can anyone recommend which one Mechanical or Laser Engraver?

[Peter Normington]

Do you have a potential client base?
or if not, how will you sell your products. don’t make the mistake that a machine will make you money, just because you bought it.
You need to have a market to sell to, It has often been discussed on the boards, but better to offer the service, but sub out first, until you can justify the outlay for your own machine

Peter

[Dermot Howard]

I do alot of work for the fire services over here and they prefer the engraved label and sub out the work at the moment. They put labels on the appliances and on the ladders when they are services and certed.

I have also quoted for a large job of about 1000 labels, 2 different files and am told it is ours, so based on that I would consider buying a machine. The work from the fire services would pay for it on its own as there are some nice orders in the pipline for that area.

[Peter Normington]

Dermot , you have obviously done your homework, apologies for trying to teach you to suck eggs, my comments were made with the best of intentions.
no doubt you will get good advice from other board members on suitable equipment

Peter

[Gert du Preez]

Dermot,

I have used both in the past.

I hated the laser engraver for it’s limitations w.r.t its inability to cut / engrave brass and hardwood, and I will miss the lasers flexibility and ease of use for small labels, rubber stamps etc WHEN I BUY A CNC ROUTER.

Most people now use laser in Namibia – buying on the salesman’s hype about their benifits compared to rotary machines. So if I get a rotary machine, I will be the only one in a radius of a few hundred km radius that can engrave metals…….and then I will just sub out the "mickey mouse" laser jobs like stamps and wine glasses.

And a nice CNC mill looks like a proper man’s machine, while a laser engraver looks like it belongs at the hairdresser’s 🙄

[Dermot Howard]

Peter.
No need for apologies, I made that same mistake a few years ago when I bought a small format printing press. I thought as it is a natural bolt on to my existing business I would make a killing. However most of our biz is generated on line and when people come looking for us they usual have their cards, letterheads, etc, etc organized. also the prices on line are mad, I would not bother turning the machine on for what i see some companies quoting.
So shortly after the printing kit arrived the economy started to nose dive over here and i made the organized to look after the signage part of the biz as i had bought the machine outright with signage money and signs were making money.

A GREAT LESSON…..

Gert.
The CNC would be the rolls rice, but i am starting and want to slowly ease myself into this market and not rush in. My biz would be mainly labels but as I said i don’t want to limit myself. The budget will have a lot to do with when i go looking at different machines.

[Noel Anderson]

Hi Dermot,

We have an Epilog laser here. A lovely machine and very easy to get excited about at first, but after a while it’s limitations become seriously apparent. Extremely limited in what it can etch materials wise. The detail is mega precise, but to be honest we very rarely get a chance to show this as clients are mostly after text and simple flourishes (not engraved photos or anything). As far as machine engraving, it would be interesting to get an idea of the smallest text size it’s bits could really get into. I’m sure that is the only advantage the laser would have.
Cheers