All lasers in the same price/power/speed class do the same thing , some have a few bells and whistles but essentially ALL can accomplish the same type of work at the same speed.
In terms of buying a laser , the number one thing to look for is support and a no quibble warrantee (especially on the source)The mercury is an older generation model, It works real well and is pretty reliable. We had 2 and traded up to 3 x Explorers.
In the laser world , time is money and the Explorer's are blindingly fast , they will allow you to double your output over a Mercury. The small premium you pay over the Mercury is totally outweighed by this. I see there is a special at www.laserprousa.com on 30 watt explorers , $17.999.00 , that looks like a GREAT price for the machine. Its a ton less than I paid in South Africa.
To Qualify my post , I'm not a salesperson , but a heavy duty user and it makes no difference what machine you get to me so take what I say in that light
You will be hard pressed to get objective views from salespeople or for them to even reveal the "issues" of their machines , and beleive me , there are issues associated with all these lasers, no matter who makes them (and the same holds true for other machines in the sign trade)
We apply a 1/2 x 2 rule when purchasing anything , 1/2 the advertised performance claims and double the claimed running costs etc and if it still makes financial sense , go for it.
In general , tubes are either sourced via Synrad or Coherent (usa made) , some of the GCC machines use a Rofin Sinar tube but only the high powered models.
The Mercury uses a Synrad source , and we found these to be a little flaky and had a few replaced when they blew RF boards but that was early on.
The Explorer uses a Coherent Deos source and we have found the beam quality on these to be a lot better. Early explorers had a lot of problems (underated power supply , cooling problems in extremely hot environments and cleaning the collimation lens was very difficult - some of the coherent sources failed to to QC problems) but these have been sorted out. I'm in South Africa and even here , the dealer sorted out ALL issues in a day or so , we were never down for longer then 24 hrs. I lose around $1200 a day or more not having an operational laser so for me this level of service is VITAL!!!!!
Speed with good quality engraving and power are the other 2 areas that give you the best bang for the buck. Upgradebility is a red herring of sorts , going for more power wont necessarily give you faster turnarounds. Most stuff will engrave at far less than 100% power even with a 25 w machine , so if you are NOT using 100% power , you would use 100% speed. Its only on heavy cutting applications where more power will allow a faster processing time. If you do want to upgrade an existing machine to give more productivity , one would really have to upgrade both the source and install a twin head , which of course will 1/2 your max size of engraving. Upgrading to a better or inherently faster machine with more power is a far more viable option.
The laser you buy depends on your applications , the money is to be made in actually fabricating stuff or doing speciality work , merely engraving gifts etc doesn't give you a great return on investment. The laser should be working 8 hours a day and needs to have the "balls" and reliability to do so. If you intend to do a lot of cutting , power is everything.
Lasers are relatively high maintenance machines , careful cleaning of the optics , mirrors and motion system is vital for consistent usage , power fluctuates when optics are dirty and you have to fiddle with settings to get the same effect , thus easy and quick access to ALL the optics is vital , the more the laser "protects" the optics and motion system , the better.
DO NOT buy a laser that uses stepper motors without a closed loop positioning system. Stepper motors can lose steps and cannot sense where they did so , once it loses a step , all engraving is out of register.
Beam quality is also an issue , even tho one laser might be rated the same as another wattage wise , one might be a LOT quicker and better due to better beam quality , especially in cutting. Power density and spot size go hand in hand and the optic system determines this. There are other factors in terms of beam quality too , but good optics and stable mirror platforms are a must. The beam is aligned in 3d space in lasers , each mirror can be adjusted in 3 planes and the longer the path of the beam from the source , generally , the better the beam quality. This is a double edged sword as the longer the beam path , the more fiddly alignment becomes and small changes can decrease power substantially. Taking lenses and mirrors out continually can easily shift alignment , thus the more solid and rigid the optic mounting system is , the better.Motion systems generally all work well and most seem to be reliable.
Be careful about being swayed by bells and whistles , a lot of the touted stuff is really of no effect or is relatively unused. We have never used 3d engraving in any paying job (have fiddled) , neither have we used stamp making in anything but for own internal useage (its smelly , messy and one offs are not profitable in terms of time and setup and multiple stamps can be made far easier and cheper with polymer systems)
The pass thru features of the mercury and explorer have been useful once or twice , but are hardly a deal breaker. Its dangerous to use an open laser , there is no fume eaxtraction and you have to defeat the safety interlock)
We do use the Rotary attachment a little , but its also not an essential unless you planning to do a lot of glass , and lasering on glass is not the same as blasting , the effects are rough. The GCC rotary attachment is disgusting (as is its manual) and need modifications to work really well. Its VERY difficult to centre stuff on it.
Even massive table sizes are somewhat inconsequantial , the bigger the table , the more precise alignment has to be otherwise you start getting power drops at various points of the table , worse at the lower right. 99% of our jobs dont require the 1m x 500mm table size of the explorer.
Cutting tables are essentials , we either use the supplied one or just put blocks of pex on the table to support stuff (using an anodised ally sheet beleow to protect the table , we also are making a pin rest type table.)
What you really want to do to in making your choice is see the lasers in action , see how easy it is to accomplish a sort of task you would want to do and check quality. DO NOT be swayed by canned tests , use your own graphics and material etc .
You want to see the laser cut a series of circles and check the very small ones are indeed circles and not elipses , you want to see the laser cut a block of 8mm pex or so and check that the sides are straight and nicely polished. You want to laser a raster grid over the FULL extent of the table and see the grid is truly vertical and horizontal and has crisp edges and is the same depth over the table and that no lines look shattered or out of register. You want to do the same thing with vector lines. You want to engrave very small text , like 1mm (or less) at various speeds , especially top speed and look a the text quality. Get a magnifying glass and loup to examine this. You also want to see how well the machine integrates with the design package you use (most ppl use Corel)
You also need to time the various machines , so you need lets say an a4 image and ask the various vendors to laser it into acrylic , make sure they all use the same resolution and get "real" times
Advertised speed claims are bull as they don't reflect true speed , the laser head has to accellerate and deccelerate and albeit at top speed it might be real fast , it might take some time to get there. Apart from that , you want to cut a few squares and make sure they are the same size left to right and top to bottom.
Tube replacement is a snap , we never did an alignment when replacing one ........BE VERY CAREFUL about tube warrantees , make sure there is a no quible time based warrantee , NOT time based on laser hours etc , but time based on time. IE 3 years is 3 years despite the usage of the machine.
Air assist is a must and the Explorer has a very good system whereby you can swivel the air jet to take into account different lenses etc , the air must go where needed. We did not like the Mercurys Air assist as it required very serious filters in line with the air to stop oil and moisture as it pressurises the chamber where the lens is and air without filtering condesned oil and water on the lens and contaminated it and led to its damage.
An efficient extraction system is a must too , apart from the extraction fans (which you can get easily and fairly cheaply) the machines extraction path from the bed is important. It must evacuate smoke , dust etc away from the beam path and must do so quickly.
We have been very happy with the GCC drivers for our machines and they allow us a lot of flexibility for positioning , we can engrave from a centre , reset home positions , manually position etc.
They have lots of features and both the drivers and firmware of the machine are easily upgradeable and GCC do a fair amount of development and often release upgrades.
Be aware that the Explorer will only run on XP - but then if you are buying an expensive laser , a decent upgrade to your home puter or a decent puter is a must.
Positioning is ALSO an issue , as the laser uses a visible diode to show where the beam will be. This HAS to be perfectly aligned to the beam itself ALL ACROSS the table. Its not part of the laser beam itself and requires a seperate alignment. Auto focus is also a must and it must be accurate , we found the Mercury and explorer AF to be pretty good.
The major issues we had with our mecurys were the sources (not GCC's fault) and the alignment. I always thought the mercury and the explorers mirror housings to be a weak point , they could be made sturdier. we have replaced a couple of X motors on both machines , which is no big deal , the explorers X motor failed due to us not lubing the X bearing rail , there was no instruction to do so and the bearing ran dry.
If you want to make money from day 1 , you need a little training , make sure the supplier is conversant with and supports the software you want to use , make sure they will install the laser and train the operator to a competent level.
There is another aspect to all this , and that is the business plan , DO NOT buy on the hope you will do well , do your homework. Who else has lasers in your area , what do they charge , is there custom in the area , what would YOUR competitive advantages be over other ppl in your area. Do you have working capital , are you going to set up a home office , how much money are you going to devote for marketing , do you have a marketing plan , do you have a direction you wish to go , are you going to hire a helper, what financing options are avialable , have you projected income , how are you going to price , do you have engraving experience , are you familiar with different materials , do you have suppliers lined up and so forth..
Creativity and thinking out the box is the way to make money on a laser , they are absolutely amazing tools!!!
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