Ray Fine options

[David Warkentin]

I will have a large opening to move it in.

[John Noell]

I dunno why everyone seems to talk about 80 then 120. Personally, after using 80's, my new laser (from Longtai) is coming with a 100 watt tube. I do a fair amount of cutting as well as engraving and wanted just a bit more umph. And, FWLIW, the current EFR tubes (at least on their website) have rated powers of 80, 100, and 130. No 120 in sight.

And, in my experience, and at the advice of Yarde Feng (was Shenhui Dir of R&D, now at Longtai), if you do not want to lose power more quickly than necessary, stay below 85%. So, in practice, if you want 80 watts, the 100 watt rated tube should be about right (and last). Of course, it seems that ALL tubes (perhaps excepting the ceramic core Trotecs) are going to lose some power compared to brand new. RF tubes less, glass tubes more. YMMV!

[Kev Williams]

So far (knock on my head), after owning laser engravers since 2002, I have no idea what a failing tube is. My Triumph was delivered the day after Thanksgiving 2013, and it still acts like new. But to be fair, it's my 'cleanup hitter' rather than a daily workhorse. The well-used 1997 New Hermes/ULS I bought in '02 ran great for about 5 years, and a good deal on a rebuilt tube came along so I changed out the perfectly good one that was in it. I ran it daily for 8 more years until I bought Gary's '05 GCC 14 months ago. Since then my BIL has run the ULS 6-8 hours every night since he took it home over a year ago, I swear it'll outlive the Energizer bunny... The GCC's tube shows no signs of impending doom, and since I dug in and got the lower mirror cleaned it really perked up. And my LS900, bought new nearly 13 years ago hasn't lost a step, I've never had to add power or lower speeds to any saved settings that go back to day one.

FWIW, all the metal tubes have been Synrad's...

I know one of these days my continued praise for these machines is going to bite me in the a** so I'll shut up now...

[Bert Kemp]

LOL Kev I was going to say beware of how much you praise your machines. Next week all your tubes will fail. I hope not but good grief how long can they go?forever?

So far (knock on my head), after owning laser engravers since 2002, I have no idea what a failing tube is. My Triumph was delivered the day after Thanksgiving 2013, and it still acts like new. But to be fair, it's my 'cleanup hitter' rather than a daily workhorse. The well-used 1997 New Hermes/ULS I bought in '02 ran great for about 5 years, and a good deal on a rebuilt tube came along so I changed out the perfectly good one that was in it. I ran it daily for 8 more years until I bought Gary's '05 GCC 14 months ago. Since then my BIL has run the ULS 6-8 hours every night since he took it home over a year ago, I swear it'll outlive the Energizer bunny... The GCC's tube shows no signs of impending doom, and since I dug in and got the lower mirror cleaned it really perked up. And my LS900, bought new nearly 13 years ago hasn't lost a step, I've never had to add power or lower speeds to any saved settings that go back to day one.

FWIW, all the metal tubes have been Synrad's...

I know one of these days my continued praise for these machines is going to bite me in the a** so I'll shut up now...