I just wanted to give a heads up about some Synrad Firestar V20 lasers that happen to be on ebay right now. The seller listed 5 of them and there are 3 left....I just bought 2
These look to be 2004 models and claim to be in great condition. They are the 20 watt model, but will usually output 25 to 30 watts or more. I live about 30 miles from Synrad, so even if they are low power, it will be worth it to get them recharged. They are so compact you can mount them directly on a gantry. At $499 they are a steal if they work, and a decent deal if they turn out to need recharging. I have purchased from this seller in the past, although not in the past 6 months or so. Looks to be legit though.
Hmmm, well, sorry, that didn't last long! I just checked back 10 minutes after posting this and the other 3 Synrad firestars on ebay have been purchased. I take it none of you were able to snag one in time?
I received the two Synrad Firestar V20 lasers today and test fired both of them. They both seem to be outputting about 25 watts as measured on my Synrad Powerwizard meter. I had hoped they might be a little hotter (I know, I know, what do you expect for $500) but it may be the case that the V series isn't quite as under-rated in output power as the 48 series sometimes seems to be (I have had a 48-1 10 watt laser do 17 watts and a 48-2 25 watt laser do a bit over 35 watts). At any rate, they might have some hours on them since they were made in 2004, so 25 watts isn't bad and is certainly useable. The seller shipped them out promptly and well packed (strangely in a Coherent box...but I didn't think Coherent had purchased Synrad yet).
An update, I just realized my Synrad Power Wizard handheld wand type meter reads slightly lower each time as it gets hotter. I discovered this when I made several rapid measurements in a row and saw the power dip by a few tenths of a watt each measurement. I first assumed that the Firestar V20 power was dropping as it warmed up, but then I let the wand cool off, fired up the Firestar laser at full blast for 5 minutes, then took a reading of 26 watts. I repeated this test on the other Firestar laser after 5 minutes running full bore and also measured 26.1 watts. So just a warning about the little wand meters - they are supposed to adjust for the increased temperature of the sensor head each time you take a repeated measurement, but evidently don't do that with extreme accuracy (can be off by 2 watts or so it seems).
So quite happy...25 to 26 watt laser air cooled with built in fans, runs on safe 30V DC, $500. The seller has listed yet three more of these on ebay, so you might want to check it out if 25 watts is useable for your application. I wish I knew where this seller's fishing hole was....
Not really. If you look closer, you see that he is now selling the 30V DC power supply included with the laser in the auction. This power supply is sold separately when you buy the $5200.00 laser new from Synrad. For some reason it is the 1000 watt model (30V DC at 27 amps actually) and is large enough to drive a 48-5 50 watt laser! The Firestar V20 only needs 10 to 12 amps at 30V DC. I think this power supply alone is over $1000 new and is a very nice compact switching design that can run off 115V or 230V AC.