Look at this cute lil' CO2 tube I found on ebay...

[cat]

300Evil, I saw the video. I know it's nothing that I want to be around unless I'm among friends. Geez, it's freaky seeing the invisible become only visible after the fact. Thanks for setting me straight. Cat

[cat]

I didn't say anybody would cause anyone harm........it's just scary at what something like that can do. WOW!

All lasers have one thing in common, concentrated photonic energy. "Concentrated" and "Energy" being the key words here. I can honestly say no one on this site wants to cause any personal harm with their toys.

[300EVIL]

300Evil, I saw the video. I know it's nothing that I want to be around unless I'm among friends. Geez, it's freaky seeing the invisible become only visible after the fact. Thanks for setting me straight. Cat

Sorry to hijack this thread but this laser is scarier ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kh7LmzaTeM

Will kill your eyes just looking at the spot. (Yes, I'm wearing goggles.)

[cat]

300Evil......Okay, I saw the 2nd video, now I understand. Thanks for the visual aides, no more questions..........for today. Cat

[daedal]

300Evil......Okay, I saw the 2nd video, now I understand. Thanks for the visual aides, no more questions..........for today. Cat

CO2 lasers have a lot of industrial uses besides this whole 'hobby' bandwidth. As a matter of fact, I'd take a stab and guess that there's probably about as many CO2's in industrial applications as there are YAGs

I know we use both where I work... It's always fun to hear a 300W pulsed YAG hit metal! It sounds like you're smacking it with a little pebble

--DDL

[daedal]

Another off-shoot...

Wouldn't a CRT monitor PSU be able to power this? I can't seem to recall what a CRT monitor's PSU puts out...

--DDL

[300EVIL]

Another off-shoot...

Wouldn't a CRT monitor PSU be able to power this? I can't seem to recall what a CRT monitor's PSU puts out...

--DDL

Yeah, you could probably use an big old flyback transformer but a little neon sign transformer would be easiest.

[daedal]

Yeah, you could probably use an big old flyback transformer but a little neon sign transformer would be easiest.

Agreed

Thanx;
DDL

[frothychimp]

One of my clients in Warren, Michigan has a small 10KW CO2 along with a bunch of pulsed/CW YAG for materials processing. They cut gears out of sheets of metal among other things. The CO2 system looks like a huge box (15' high or so) fully enclosed. They slide a sheet of plate steel in and it comes out all cut.

CO2 lasers have a lot of industrial uses besides this whole 'hobby' bandwidth. As a matter of fact, I'd take a stab and guess that there's probably about as many CO2's in industrial applications as there are YAGs ... --DDL

[Laser Ben]

One of my clients in Warren, Michigan has a small 10KW CO2 along with a bunch of pulsed/CW YAG for materials processing. They cut gears out of sheets of metal among other things. The CO2 system looks like a huge box (15' high or so) fully enclosed. They slide a sheet of plate steel in and it comes out all cut.

Yeah, the cutting lasers are impressive! The real shame is that you can't cut thick aluminum due to the heat conductivity. You can only cut aluminum that is about 1/10 the thickness of mild steel.