Is this foam packing on laser tube?

[LaserGrl]

Hi all,

I went ahead and bought a K40 laser from ebay. Everything is set up and the computer is working with the laser just fine. My question is there is some foam at one end of the laser, do I need to remove this? I sent an email into the supplier but thought I might get a quicker response here. Thanks in advance!

[SkipW]

Probably packing material but could you post a pic please?

[LaserGrl]

It's the same as in this photo: 0004-1.jpg picture by nvgroup - Photobucket

The laser is positioned right now where I can't shoot a photo of mine but it's exactly the same as in that photo, at the end of the tube and a pad of it underneath it. I can't see where it's necessary as the tube is supported, but I don't want to remove it in case it's necessary...

[SkipW]

Well I don't see any foam in the pic and can't imagine why you'd need it, so I'd say it's packing material to be removed.

Have fun with the laser !!!

[cinematic2]

Do not worry. You do not have to touch it.
This is "blind" side of laser.

[LaserGrl]

Well I pulled out the foam.

Running tests right now and it trips our breaker every time I turn the power pot to anything close to 5mA Trying to trouble shoot it. Looking at the grounding and it's well grounded. I'm wondering though do I need to actually hook the ground wire(we have it hooked up to the proper ground source) as it seems the ground prong on the plug itself is also properly grounded.

Everything else works as it should, mirrors were even aligned. Just can't fire the laser past 4-5 mA...

Also this is plugged into a 15amp GFCI circuit (has proven to be grounded and correctly polarized), so we're thinking it should be fine but there is no definitive documentation on what this machine draws. Does anyone have an idea on the power needs of this machine?

[mcphill]

Don't use it on a GFCI circuit. Those are looking for anything "odd" to cut off the power, likely way too sensitive to the noise coming from normal operation from the laser power supply.

[LaserGrl]

Darn all the outlets in the garage are gfci...The only reference to power draw was on it's eBay listing as 200 watts(roughly 2 amps?) I believe. Anyone have any more concrete numbers or specs on it? thanks for your time!

[LaserGrl]

O.k we're (husband) is putting in a non gfci outlet... We'll see if the laser trips the big breaker

[zax15uk]

I run mine on GFCI, there shouldn't be an issue if you have the 220V step-up transformer.

How high can you turn the pot before it trips? It does sound like some leakage or noise issue.

Do you have a ground connection from the machine chassis directly to the outlet where the laser is connected?

Zax.

[bpoulin]

If you have it set up as a GFCI breaker in your breaker box, try replacing the breaker, if it's in series with a GFCI outlet, try changing out the outlet. That will eliminate it being a house electrical problem. Then I would check all your ground points on the machine and make sure it is grounded properly.

[LaserGrl]

Hubby put in a non gfci outlet and ran a test, it didn't trip any breakers. I've only had a chance to test it once so far on some mdf at 4-5 mA at who knows what speed cuz I haven't figured that out yet and it worked well.

It is grounded. the internal wiring runs the ground wire to a grounding peg and to the third ground plug prong. We have a ground wire running from the peg to the ground on our external power supply and of course the plug has the ground also. The machine is 110v so I don't think we need the 220 step up.

Can't wait to test some more! Although I'm a little intimidated by it but when I learned how to weld I felt the same way and got over it as I figured things out.

Hopefully things will go well and I won't have an expensive door stop! Thanks for all the help it saved me a lot of headaches