Big green laser?

[bwang]

Since my OPSL and Compass are most likely being traded for a power-on-demand argon, I'm still without a big green laser of the Laserscope sort.
Does anyone within driving distance of Boston, MA happen to have a Laserscope or similar beast they'd like to sell? I have access to 3-phase, so that's fine. Broken is OK too; I have a IR YAG I want to try frequency-doubling at some time.
I'm a student and hence lacking in money, so I can't buy anything too fancy. Still, it never hurts to ask...

[DanG]

Sorry but I shudder a little every time someone buys a laserscope...

[QUAZAR]

Laserscope, student and no money is never a good combination.

[mixedgas]

Laserscope, student and no money is never a good combination.

Shudder....

You realize they weight in at 400 pounds stripped, around 600 new, any needed replacement part is 400$ and up?

Three phase cooling water pumps are not small.

Any one little slip up and you or someone around you is blind or maimed. Will easily take off a finger tip if you make a mistake aligning etc. Plus the whole exploding lamps thing etc.

We have a rule on this forum about Laserscopes. You will not find much help here after our last "inexperienced mentally ill newbie who does not care about safety".

We need to see you safely handing little lasers and understanding them before we will help you on "big green". We also will want to get to know you personally, as we have learned the hard way about on line personas being much different then real life.

Your willing to trade a OPSL for a argon that will only run for max between 5 and 30 seconds at a time?, That alone is worrying enough to wonder why you want a Laserscope.

Lasers are not about power, they are about finesse. It is not how big it is, it is about how you use it.

I know one person whom I consider a good egg who was maimed pretty badly by the ALE power supply, just looking for a fault. Its not a laser for some one who is not getting paid to work on it.
.

Steve

[Laser Zone]

Dont waste your time with a laserscope. They can be a pain in the ass plus they are stupid DANGEROUS in beam power plus High Voltage . Oh and did I mention that just the essential laser's components total weight is around 200 lbs. Buy a nice 2 watt 532 dpss. Thats my opinion.

[Phredy1]

First thing is: do you have a class 4 variance?

You might get "some" response if you do.

IMHO a Laserscope is for EXPERTS. Nothing less.... There are a handful of people on this forum that actually have the knowledge to use one. I'm not one of them.

[bwang]

You realize they weight in at 400 pounds stripped, around 600 new, any needed replacement part is 400$ and up?

Yes. The one I saw on Ebay is 660 pounds with $500+ shipping

Any one little slip up and you or someone around you is blind or maimed. Will easily take off a finger tip if you make a mistake aligning etc. Plus the whole exploding lamps thing etc.

This is presumably true of most class IV lasers, not just Laserscopes. I know how dangerous these things are and have proper respect for them (I'm not going to go "OMG BIG LASER MUST BURN STUFF"). Though I do admit I did not know about this exploding lamps thing. Do the lamps explode from contaminants on the surface or do they just spontaneously go boom?

We have a rule on this forum about Laserscopes. You will not find much help here after our last "inexperienced mentally ill newbie who does not care about safety".

I am most certainly not an "inexperienced mentally ill newbie who does not care about safety". I've had experience working with high voltages and powers in the past, and I've worked with lasers before. I also know people who have had professional experience with Class IV lasers before who can help me (I'm an MIT student, and the MIT electronics society has all sorts of people, equipment, and power supplies )

Your willing to trade a OPSL for a argon that will only run for max between 5 and 30 seconds at a time?, That alone is worrying enough to wonder why you want a Laserscope.

Well, it wasn't a very big OPSL (20mW Sapphire), didn't cost me very much, and this argon is within driving distance of me, so no shipping and I can guarantee it survives transit.

Dont waste your time with a laserscope. They can be a pain in the ass plus they are stupid DANGEROUS in beam power plus High Voltage . Oh and did I mention that just the essential laser's components total weight is around 200 lbs. Buy a nice 2 watt 532 dpss. Thats my opinion.

As much as I'd love a 2W DPSS, I don't think I'll ever be able to afford one. They don't show up surplus very often

First thing is: do you have a class 4 variance?

You might get "some" response if you do.

IMHO a Laserscope is for EXPERTS. Nothing less.... There are a handful of people on this forum that actually have the knowledge to use one. I'm not one of them.

No, I don't have a Class IV variance; I'm not going to be doing shows with a Laserscope (too scary).

[White-Light]

This is presumably true of most class IV lasers, not just Laserscopes.

Errr no.

Most Class IV lasers are CW.

Most laserscopes are pulsed meaning that each pulse of light may be many hundreds of times the suggested CW power. As the CW power reading is an average of the pulses combined with the zero output in between, the zero output intervals give a much misleading impression of the true power when measured using CW methods.

Or to put in another way, a laserscope with a CW rating of say 2 watts may if its actually a pulsed laser be putting out pulses in the hundreds of watts range. Absolutely fatal to eyesight from the slightest glance and sometimes even from the brightness of the reflections from walls etc.

You'd be well advised to steer clear unless you really know what you're doing with those things as they are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

[bwang]

Errr no.

Most Class IV lasers are CW.

Most laserscopes are pulsed meaning that each pulse of light may be many hundreds of times the suggested CW power. As the CW power reading is an average of the pulses combined with the zero output in between, the zero output intervals give a much misleading impression of the true power when measured using CW methods.

Or to put in another way, a laserscope with a CW rating of say 2 watts may if its actually a pulsed laser be putting out pulses in the hundreds of watts range. Absolutely fatal to eyesight from the slightest glance and sometimes even from the brightness of the reflections from walls etc.

You'd be well advised to steer clear unless you really know what you're doing with those things as they are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

Are there any CW greens with Laserscope-level output? The fact that Laserscopes were designed to ablate flesh is not very reassuring
I know there are Coherent Verdis and such, but those things are EXPENSIVE.

[White-Light]

How much wattage do you want?

You're not going to get a new high power solid state green for a Laserscope price bearing in mind that Laserscopes tend to be surpless 2nd hand hospital equipment.

However, don't think that makes Laserscopes the better option because it doesn't. About the only real practical use for converted Laserscopes is overhead outdoor displays in vast arenas.

If you can give people an idea of what you want to use the laser for and where you want to use it, then maybe we could help more with power level suggestions.