Synrad / Laakman 10W CO2 Laser...

[buffo]

Hi Lynn;

Very cool! Interesting that you chose the clear plexiglass for the case material. I'm pretty sure that Robin (uk-laser) also used plexiglass for his portable CO2 laser. Edit: Yeah, here's a picture of his rig.

On the other hand, his is water cooled, which makes it all the more amazing that it's still portable. He can only run it for around 20 seconds though, before the water gets too hot.

Adam

[Nightstick]

where as these being convection cooled we dont need a bucket of water, but I do have a pressurized housing that has a fan built into the powersupply blowing toward the laser and cooling fins in the amp and driver, and it blows out the front keeping any smoke away from the sensitve znse lens... it works perfectly, I'm very happy with this setup, also I can easly switch over to portable battery power anytime, you know for rodent controll haha anyway these lasers have been nothing but fun cant wait to get two more!!!!

Here is a pic of my 7 watt Co2 Laser:

[Nightstick]

With this setup I can take the 32 volt powersupply off by just unscrewing four screws, and then the powersupply fan and housing remain attached to the plexiglass housing and I just have to hook up two 18 volt ridgid screwgun batteries in series and its ready to go portable with plenty of burning power...I havent counted but Im guessing a round 20/ 10 second burns and thats a lot more than it sounds like also my li/ion batteries charge fully in only 20 minutes so if I purchase another charger for $45.00 I will be in like Flint!!!!!!this would be too cool!!!!

[300EVIL]

Hey Lynn,
Can I get a pic of your RF power supply? I'd really like to see what you have going there.

Thanks!
Adam

[Hemlock Mike]

My portable runs on 8 x 18650 cells. They seem able to handle 12 Amps for about 10 seconds at a time. The picture doesen't show the expander which is being built. At full power, and with the 7.5" FL lens, it will put a pinhole through 1/4" of pine wood in a couple seconds.

Mike

[Nightstick]

Evil I will try to get you some pics tomorrow also Mike that build looks really nice very uncluttered I know you probably allready thought of this but a little 1x1 inch fan on the back end pushing air through to the front would be nice for cooling and also to keep smoke away from the znsn lenes not to metion the cool sound when you turn it on mohoowahhaha

[Hemlock Mike]

The beam expander fits so tight that a little fan won't help. I hope to burn 10' from the lenses.

Mike

[300EVIL]

Evil ---

I have a couple Scientech 36-0001 heads. They are rated to 10 Watts and the beam needs to be a bit difused or they SMOKE. I've had to recoat mine after reading over 10 Watts of CO2 with these. I use a light spray of BBQ flat black high temp paint.

I'm building a ZnSe expander for mine

Mike

Hey Mike!
Yeah, My head is only rated for 10W. Not 20W like I said previously. Good tip on the BBQ paint. I have a couple of cans at the shop and will give that a shot.

Could I also get pics of your RF PS? I want to see what everyone else has. Supposedly mine is way different. Any suggestions on getting more power out of this tube? It peaks to 4W when I turn it on and then slowly falls and levels out around 2.5W.

It seems I'm getting almost 30W of RF pre FET. Way higher than I thought it was.

[Laser Ben]

That will basically ruin the calibration of your detector. The paint will have different absorbance that the standard surface...

[300EVIL]

That will basically ruin the calibration of your detector. The paint will have different absorbance that the standard surface...

Well, I did already hit it with a permanent marker to fix the burn spots in the detector plate. However, the calibration seems to be spot on right now. I guess I have to look at the old adage.... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" I guess I'll wait until I have a problem.
Thanks!
Adam