Some short lived lasers...

yes I bought them used and they were dying anyway....   But ...  heres what they did before they died...

Cyonics 15SLB running at 7 amps 105V
 

the Cyonics 15SLB shining on the house across the street ( about 150' away)
a bit blurry but the "yellow" lamp to the right of the blue spot is a 100W bulb in a clear porch lamp.
 

A NEC GLG 3030  set up for a test run  ionizing but no beam :(
90V at 6A ( it wouldnt start at 80-85V and would only stay running at 90+V)
 

with a bit of mirror adjusting and some patience.... a bit more voltage ( 95V) and a bit more amps ( 7.2A)
S L B ...  :)   ( I placed a diffraction grating in the beam and got a bunch of blue beams ... no greens, yellows, or any other color)

I did get a chance to aim it out the front door and reflect the beam onto the bottom of the low cloud cover and see the beam in the cloud...( barely )
very nice effect tho ...
 

STAY TUNED ....    more to come...  but heres a sneak preview of the up and coming CO2 laser
 

3" outer water jacket , 1" inner tube with .685" ID bore,  electrode to electrode is 51", mirror to mirror
will be 58-60" ( havent decided yet, depends on how well I can insulate the mirror mounts or if I even can)

Plans are to seal each UHMW "donut" to the inside of the water jacket and put gas entries at each electrode
and also at the center "donut",  the gas exit ports will be placed at the 2 "donuts" between the water jacket
end plates and the center "donut". This way, the gas will only have to travel 12" between ports instead of
the full length of the bore. BTW this will be a hi flow laser...

The power supply will be modified from my BIGPIG Tesla coil. I will use 4 X-Ray diode sticks to create a full
wave bridge rectifier ( supposedly capable of 150KV). The caps will be Maxwell 50KV
( about 5 of them in parallel for .735uF).  Estimated voltage supplied is 38-42KV
( of course it is variable from 0 to 42KV ;)  )  I will be using my synchronized rotory spark gap to pulse this
tube at 120 Hz ( 120 BPS) if my math was right .... 500 Joules per pulse at maximum power ( doubt I will ever
go that far, afraid the glass wont handle the pulse)

Mirrors are from a industrial 4000 W CO2 laser which were ordered and kept beyond the return date
by accident ( the mirror had the wrong focal length therefore useless for the laser originally intended for but great for what I have in mind)
also obtained were some ZnSe lenses with 10" focal points ( for the 4000W laser, when one lens goes bad, they replace all of them).
Sooo... I ended up with some really primo lenses :) now to make a sliding style lens holder....
 
 

Lens mounts and the OC and holder
 
 

the HR lens and holder
 
 

MORE to come later...  next wild idea ....   33" of bore length argon laser
 

well maybe not 33" so i decided on 22" ...  some serious thinking went on and I decided not to do the 33" length due
to several factors...
 

1.     aligning 3 tubes has got to be at least 12 times harder than 2

2.     33" would require some serious voltage for CW and not even to mention the amperage need to sustain ionization
        much less the initial hi volt surge to get the ionization to start.

3.    33" would probably work under a pulsed situation..  but I'm rather partial to CW ;)

4.    2 tubes only require 1 weld instead of 2....  less to leak ....

5.    Cooling factor...   imagine all the air flow I would need...

6.    mirrors....  its probably easier to find mirrors for 25" CW instead of 36" pulsed plus, mirrors built well enuf to handle
        the power anticipated.....

this is a test it is only a test .....    hey if it works kewlll  if it doesnt, than all I've lost is
the time welding this monster together...  eehhh  plus some argon and more time and
what ever BUT hey...  I enjoyed learning about it ........     :)
 

30" from Brewster window to Brewster window....    22" of bore length ...
now   to load it ith argon and see if it even ionizes....
if it does then I will set it up with mirrors....
 
 

any comments, questions, constructive critisism ....   Email me at Bigfoo39@telocity.com