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For the power supply, about 20-£30 (~$50), but i did have most of the parts kicking about the place anyway, such as the transformer. I've seen neon sign transformers used to power these types of lasers many times before. Getting hold of a decent NST proved fairly hard for me, that and i wanted...

I have the same problem, I always end up pushing things that 1 step too far... Hmm, i'll have to look into that. I always find myself needing a decent reliable HV power supply for one reason or another. Great, i'll look into HV diodes and magnet wire next time i order parts. Thanks +1 Rep :)

I've had this one for quite a while, it's lasted much longer than any others i've played with. They all seemed to arc over internally and die from that. I've pulled thick white fire-like arcs from it for a few minutes continuously multiple times before i decided to use it for this and it didn't...

Seems we have the same problem :( The only things i can think of is a very large ballast resistor on the output/input but this would waste lots of power, or some form of variable power inductor (if such a thing exists) as from what i can tell the ZVS driver output current and voltage can be...

Thanks a lot :) Unfortunately not, right now i regulate the output by adjusting the input voltage. It uses a ZVS driver for the transformer, i can't find a way to easily adjust the driver with somthing like a potentiometer to change the output voltage. If anyone knows of a way to do this please...

cheers :D The tube cost £60 (just under $100) from ebay. Unfortunately, it was coming from china so postage was £50. Although it did arive in one piece within a few days, so i can't really complain about the cost.

Getting about 8ma through my laser, driver might need some tweaking. Then again, i'm using an ATX PSU and a 12v SLA to make 24v or so to run it. The battery is a bit low and the 12v rail of the PSU sags to about 10v under this type of load... Some pics anyway: Lighting up a ceramic tile from...

Thanks :) I'm going to leave it running for a bit to see if anything melts/explodes, if all seems good i'll connect it to my laser and post some pics here as soon as i can.

After seeing the price of an average 40w CO2 laser power supply i decided i could probably make my own for much less. Took about a week of messing around with components, a day of putting it in a box and about a month of getting round to actually doing it ;) It runs from about 24VDC at 12 to...

Nice setup, in jealous of your optical table :P Your tube looks exactly the same as mine except hard sealed at the ends. How much did it cost?

Ahh, i never thought of it that way, it always suprises me how many things act like capacitors when you dont expect them to. Im pretty sure its at least a few nf, it holds quite a bit of charge compared to some low value (<10nf) HV capacitors ive used for other experiments before. (then again...

Thanks for the tips :) I have a home made 10nf (ish) capacitor somewhere made from a vodka bottle and some foil which i normally use whenever i want smooth DC from a flyback transformer. I think my transformer has some internal capacitor, i have to discharge it before i touch it or i get a...

Sorry anslem, didnt notice that :) @james: Yeah i worked out the tube polarity by the size of the electrodes. Whenever i play with HV DC i find the cathode always gets hotter than the anode, i assume the larger electrode in the tube is to provide more thermal mass/better cooling for the cathode?

@Arayan: Oooo, my first ever rep :)

@Plexus: From what ive heard the tubes tend to leak a lot faster compared to the hard sealed type. The manufacturers rate them at 80% output power after 3 months of storage from what ive found. A hard sealed tube will probably last much longer than this, but of course they are far too expensive...

@anselm: Yeah its a sealed tube, makes it sooo much easier. Currently im using the syphon effect to keep water flowing through the tube, havent got a pump yet. It seems to keep it fairly cool for short runs. (less than a minute or so) Haha yeah :D Now all i need is a big jacobs ladder to go with...

Thanks :) i Reckon i can get a lot more power out of it, i just need a better power supply for my driver. My current method for checking tube current doesnt really seem to be working, my meter is jumping all over the place so im a bit worried about putting too much current in though...

First light :) (< click it)

Laser has arived :D All in one piece too :) I'll try powering it up when I get a chance...

Update: Driver progress: Parts for my ZVS driver arrived today, it seems to be doing about 50% more power than i got from 555 timer + single mosfet designs ive played around with before. I still need to experiment with capacitor and inductor values though, especially capacitor, the one im using...