@Abe_Fouhy I am often accused of over-engineering things, but in the end most forgive that in leu of getting a real solution :)…
And aluminum has an excellent heat transfer of 2400k to that peltier and help to shield it from getting cooked directly. Are there seebecks designed for measurement we could use? It is my understanding that peltier works better e- --> to heat/cooling rather than the other way around (around 2/3 less then it normal operation)
@donkjr Yup. Same here about over engineering. Sometimes in my favor, sometimes not, always fun
I sent you hangout invite its sometimes more convenient to chat.
What is a “seebeck”
I didn’t get the invite. Seebeck is the reverse of peltier, different type of thermoplastic from my understanding
do you have hangouts installed?
Yup. No invite.
Got to thinking about the tube power. What if we manufactured a calibrated multilayer acrylic with different colors based on thickness/hardness. If the tube goes through x depth you could see the color gradient and use a chart to determine the depth and compare it to a fully calibrated laser. Could be made cheap and expendable and easy to cut. Could be mounted to the front of the exit of the tube or to any mirror.
@Abe_Fouhy that might work the challenge always is to get a good calibration and the variance of the materials and optics. I have wondered about just measuring the depth of a fixed pulse into a piece of acrylic. After exposing it; cross section it, polish it and measure the depth.
I always come back to the question: what would you do with and absolute power measurement if you had one? Seems what you really want to know is what is the relative power at each point in the optical system from the time you got a new tube.
For me, I want a power meter, because I bought my machine used and don’t know if the tube has all it’s life in it. I want a test so I know if I need to drop $240 bucks more into it after I put $300 to get it working again. I sure hope the tube is all good! 
@Abe_Fouhy in the absence of a meter then I would suggest doing some cutting on whatever material you want to use and see if it will do it or not.
These tubes are consumable meaning that they will all wear out with time and usage. Even if your tube is lower in power than a new one I would guess you will use it up until it wont do what you want 
Thats true it was cutting before it broke. Getting paranoid haha
@Abe_Fouhy Is it still broke? What kind of coolant were you using and how old was it?
I only used my machine for 2 days before it broke, I was using distilled water and used it for about 2 hours or so…
Anxious to get it up and running again!
@Abe_Fouhy sorry I lost track what is broken?
Oh the PS is broken. It shorted out my controller. So I all of the electronics. New PS, new cohesion3d card, customizing the front panel to analog/digital devices. Installing interlocks, water flow & temp sensor, volt and amp sensor/display, separate DC supply, breaker/fused DC and AC side panel, fans mounted inside to keep everything nice and cool. Switches on panel to turn on accessories. Big upgrade.
@Abe_Fouhy nice it only took me a year. refer to the blog often lol.
I hear ya, i need to do some more work to pay for this