New Dilema - Upgrade or Not

[Terry Swift]

Well - finally took the plunge and went to have my laser cartridge tested, along with a review by the pro's on my len's and mirror's. The outcome was that my laser (30 watt - thought 35 watt) was producing about 28 watts; then after 5 minutes - the wattage dropped off to 20 watts. Techs called it not good; but still somewhat usuable.

My dilema is to exchange my current 30 watt tube for another 30 watt recharged tube for $1100 + shipping fees or I can use a ULS program to upgrade from my current 30 watt to a 50 watt tube for $3500 + shipping. Is the additional 20 watts of power worth that additional $2400? With the 30 watt, I'm fairly limited to 1/8" thick materials and I'm thinking I saw where a 50 watt could easily cut 1/4" - which expands my vector cutting significantly.

Suggestions from the pro's here please. I was told this program by ULS to upgrade ends next month or until the tubes are available.

Thanks

[Martin Boekers]

Are tube prices going up agai?

A while back I bought a 75 watt from Epilog I believe it was about $2200 ($2800 core)

I thought ULS was a "plug in play" do you need something different on the electrical end?
Maybe you get a "core refund" when you send your old tube back. This just seems
high to me.

It seems laser prices are going down, but tube costs are going up. What's the difference
to really give power a boost say 75watts?

It's hard to say how much power is worth, it really depends upon what you do. The thing to consider is
not neccessarilly how much thicker in wood you want to cut (if you don't do it that often) but how
much speed you will pick up for your present work.

Lasers are like cars, you can't have too much horsepower!

[Dan Hintz]

Getting a Watt-for-Watt replacement puts you in the $1k range... upgrading the tube alone to a higher wattage is where the price begins to climb pretty quickly. For the $2k difference, I would consider that a very good (and inexpensive) upgrade. This assumes you do not need to upgrade your power supply (and you're likely on the edge). If the price includes an upgraded PS, I'd be all over it.

[Lee DeRaud]

If the price includes an upgraded PS, I'd be all over it.

It probably does, which explains a large part of the price delta. I went through the same decision process when replacing the tube on my 25W VL: I was willing to pay 20%-25% more for a 30W tube, but it would also have required a PS swap and much more $$.

[Ed Lang]

I have a 50W M-300 and am very glad I got 50W not lower.

[Terry Swift]

I only wish my wife saw some advantages to it; but from a purely economic standpoint she doesn't see the value. As business is not so great; I can see her viewpoint on the bottom line. Most of what I currently do does not require a 50 watt; but do agree the extra power brings faster turnaround times. Aside from ULS, I'm not aware if anyone else out there does recharges or sells just the tube /ps. Since it is vintage 2006, it got 5 years of usage and still somewhat usable - although at what kind of loss % over the months ahead. A 50-watt also seems an easier sell in the future as well (probable in 6 mo's - 1 year); versus a 30-watt.

[bruce cain]

Terry,
Went through the same thing last month. My M-300 30 Watt would start a vector cut on 1/4 acrylic cutting just fine. Would cut all the way through for about three inches and by the time it ended a 24 inch cut, the laser would just be scratching the acrylic. Went the $1100.00 route because I have never had the need to cut anything thicker than 1/4 inch acrylic. Your needs may be different.
Rather than spending extra for a 50 watt tube, I decided to wait and find a used m-300 50 watt machine just to have another machine.

The tube that I replaced was a March 2002 tube, 9 1/2 years on one tube.

Bruce

[lee chitwood]

I did the same as Bruce, 30 watt for 30 watt. ULS is very easy to swap laser cartridges. I got 9+ years outta mine.
I could not justify the extra for the 50 watt upgrade as the $$$ for new machines has gone down dramatically since 2002 as well as other
manufacturers options. So I figure I'll just buy another machine when the time comes.

[Terry Swift]

So Bruce, you can cut 1/4". With mine, I was lucky to really get thru 1/8" B.B. plywood at 100 power / 3-4% speed. I now understand why; but I called ULS and the 50 watt upgrade is going away probably next month or until they run out of extra 50 watt tubes. I have a lot of scrollsaw patterns that I'd like to cut out; but many require a minimum of 1/4" and then up from there. I don't own a scrollsaw; so I'd like to vector cut and think the laser is a much better and cleaner cutting device than the scrollsaw. I may have gotten a misquote from my dealer, as talking to ULS, the price was a good $600 different (cheaper) than what I was originally told - so the upgrade cost is not as much as thought. It's enough still; but I truly think $ for $ the upgrade is a better buy now and in the future if and when I decide to sell. I do some projects where cutting the time to actually laser the pieces would be much better with the 50 compared to the 30 - thus upping my bottom dollar / profit potential.