TE CO2 laser - anyone seen this kind before?

[opcom]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221033670534

looks really nice.. but not enough info to tell.

[chad]

It does look nice. But I have not seen a tube like that.

What an odd bird.

chad

[mixedgas]

I tore one apart two years ago for a customer.. Same package, same tube, but driven by pulsed RF.

Looks like some one really sheared the connection terminals short thoough...

Steve

[opcom]

I noticed that too. It's a real pity when these better things get ruined, and would have otherwise brought decent money and made someone happy. I've been looking for a good very rugged small CO2 laser like that but they are pretty rare. That one was too much of a risk with the connections cut off so flush as it could be impossible to repair it.

Unfortunately it seems like whenever an equipment containing a really desirable laser shows up, a special team of ignorant people are immediately put in charge (perhaps through some kind of government program) so that not only is the item taken as close to ruin as possible, but the necessary related parts are scattered widely, and if they are ever available they are always sold separately with no hint as to what they came from.

I was tempted but that laser was as easily a worthless display piece as a repairable item of value.

haha check ebay for the typical endless 'laser cavity' auctions, and the "laser rod' auctions, the "laser mirrors" auctions, and so forth. Sure some are random parts but I believe that many of them were complete yag/other heads before. Maybe some people think they can get more by selling each piece of it individually but it's easy to see that very few actually sell for much. They must think it is car parts in a junkyard and the customer can just put any old parts together and have it work. Hobbyists waste a lot of money buying the rod with the wrong doping, the flashlamp with the wrong spectra, the wrong cavity that does not reflect the necessary pump spectra very well, etc.

Just an amusing observation about foolishness, waste, and the state of high tech surplus in general. 8-)

[mixedgas]

Quote:
I noticed that too. It's a real pity when these better things get ruined, and would have otherwise brought decent money and made someone happy. I've been looking for a good very rugged small CO2 laser like that but they are pretty rare. That one was too much of a risk with the connections cut off so flush as it could be impossible to repair it.

Unfortunately it seems like whenever an equipment containing a really desirable laser shows up, a special team of ignorant people are immediately put in charge (perhaps through some kind of government program) so that not only is the item taken as close to ruin as possible, but the necessary related parts are scattered widely, and if they are ever available they are always sold separately with no hint as to what they came from.

Its not a government program, its a capitalist program. Surplus places hire minimum wage dudes who do not know better.

Around here, a place gets beaucoup $$$ surplus scopes and spectrum analysers. Their "tech" told me he does not bother selling the "big boxes", he just cuts off the remote heads and Ebays them. Why? He said its a pita for him to ship large objects, even though he knows he could get more $$$ for the complete working systems. So I see 60K$ network analysers and spectrum analysers all the time. Minus probes, detectors, and impedance bridges....

I can get microwave power meters for 20$, but without the matched bolometer probe, they are useless.

I've given up crying when I see 47 Ghz spec ans with chopped cables still connected, and microscopes minus eye pieces and objectives.
The owner did listen once when I told him I needed a 3D microscope WITH the optics, it seems they left those units way back in the back and some one was "lifting" the optics without his knowledge. He got me a good working binocular microscope for proving that. He may not care about the gear, but theft POed him enough to move the microscope section to where it could be watched.

I've offered them money to prevent the destruction, falls on death ears.

This bunch moves everything via forklifts, and shears all the cabing in the process. They simply do not care....

Steve