Laser Tube Help

[FlyGuy007]

Hey Guys,

I had a tube break this morning. I installed my spare backup tube and there seems to be something wonky. I am pretty sure the old tube produced a fairly solid beam of about 3/8" to 1/2", The new one does the same size, kind of. But its only the outline of the beam also by the time the beam or outside of the beam makes it to the third mirror is grown in size and lost intensity.

In the picture below you can see the output from the tube approx at mirror 1. You can see its plainly not a dot but a ring??!?

What do you think?

[Neil Pritchett]

Looks like a faulty tube. Sorry to say.
You don't say what power of tube it is. There is just a chance that the center of the tube is slightly bent. Adding the weight of water etc. may cause this effect if the internal supports are not good.
only chance is to rotate the tube and see if it improves the burn pattern. However, we would consider it a reject tube.

Good luck. Neil (for CTRfuture Ltd) www.ctrlasers.co.uk

[pedroman]

Hey Fly-----HOW did your tube break?

Sorry to hear the spare is bad.

Pete

[lamicron]

I think you arre out of allignemnt, check it, When the beam hits the walls it make a pattern like that,

[Neil Pritchett]

Rotating the tube by some degrees in the saddle clamps may just be enough to 'straighten' the laser path (because of the weight of the water). There is only a very small chance of success, but it is worth a shot!
Yes, the beam pattern is most likely caused by poor alignment of the beam optics. Hence the 'bad tube' designation.

Hope you resolve it with your supplier.
Best regards. Neil (for CTRfuture Ltd) www.ctrlasers.co.uk

[FlyGuy007]

Yes Neil, you were right, the tube was bad. I contacted Lack Yin and ordered two more spares. The above tube is toast, I have tried it twice and it produces just funky output, its the wrong color inside the tube while lasing and it produces a ring instead of a spot.

When my two new spares arrived I tried t hem both and they worked fine. But I am not getting a chance to wear them out, my new tube is now in and cutting after my THIRD spare cracked and leaked out all the water before it slef destructed. It had been cutting about 200 hrs before ot broke. No idea what's causing the breaks.

Mike Purcell

[FlyGuy007]

Well, my good spare cut for about 15 minutes before I shut the machine down for the night, the next day it would not cut at all. Just nothing..

I replaced my power supply with my spare and guess what.... the tube that cut perfectly only the day before now cuts with a ring like my other bad tube!!?! WTF??

I am frustrated like you would not believe? What are the chances that I have two bad tubes now or two bad power supplies? Its weird.... but what else is there? I have tested the inout voltages to the power supply and they appear reversed from what the manual states, of course since its in Chinglish, I may be reading it reversed.

The manual states I should be getting 3.74 volts input to the power supply but I am only getting 3.48v, is this enough to affect the output of the power supply?

Thanks
Mike

[apriorius]

I thought Jack got fired. Are you still dealing with him on the side? Just curious...

[FlyGuy007]

Well, the last tubes were ordered through him in May, I just assumed he was working with WKLaser as the money was wired to them.

Mike

[mexico.redsail]

whenever you stop cutting dont cut the coolant flow for at least 30 minutes or so, or you get the chanse of deforming the inside of the tube cavity causing the ring shape.

Eduardo

Well, my good spare cut for about 15 minutes before I shut the machine down for the night, the next day it would not cut at all. Just nothing..

I replaced my power supply with my spare and guess what.... the tube that cut perfectly only the day before now cuts with a ring like my other bad tube!!?! WTF??

I am frustrated like you would not believe? What are the chances that I have two bad tubes now or two bad power supplies? Its weird.... but what else is there? I have tested the inout voltages to the power supply and they appear reversed from what the manual states, of course since its in Chinglish, I may be reading it reversed.

The manual states I should be getting 3.74 volts input to the power supply but I am only getting 3.48v, is this enough to affect the output of the power supply?

Thanks
Mike

[FlyGuy007]

Eduardo;

I leave the coolant running ALL the time so that can't be an issue, I found when I turn it on and off I sometimes got bubbles in the tube, but when I leave it running all the time it does not get the bubbles and after all its just a small wattage aquarium pump so it doesn't use much juice.

In fact the laser hasn't been working now for 4 days (broken again) but the water is still running.

Mike

[FlyGuy007]

The problem all along was my NEW spare power supply. It appears that its putting out just about half the total voltage its supposed to. So it was bad right from the start.

The ring is what you get when the tube is not fully powered. And I'll have to order yet another power supply.

Mike