Building or buying a laser is great and all but to get the maximum efficiency in power and longevity, the tube needs to be kept cool to room temperature and preferably a little below. Ice cubes in a water bucket is an ugly solution to me because of maintaining an ice cube supply and it stops being viable with laser tubes longer than 800mm. I do not trust CW-3000 or various water radiator/chillers for their high cost and noise and questionable internals. I would like to build my own water chiller and integrate it into the case of my laser. For that, I am looking at CPU AIO radiators, Peltier TEC 12709 cooling modules, and refrigerator copper tubing. That brings up the question: how much heat do CO2 laser tubes generate so I know how much cooling that I need?
CPU AIO radiators are a quiet solution and at $11 a 120x240x30mm piece (I already own the other parts), I could get 4 of them and some cheap 120mm fans at low rpm's to cool the water like a conventional CW-3000 but without the noise. But are 4 radiators enough? Too many? Should I consider 6 or 8 AIO radiators? Without any method of quantifying thermals I'd be guessing in the dark and mis-accommodating the number of radiators needed in the build.
Peltier TEC 12709 modules for around $3 plus some cooling towers and 12V 30A PSU's are an immediately cheap solution because while being very inefficient on their own. The benefit of TEC's over radiators is while radiators cool and warm water temperatures to room temperature, TEC's can push water temperatures below the room temperature and significantly so if so desired. This brings up a system of cooling water flowing out of a laser tube by the radiators and bringing that temperature back down to room temperature, then having the TEC's chill the water temperature below room temperature just before entering the tube. A simple Arduino, thermistor, and mosfet rig can regulate the system.
4mm to 1/4" diameter copper tubing is pretty cheap for $20 you can get 50ft of tubing and with a hobby pipe bender, you can make really elegant tubing through the machine. A combination of plastic/rubber tubing and copper tubing can really let you control heat breaks in a system or make your own radiator if you are so bold.
If anyone knows of the TDP or some unit for quantifying the heat a CO2 tube generates between 700mm up to 1500mm that would be a big help! Thanks!