The Three actual Optics in the unit
The columnating Lense... ;) (With a cheap laser diode it makes the spot about 3 times larger, but perfectly round). This sits right in front of the Output Coupler/PR

The TR(as marked on laser Total Reflector) About a 3/4-1" diameter copper puck, polished on one side. The spot in the middle is a discoloration from use, I expect this would be a common occurrence in lasers which have some time on them and as they are used.


The PR(Partial Reflector) as marked on laser, same as OC(Output Coupler)The black V seems to mark the 'face' of the reflector that faces the inside of the tube. The three weird scores are actually very small cracks caused by the 3 pins on the mating surface of the mirror mount. This is also somewhat visible on the TR/HR above very faint, look closely.


Top 2 pictures are the left side of the laser, bottom two are the right side, sorry they aren't pieced together better. Sticks are toothpicks for size comparison. I believe the original tube length was in the range of 37-42" or somewhere there abouts.

This is one of the ceramic joints which the bore attaches to, this particulare one is used for the middle of the laser the nozzle that comes off and does a 90 degree turn is for the cooling water, it was originally attached to the other half of the laser. The black stuff is pretty well embeded in the ceramic. The cathode(also the gas inlet) sat right in the middle of the laser between these two ends, suprisingly the black stuff did not make it into the bore at all, or it was carried away by the gas flow. The small hole in the middle of the second shot is the capillary tube.
This is one of the mirror ends of the laser, the tubes are for water cooling, gas, etc. What I thought was interesting was the small bent wire that was used for an anode, I like this design, very low profile. The loop encircles the hole which passes through into the mirror assembly. The screw(foreground,left) was an anode power connection point.

The mirror mount profile is shown in the left, internals on the right, if you look closely you can see the three pins inside which caused the cracking/marring of the OC and HR. The mirror mount is water cooled I hope I can re-use them in a future project.
Just a coupleing between bore lengths. Shot of the glue joint(what kind of glue? dunno looks like epoxy)



Artificial lasing, since this thing will never fire, I wanted to get a 'feel' for it ;) I use my 6.6mw surplus He-Ne tube from a previous hamfest and fired it up the length of the bore. The points where it looks brighter than all the rest is where the bore was shattered into itty-bitty chunks.

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