Laser combiner and water cooled mirrors

Discussions on optics for laser cutter/engravers

Laser combiner and water cooled mirrors

Postby Yaro » Sun Oct 05, 2014 8:37 am

Hi all,

I found a specific mirror mount with a water cooler system. Is really necessary to cool mirrors?

Another question i want to make is related to beam combiners, how can they influence co2 beam in precision and power? also, it's really necessary a laser pointer?

Thank you.
Yaro
 
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Re: Laser combiner and water cooled mirrors

Postby _ID_ » Sun Oct 05, 2014 9:38 am

What laser beams do you want to combine? CO2 + red pointer? If the answer is yes then there are easier solutions (instead of combining), like putting a pointer at an angle to the laser head so it points to the same spot as CO2 click or so called drop pointer where at the opening of the lid on the machine the pointer drops in the beam path of the CO2 laser and goes through the optics click. The second solution is more accurate but harder to make ;)

Regarding the beam combiner-there are some losses.
_ID_
 
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Re: Laser combiner and water cooled mirrors

Postby Yaro » Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:46 pm

But this solution is really necessary to calibrate my laser? Or is just to have an indicative position of laser beam?

What about cooled mirror support?

Thank you!
Yaro
 
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Re: Laser combiner and water cooled mirrors

Postby TLHarrell » Mon Oct 06, 2014 3:44 pm

Water cooling of mirrors is completely unnecessary. The whole point of the mirror is that it reflects the laser beam, not absorb it. If your mirrors are getting hot, there's something very wrong.

I highly recommend having the aiming (red) laser inline with the cutting beam. My first laser (Full Spectrum 4th gen hobby) had the aiming laser on the laser head. My new one (FSL 5th gen) has a beam combiner. The option of having the laser drop into the beam path with the lid opening is the best way to go, but technically challenging. Getting a laser aligned properly with the inline aiming laser is far easier. I can do an alignment in 10 minutes with that, as opposed to an hour without.
40w Full Spectrum Engineering 5th Gen Hobby 20"x12" w/ Rotary Engraver
South San Francisco Bay Area - Sales and Support Representative for Full Spectrum Engineering
408-47-LASER - Skype: whitelightlaser-thomas - Facebook: White Light Laser
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Re: Laser combiner and water cooled mirrors

Postby _ID_ » Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:13 pm

Aligenment is possible without red pointer also. It is done with paper infront of mirror click. The red pointer dot actually has only role to indicate where the laser beam will hit the surface (if it is aligned with CO2 laser beam).
_ID_
 
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Re: Laser combiner and water cooled mirrors

Postby Yaro » Tue Oct 07, 2014 9:10 am

TLHarrell wrote:Water cooling of mirrors is completely unnecessary. The whole point of the mirror is that it reflects the laser beam, not absorb it. If your mirrors are getting hot, there's something very wrong.

I highly recommend having the aiming (red) laser inline with the cutting beam. My first laser (Full Spectrum 4th gen hobby) had the aiming laser on the laser head. My new one (FSL 5th gen) has a beam combiner. The option of having the laser drop into the beam path with the lid opening is the best way to go, but technically challenging. Getting a laser aligned properly with the inline aiming laser is far easier. I can do an alignment in 10 minutes with that, as opposed to an hour without.

Do you have some advice to how to implement a laser combiner? Like laser pointer position, combiner mirror position or laser pointer beam and co2 laser beam calibration?

Thank you!
Yaro
 
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jul 02, 2014 4:04 pm

Re: Laser combiner and water cooled mirrors

Postby TLHarrell » Tue Oct 07, 2014 5:08 pm

The way I most often see implemented is to put the beam combiner lens directly in front of the output of the laser tube angled at a 45 degree angle. The aiming diode laser is then placed perpendicular to the cutting beam, firing at the beam combiner lens.
40w Full Spectrum Engineering 5th Gen Hobby 20"x12" w/ Rotary Engraver
South San Francisco Bay Area - Sales and Support Representative for Full Spectrum Engineering
408-47-LASER - Skype: whitelightlaser-thomas - Facebook: White Light Laser
TLHarrell
 
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