The OmTech 100 watt CO2 laser engraver was delivered to my studio December 22, 2022. The truck pulled up behind my studio and the burly driver got the huge crate into the snowy alley near the door into my studio. He managed to shove it onto my hand truck and I pulled while he pushed it and we mostly slid it over the snow and through the double-doors and, miraculously, inside! I was able to squeeze around the crate and remove the gazillion screws and bolts and get it off the pallet without breaking anything. Then I rolled it into the elevator and up to the third floor where I’ll assemble and install it.
The machine is the largest one I could afford that would fit into the building and elevator. The laser tube itself is an amazing thing! A complex glass assembly with an enclosed central tube filled with pressurized CO2, Helium, Nitrogen, and likely some other gases that, when high voltage passes through, emits intense (and invisible) infrared. This tube is surrounded by another through which water is pumped to keep the laser operating at a constant safe temperature. There’s a cathode connector and an optically almost-perfect mirror of polished glass coated with gold at one end and, exactly parallel to that mirror is another at the opposite end that is partially reflective. The anode connector is also at that end.
