Laser usage

[Dave Chase]

Hi All,

I had an interesting question posed to me today and I'm not sure if I can answer it accurately. Are there any detrimental effects to storing a laser for extended periods of time without use? By extended I mean 18-24 months without powering it up. I'm new to the engraving world and thought I would ask the experts:)

[James Stokes]

This is not something you want to do. I am having a laser tube recharged right now because of non use.

[Ben Levesque]

This is not something you want to do. I am having a laser tube recharged right now because of non use.

ok, so how long a non use should the laser not surpass?

[Rob Bosworth]

We refurbish and go through a bunch of used laser engraving machines every year. The ones that give us a huge amount of headaches are the ones that haven't been used. Of course the owners' of these machines think their system should be worth what they paid for them orignally. Its kinda like inheriting Grandma's 25 year old car with 27,000 miles on it. Sounds great until you have to keep it running. The seals dry out. The rubber boots dry out. Sludge builds up in the gas tank. Tires craze and crack. To say nothing about the old fluids that just sit in the system.

I read recently on one of these forums, that a fellow said he likes to go turn his system on once a week and let it run flat out for 15 minutes. Now that might be going a little overboard, but it couldn't hurt. We have a number of customers who buy machines every year who ask about buying a spare laser to keep on the shelf in case theirs fail. Unless the rotate them through, we almost always recommend they do not need to do that.

If it were my system, I think I would run it every couple to three weeks. If that is not possible, sell the system, do what you need to do for as long as you need to do it, then buy a "new" one when you are ready to get back in the game. (Notice that I use that term "new" very loosely)

[Ben Levesque]

If it were my system, I think I would run it every couple to three weeks. If that is not possible, sell the system, do what you need to do for as long as you need to do it, then buy a "new" one when you are ready to get back in the game. (Notice that I use that term "new" very loosely)

Thanks Rob for this informative story.
Would that be just turning the machine on, or running the laser on a job?

Thanks again

[Kim Vellore]

I bought mine from a guy who had it stored for 6 months, the tube was dead. I had not used mine for 3 weeks when I was on vacation and when I turned it ON the first time the first 1" of vector line there was no output but it turned on after that, I would have had a heart attack it there was no output for more than 2". I would recommend turning it ON atleast once per week. I am sure this might be a well known secret with the laser manufacturers but they dont admit it for some reason?
Kim

[James Stokes]

Universal told me the laser should be run for at least 15 minutes at full power once a week.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Great "planned obsolecence" strategy. Goes bad whether you use it or not. Sounds unlikely to me.... but...

So... Full power, 15 minutes once a week. How about .25 power for 5 minutes twelve times a week. What if you run it 10 minutes on Monday at 35% power.. and then on Weds just a 9 short , burst for 622 ; July daisy..


Sorry, Mitch has gone to lie down.

[Joe Pelonio]

Mitch,

To give you an even worse headache, I asked Sam Goldwasser who's sort of an authority on lasers, but more with building them than using commercial ones like ours. Here's his answer:

"I think it depends a lot on the specific type of tube. Historically, running
some gas lasers periodically has been beneficial. But I'm not sure how much of that is now an urban legend with respect to modern lasers."

[Dave Jones]

No idea about how true it is today, but I know it was true 30 years ago. Back in the 70s I had a HeNe (Helium Neon) laser. Not a cutting laser. It basically
output about the same as a bright laser pointer does today. I think it was 3mw. But back then it was a large object maybe 12" x 3" x 4" and plugged into the wall. It worked great and made a bright red dot a long distance away, even in daylight. But it sat on a shelf unused for a year and it stopped working. I took it to a laser expert and he said that was normal. This was maybe 1975.

On the other hand, I bought a used Epilog Mini-24 in May that had been sitting in a corner for 13 months unused. It's working fine. I may have been lucky though.