Anyone actually compare RECI to Standard?

Discussions on optics for laser cutter/engravers

Anyone actually compare RECI to Standard?

Postby lasersafe1 » Mon Dec 10, 2012 8:09 pm

Wondering if anyone out there has experience running the RECI tubes? In particular, the one thing holding me back from upgrading from my 40W standard tube to an 80W RECI is the fear that I may lose some finesse in my engraving since I may not be able to turn down power enough. I have read a statement from the manufacturer that the RECI tubes actually hold currents down to 5mA where most cheap tubes would have already shut off.

Can anyone confirm this? If this is true, I might give myself a Christmas present and I will have a 40W used tube and power supply for sale at a discount.
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Re: Anyone actually compare RECI to Standard?

Postby BenJackson » Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:22 am

There's a graph in my buildlog which shows the cutoff for the standard CO2 tubes. I know mine goes well below 5mA since I was firing it at 3mA the other day.

Of course the obvious solution to engraving power is to move the laser faster! I'm working on that angle myself.

I also get the impression that Epilog modulates engraving power with some kind of PPI which I may experiment with.
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Re: Anyone actually compare RECI to Standard?

Postby lasersafe1 » Tue Dec 11, 2012 2:23 pm

Thanks Ben, but your graph is for a brand new standard tube. If you actually run that tube at 20mA (as your graph implied you can for 40W) for a while or do PPI for a while, I'm betting it will no longer turn on at 3mA. Max running current for a 40W tube is 16-18mA. I'm of the camp that believes PPI is damaging tubes because it puts the overcurrent strike voltage on the tube. Some may claim that raster engraving is pretty much the same thing, but at least during raster you aren't running balls out 100%.
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Re: Anyone actually compare RECI to Standard?

Postby Guldberg » Tue Dec 11, 2012 6:11 pm

We run both our machines with RECI w6 tubes (130-150w). Before we had a 120w standard tube. I would actually say, that the standard tube was more powerfull, but that would probably not last.

We do engraving on paper and most other stuff without problem. The key is PPI. This also makes it possible to cut things like depron, which is insanely heat sensitive.
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