So I recently had to buy a new laser tube; my water chiller blew a fuse and when I replaced it a largish air bubble got in somehow and the whole laser sparked and died.. So now I'm really paranoid about things like air bubbles and sparks. When I turn on my laser cutter, it runs fine for a few minutes, and then this tiny little sparking type thing happens at the end a few times. And then sometimes stops, and then stops a bit, I'm not super sure about when/how it happens. They're pretty little sparks, and the laser seems to keep going despite them. When my last one died, it would spark audibly and the system would restart. (After about 3 of those it never lasered again..) So this isn't really like that thankfully. But I'm still a little worried about it. Does anyone know how had this is for the laser? Or if it's fine? Or if there's a way to stop/fix it? I recorded a video to show kindof what I mean. Sometimes it happens I'm different places, but it's basically the same thing. I really appreciate the help! I do not have the $600 to buy a new one again... And I need this for some of my income. :/ Anyways, here's the video. Thanks a lot! TL;DR: Tiny sparks appearing in the end of my laser tube. Bad? Ok? Ideas? Thanks so much!!
Asked my friend from uni who's now a researcher at UNLV and spends way more time playing with CO2 lasers than I do, and he said this: In any case, it doesn't sound good, exactly, but it also doesn't sound necessarily imminently terminal. As long as it's lasing now, it seems like you should be able to squeeze enough work out of it to replace itself, most likely. Assuming you have a backlog of work to hit, otherwise, it might not last through enough odd jobs to get there.
