LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

I am getting close to needing a new tube, been running on mine over 2 years. Tried cutting some mirrored acrylic tonight and couldn't get through it on the far right side of it even going over it twice. I am going to clean my mirrors and lens tomorrow, see if that helps but I'm sure it's time. Where is the best place to buy a replacement from? Do I need to buy a new power supply at the same time? Thanks

Josh Creswell wrote: Thu Apr 04, 2019 I am getting close to needing a new tube, been running on mine over 2 years. Tried cutting some mirrored acrylic tonight and couldn't get through it on the far right side of it even going over it twice. I am going to clean my mirrors and lens tomorrow, see if that helps but I'm sure it's time. Where is the best place to buy a replacement from? Do I need to buy a new power supply at the same time? Thanks

Tube failure (or degradation) should be consistent over the entire cutting bed. If you can cut okay on the left side, but not on the right side, then you probably have an alignment issue.

Jeffrey Aley wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019

Josh Creswell wrote: Thu Apr 04, 2019 I am getting close to needing a new tube, been running on mine over 2 years. Tried cutting some mirrored acrylic tonight and couldn't get through it on the far right side of it even going over it twice. I am going to clean my mirrors and lens tomorrow, see if that helps but I'm sure it's time. Where is the best place to buy a replacement from? Do I need to buy a new power supply at the same time? Thanks

Tube failure (or degradation) should be consistent over the entire cutting bed. If you can cut okay on the left side, but not on the right side, then you probably have an alignment issue.

I am going to check that as well, but like I said I am sure it's about time to change the tube.

I'm curious about replacing the power supply, too. My tube seems to be diminishing. Although, I was trying to cut through 1/8" birch and it was ok up until about minute 6 and then it just diminished to a whisper. If I let the tube sit a little, it would come back. This is just on the cut side. The engraving side is fine. I'm running a job now that was all day yesterday and today on engrave/scan, and it's fine. But, cutting through the pressboard is not working. Is it safer to replace the power supply with a new tube or is this overkill?

If you replace the power supply with the one rated for your system there is no risk (except hooking it up correctly).
Sounds like your power supply may be failing - a bad tube will be bad beginning to end when cutting/engraving. Although it may not be as evident when engraving since most engrave a lower power than they cut.

if you have issue in a particular spot on the bed you may have an alignment issue.
If you get to a spot and can't cut....power off...wait...resume in the same spot and you can cut that is an indication of the power supply going bad.
I have had them quit at the end of a job such that one day the system works as expected..the next day it did not work at all.

Rather than create a new thread as my query is the same as the original message ....

I observe that I am now frequently having to increase the output power and/or decrease the feedrate on my cuts, it is not dependent on the positiuon on my bed.

M<y machine is an 80w chinese variant, i'm looking for advice:

Do I need to change the tube AND the power supply

Advice on tube selection UK

Ian Bell wrote: Sat May 18, 2019 Do I need to change the tube AND the power supply

I would suspect your tube is it is close to 5years old thereabouts.
Typically, power supplies work or they do not ...they don't fade.

Kicking an old thread, but you might be having / had the same problem that just arose on my new 80W China Red - COOLING !

My 80W shipped with a B grade EFR F2 tube. Spec says 2 - 5 L/min cooling. Thier wonderful pump and in line flow switch reduced the water flow to 1.1 L/min. As the tube warmed up, the lasing mirrors in the tube got out of adjustment and no more beam. My tube just recently ate itself.

CHECK YOUR FLOW !

Just by pulling the in line switch I got the flow up to just below the 2.0 mark. Removing the excess tubing wrapped around the tube by the tech to lazy to cut the excess off reduced the friction loss enough to get me to 2.2. My new flow sensor is a pressure switch on a T, not an in line piece of junk.

As soon as the pond pumps go on sale this spring, a new pump is on the list !