Questions about Laser Tubes

[reeser]

Hi All;

My build has progressed to the point that I am now looking into Laser Tubes and Power supplies.
The first question is concerning tube length. I have looked at the light Object 40 W tube and it is 830mm long. It appears that it will fit in the standard 2.x frame.
Does anyone have comments about whether there is any problem dimensionally with that tube?

My second question has to do with sourcing. The Light Object 40 W tube is $215 + about $90 shipping. There are several ebay sources that are lower cost. I'm wondering how iffy the E-bay sources are regarding damage, warranty, support etc.? I would appreciate any comments pro or con regarding sourcing of the tube.
My final question has to do with the Laser power supply. The LO supply is $235 + $30 shipping. There are a ton of supplies on Ebay in the 90 to 125 dollar range. Many with free shipping. It appears that the LO Power supply is just another run of the mill Chinese Supply. Am I missing something?

Thanks for any advice on the above.

Regards,
Dick

[sshwarts]

Dick:
I have a bit of a bias because I've had only good experience with LO. I bought both my tube and power supply from LO for a couple of reasons. One was that I knew that if the tube arrived defective I'd get another one. Also I understand that tubes have a finite shelf life where they start to loose pressure and thus the power diminishes. I had seen from the LO forum where LO had replaced people's tubes when they suspected they were bad and I didn't think I could get that kind of service from an ebay vendor.

As for the power supply, yea I saw all those too at a much lower price. I had read some threads from people like this one: http://www.mikeestee.com/blog/2011/12/on-laser-repair/
that convinced me to buy the power supply there too.

There are some good ebay vendors I know others have bought from so hopefully others will give you some recommendations. For me, my time has a certain value so I was willing to pay more just to keep from having to debug something that works out to be defective.

Scott

[reeser]

Hi Scott:

Thanks for the input.
Is your Laser tube 830mm Long. If so any problems mounting it?

regards,
Dick

[sshwarts]

Dick:
My laser is a modified design (larger) so I'm not the best test case. If I look at the original CAD files, the length of the bay from the first mirror mount to the inside of the rail at the end of the chassis is 906mm. So I would think you'd be ok but do yourself a favor and plan it out in your drawing software.

A few caveats, one is that you'll want to move the Z motor to the bottom as many have done (you can see some great pictures on buildlogs where you'll see the motor on standoffs) to allow for less space between the end of the tube and the first mirror (you want only a few inches). Also, you'll probably end up modifying or making new tube mounts since the water inlet/outlets on the tube don't seem to fit through the original design.

Scott