Full Spectrum Lasers

[Jerome Stanek]

Pre-sale support??? That's a new one on me. I have always referred to that as a sales pitch. That some are more competent than others does not alter the fact.

Laser sales people, like other commission salespeople are money motivated. Their support quickly disappears once the sale is completed. Are there exceptions? Yes, very few.

One of the good ones is Scott from Rabbit Laser he not only supports his lasers he helps out with other brands very good guy.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Ray Scott has fast built a reputation of being THE man to go to in the US for Chinese sourced machines.

cheers

Dave

[terence thompson]

I see this thread is 3 years old, however, Full Spectrum is still in business. So my question is... has anything change? Any newer reviews? I hope to get a machine shortly, do I still need to avoid FSL?

[Art Mann]

At least some of their product is now sold by Rockler. I am speculating FSL they will have to maintain a pretty good level of service in order to continue selling through Rockler. If I bought one from Rockler and then got no phone support or slow warranty service, I would hold Rockler accountable for selling unsupported equipment. They are bound to know that.

[Lee DeRaud]

At least some of their product is now sold by Rockler. I am speculating FSL they will have to maintain a pretty good level of service in order to continue selling through Rockler. If I bought one from Rockler and then got no phone support or slow warranty service, I would hold Rockler accountable for selling unsupported equipment. They are bound to know that.

Rockler knows that: it's probably the main reason they don't sell the CarveWright anymore. It'll be interesting to see how it goes with FSL.

[Bert Kemp]

Personally I would advise against buy anything from FSL my experiences with them was really bad and it would take more then a couple good reviews to sway my opinion .

[Clark Pace]

All lasers have thier bugs, the difference is getting them fixed (support) and getting them back on line. I can't afford to be down for days waiting on parts or phone calls. My new Epilog 36EXT was engraving all over the place out of the box, within 15 mins of my call to Epilog support they called me back and had the answer, a set screw had come loose on a pulley during shipment. Back to making money. They are expensive, but my first EXT paid itself off in 40 days and my new one is 1/3rd of the way along in 3 days of operation. Get what you pay for ...absolutley.

I had a k40 china laser printer. It was fun, but not really good for commercial use. It had many limitations. But it was fun. If you are a DIY person, and like to tinker maybe.

[Mike Troncalli]

That's where your information is old...

Between the new 5th Generation "Hobby" machine and the PRO series they have absolutly nothing in common with a K40.. Over the last year or two they have finally started getting the message... They have added to their customer service and tech department. Emails are usually answered immediatly or within a few hours. Machines under warranty are covered with both live and email tech support. Out of warranty machines usually require email support only.. But at least you'll get some..

They still have a little ways to go but a huge leap from 2 - 3 years ago... Rumor is that they are now working on a 6th generation machine at this time. Both the 5th generation and the 6th are designed and built here.. Granted some of the parts are off the shelf items, but that just means they can be replaced easily..

[Bert Kemp]

That's where your information is old...

Between the new 5th Generation "Hobby" machine and the PRO series they have absolutly nothing in common with a K40.. Over the last year or two they have finally started getting the message... They have added to their customer service and tech department. Emails are usually answered immediatly or within a few hours. Machines under warranty are covered with both live and email tech support. Out of warranty machines usually require email support only.. But at least you'll get some..

They still have a little ways to go but a huge leap from 2 - 3 years ago... Rumor is that they are now working on a 6th generation machine at this time. Both the 5th generation and the 6th are designed and built here.. Granted some of the parts are off the shelf items, but that just means they can be replaced easily..

pretty misleading statement, they are assemble here but 90% of the parts are made in China.

[Art Mann]

. . . and what percentage of Epilog machine content is US made?

[Mike Troncalli]

Not going to get into a pissing contest with you BERT.. I know you have an issue with FSL.. EVERYBODY KNOWS..... The question was asked " see this thread is 3 years old, however, Full Spectrum is still in business. So my question is... has anything change? Any newer reviews? I hope to get a machine shortly, do I still need to avoid FSL" .

I never said that the parts were or were not made in the U.S.A.... They are not an epilog, etc. etc... They are a hobby machine and the pricing reflects that.. I also spoke about better customer service and better support over the last few years. I guess I should have said designed and assembled here with both American and Chinese parts.. (so sorry)...

Where did your laser manufacturer get their tube, power supply, electronics?

and please don't bother sending me another profanity laced private message because we disagree....

Thanks

[Bert Kemp]

Not going to get into a pissing contest with you BERT.. I know you have an issue with FSL.. EVERYBODY KNOWS..... The question was asked " see this thread is 3 years old, however, Full Spectrum is still in business. So my question is... has anything change? Any newer reviews? I hope to get a machine shortly, do I still need to avoid FSL" .

I never said that the parts were or were not made in the U.S.A.... They are not an epilog, etc. etc... They are a hobby machine and the pricing reflects that.. I also spoke about better customer service and better support over the last few years. I guess I should have said designed and assembled here with both American and Chinese parts.. (so sorry)...

Where did your laser manufacturer get their tube, power supply, electronics?

and please don't bother sending me another profanity laced private message because we disagree....

Thanks

This never happened

Just for the record I just checked 7 pages of pm's 162 I sent and not one to Mike

[John Blazy]

Thanks to this forum, I switched from purchasing FSL to Rabbit, due to the reviews. I likely would have been fine with FSL - virtually same machines, but after finding out that Ray was going to personally deliver my machine, set it and my computer up, and install mirrors and lenses, how could I go wrong? I'm not sure if FSL would have sent a tech to set up their machine - perhaps an FSL owner can let us know. Ray did a great job, and I was up and running immediately.


Still in the honeymoon phase of owning my laser, but it has not let me down yet, and already paid for itself. First job was to cut an intricate stencil from 1/8" duron using the entire 35.5 x 47.5 table, cut lines all 1/4" apart - huge cut file, and no issues, no crashes. However, I knew that there HAD to be a catch for such low cost, and I found the catch - the honeycomb bed sagged in the middle over 1/8", and noticed it when cuts went out of focus in middle, but not on edges. Pulled out the honeycomb, and the aluminum wedged spanners were screwed in on flat, not on edge like clearly they should be. Obviously rabbit thought no one would notice. So I re-installed them correctly and the table is flat all across. If that is all I have to do to save $20K over a comparable machine, then I'm happy with that.

[Kim Vellore]

The point many are missing when comparing the cost is, one should not compare the glass tube machines to solid state, someday when the Chinese make cheap solid state lasers then we can get into who paid more for quality. There are many difference between the glass tubes and RF laser which I feel is worth the cost difference to me.

Kim

[David Somers]

Mike,

Just FYI if you werent already aware. FSL is now selling through Rockler Woodworking. One would think that Rockler, who is a fairly decent store, would not have done this without some confidence in what they were doing. Although I remain leery of FSL after their long weak history I have no direct experience with them and their deal with Rockler suggests some measure of improvement. (or not! <grin>) I might suggest though that you hold off on a purchase from FSL if you can and see how this partnership works out and how FSL's quality control and follow up is. If you need to purchase now I might be tempted to buy from someone with an established reputation like Rabbit or Boss or Automation Technologies. At least you know their reputations have been consistent over a fairly long period of time. Just a thought.

And at the risk of being repetitive....remember I have no direct experience with FSL. But in the year I nibbled at the idea of buying a laser I was put off by their reputation both here on SMC and out in the general world.

Dave