Ridgeyard's Laser Tubes

[Philipp Pap]

Well
my old laser tube (TongLi 45 Watt) had been a tank. Made 2012 (got my machine 2017 with 10 hours of use) and lost it's power within the last 2 month of last 2020 (from 30 watts (which I was happily cutting and engraving) to 11). So TongLi would have been my go to choice but the shipping costs exceeded the - hopefully genue - Ridgeyard 60W tube (1100mm lenght vs 850mm, both 50mm dia), 113 euro incl. shipping, no duty fee.
With this a power supply was needed, which I ordered from cloudray.com (the mA and high Voltages seem to match).

So my questions are, do you see compatibilty problems? Does anybody have quality/live time expactations knowledge to add? Can I make the length extension out of clear acrylic or is this a problem? Will I be a victim to "buy cheap, buy twice" ????? Should I post a measured power chart of the tube, is anybody interested??

[Pete Cyr]

I don’t think you will have a problem with the tube and pwr supply you selected.
However, Your enclosure...you could make It of of acrylic. Acrylic has a dielectric of between 2 - 3.4 depending on the type.
The advantage of a metal enclosure is it can be grounded in the event of a short. Any metal in the acrylic would be potential shock hazard ...such as mounting screws.

[Philipp Pap]

Thank you for your answer!!!!! (Although I went to a technical-electrical school I wouldn't have thought of that, grounding mounting screws (luckily my design will be without metal, pew) - next to high voltage - would be obvious after the first accident, LOL).
PS: Do not stare into laser with remaining eye (joke, not funny).

[Philipp Pap]

READ PETE CYR's POST, IT IS LIVE SAVING.

[Philipp Pap]

I just wanted to say that the tube works as expected and I am quite happy with it so far.
50 Watts at 12mA, I don't want to go higher, as above the power intensity seems to flatten.

[Pete Cyr]

Nice - good to know.