Laser Tube Mounting Angle

Discussions on optics for laser cutter/engravers

Laser Tube Mounting Angle

Postby iGull » Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:01 pm

Hi All
I'm looking for someone that has perhaps some _working_ knowledge of this.
Under normal circumstances, the laser tube would be mounted with the firing end about 2mm higher than the high voltage end (according to coletech's specs anyway - essentially to allow air to escape the coolant).
That's how mine is set up and works just fine.
However, I'm about to start a Blackhole II laser project and wish to mount the laser tube at about a 30 deg angle - perhaps more.
It'll be an SDZ 60W laser tube - they are considerably shorter than the 1200mm coletechs by about 200mm (7.9 inches if you are metrically challenged :-) )
The final bed size will be around 600x400mm, but I want the carcass width to be around the 1000mm mark with no projections.
Can anyone offer up any issues with mounting the laser in this manner (other than photons dropping out the rear :-) )

Cheers

Neil
EMOs are a sign of weakness ...
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Re: Laser Tube Mounting Angle

Postby canadianavenger » Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:39 pm

As long as you can align your optics at that angle, the angle of the tube should have no bearing on its performance. The only thing you'll want to check is that you don't end up with a trapped air-bubble at the very top of the tube.
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Re: Laser Tube Mounting Angle

Postby Exsecratio » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:25 pm

Hiya Neil,

The angle of incidence will change, it's normal on a 45 degree mounted mirror for this to happen but if you interject a second divergent angle you may well cause some problems. The beam Mode will almost certainly change (in effect although not in actual true mode) 1 angle in an optical train per mirror is fine, start adding more than that and you risk erratic performance as the laser head moves toward / away from the source.

If you have access to 3D imagine software use boolean subtraction to see the differences in beam profile at differing angles.

best wishes

Dave
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Re: Laser Tube Mounting Angle

Postby mattrsch » Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:59 pm

I don't think you will have any issues. Like canadianavenger said, watch out for air at the top of the incline. I'm not sure how you get more than one angle on a planar reflection from a single source on a mirror, it's all the same thing as far as the light is concerned. All you will need is an angled mount for mirror 1 and you will be good to go.
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