what is the best brand of laser machines?

[Martin Pearson]

Tom, signuk is next week, if you are looking for an engraver then it might be worth a visit, if you were to go on Wednesday 2nd you would also be able to meet quite a lot of the members as they are meeting up there. Just a thought.

[Martin Pearson]

Sorry posted twice oops!!!!!!

[Nigel Pugh]

Tom, C02 lasers are not aggressive enough to engrave / mark or cut bare metals and you should also avoid cutting or engraving pvc as this gives off corrosive gases and will eat away over time the internal workings of the laser unit.

Yag lasers are the type of laser you would look at for working with metals, but the prices for this type of laser is roughly 3x the cost of a C02 laser.

Your are correct on metal marking spray, it also comes as a roll of tape now too.

As for the best machine, well look at it from this view, you will normally find a Synrad , Coherent Deos or Rofin Sinar laser tube in the lasers supplied in the UK, so choice should be based more on build quality, warranties and of course reliability of the machine as a whole, oh must not forget price too 😀

Next week is Sign UK at the NEC, probably the best place to see all the different models on offer and get a hands on.

Regards
Nigel

[Andy Gorman]

As Martin says, you’ll almost certainly find plenty of suppliers at the show, as well as plenty of users to chat with.

I’d recommend doing a bit of a search on the boards as well. Any post you find by Rodney Gold will be full of useful information on lasers. He’s a bleedin expert!

[Rodney Gold]

Hiya
Co2 and YAGS have different wavelengths and thus proccess different material
To put it in a nutshell , a YAG will work on some substrates a CO@ will and will do metal , either shallowly engraving it or discolouring it , CO2 will work on just about ANYTHING barring metals, A yag will cost you a LOT more and will not be a large field laser (in general) it’s meant to be a galvo steered ultra fast engraver for production or branding metal objects.
CO2’s commonly come with a XY type plotter platform that does raster and vector type engraving , YAGS are generally steered by mirrors changing position and would have a marking field of like 100mm x 100mm , my CO2’s are 1m x 500mm
In terms of a general laser , the CO2 is your best bet , you can do a zillion things with it.
In terms of laser suppliers , all the CO2’s on the market at the same power level all do the same thing , you buy one based on warrantee and support – end of story!!! I use 6 GCC lasers , 3x Explorers and 3x Spirtis , all 30w
What power you will need is based on your applications.
I could write a 100 page essay on this , but can do better:
Here are 2 laser resources I post a hang of a lot to
http://www.engravingetc.org (members section)
and http://www.sawmillcreek.org (laser section)
Do yourself a favour and pore over these forums , you will pick up all you need to know 😉 You will have to register for them but its free

[Andy Gorman]

See, told ya, see. 😛

[Mercury Tom]

Cheers guys

to the point. helpful information goes a long way. 😀

:uksbrules:

I should be there Wednesday with a colleague hopefully…!!! I’ll be the one moving from stand to stand asking as many questions as humanly possible about anything i see….

Cheers

Tom