Old Micromachining Laser

[Eidetic]

Here's a laser system with a bit of a story around my bringing it into the Vintage Laser Archive. I first saw this late '60s Korad model KRT laser micromachining system with its model KWC water chiller in the basement of the defunct Fine Art Research & Holographic Center in Chicago two years ago, when I went there to search the building for old lasers. The vast majority of art holography had been removed 6 months before my visit, and the new owner of the building had piled huge amounts of construction debris into the basement that I had to climb over to get to anything. This system was all the way to the back corner, and looked like it had been there for a long time. Understandable why it was abandoned and buried, as it's a very heavy and unwieldy bench and the Nd:YAG laser is totally useless for holography. It's my understanding it was acquired for use in one of the for-profit businesses operated in that building while it also housed the FAR&HC.

It would've been impossible to get it out at that time, but I did find about a dozen other old lasers so the pick was a great success. Nearly a year later, after the building was sold again and the basement was finally being cleared, it was finally accessible but I couldn't get away from work to go and get it. Essentially the last thing removed from the basement and sitting in the alley about to be walked into the dumpster, our own Logsquared came to the rescue. Since he was picking up the stack of old Coherent ion lasers from the place anyway, he agreed to take this system and hold it for me until I could pick it up (which involved a lot of hot, dirty, sweaty work). He is one hell of a stand-up guy! A year later I did, and now it's all cleaned up and reassembled. It'll eventually make a nice display with other micromachining systems in the collection, but until then I plan to use it to hold a JK pulsed ruby laser for making holograms. A longer post will be installed to support optics for overhead lighting of the subject. The perfect bench!

[logsquared]

Was glad to help get this in the right hands. Wow that thing cleaned up nice!