Laser Tube Recharge

[Ron Moorehead]

Hi,

I need to have the laser tube in my GCC Explorer II recharged, it is a Synrad Fire star V30. Who would you recommend sending it to. I have found Bell Laser LLC, and Photovac Laser, Photovac laser web site has a big blog about Bell Laser Fraud. So I am now concerned about sending my tube to Bell, but I also not big on a Company bashing another company like Photovac is doing. I have emailed Synrad in the past but they have never replied back to me, I my call them on Monday to see if they will do it. But I would still like to find some other good companies to maybe recharge the laser tube.

Thanks

[Gary Hair]

I looked into Bell a while back when someone posted their info here. There were a lot of little things that were red flags for me, none of it individually was really alarming but when I put it all together it seemed fishy to me. I never had them do anything for me so this is all based on my gut feelings. I'm not going to tell you not to go with them but I will urge you to do your best to investigate them before you trust your laser to them.

[Kev Williams]

Until we figured out the tube wasn't the problem with my BIL's laser, I was going to send it to these guys on ebay...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Synrad-Laser-Refill-Service-includes1yr-warranty-/121707709279?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c5658435f

-- $850 plus $48 shipping for most lasers 50w or less, 1 year warrantee, 3-day service (or so), and zero bad feedback in the past 12 months.

Since most places seem to be around 3x that much, to me it would be worth a shot...

[Mike Null]

I used Photovac. Expensive but my machine is operating better than ever. That was just over a year ago.

[Ron Moorehead]

From what I can find on the web people seem to be happy with Photovac. Thanks for the replies.

[bill gervais]

Through a suggestion here on this board I used Evergreen laser Corp in CT. We put off a recharge as long as we could.
Evergreen had an add on eBay. I called an spoke with them and was impressed. They also had great feedback.

My my options ranged anywhere from $2500 to $3600. Evergreen laser cost me $880 including shipping with 1 year warranty. And it has been 3 months still as good as new. If it needed any optics I think it would have been $1250.
according to Evergreen most tubes need recharge only. But they offer full service and diagnostic capabilities. I received test results when completed as well.

i was very close to using Bell Laser until I found out I was talking with someone in Washington State if I recall but had to send my tube to a residential address in PA.

So far so good for me.

Bill

[Neville Stewart]

I used Photovac. Expensive but my machine is operating better than ever. That was just over a year ago.
Your ceramic core ,Mike?

[Mike Null]

Mine is an old Coherent.

[Mike Lysov]

My 100W Synrad tube and RF unit have just been repaired by Synrad. They are going to ship them to me soon. Not cheap(over US$4000 without return shipping cost) but if at least my tube will act like a brand new in terms of power that will save me about 30% of time and it was worth doing. Not to mention with all frustration when you start a job at one speed but them during the job power is dropping and you have to redo some part from it.

Regarding shipping cost, I am in Australia so it costed me a fortune to send two crates totaling 45 kgs to USA and back. Only shipping there and back took over $2000 in AUD. And that's on top of the repair cost.

If somebody is going to ship heavy parts from AU to USA TNT Express is the cheapest. While FedEx or DHL ask about $1200 AUD for it TNT Express does it for about $470 AUD plus extra $300 AUD for insurance(insured sum was $20 000 AUD)

[Mike Lysov]

It seems that you have to pay GST on repair and shipping cost as well plus customs fee of $83. It all adds extra $700 AUD
My parts are coming tomorrow.

[Joseph Mullins]

Just got my Synrad 60watt from a Gravograph LS600XL filled by Evergreen up in CT. Turned out to not only/really need the charge, but the mirrors inside rebuilt. Took about a week and a half to ship back to me.
Very inexpensive, and came with warranty and a "dyno run" type sheet with its output. Now, I have to go find mirrors for as cheap as I paid for getting this one from 2003 serviced. Check them out. worth it.

[Paul Phillips]

I'll second Evergreen for affordable cost and great experience. Here's a thread I made a few years back about my experience.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?236383-Affordable-Laser-Repair!&highlight=evergreen

[Mike Lysov]

My t100 has gone through Synrad repair again. The first time was unsuccessful It worked for about a month and stopped. I was worried Synrad guys would charge me again as we tried to fix it ourself after the first repair and we did some resoldering(it was really bad originally for some points). However Synrad repaired it for free and did not even ask me to pay for return postage back to me. The first time they have charged for return postage.

So far the tube works fine. I have been using it for 2.5 weeks and no problems. They only hickup with the last repair is that their tech guys did not see my note that a N-type connector on my RF PU is broken and it has only 2 sides left instead of four. Logically it is better to be sent back to Synrad and replaced but I do not think I can ship it 3rd time for this year. At least it works as it is for now.

Anyway it has not been a good year year for me with almost AUD$18K spent on Synrad tube/RF unit repair and on my new 300W co2 for another laser. Now both lasers works and I hope it will never hit me again with such a huge expenses in such a short period of time.

[lucian coman]

Through a suggestion here on this board I used Evergreen laser Corp in CT. We put off a recharge as long as we could.
Evergreen had an add on eBay. I called an spoke with them and was impressed. They also had great feedback.

My my options ranged anywhere from $2500 to $3600. Evergreen laser cost me $880 including shipping with 1 year warranty. And it has been 3 months still as good as new. If it needed any optics I think it would have been $1250.
according to Evergreen most tubes need recharge only. But they offer full service and diagnostic capabilities. I received test results when completed as well.

i was very close to using Bell Laser until I found out I was talking with someone in Washington State if I recall but had to send my tube to a residential address in PA.

So far so good for me.

Bill
I sent my coherent 40w to evergreen, is there for 2 months, they promise turnaround time 2 days not 2 months,
They do not answer emails for weeks and pretend that they landed in the spam folder.
Now they find of sorts of reasons and always they change, I can see hey are dodging me.
Want to take the tube back and send it elsewhere, I had enough.

[lucian coman]

I'll second Evergreen for affordable cost and great experience. Here's a thread I made a few years back about my experience.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?236383-Affordable-Laser-Repair!&highlight=evergreen
Not the same experience with Evergreen at all.
They told me 2 days turnaround time, now is 2 months with them.
Before I sent the tube they answered emails same day, now is weeks no response whatsoever.
I called and they pretend the emails went to spam.. seriously ? after a long correspondence outlook went bananas and start sending my emails to spam and you like a business do not check spam folder for weeks…..nope once you reply an email and enters in the address book further emails will never go to spam…obviously they lie.
Reasons always change, and some reasons do not ”match” at all with the previous one, is very dodgy.
I want to take my tube back and find another vendor, to my surprise ”not” again they do not answer emails.
Nope this is not the way to do honest business.

[Randy Walker]

I had my 30 watt universal tube done by Evergreen several years ago. They had an ebay listing that I used. They did a 2 week turnaround and with a little planning on my part I never missed a beat on my orders. The recharged tube worked easily as well as it did when the laser was brand new. I had a great experience with Evergreen and highly recomend them.

Randy Walker