Laser tube replacement info

[Gene Uselman]

I am looking for a replacement for a Reci W6 130w tube and it seems that there is a lot of info out there as usual but it is hard to quantify. So here is my effort to put together the info and dealers in the USA as I find them.

LightObject- California- Marco Wong has been around since I bought my first laser 5 years ago

They offer all of these tubes and seem to stock most of them. They claim to test each tube before it is shipped and are very knowledgeable. SPT is highly thought of by Brother Russ and GSI seems to be a premium tube mfg that is getting into our 'hobby' market. I find the SPT with the attached red dot visible laser very interesting as I have always used a Collimating lens to do this- if the red dot is accurate [which is the whole idea?] it seems like a tidy way to add it.

TL 35w, 40w, 45w

SPT TR75- 60w, TR90- 90w, TR100- 100w [Integrated reddot],,,,,,,,,,
C35- 35w, C45-45w,C50- 50w, C60- 60w, C90-90w, C100- 100w, C130- 130w

GSI 80w,260w, 100w, 130w, 150w,,,,,,,,,, High power metal [CO2?] tubes at 200-260-300w

Reci T1- 75w, T2- 90w, T4- 100w,,,,, W2- 80-90w, W4- 100w, W6- 130w, W8- 150-180w

I have pictures of the output of the different tubes that they offer and there is a lot of differences between brands. I have two Reci W6 tubes that don't look like this picture by the way- they came with two different styles of metal hoods over the lens at the output port, which are interchangeable.One hood seems to replace the other and I will post when I get back to the great north country.

.

LO c02 tube ends.jpg

.

Reci -EFR c02 tube end.jpg

More to come............

[Frank Small]

Hi Gene

I purchased my Reci 75W T1 tube on eBay through Cloudray. I think less for than $500. Shipping was very fast and the packaging was terrific! From my experience they will stand behind what they sell.

I was very impressed with how electrical connections were made to the tube. No wrap the wire around the post and slide a piece of silicone tubing file with RTV. these were screw terminals (I used a crimped ring terminal at each end) and the high voltage end has a screw on high voltage cap that goes over the the connection. Easy Peasy.

The overall fit and finish of the tube was outstanding, with metal fittings at each end. The glass work was great and at the low voltage end there was not that typical short piece of silicone tubing, it was all glass. Nice!

I could not find any off the shelf brackets for the tube that would work with my machine so I made my own.

To date I have not run it much but so far appears to be working great. The test data sheet that came with the tube said it tested out as an 80 watt tube. Take that for what it is worth.

A YouTuber Roger Webb from down under is a fan of the Reci tube. https://youtu.be/cQ-8XoHnSiQ
You might want to look at his video.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Best,
Frank

[Gene Uselman]

Hi Frank- I priced Reci at Cloudray but shipping was $1k for a W6 tube. The two Reci tubes I have look very nice and I like them, it is just the beam on both is so bad that I cannot get a good alignment. I suspect the one of them might work on my old 3x4 foot bed laser but I have that stored for the time being. The large bed presents many more problems as the beam distance gets very long- also leveling is problematic of course.

I sourced a Reci tube from Sign-in-China as they had US stock and I was trying to beat a deadline and I am trying to return that now.

I have heard/read of changes at Corp level at Reci and EFR but my memory is bad and I cannot find them anymore- if anyone has any info or leads please post here- I hope to build this into a resource for people buying tubes- it is no fun to pay $1500 for a tube that you cannot use. Gene

[Gene Uselman]

I have been researching other companies with US stock and altho there are a few, they don't have much variety of stock it seems. Rabbit and Boss and a few others have a few tubes but not a lot. If anyone knows of dealers in the US please mention them. Gene

[Gene Uselman]

Frank- I just realized that you have a T1 Reci tube which seems to be a 65mm tube instead of a 80mm- but the same length, which is what normally determines the power. The smaller tube is cheaper than the W series 80mm tubes. Has anyone heard anything about the other differences? I would think that as they [Chinese mostly?] make more and more tubes that there would be improvements and normally the price would come down. Cloudray has the T6 Reci which is called a 130-160w for $460 but I even emailed cloudray to see if the $900+ dollar shipping is correct and apparently it is. Cray also has the SPT TR130 [reddot laser] but LightObject does not. The SPT C130 130w is $675 plus about $200 shipping which is sounding pretty good.
I am still on a laptop in Florida but when I get back to my multi monitor setup in Minn midweek I will do a deeper study of it.

[Rodney Edington]

I bought my W2 RECI from Automation Technology on sale for $449 plus about $30 shipping a few years ago. They have a few other tubes also.

https://www.automationtechnologiesinc.c ... r-engraver

[Gene Uselman]

Thanks Rodney- I am an AutomationTech customer and have been impressed with their products/service.

[Gene Uselman]

I got my SPT C130 tube from LightObject on Friday and after chasing my tail all day Saturday with chiller problems I have it firing today. What a relief- if fires down to 8% power and has a beautiful small beam which is easy to adjust. I have been fighting with the beam pattern on the Reci W6 for so long that I forgot what a good beam pattern looks like. I will do a more in-depth report as I get farther on with the tube but I just needed to tell someone.........

I ordered from LO Mar 12, got a pdf to sign immediately [ asking what I had for a chiller and explaining their warranty on the tube] but did not see it till the 14th [bad communication internally] and signed immediately, tube shipped from Calif on the 15th
and was delivered by UPS on the 19th.

It took 15 minutes to adjust the beam and it worked so well that I wanted to cut something difficult... how about a spiral from .25 hardwood faced mdf? I am so impressed. And happy

.[attachment=1]Spiral2.JPG[/attachment]
.[attachment=0]Spiral.JPG[/attachment]

[Pete Cyr]

Cool, very nice...it lives!

[Rodney Edington]

It's great to here the beam of the tube was everything Marco claimed. The spiral looks awesome too.
If I ever need new tube, I'll be getting SPT.