🚀 go-pugleaf

cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka) writes:
>I have an _ancient_ laser which almost works.  It's a HeNe laser,
>model 3100 from Gaertner Scientific (circa 1969).  It worked for a
>while, but now has developed an electrical problem.

My largest HeNe is a Jodon 1575 which is 35mW and circa 1967. Believe it or
not, it still works just fine. It's a big sucker though :-) It has a dual
filament, which I thought was rather strange to begin with, as moderen HeNe's
don't have filaments, but one had burned out and the University tossed it out.
So I rescued it out of the dumpster and took it home. I simply changed the
filament lead to the secondary filament and she works fine (about 32mW output).
With the cost of HeNe's so low, it might be better just to replace the tube
rather than to mess with trying to re-gas it. But I like one posters idea of
filling a garbage sack with He and sticking the tube in it for a few days. I'll
have to try that just for the fun of it !
					
-=-=- Wes =-=-