way away from the outlet. The water is NOT a standard hose outlet, but a 'sink' fitting which is like a 3/8" compression fitting. We got all those issues taken care of after a bit of brainstorming and a trip to the hardware store. We had the water lines ran and the laser plugged in. It was about 8:00 when we decided it was time to fire her up, so we turned the valve and got the water running. The problem was that we just needed a length of standard garden hose with the fitting to run to the drain. We didn't have any left so we improvised. We turned the water on and had good flow and everything but we were leaking a bit from the 'water out' line. That's when we decided to call it a night and get the proper hose for tomorrow (hopefully! Fingers crossed...) before we actually turn everything on.

The good news is that the three 'power' lights lit up when we plugged the PSU in, so at least we know SOMETHING works. Haha... tomorrow we'll really find out if this 265 works when we throw the switch on it and give the laser the juice.

P.S. The power supply that was sold with the laser works just fine. The power supply we were using tonight (spectra physics 265) was one that I've had for a bit but never actually used. I wanted to use the 265 because it has a lot more user options on it than the other supply does.

 

[FireMyLaser]

I hate you.

 

[randomlugia]

Ok, GooeyGus. Exactly how many argons do you have now??

I don't think you need any more. ;D

 

[Razako]

You have WAY TOO MANY ARGONS
Is that like 20 now?

 

[daguin]

[highlight]You have WAY TOO MANY ARGONS [/highlight]
Is that like 20 now?

THAT is NOT possible!

Peace,
dave

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

I'm impressed that GG made artificial 3 phase from a dryer plug. That is a trick and needs big components to do it.
If you have a big 1:1 transformer, you might be able to make a "wild leg" power source.

Mike

 

[GooeyGus]

Well, making 3-phase from a dryer plug really isn't too hard, but in this case we actually had 'real' 3-phase that we were running the laser with. So no need for a phase converter

and yeah I have a bunch of argons... gotta love 'em