Taking a hacksaw to a laser

[dave]

So with summer fast approaching, and with it more club shows, we decided to squash the 909 into a small box.. That meant getting rid of the protruding resonator rods....

So


After covering al exposed surfaces with tape to protect the optics, we took to the rods with a hacksaw. Kind of risky, but going very slowly, and holding a vacume cleaner under the saw to catch the saw dust. we did the unthinkable!! It was either do it this way, or take each resonator rod out, and both methods had pitfalls.

Anyway



Im thinking, i may keep posting in progress shots as the projector progresses, might be of interest to you all..

Dave

[JimBo]

That meant getting rid of the protruding resonator rods....

What is the purpose of the resonator rods?

Jim

[dave]

For mounting a etalon to, so single lines can be picked out. We will never need to use a etalon since we arnt using the laser for holography, so bye bye rods

[liteglow]

that is nice

This laser is going in a laser projector ?

What is the W output in this laser, and what is the input ? 110volt 220volt ? 400volt ?

[dave]

that is nice

This laser is going in a laser projector ?

What is the W output in this laser, and what is the input ? 110volt 220volt ? 400volt ?

Yup, it sure is going in a projector.

Its quite a nice laser, oem alc909 head running off a 240v single phase lexel switching psu.. Puts out about 3.5w at 25amps tube current..

[aijii]

Might I add, that 25amps of tube current is attainable from a 20amp single phase circuit thanks to the switchmode.

Its quite hard not to drop some more cash on another one of these. They are quite small. And pack such a punch.

[buffo]

Im thinking, i may keep posting in progress shots as the projector progresses, might be of interest to you all..

Dave;

I think posting pictures of your progress as you build this new projector is an excellent idea! There are several members here that are also in the process of building a projector, and more than a few members are considering the task. Pictures and a little commentary would go a long way towards pointing out the potential problems inherent in building something like this!

Adam

[aijii]

Heres one for you - the first box which we built this argon into was rather large - 1.2 m long by about 50cm deep. Maybe more. I can't really remember hey.

Anyway, we built a special "tray" for this thing out of steel box section, so we could hang it from a truss. But the weight of it caused it to twist, ever so slightly, and thus put the 8mm baseplate out of alignment.

So lesson number one -> make it as light as possible, make the baseplate as thick as possible, and make the whole assembly as rigid as possible.

Kinda mutually exclusive hey.

[buffo]

Or, just don't make the baseplate so long that the slight twist is enough to throw your optical alignment off! 8)

No, really - I see what you mean. With a large frame argon laser like that you're really stuck no matter what. The few completed projectors I've seen that have water-cooled argon heads mounted in them are all *really* heavy, and for the same reason. They all needed a thick, stiff, heavy baseplate to keep everything aligned. Then they needed a case that was strong enough to hold all that weight. Of course, at that point *lifting* the damn thing becomes nearly impossible!

Yet another advantage of DPSS... Lightweight! (Too bad they're so friggin' expensive.)

Someday, when the world has 10 watt blue DPSS units and 40 watt red diodes that both cost less than 5 figures, you'll see ion lasers relegated to the dumpster. Until then though, we're stuck with them if we want real power...

Adam