Advice on purchasing a Laser Etcher/Cutter please?

[Peter Mindham]

Hi 4

yes i have one. what do you plan on doing if you buy one?
Peter

[Martin Pearson]

Like Peter has said, what do you plan to do with it ?? Do you have a market for it already and have been buying stuff in trade or will you be starting from scratch.

[Colin Smyth]

Hi Peter / Martin

looking something pretty basic to start, perspex, wood & stainless steel mainly decorative. I have a 1m x 1m AXYZ that I use for perspex & composite letters and was thinking of selling that to get the Laser cutter, seems to be a lot more scope with it for detailed work. Problem is, can’t find a lot of info on suppliers in the uk. Seen one for about £4000 (Ebay) made by "Strong". Got a few good reviews and is around the price range that interested me but obviously don’t want to part with that just to have it sit in the corner of the workshop if it’s no use.
What do you have Peter and do you get much use out of it, also, is it expensive to run?

[John Thomson]

Hi,

if you are considering buying a Chinese made laser you need to start doing your research………these machines are not ‘plug and play’ and usually require quite a bit of work to get them operating properly.

If you choose the Chinese route go into it with your eyes open.

John

[Peter Mindham]

As John rightly says. The chinese products can work well but need much time, effort and patience to get them running. John has great experience in that arena so is talking with some knowledge.
We have a Laserpro which was supplied new by Graphityp. Talk to Nigel there. Thing is, Lasers are limited when it comes to metals. Any anodised or coated metals are fine but many stainless or polished cannot be done without some preparation. Having said that, our engraver is used every day and has paid for itself within 12 months. It has a steep learning curve and we are learning its capabilities everyday.

£4000 wont get you a new machine I suspect

P

[John Thomson]

I should have said ‘Strong ‘ is a re-seller not a manufacturer.

John

[Rodney Gold]

I have 6 mainstream lasers and have purchased 2 chinese ones- Chinese is the way to go unless you need extensive hand holding and have trouble working a pop up toaster 🙂

You can read about my experiences and get a ton of info here

Read this thread first

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread. … from-China

and then this thread

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread. … re-here-!!!

If you want ANY info , just ask , I have huge experience in the laser cutting/engraving field.

[Colin Smyth]

Hi All, thanks for the replies, I made a bit of a hash of my membership, so only getting back on-line now!.
Had a look through the Grafityp catalogue and they have a good range. Would I be right in thinking I would need to spend around the £25,000 mark to get a cutter with decent bed size then? I think they might be out of my range at the minute though as I don’t have enough work to justify the spend

£4000 didn’t seem a huge outlay for the type of work that the Model i seen could do, cutting Stainlees, perpsex & wood etc. but i would also turn out to be an expensive workbench if it was a nightmare to operate!! Definitely have to do more research on it then.

[Rodney Gold]

Forget the $4000 laser or any C02 laser under the 500w-1kw range cutting steel or any metal at all , they will not. You will be paying $50 000 for something capable of doing that and then it would still be limited.

[Colin Smyth]

Hi Rodney
Thanks for the advice, the laser i was looking at had a 80w laser with a 100w or 150w laser upgrade. Spec says the 80w will easily cut 15mm perspex, only mentions engaving stainless, didnt make that clear in last post. If it was as good as it says, it would be a great asset for the cost but gonna look into it further. It lists a "happy customr" in the uk, so might give them a ring and see what they think.
Probably a wild goose chase but you gotta try!!

[Rodney Gold]

If you looking for a decent 80w chinese laser , buy from the co I bought from , Shenhui lasers , contact Blanca yan.
15mm acrylic is "possible" , but not practical and not saleable , The lasers will not directly engrave metal either , you need to coat it with a product called cerdec and it makes a black mark.

[Colin Smyth]

I would mainly want to cut 5mm – 10mm perspex. Would also want to cut 3mm composite panels and etc wood, do you know if this would be possible?

[Rodney Gold]

Those should be no issue depending on the composites. I would suggest a reci tubed 100-130w machine, most likely cost you 5000 quid all in for a 1200 x 800 machime. Wood cuts with a bit of edge char , you would have to test the composite to see what edge cut quality is. Perspex and acrylic cut real well.

[Colin Smyth]

Hi Rodney, sounds ideal for what i’m after. Any special software needed or will it run off the normal, Corel, Signlab etc? Also how easy is it to get spare parts if you need them?

[Rodney Gold]

Well it will run off Corel etc, there is a plugin that ports in AI format to its own software , RDcam , a VERY good driver for the laser. There are a few issues and workarounds from corel , but nothing too complicated.

Spare parts are real cheap , order them with the laser. For eg , an 80w 8000 hr tube is about 400quid , the power supply for it , 100quid , motherboard 200quid , stepper motor 50quid , lenses 15quid , mirrors 15 quid , lcd panel 100quid etc.
spare parts are easy to get if you dont have in stock , DHL and TNT courrier them , but freight charges are high , normally takes 3- 5 days from China to South Africa

Tech support is very good too , the tech guy is on skype , responds within minutes.

[Colin Smyth]

Greatly appreciated!!