Kitting out a workshop for building lasers

[danielbriggs]

Mounting x-tals to copper.
Some HP diode applications too, but for most TO-cases decent thermal gumph is great. (Article Silver has a HTC of ~8.0-8.5 W/(m•k) from memory; most non-silicon thermal "white pastes" are circ 0.8W/(m•k).

[andy_con]

talking of kit to build lasers, you purchased that cnc yet briggs?

[danielbriggs]

Which one?
The one that won't fit?

[Galvonaut]

Thanks Mr Briggs. I guess I won't need it then for a while - if ever.

[swamidog]

No mention of lattes?

[Galvonaut]

No mention of lattes?

Coffee Machine! YES!

[planters]

It seems odd that a person who is building a laser building workshop would have to ask what basic tools they need to have. Are you planning on going into the business of making lasers/scanners or are you just wanting to tinker around? If you are planning on going into business then I wonder how you could really know how to go into business without knowing what you need. If you are just tinkering around then you don't need 1/2 of the stuff mentioned here. You can easily get by without things like oscopes and bench power supplies unless you are doing electronics work. A laser power meter, a multimeter, and a tweaker will do what you need 95% of the time.

I see this as part "what simple thing(s) would help a lot" and a fantasy list of all the neat things I would like and might, just might use to work with lasers.

[CountFunkula]

I see this as part "what simple thing(s) would help a lot" and a fantasy list of all the neat things I would like and might, just might use to work with lasers.

<cough><cough>...an LN2 Dewar and a good spectrophotometer

[planters]

I was thinking of a turbomolecular vacuum pump, just a little one...

[CountFunkula]

I was thinking of a turbomolecular vacuum pump, just a little one...

Awww man! That'd go great with a sputtering machine!

...also VERY handy for pumping down ion tubes...