Old laser, pre 1977.

[dogfish]

So I took back a building through a foreclosure. In the building we find a coffin sized box. Inside the box we find this....





60" long, 14" wide, 9" high. About 250-300lbs.

A distributor for Coherent referred me to this place, so maybe somebody knows something about this beast. I emailed Coherent a few days back, but have heard nothing from them.

Primarily I am concerned about any heavy metals that might be an issue. I'm a shooter and deal with lead all the time, but mercury and other types of heavy metals are a little more disconcerting.

Anyway, it would be interesting to find out what this was possibly used for, back in the day. It is a pre 1977 model, as it has their old name, "Coherent Radiation Lab's." It also isn't orange in color. It is that lovely avacado green. Not interested in turning it on, but if I can scrap it out, without injuring the environment, myself, or others, that would be a bonus.

There is 250lbs of something in there.

Thanks in advance.

[krazer]

Looks like an old supergraphite ion laser, very little chance that it will work again. I would not worry too much about heavy metals, there a chunk of W in the filament which probably has some funky oxides on it, but in an ion laser your main concern would be beryllia which is a common material to make the laser tube out of. As the name implies, I think that laser has a graphite tube so you would not have to worry, just keep an eye out for white ceramics and do not crush them.

A shame to see it just get pulled apart for scrap!

[Jem]

Bob Hess (Eidetic) on this forum is your man. Bob collects old lasers and may well be interested in this, he'll almost certainly know what it is. Please don't dispose of it until you've heard from him.

Cheers

Jem

[dogfish]

I appreciate the information. Any more would be great. The distributor for Coherant told me that in '06 they spent an ungodly sum on an ION laser, and then in 2007, ION lasers were obsolete.

I'll hold onto it for a bit, but it will have to go at some point in time.

[Jem]

I've dropped Bob a message on facebook, hopefully he'll be along soon

[mixedgas]

Model 50 supergraphite, no Beryllium in that one.....

Pretty much inert if you scrap it, but I'd wet down the thorium/barium dust layer on the tungsten cathode.

Lotsa copper in the magnet. Unless it is serial number one, not much value other then a paperweight.

The power supplies are suprisingly compatable with modern lasers, so some ion laser hobbyist might like to have the power supply.

Steve

[dogfish]

I sent Bob a PM as well. Appreciate the help.

[Eidetic]

Nice old laser! Make my week and tell me you're in northern California.

[mixedgas]

Or make mine and tell me your near OHIO.

They did not make too many Avacado ones.

In fact I've never seen a green one. They like "Burnt Umber" or "Old Orange" or whatever , until they switched to "Umber Lower, Black Upper" and then all black.

Steve

[Eidetic]

Here's an ad for this laser showing the power supply. It's a shame these devices were mostly probably scrapped. This is as good an example of laser "barn find" I've seen!