you might say i have a problem. i claim it's for my art and maybe it is, but i find myself collecting air cooled argons. four.. well, five if you count the ArKr, which you kind of have to.
i window shop on ebay and pounce if there's a deal i can't refuse. a week or so ago i spotted a accucure 3000 with a "buy it now" price of 65$. the accucure's are little argon dental lasers for curing epoxy and whitening teeth. they've been obsoleted by high intensity leds and they're on ebay from time to time.
here's a data sheet: http://www.tzsupplies.com/dental-arg...cure-i4068253/
they're usually around 300$ on ebay. this one was 65$. i pounced.
i fought with ups for a week.. my address is esoteric and they give up easily.
i finally got it home and unpacked. it was beautiful.. white, no marks, no discoloration. smelled like alcohol and disinfectant.
the fiber coupled wand was included, but not the keys, the foot pedal, or the rear interlock.
i made some coffee and rolled up my sleeves. a dozen hex screws later and she showed me her goods. inside was a laserphysics reliant 300b.. and it was totally clean. no dust bunnies. no yoda hairs.
i had a key switch left over from another project and i like to do neat work instead of just hack and slashing, so i disassembled the control panel and replaced the switch.
the control panel was connected by a number of connectors which i photographed to keep straight.
luck was with me and my spare key switch fit perfectly.
next was the rear interlock connector. since this was redundant, i traced the wiring to j5 connector on the control board and shunted it.
i powered it on. the computer showed a run time of 16 minutes. practically brand new.
turned the key, let it warm up, and shorted the foot pedal connector with a paper clip.
beautiful!
since i'm not a doctor, although i do play one on tv, the dental wand is not useful. i removed the fiber coupler and packed it away as it will be handy later.
the beam specs appear consistent with my other reliants, but it appears to be suppressing one of the green lines. i assume it's to optimize for the useful blue lines. the color is a beautiful turquoise. a little different than the expected cyan and very pretty.
six lines and 286mW according to the built in power meter.
all in all a good day.