Where to get a laser?

[scorper]

I am a beginner at lasers (i have owned only laser pointers:-(),
and i would wish to have a REAL laser. But i have a problem finding one.
I would want to have a HeNe or Argon laser, but i cant find one anywhere.

Our school has one broken (probaply nothing permanent damage) HeNe
(i dont know how powerful, probaply 1mW-5mW),
and the school has acquired new laser but they wont give me the broken one
(the old laser just sits in some long forgotten storage room).

And i live in Finland, where you cant find ANYWHERE new or old lasers.
If you`d find one (for example 1mW HeNe) it would probaply cost way over
its real value (for that HeNe, probaply 50-150euros). I could buy a used
laser from US (for cheap), but that would be extremely complicated, because
it would have to go trough the custom and all (and it would have big shipping
costs).

So where could i purchase a new/surplus/used HeNe from europe (germany)?
And how much SHOULD i pay for a used 5mW tube, without power supply?
How about green ones?
Higher power ones (5mW-20mW)?
What about argons, how much would cost a 10mW tube for example?

Would someone from this forum be willing to sell me a HeNe tube?

Is there any place, where i could easily salvage a HeNe or Argon tube?

Are there any laser manufacturers in europe? (like spectra-physics, omnichrome etc.)

[Hatschi]

Halli Hallo

For used lasers look here in the forum for the Marketplace or at Ebay-Germany ! <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
I think, the green lasers you mean are DPSS (Diode Pumped Solid State) Lasers. They are very small, you can get them as a pointer or a module. The beam is much brigther than a HeNe or Ar beam.

Hatschi

[scoborgll]

Hello!

The green one(DPSS) are 4 times brighter as the green of a argon laser.
For beginning you can buy a green laserpointer, you can do very nice things with it...
How much you want to pay?
A 5mw He/Ne will cost about 20€, a green laserpointer up to 150€...
A He/Ne will be cheap but the effect of green is much better!


Best regards
Harald

Ps.: On the picture left you can see the difference...

left is a 100mW DPSS Laser
on the right you can see a argon with 700mW

[scorper]

Could you give me some site where would be a home-built DPSS?

[Hatschi]

Halli Hallo

Andi, alias Eiergeier , but it´s in German. It´s no problem to write him in english.

Hatschi

[theresa]

hello:
Have you got your laser? I mean DPSS ones.
If you still interested, please contact me.
Good luck !