20 Years in the Making...

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Re: 20 Years in the Making...

Postby lasersafe1 » Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:35 pm

Wow! That's a pretty big investment! Hope you have a good plan for making money with it. - Actually, what am I saying? Those of us who build our own are far better off than those who spend upwards of 12K (30K in your case) for the commercial ones.
How the heck did you avoid aircraft in Atlanta? Seems to be about the busiest air hub in the US.
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Re: 20 Years in the Making...

Postby trwalters001 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 3:09 am

My 1 watt green (Viasho, 532nm) was "only" $1,800.

Here's a funny one... I'm going to use my engraver to pay for the lasershow projector... :lol:
FSE 60W + RetinaEngrave
Coherent Model 42 60W Slow-flow CO2
Homemade 50W Slow-flow CO2
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Re: 20 Years in the Making...

Postby trwalters001 » Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:54 am

Hi All,

I'm making progress, but it's slow.

Here's the new 60W laser hitting a fire brick (unfocused)

Firebrick1.jpg

I'll be using 3 of these mirrors:

Mirrors.jpg
Mirrors.jpg (12.18 KiB) Viewed 20704 times


The mirror positioners:

MM-1 c.jpg
MM-1 c.jpg (11.36 KiB) Viewed 20705 times


My power meter only goes to 60W, however...

Ophir.jpg


I've got four 64" rails with trucks:
Rails.jpg

Trucks.jpg


Here's the radiator, fan and flowswitch:
Cooling.jpg


Next on the list is starting the table build. I'm hoping to begin tomorrow night.

Tim
Last edited by trwalters001 on Fri Nov 19, 2010 2:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: 20 Years in the Making...

Postby Tweakie » Mon Nov 15, 2010 8:18 am

Tim,

I am not certain that radiator is large enough for a 70 Watt tube. Obviously 'the proof of the pudding' will tell, but I still think you should be looking at something with a bit more thermal transfer capacity.

Tweakie.
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Re: 20 Years in the Making...

Postby trwalters001 » Tue Nov 16, 2010 12:24 am

@Tweakie - Thanks for the good advice. I'm going to take some measurements to see if I can come up with what is actually needed.

fr'instance... My laser was sold to me as a 70W model. Tube is 48" long, Supposedly matching power supply. I haven't measured the optical power yet.

I have one of the "Kill-a-Watt" thingies. I measured 398 watts being drawn from the wall socket, with the laser at full power. I know the power supply is dissipating some heat, but I don't know how to separate the supply from the laser tube. So, worst case, I'd have to get rid of <400 watts of heat. I haven't measured input or output water temp or flow rate yet, but when I do, I'll plug the values in here:

http://www.lytron.com/tools-technical/notes/heat-exchangers-select.aspx

The answers there will (I hope) give me some idea of the size of radiator and coolant flow I need.

Someone wrote earlier that I was over-thinking the problem. Probably so. I know that I usually put too much effort into a design. BUT - I like to know what the right answer is before I start "winging it" to make it work.

I'm really liking the sealed laser. It's *SO* much easier to deal with than the slow-flow types. Turn on the water. Turn on the power. Let there be light! :D

Tim
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Re: 20 Years in the Making...

Postby trwalters001 » Thu Nov 18, 2010 1:03 am

I ordered all the extrusions, brackets, screws & nuts for the X & Y axes today. As soon as I get the 30% discount notification from Misumi, I'll order the rest of the components for the Z-axis. It's pretty much what hoda00113 (Dillon) has already done all the hard work on. I'm in copy-mode.

Being all OCD, I had to calculate what amount my first order should be so I could get the rest of my components for no additional money.
So I got that going for me... :lol:

Since my linear rails are 64" long and I don't want to cut them, I'm making both axes out of 71" extrusion.
I figure some people have pool tables in their basements. I'll just have a laser cutter. :shock:

I've got about 12' of 2-start, 5-turn-per-inch Acme threaded rod that I'm going to make the Z-axis lift screws with.

Bart is making me a pair of tube mounts. Apparently my laser is a little bigger in diameter than most, so I had to ask for "special treatment". Thanks Bart!

I measured my laser power at 64W wide-open. As I'm pulling 398 watts out of the wall, that means the laser's efficiency is 16%. Not too shabby.

Slowly, but surely.
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Power Supplies

Postby trwalters001 » Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:13 pm

Hi All,

My laser power supply is a 220VAC model.

I emailed the manufacturer and found out it would also work fine at 240VAC.

YMMV...
FSE 60W + RetinaEngrave
Coherent Model 42 60W Slow-flow CO2
Homemade 50W Slow-flow CO2
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Special Treatment

Postby bdring » Sun Nov 21, 2010 2:35 pm

Here are the special brackets I made. The hole for the tube is 2.35" dia. It also has a different foot to mount to a flat surface. This fall under the other stuff category on the kits page.

bigTube.jpg
Bart
"If you didn't build it, you will never own it."
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Re: 20 Years in the Making...

Postby mpeele » Fri Nov 26, 2010 4:31 pm

Where did you get your power meter?
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Power Meter

Postby trwalters001 » Fri Nov 26, 2010 6:35 pm

I got it on eBay (seller guyovad). It's an Ophir Model 150. There's usually quite a few for sale (search Ophir power).

The one I have connects to a voltmeter.
0.1 volt per watt.

IMPORTANT! - If you find one on eBay, make sure it's the correct model, type and calibration for your use.

My part # is 150C-A-.1-C/ERB, which according to the data sheet means:

Model 150
C = Conduction cooled (60W max with a heat sink) "W" means it can be water-cooled for power measurement up to 150W
A = Smart Head: Built-in amplifier. Connect +/- 12V and read the output as voltage.
.1 = Calibration of 0.1 Volts / Watt.
C/ERB = The absorber is optimized for CO2 (10.6u) and Er:YAG (2.94u) lasers. IF THIS IS A "Y", IT'S FOR YAGS ONLY

See PDF page 8 in this document: http://www.orcontech.com/data/Ophir_OEM_catalog.pdf

Tim
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