Tour : click picture below for previous

Back to Mike's Electric Stuff

Click picture below for next


wpe2E.jpg (23920 bytes)wpe4C.jpg (125447 bytes)A laser that BURNS!!

Overall view, showing delivery arm top-left

Since getting into lasers, I've always wanted one which will actually BURN STUFF. apart from a pathetic little 200mw 980nm diode I had which would just about burn a pinpoint spot into black paper, I knew a CO2 laser was what I needed, preferably a sealed tube type to avoid all the vacuum pump and gas mix hassles.
I've been keeping an eye on a regular medical auction house here in the UK, and last week spotted a Sharplan 1025 in their catalogue. A little research on the net showed this to be a 25 watt sealed CO2 unit - Time for an early start to drive the 3-hour trip down there.
I knew from past sales that it was likely to go pretty cheaply (the last sale saw an 80W YAG go for £150), and the saleroom was less busy than usual due to holidays. There was only one other bidder interested in the laser - the auctioneer started at £200, I held my breath for him to drop it when there were no bids, and when he went to £100, the other bidder chipped in. After what seemed like loads of bids, I won it for £230 (£257 after the buyer's premium). Of course I was taking a bit of gamble as I had no idea of the condition of the tube, but figured out that if it was totally shot I could get some money back by selling the optics and PSU on Ebay.... fortunately this proved not to be nceessary...!

Breaking and entering...Of course the first thing to do was pull the cover off. I was amazed at how big the tube was - just over 2 feet long. For no particularly good reason,   I'd always pictured them as being the same size as HeNe tubes. A small spider had made its home in a corner of the case...!
Before anything more could be done, I had to 'take care' of the key switch as there was no key (right). Inside, I was surprised at how much stuff was crammed into the very compact case (about the size of 2 upright vacuum cleaners strapped together). Apart from the huge tube, there is a closed-circuit liquid cooling system, power supply, HeNe tube for aiming, and assorted control circuitry etc.

Little box of goodies...A nice little surprise - on opening a little door in the top I found a collection of accessories, including the all-important lens that focuses the bam into a concentrated spot. The very long 10.6 micron wavelength of CO2 lasers means that very few materials are sufficiently transparent to use as optics. Zinc selenide is one such material - I suspect this is what the lens is made of.

there were also a few guide tubes and mirror attachments for burning round corners...


 

wpe41.jpg (69191 bytes)OK, time to rock.... but first some protective eyewear (right) most materials are opaque to the long 10.6um wavelength of a CO2 laser, so apparently clear goggles provide good protection (until they get a hole burned through them...).

On applying power, it made some assorted clicky noises, and then a continuous gentle gurgle as the cooling system started pumping coolant around the tube. The pump sounded like it was having a bit of a hard time, and the display said "low coolant flow", but it seemed happy to power up anyway, and allow a power level to be set.

I set the power level at 5W and aimed a short pulse at a cardboard box, and was rewarded with a little brown burn-mark - YES...! IT WORKS!!!!
Time to crank up the power....

wpe3C.jpg (52502 bytes)wpe3E.jpg (93061 bytes)(left) At 20 watts, the focussed beam produces an instant fire-spot on a block of hardwood

>Writing my name in fire..!

wpe40.jpg (75565 bytes)wpe3D.jpg (68170 bytes)Removing the lens allows stuff to be burnt at a distance - (left) cardboard box at 3 feet, (right) fax paper at 8 feet.

wpe3F.jpg (63824 bytes)wpe43.jpg (22102 bytes)In pulse mode (50ms pulses) it blew cute smoke rings from a plastic bottle - the plastic fumes were a bit nasty though (cough, splutter!).

>Talking of nasty fumes - it's fun to be able to drill holes in foam rubber...

wpe44.jpg (13378 bytes)wpe45.jpg (92278 bytes)< Drilling holes in 3mm acrylic (Plexi) sheet - a good demo that the long CO2 wavelength does't pass through clear plastic. Before firing, you can see the red HeNe beam coming out the other side, but the instant the laser is fired, the HeNe spot disappears as the surface of the plastic distorts.

> burning up some steel wool!

Internal viewwpe43.jpg (89920 bytes)Internal view. Tube is vertically mounted on the left, mostly obscured by all the other gubbins like cooling etc.

(right). I started blasting various flammable things around the garage, including this cardboard box, but in the excitement of looking for other stuff to attack, I didn't notice that one of the burn marks had also developed a little flame, and soon noticed a strong smell of burning as the flame took hold.... now where did I put that fire extinguisher....?

 



lasersign2.gif (26999 bytes)

wpe2E.jpg (23920 bytes)wpe4C.jpg (125447 bytes)


Click picture above for Previous

Back to Mike's Electric Stuff

Click picture above for next