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Thread: Ugh....

  1. #1
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    Unhappy Ugh....

    So my long awaited HGM5 arrived today after a fairly long (25 days after paying) wait. The laser was packed pretty well and I was very excited to get it up and running.

    I slowly unpacked the laser and removed the fiber cable, foot pedal, laser safety glasses and high speed shutter. I then extracted the main unit which, upon first glance, appeared to survive shipping. It was shipped ground and the package was 140lbs.

    I opened the cover and began to inspect to make sure nothing was wrong. I'll let the pictures explain the rest. Sensitive viewers may want to turn away.... there is broken glass involved.


    Everything looks great here! The insides are very tidy and the unit is in good shape. The laser was making 2.7W (for 30 sec.), without any modifications, the day before it was boxed up and sent to me.


    Then I noticed a dent....


    Hmm... this dent doesn't look good... especially not on that side... uh-oh...


    Yup... you guessed it. My worst nightmare was revealed.


    The brewster stem is shattered due to the box being dropped on it's corner on the side that contains the tube. I'm currently looking for a new tube so if anyone has one laying around or has access to one, I would greatly appreciate it. It doesn't necessarily even have to be the HGM tube... any tube I can get for a decent price that I can run with this PSU would be great. ALC68, even a Lexel 88 tube can be powered with this supply (I think).

    And the unit looked so good out of the box... it's a shame how one little piece of glass breaking basically turns the whole thing into scrap.









  2. #2
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    That really sucks! Did you at least have $100 of insurance? (that can be a default amount with carriers such as UPS)

    -Jonathan

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by platinum View Post
    That really sucks! Did you at least have $100 of insurance? (that can be a default amount with carriers such as UPS)

    -Jonathan
    It was insured for a good amount, which will hopefully be buying my new tube once the refund comes in. So, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. I guess the silver lining in my case was that the package was insured

  4. #4
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
    Infinitus Excellentia Ion Laser Dominatus
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    Quote Originally Posted by GooeyGus View Post
    It was insured for a good amount, which will hopefully be buying my new tube once the refund comes in. So, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. I guess the silver lining in my case was that the package was insured
    see if evergreen will rebrewster it for you?

    www.evergreenlaser.com

    Steve

  5. #5
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    That is sad.

    It's amazing how all of that sophisticated equipment becomes useless with a crack in a little bit of glass.

    Good luck getting it fixed up. It's a bummer you couldn't have just gotten it working.

    James.

  6. #6
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    That is great!

    I shipped my laser over here (PDX area) from SELEM in August and after splurging on the trip itself, I couldn't rationalize insuring my laser past the minimum. Fortunately, it made it, but I was biting my nails waiting for it to catch up to me.

    (I packed it really well, and it's DPSS, so I was good to go, for the most part.)

    -Jonathan

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by mixedgas View Post
    see if evergreen will rebrewster it for you?

    www.evergreenlaser.com

    Steve
    I shot them a quick e-mail for a quote on the Brewster fix but I fear that it may be a bit out of my range as far as what I am planning to spend on fixing the laser. I guess I'll find out when they reply.

    Best case scenario for me would be to get a used (gently, hopefully) tube and swap it out and call it good. All I want is a working laser!

  8. #8
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    Cool

    GooeyGus;

    Sorry to hear about it dude.... Those pictures break my heart.

    I don't know if I'd go through the hassle of a re-brewster though... Lots of other things could be wrong with that tube. Just the fact that it's up to air now means it's going to need a long bake-out. The cathode could have been damaged, the bore could have been damaged, you could have another leak...

    Sure, all those things can be fixed by Evergreen, but it's going to drive the cost up a lot. I'd think you could find a used tube on the surplus market for less money. (Did you at least get your purchase price back from the seller?)

    Steve: Didn't you say you knew of someone that had a whole bunch of Lexel 85 heads available? What would he let one go for? That might be a cheaper option. Granted, you have to deal with water cooling, but the cooling system on the HGM5 would have to be hacked anyway to allow CW operation...

    Adam

  9. #9
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    I would have no problem using a water tube, if anything it makes the whole setup less noisy

    I got the quote back from evergreen and it actually wasn't too bad. $1,100 to fix the stem and re-gas the tube. If the cathode needs replacing it would be an additional $500. So I would be looking at $1600 for a re-gas with new filament and Brewster stem. Assuming that no other damage was done to the tube in shipping (and it looks like the brewster breaking actually saved the tube from any other damage) it sounds like a decent deal. Also, if the repair fails and the tube is totally garbage I don't have to pay a dime. The tube was making 2.7W, using only the HGM front panel controls, the day before it was shipped. So it seems as if the tube is in good shape otherwise.
    Ultimately I'd like to get a running laser that will do at least a watt or two (even if it's only for the rated 30 seconds without additional cooling) without having to spend $1600, but if all else fails and I cant find a better deal, evergreen is always a feasible option.

  10. #10
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    I found another tube.... but it looks like it is a bit small


    Here's another picture of the carnage... from a better angle.

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