gas lasers

[QuestionDUDE]

anyone here owns a gas laser ?? the ones you can cut metal and set fire with. . . . i'm just wondering . .how much are these lasers ??

 

[Quazar]

I own 3 gas lasers. the bigest, a 1w argon will light cigarettes. To cut metal, you will need a high power CO2 laser.
a 100w laser with a highly focused beam will cut 0.05" mild steel

 

[liteglow]

quazar : do know where to get white lasers ?
I guess a white laser is quite expensive, but after watching pangolin videos of the software combine with color laser.... DAMN it`s amasing !!!!

I do really want a white laser + pangolin software /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
But the cost i guess is alot...

But who sells white lasers ?

 

[Quazar]

Contact Laser Physics, I would recommend their Reliant 300WC. It is a mixed gas Argon/Kryptom laser. It will give you 300mW white light. It is air cooled and runs from single phase electricity.
I am unsure of the cost in USA, but I guess in-excess of $10K

 

[liteglow]

Thanx for the answer...

That it more money than i got /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
I guess it has been pretty cool to start a laser show party /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Is there any "used" database for lasers and disco stuff ?


Thanx

 

[James S]

Wow, thats fun stuff at the laserphysics site /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif My favorite is the "single phase 240 volt, 20 amp" power requirement.

Is that the actual power input? Meaning that you'd need 30 amps or more to power it? Or is that the requirement of the circuit meaning that the actual usage isn't much more than 15 or 16?

cause, 20 amps at 240 volts is 4800 watts, with a 1 watt actual output means that the fans have to dissipate 4799 watts of heat /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Thats going to get rather warm wherever you're running it.

 

[shadow_of_chaos]

id get one.. only if i won the lottery sometime and i still had a heck of a lot of cash to spare.. otherwise, ill stick to 100mw.

James_S? thats odd, that is my full name.. just noticed it, Heh..

 

[The_LED_Museum]

I've got a 16mW air-cooled argon ion laser; it needs 16 amps at 120 volts AC. And yes, after awhile, very warm air does come out of the laser head.

 

[mattheww50]

1). While the line may have to be fused for 20a/240V it probably doesn't draw that much. It is however describing the outlet that is most common for 240V devices in the USA
(The horizontal blade outlet is only 15 amps and is fairly rare).
2.) just because it says 20a/240V doesn't mean it actually draws 4800 watts. Big power supplies are notorious for low power factors (meaning the current is out of phase with the voltage). This is why elecrical gear tends to be rated in VA rather than watts, and why the electric company will charge you extra for low Power factor loads. VA is amps x volts. However if you remember calculus, if you make the current and voltage 90 degrees apart, energy is the integral of power over time the integral of sin(x)*cos(x) dx over appreciable periods of time is in fact ZERO! The ratio of power consumed/VA is called power factor.


While it might draw 20 amps, it will be far enough out of phase with the current, that the actual power is probably less than half that. That still means there is upwards of 2000 watts to dissipate, although often startup power is a significant multiple of run power, so the actual power dissipation may be a lot lower. In any case, the efficiency of these devices tends to be unimpressive. The real reason that we are still using guided missiles and bombs instead of laser death rays, is a guided missile or bomb is a far more efficient way to deliver energy to a target.

 

[Quazar]

Those power supply reqiirements are probably very accurate. my ALC 68 1W argon pulls 26 amps at 230v. The ammount of heat it produces is impressive. Sometimes too impressive when you are working in a hot nightclub.

If anyone is interested I will shortly have some ALC60X laser heads for sale. Power output between 60 & 100mW in Blue. If you wish, you can change the front optic for a multiline one and get approx 120mW green output. These will be sold without power supplies. So some electrical circuit construction will be needed. I will post in B/S/T when they are available.

 

[Lasernerd]

Quazar, I see you have done stuff for the Sci Fi channel,
I do the UFO festivals what do you do for them?

 

[liteglow]

[ QUOTE ]
Quazar said:
Those power supply reqiirements are probably very accurate. my ALC 68 1W argon pulls 26 amps at 230v. The ammount of heat it produces is impressive. Sometimes too impressive when you are working in a hot nightclub.

If anyone is interested I will shortly have some ALC60X laser heads for sale. Power output between 60 & 100mW in Blue. If you wish, you can change the front optic for a multiline one and get approx 120mW green output. These will be sold without power supplies. So some electrical circuit construction will be needed. I will post in B/S/T when they are available.

[/ QUOTE ]

if u got any BLUE laser for sale /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif u got to PM ME first... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Quazar]

[ QUOTE ]
Lasernerd said:
Quazar, I see you have done stuff for the Sci Fi channel,
I do the UFO festivals what do you do for them?


[/ QUOTE ]

We did a couple of corporate functions in London about 3 years ago. They took over and transformed London Aquarium. We were contracted to put a flat scan across the enterance foyer where lots of Imperial Storm Troopers (Star Wars) were patroling and checking invitations. We also projected a UFO onto the side of Charing Cross railway station, which was on the other side of the River Thames. We used 2 ALC68 1W argons to do this. My assistant spent most of the evening trying to "chat up" one of the female Klingons. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Quazar]

[ QUOTE ]
liteglow said:
if u got any BLUE laser for sale /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif u got to PM ME first... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Will do, start saving.

 

[liteglow]

[ QUOTE ]
Quazar said:
[ QUOTE ]
liteglow said:
if u got any BLUE laser for sale /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif u got to PM ME first... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Will do, start saving.

[/ QUOTE ]

Love that word /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
But i guess... i have to save ALOT !!
jeje.. some day maybe /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleye11.gif

 

[Spec]

[ QUOTE ]
Quazar said:

If anyone is interested I will shortly have some ALC60X laser heads for sale. Power output between 60 & 100mW in Blue. If you wish, you can change the front optic for a multiline one and get approx 120mW green output. These will be sold without power supplies. So some electrical circuit construction will be needed. I will post in B/S/T when they are available.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ive got 2 dead 60x's, 2 dead omni-532's and a myriad of dead tubes sitting here and would love to own a working 60x again.

The output of the heads you are stating seem a bit strong for single line single mode HR/OC optics, what drive current have you been running these at?

 

[Lasernerd]

I was curious about that also!

 

[Quazar]

You are correct Spec. I made a slight error above. Output is between 60-80 mW. They have re-gassed tubes. We have been using a switch mode power supply with an output of 12.5 amps (I think,) will check on that.

 

[Spec]

Wow. 12.5A is pretty impressive and bordering on "lethal injection" sytle execution for the tube. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

The only power supplies I know of that can produce that are the original ALC's, those are getting hard to find. If you happen to be selling any of those I would also be interested.

Send me an email on the heads and power supplies(if available)

[email protected] (My mail server wont accidentially classify it as spam if you use that send address, I set a filter to it.)

Thanks.