How to exercise the laser tube in a Universal Laser

The laser tube in a Universal Laser will degrade over time if not used regularly, shortening its life. It's recommended to run or "exercise" your laser during periods of downtime to prevent this from happening. This procedure can also sometimes work to re-energize a laser that has lost power during a long period of non-use. The steps below explain how to do this safely and effectively. Skip to the bottom to watch a video showing the process.

First, make sure your cutting table is clean and that there is no debris inside. You may need to remove your cutting table and vacuum it out or even open it up to clean it fully. Since we’ll be sending the laser power directly into the cutting table, we need to ensure there is no flammable debris inside.
Then, in your selected graphics software draw a rectangle 6” by 6” and fill it with black, then click Print to send it to the UCP software.
In UCP go to the System tab. If Enabled is checked under Auto Z, uncheck it as seen in the screenshot below:

Turn the laser cutter on and lower the bed height to its lowest position.
In UCP click Settings, then click the Manual Control tab. Click on the line where it says “Black” to highlight it, then set Power to 100% as seen here:

Run the job for about 5-10 minutes then click stop. You can run it for longer if trying to re-energize a laser whose power output has noticeably decreased.
Don’t forget to re-enable Auto Z if this option is typically checked.
Turn off and unplug the laser cutter.

Here is a video we put together to show this process using a VLS 3.60DT laser system. If you have a different Universal Laser model, the process will be very similar.