Michael Hunter
05-26-2016, 1:31 PM
The price Epilog UK charge for re-gassing Coherent-Deos laser tubes is outrageous! The last quote (from 2013 and I don't suppose it has gone down) was £4,495 ($6,587) for my 60W.
Fortunately, I have found a nice man who has just re-gassed my tube for not very much more than the £1,000 I was told it would cost when the machine was new in 2004.
Interesting that Epilog sold the machine as a 60W, but the tube is rated by Coherent at 50W (a bit of sharp practice there!) : after re-gassing it apparently puts out about 55W which I'm very happy with.
The man to talk to is Paul Mason at Millennium Lasers in Neath (South Wales, near Port Talbot).
His web page doesn't make it clear that he deals with air-cooled metal tubes, but it seems that he knows them well.
Paul says he does not like the tubes manufactured by Epilog themselves, as when they fail there is usually something actually wrong as well as needing re-gassing - so if you have one of those he might not be able to help. Lucky I didn't take up Epilog UK's offer of swapping my Coherent for an Epilog tube!
My tube was giving good quality saleable work (albeit very slowly) right up until last Monday - that is 12 years 4 months of use : a record ????
Hopefully the refreshing will last me until i retire.
Fortunately, I have found a nice man who has just re-gassed my tube for not very much more than the £1,000 I was told it would cost when the machine was new in 2004.
Interesting that Epilog sold the machine as a 60W, but the tube is rated by Coherent at 50W (a bit of sharp practice there!) : after re-gassing it apparently puts out about 55W which I'm very happy with.
The man to talk to is Paul Mason at Millennium Lasers in Neath (South Wales, near Port Talbot).
His web page doesn't make it clear that he deals with air-cooled metal tubes, but it seems that he knows them well.
Paul says he does not like the tubes manufactured by Epilog themselves, as when they fail there is usually something actually wrong as well as needing re-gassing - so if you have one of those he might not be able to help. Lucky I didn't take up Epilog UK's offer of swapping my Coherent for an Epilog tube!
My tube was giving good quality saleable work (albeit very slowly) right up until last Monday - that is 12 years 4 months of use : a record ????
Hopefully the refreshing will last me until i retire.