Intro
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2025
Hello all - I'm Chris from sunny San Diego California.
Currently helping a high school robotics team resurrect an old 80 Watt CO2 Chinese laser. It's a bit of a mess, and they have zero laser knowledge.
Hoping to fill in the blanks and get this beast working in the next 2 weeks before their season kicks off.
Where we are right now:
The tube fires (yay!) but all the optics are fried (boooo) due to cutting wood with the tiny gold compressor
by the previous owner.
Kids disassembled the red laser pointer and lost some of the parts (well... that might have been me, but they helped).
USB ports are either dead or can't seem to connect to the Windows 7 PC running RD works, but a USB thumb drive works.
My laser experience -
Masters degree in Elecro-optics
Industrial experience - 350Watt Nd:YAG welding lasers (nuclear industry)
Lens and optic design in UV and IR missile warning sensors for DoD companies
Laser transceiver production (fiber optics)
150 Watt CO2 Boss laser (2440 design) for a different high school robotics team
Currently helping a high school robotics team resurrect an old 80 Watt CO2 Chinese laser. It's a bit of a mess, and they have zero laser knowledge.
Hoping to fill in the blanks and get this beast working in the next 2 weeks before their season kicks off.
Where we are right now:
The tube fires (yay!) but all the optics are fried (boooo) due to cutting wood with the tiny gold compressor
by the previous owner.Kids disassembled the red laser pointer and lost some of the parts (well... that might have been me, but they helped).
USB ports are either dead or can't seem to connect to the Windows 7 PC running RD works, but a USB thumb drive works.
My laser experience -
Masters degree in Elecro-optics
Industrial experience - 350Watt Nd:YAG welding lasers (nuclear industry)
Lens and optic design in UV and IR missile warning sensors for DoD companies
Laser transceiver production (fiber optics)
150 Watt CO2 Boss laser (2440 design) for a different high school robotics team