(OT) Copper Vapor Laser

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425
Location
Bradford, Vermont
Boy, talk about OFF-topic! :)

One could be used for laser engraving of wood, sure.

OK, here's the deal. My nephew will be graduating high school next spring... probably. A couple months ago he was diagnosed with monosomy 7, with 15% mosaicism, the immediate treatment for which is bone marrow transplant (including spending the rest of his life in a plastic bag) to defend against his risk of uncurable leukemia. Well, dang - after much urging, his parents (my sister & her husband) had another marrow aspiration done this last week, and they found only THREE percent mosacism this time... meaning that if this sort of miraculous improvement continues he'll be totally clear before Christmas & they won't do any transplant at all. But... that's another side of the story.

THIS side of the story is... since he's got a shot at life now, he's counting on doing something pretty significant for a high-school science project before graduation - namely build a copper vapor laser, one of the very few kinds of laser that can be practically built at home.

BUT... although he knows theory pretty well, he'd be tickled spitless if he could find someone who'd be willing to walk him through some of the details, tutoring remotely (or locally, but the chances of that are slim).

I've offered to machine any parts he needs & generally help with as much of the detailed stuff as I can, but I've never built (nor helped anyone else build) a laser.

Anybody out there with laser construction experience interested in helping a budding genius shoot at a star?

For reference, the copper-vapor laser uses any of the copper halides (chloride, bromide, or iodide), and optionally with the addition of copper nitrate to bring operating temperature down to 180C at emission time. It produces two simultaneous colors, green at 510.6 nm and yellow at 578.2 nm, pulse duration between about 5ns and 60ns. It needs to be triggered by a tandem pulse train at about 15KV. They're used often for micromachining, capable of cutting grooves across industrial diamonds or microperforating stainless-steel foil to make micromesh. They can be used for larger-scale machining, too, which is sorta' why I've got an extra personal interest in it. :)
 
I have no clue about what you are talking about laser wise but I just wanted to wish your nephew well.

I bet Don may know something about lasers I believe that he said he was a physicist. Or was it spelling teacher :huh::rofl:
 
Tim, I want to wish your nephew well and will keep him in our prayers. You might also post over on CNC Zone (http://www.cnczone.com). They have a laser forum with some pretty knowledgable folks.

Good luck, I'm sure someone will be able to give some guidance. I'll let a friend of mine know as well, he's pretty into that stuff and a member over there. :wave:
 
Sounds like an awesome project with the potential for much danger! The best kind of project, I reckon!
 
Tim, I want to wish your nephew well and will keep him in our prayers. You might also post over on CNC Zone (http://www.cnczone.com). They have a laser forum with some pretty knowledgable folks.

Good luck, I'm sure someone will be able to give some guidance. I'll let a friend of mine know as well, he's pretty into that stuff and a member over there. :wave:

I had completely forgotten about CNCZone - I even drop by there every once in a while. Thanks, Darren! :)
 
I can't be of any help there but for parts I would look into Edmund Scientifics, search for it on the web, they have a large catalog and lots of science experiment kits.
 
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