How to make the tube last longer

[Mike Troncalli]

This may have been poster elsewhere but I couldn't find anything on it.

I have been curious to find out what will make the tube last longer. Lets say I have to make a lot of vector cuts. (Not worried about burning, scorching, etc.). Would the tube last longer if I made 1 cut at 100% power or would it be better to make 2 cuts at 50% power? I guess my basic question is what burns out a tube faster, heavy use or length of time in use.

Thanks
Mike

[Rodne Gold]

Tubes either fail electronically , or gas seeps or internal damage occurs. They designed for 100% duty cycles , but to play safe , run at 90-95% power.
The best you can do to make sure the tube lasts is to see its cooling fans and fins dont get clogged up with dust , blow off the tube power supply now and then or get filters for the openings where the laser is housed. Free flow is important
Key to good operation of an air cooled laser is that temperature should be constant and lowish.

[David Fairfield]

When you're finished with the laser, don't switch it off immediately. Let the fans continue running to cool the tube down. 10 mins before switching off is a good practice.

[Mike Troncalli]

David and Rodne,

I apreciate the info (and it never hurts to re-emphasize standard practices). While I am very aware of these points that you have brought up, it still doesn't answer the basic question. Is the tubes life effected by time / power or does it not matter. (Rodne wrote: The are designed for 100% duty cycles ) and that may have answered the question but I am not sure.

Thanks again.

[Ernie Balch]

I don't have enough experience with C02 lasers to talk about their failure modes.

My experience with UV Argon gas lasers from Coherent might be similar. The tubes used to fail quite often at 3000 hours in spite of their supposed 6000 hr life. The tubes would just gradually get weaker and weaker.

Over the last 25 years they kept making improvements, the biggest improvements were when they changed materials that outgassed less. The internal surfaces of the brewster windows were getting contaminated limiting life.

The next failure mode was letting the tube get too hot.

We also found that if we ran at lower power settings the tube would last much longer, sometimes 3X the rated life. This was probably related to the UV damage on the brewster windows.

ernie

[Rodne Gold]

I doubt running any laser tube at 100% all the time can be good for it, in most cases the mnfgr limits "wide open throttle" to be "a little less than wide open throttle" as a protection measure. We have always maximised speed and that often leads to having to use 100% power a lot and I have had no real hassles.. I have probably gone thru 15 tubes in my lasering lifetime , various makes , they tend to let go in a random manner.

[Dennis Rech]

This may have been poster elsewhere but I couldn't find anything on it.

I have been curious to find out what will make the tube last longer. Lets say I have to make a lot of vector cuts. (Not worried about burning, scorching, etc.). Would the tube last longer if I made 1 cut at 100% power or would it be better to make 2 cuts at 50% power? I guess my basic question is what burns out a tube faster, heavy use or length of time in use.

Thanks
Mike

Hi Mike,
It looks like you have an FSE 40 watt pro.
Over in the FSE forum, the factory recommends that you keep the power in the 15 to 20 ma range for long life. This means 70% power.
The water cooled tubes that FSE uses are not linear in their output. You will gain very little extra cutting power at 100% over 70%. You just make more heat which degrades the tube faster.
I find that using cutting 1/4 inch acrylic or wood at 100% power takes just about as long as using 70% power.
Dennis

[Richard Rumancik]

. . . The water cooled tubes that FSE uses are not linear in their output. You will gain very little extra cutting power at 100% over 70%. You just make more heat which degrades the tube faster.

. . . which tells me that there is something wrong with the way that they are spec'd. You should be getting considerably more cutting power at 100%. Has anyone done a wattage check on the output at 70% and 100% on these tubes? Are you getting 40 watts on the table at 70%?


. . .I find that using cutting 1/4 inch acrylic or wood at 100% power takes just about as long as using 70% power.

I assume what you are saying is that you cannot increase the cutting speed when you bump up the power to 100%. So the tube output peaks at 70%. I guess as long as you are getting the 40 watts it is legitimate; otherwise, I don't understand how they can call it a 40 watt tube.

[Bert Kemp]

I know this is an old thread but I'm gonna jump in it anyway as I'm having lots of problems with FSL and their tube's. I have a 40 Hobby Deluxe which I bought mid September this year and have used it about 100 hrs. I have had many problems with this system right from day one as I never really got good consistent burns, The software is a joke and should never have been released for use. I can't even begin to tell you all the problems with the software. The USB cord or the jack it plugs into is defective as the program constantly stopped right in the middle of a job with noway to get it started again so the material was wrecked. ( I engrave on leather)$$$ down the drain. Well anyway now the laser won't burn hardly at all and they told me to try all kinds of things and they finally said to put paper over the end of the tube and increase test time to 2000ms and fire, it should burn a hole in the paper. Well it did nothing. They now think the tube is bad ,but I really don't think they know whats wrong. I asked for a new tube and they said they don't cover tubes and it was my tough luck send them $300 and they'll send me a tube. This was just the final straw, like I said there's been many problems from day one and they will not do anything except make you feel like its your fault their and if they do something they make you feel like their doing you a huge favor.
So I guess I want to ask if anyone else might have an idea whats wrong and if it is the tube were can I get one that will fit. I don't trust FSL and will not do business with them any more.

[Bert Kemp]

Thanks Dan for getting back to me. Yea I really wish I checked them out a lot better before I bought the laser. I looked at other lasers and FSL price was good so I called them asked lots of questions and they sound really good.
Well now I need to find a new tube and not from them. Being a novice at this I'm not really sure which tube I need. Theres a lot of 40w tubes out there and I don't know what this one is as its all in Chinese. Do you know what tube will work in this laser ? I looked at that RECI site you mentioned but didn't see anyway to look at there products or order anything from them either.

[Bert Kemp]

I found a loose ground wire I fixed that and tried the laser again. It will raster on leather at 30% pwr but won't vector at all. What does this tell us?

[Martin Boekers]

Sometimes you have to way the balance, which is a better savings. Running a laser slower and take more time (time=$$$)
Or max out time and work with tube costs? Epilog Tubes I believe are guarenteed for 2 years so if it goes bad it's replaced at no cost.
But even the if you work 5 days a week for 2 years that comes up to 520 days at a replacement cost for may last tube that comes to
about $4.50 a day. That is if you had no warrenty. If you look at it that way it's not to bad. I know there are many other expenses
involved with running a business, but sometime it should be kept in perspective. Yes it sucks to come up with a couple thousand to
replace a tube if you aren't prepared for it. Best to set a side a fund by takinging a small percentage of each job and save it for these events.
I know $4.50 a day is easy to waste in time, or sodas or other things. Soooooo if running a laser at half speed makes it last twice as long
wouldn't that be equal to running full speed which takes half the time? :)

[Bert Kemp]

My tube will raster at 50% pwr on leather but will not vector cut letters at all. What does anyone think is wrong? I been told the tube will either work or it won't. So what would cause it to work some but not totally?

[Greg Facer]

Hi Bert,

Sometimes the tube totally fails, but sometimes the internal lens or mirror falls out of alignment and that will make the tube fire but not really work functionally or in the same way. Perhaps your situation is somewhere in the middle?

Greg

[Dan Hintz]

Tubes do not necessarily completely fail... a loss of power is a perfectly reasonable symptom. When the internal mirrors go slightly out of alignment, you'll typically begin to see a halo of cutting power rather than a dot.

[Bert Kemp]

I'm still not sure whats wrong with my laser.
It will raster an image at 50% power on leather but if I tell it to vector that image I get nothing out of the laser. it just goes around the image and cuts nothing, I might see an occasional spark but thats it.
Is this a laser tube problem, a power supply problem or a mirror problem. I hate to buy a new tube then find out that doesn't work.
Let me state that when I put thermal paper over the stationary mirror right next to the tube I have to hit the test button several times before I get a dot on the paper.

[Bert Kemp]

I just tryed vectoring again I slowed the speed to 5 and still nothing, but when I look at the tube its lite up but not putting out anything.

[Mike Null]

Bert

I know less than nothing about Chinese machines but this does not appear to me to be a tube problem. I'm inclined to think driver, drawing or connection.

[Rodne Gold]

Could be a machine setting that is limiting output on vector mode , check them , like minimum and maximum power might be set low.. If you are vectoring at less than 15% power , the tube will not work consistently , try up the power to above 20% when vectoring.

[Bert Kemp]

I had power set at 100% speed at 5%

[walter hofmann]

Hi there
like rodne said not the speed you need to set the power at least to 12% max and min to 11%.
greetings
waltfl