I hope that someone knows something about the construction of CO2 tubes (reci w2, 100 watts) and can give me advice on the following:
Unfortunately, when I was adjusting the mirrors, a piece of wood fell on the small glass bulge of the outer tube, which was supposed to hold up the rear flap. As a result, the glass bulge broke. There are now a few pieces of glass in the tube, but the inner glass and water cooling are still intact, as you can see from the green of the antifreeze I added during the winter.
What is the purpose of the outer tube? Is this normally pressurized or is the CO2 just located in the middle of the inner tube? Is there anything I can do to fix the damage or do I need to buy a completely new tube?
In the manual of cloudray this glass bulge is not listed at all and also otherwise it does not provide any information about the construction …
I’ve never done this but note that there are companies that will regas/repair laser tubes. If you have one in your area it may worth inquiring to find out if they’ll do this. Not all companies will repair 3rd party tubes. You’ll want to confirm on warranty period as well.
As @berainlb advised there are some companies that re-gas/re-mirror co2 tubes…
Most cost more than you can purchase a new tube. One of the places I checked has a 180W (for their own equipment) and it costs $1695, complete tube service is $2395.
Go back to cloudray and get a good replacement and refrain from dropping things on it
I’ve searched for a service provider on google, but unfortunately those are far away from me. Just wrote to cloudray 5 minutes ago if they can help me out but my own stupidity is certainly not covered by their warranty
In Germany we call it “Lehrgeld” if you have to pay for something to learn it the hard way … so yes, I’ll probably buy a new tube on Amazon, the 100 watt version will cost around 650 € ($ 700) “Lehrgeld”, so I’ll be more careful next time.
The literal english translation should be “to pay dearly”, i.e. as Bernd wrote it, “to pay an expensive lesson”.
When I select the EU Warehouse on the cloudray website, the price increases to almost $1200. When importing from China, shipping costs, VAT and customs are added and the price will quickly rise to $700.
On amazon, Cloudray sells the tube directly for $700 and it is supposed to arrive within a week with free shipping and no additional fees.
I’d be interested to see what kind of power you actually get out of it…
If you get two years that’s $350/year for the low cost one and 8 years for a grade A you get $150 a year cost and better performance … Lower price now…
You’re making an assumption that you are getting the same tube…
Take a little while, look and listen to this video by Russ Sadler where he speaks about the market on tubes. Just thought you should hear another side of the story.
Thanks for the translation… I find it interesting how a translation relates to the original… Many times the English comes from some other language.
Surprised how many languages has roots in Sanskrit.
