Hi everyone, long time lurker, so I decided to ask for help regarding my laser tube. I have a 60w Omtech. It’s been maybe 4 years. It has been running pretty smoothly up till yesterday. It started ghosting and making odd marks across cut jobs and then it started double cutting.
Long story short, when I was aligning the mirrors, I checked mirror 1 and noticed the tip of my tube looked odd.
Is is safe to say I need a new laser tube? I can’t be sure when this happened. I look at my tube regularly, but I just noticed this today as I was doing the pulse test.
Tube still fires accordingly. I currently have it off and unplugged.
It all depends on whether the tube’s mirror has been damaged by the heat or not. When the cooling ring falls off there is a risk of that. But you can try cleaning both ends and “gluing” the outer ring on with epoxy. I’ve done it once with a K40 tube that was defective upon arrival. If it works for you, that’s fine, otherwise you just need a new tube.
Thank you for your reply. I did purchase a new tube shortly after I realized it was broken, but then I wondered if I was being too hasty. I was going to cancel my order, but I decided not to.
I think it’s the right decision. The chance that the tube can be repaired and has not been damaged is not that great. And 4-5 years is a good lifespan for a tube, depending on how intensively you have produced with it.
Ps. I have the same(?) 60 Watt OMT machine also in its 5th year and am very satisfied with the machine. The tube is only a little weaker (5%?) than at the beginning but takes a little longer to warm up in the morning to get to full load. I expect to have to replace it next year, if it lasts longer it’s just extra money for other tools.
It’s out for delivery now; it’s going to be a long day for me. This is my second tube installation since buying my laser (first one arrived broken), but I’m still a bit nervous. I’ll manage though. Ready to get back to work.
