Helium-Neon Laser Tubes

[Josh Savory]

Hi,

I'm trying to repair some old helium-neon lasers for a physics lab (155SL Uniphase and 155 spectra physics). Is it possible to find replacement tubes for these lasers?

Thanks,

Josh

 

[tm]

Hi,

I'm trying to repair some old helium-neon lasers for a physics lab (155SL
Uniphase and 155 spectra physics). Is it possible to find replacement
tubes for these lasers?

Thanks,

Josh

You might take the old tubes and soak them in Helium gas for a week or so.
If their seals are in tact, that will replace the He that leaks out over
time. Get one of those Mylar metalized balloons and put the tubes inside,
fill with He gas and let it sit.

HTH
tm

 

[William Sommerwerck]

You might take the old tubes and soak them in helium

gas for a week or so. If their seals are in tact, that will
replace the He that leaks out over time. Get one of those
metalized-Mylar balloons and put the tubes inside, fill
with He gas and let it sit.

This was a problem with the original LaserDisc players.

By the way, at least one expert is predicting that, because we're using so
much helium for trivial purposes, in 50 years or so we won't have any for
scientific use.

 

[Josh Savory]

This might work but the tubes are physical broken from students dropping the lasers or just general abuse. I was hopping someone had a stockpile of these tubes.

 

[[email protected]]

I'm trying to repair some old helium-neon lasers for a physics lab
(155SL Uniphase and 155 spectra physics). Is it possible to find
replacement tubes for these lasers?

Sam's Laser FAQ http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserfaq.htm has a section
on where to get laser parts:
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserlps.htm#lpsnsw . He also has some
tubes and other laser parts for sale at
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/sale/#scpheneh .

I took the liberty of cross-posting this reply to alt.lasers, as it
still seems to get some traffic. Followups set to s.e.d.

Standard disclaimers apply; I don't get money or other consideration
from any companies mentioned.

Matt Roberds

 

[Cydrome Leader]

I have three HE-NE tubes (New Old Stock) that I was saving for restoring
old Pioneer Laser Disc players (think Dragons Lair - not CD). Would sell

Do you have a service manual for a pioneer LD-1000, or do you need one for
parts?

For anybody else, it's a top loading laserdisc player, complete with the
fake wood- it would blend in nicely with quadrophonic sound system.

 

[jules]

Le 05/04/2013 03:42, [email protected] a écrit :Yes.

First of all, let us know what you need with this laser :
1/ Color
2/ Power
3/ Divergence
4/ Beam size
5/ Wave for interferences

You can replace a gas laser by a laser-diode and so on.

Richard

 

[Samuel M. Goldwasser]

I'm trying to repair some old helium-neon lasers for a physics lab

(155SL Uniphase and 155 spectra physics). Is it possible to find
replacement tubes for these lasers?

The 155SL uses a JDSU 098 or similar long barcode scanner tube. These
are readily available. I may be able to dig up a couple.

The 155 uses the old 060-4 side-arm tube. Electrically, it can also probably
use the 098, but fitting it in may be a problem.

It may be better to simply buy some more modern HeNe lasers surplus. I have many
available, though probably not quite as cheap as eBay.

--
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[Samuel M. Goldwasser]

Greetings Sam,

I wondered if you might reply to this thread. Part of the welding I do
in my shop is TIG welding and I do use helium sometimes. I also have a
laser tube, the bar scanner type, that doesn't lase anymore even
though the power supply is fine. If I was to put the tube in a
pressurized vessel of helium do you know how much pressure and how
long a time it would take to refill the laser tube?

Do you have an idea of the make and model of the tube? Most of these
are hard-seal and never suffer from He depletion. And even those
that have Epoxy seals often leak air in more quickly than He out.

However, you have He and nothing to lose, so put it in a bag of He
at atmospheric pressure for approximately 1 day per year of age.
So, if it's about 20 years old, try 3 weeks. Remove it and test
periodically. If you go overpressure on He, there's no way to get it
down quickly.

--
sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
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[Samuel M. Goldwasser]

Could one not make a photo-detector setup for semi-automatically
recharging HE-Ne lasers? I'm thinking pressurized HE container, power
laser and when light output reaches certain point release the HE via a
valve...

It's tricky to power a HeNe tube inside a He atmostphere due to an increased
tendency for HV breakdown. Or, so I've heard. One would have to do it
in such a way that the high voltage parts are isolted from the He, but those
are often exactly where the He needs to diffuse in. I haven't tried.

--
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Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
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[Samuel M. Goldwasser]

I have no idea of the make and model of the tube. I bought the thing
at least 20 years ago from a surplus store. This was when the used
hand held bar code scanners were just starting to show up at
electronic surplus stores. That laser was the coolest toy. I was very
careful with it because of the high voltage and the laser light. I did
machine up a new housing for the tube because the original one was
cracked. I believe the tube is a hard seal tube though. I don't
remember seeing any type of epoxy plug. I know the power supply is
still putting out high voltage because it will arc to ground if the
wires are removed from the laser tube. Maybe the start circuit is bad
or something if helium won't leak through glass.

Sometimes it takes awhile to start, especially if it hasn't been used in
20 years. Shining a light on the tube can may help.

Take some pics.

--
sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
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[Cydrome Leader]

Hi,

I'm trying to repair some old helium-neon lasers for a physics lab (155SL Uniphase and 155 spectra physics). Is it possible to find replacement tubes for these lasers?

Thanks,

Josh

Apparently I had one of those uniphase lasers. The tube was hard sealed,
but the thing died when it was dropped and the mirrors got knocked out of
alignment. I still have the transformer and probably the extruded case.

the thing was super super simple inside.