Epilog New Tube

[Steve Anderson - Melbourne]

We have an Epilog L36EXT 75Watt. Recent maintenance visit indicated the power is down to about 48w. Tech said we need a new tube and he thought it was about $3k. Got the actual quote from supplier for it:

Replacement 75w laser tube with integrated RF unit - $7,500.00+gst plus fitting

Seems like a lot based on my searching the forum. I'd expect it to be more in Australia but not that much more. Any comments?

Thanks

Steve

[Dave Sheldrake]

Re-gas would be about $3k Steve, complete replacement units are usually a lot more.

best wishes

Dave

[Martin Boekers]

What is the core charge? That could be $2K alone. I have 2 of the same machines and in the last year I replaced one tube, it seems like it was about $3200.00.

[matthew knott]

In the same situation laser year, this is what we were quoted by the UK agent for epilog (CSI) "75 Tube @ £3,909.60* *Does not include fitting if required" so $5909.23 but that was a year ago, this is NOT for a new tube but a core exchange! We opted to get another company to regas it and fix it up. They did, it worked for a while but then the encoder strip got damaged and the laser has sat in a corner as i cant be arsed to work on the dam thing anymore. Got a whole chinese 1500m x 1200m 80watt laser instead for £4k, that seems to actually work properly, refreshing change!!

[Dave Sheldrake]

Hey Matt,

Saw a similar experience in Southampton a while ago, an engraving shop had one of the RF units sat in a corner waiting scrappage due to the cost of repairing the RF unit. They did the same and purchased a Chinese machine for less than repair costs and are using it just as successfully a year down the road.
While I'd like nothing more than to buy Western made lasers (and support our own economy) I can buy Chinese stuff for a fraction of the price and consider it disposable.

On a side note, I noticed you have a lot of marking kit? do you have somewhere I can point clients for marking needs? most of my work is industrial cutting rather than marking but would be good to have a UKer I can send people to.

best wishes

Dave

[matthew knott]

Hi Dave I will PM you contact details, its pretty much all we do is engraving, all galvo fibre and yag (except 1 galvo co2). The shenhui is really just for internal use.

[Paul Phillips]

Wow, that's a lot of money for a tube. I hope the Western made companies are reading threads like this and taking notice, they are definitely loosing a lot of money to Chinese made machines, and will continue to lose more and more as Chinese machines continue to increase in quality. I hope the (western) companies can somehow lower prices enough to be competitive, yes they are better quality but is the cost difference really worth it? I love my Universal but not sure what I'm going to do once it comes time to have to replace one of my 60 watt tubes.
Steve, I hope everything works out for you, let us know what happens.
Paul

[Dave Sheldrake]

Chinese RF tubes are pretty expensive too, it's the technology rather than the actual product that is causing the problem.

The high end glass tubes like GSI cost in excess of $24,000 in 200 watt format but last as long as any of the RF units from Universal, Epilog, Synrad erc.

Western companies spent a lot of time and money telling people how bad Chinese Glass tubes are, then all of a sudden they start introducing machines that use them.

yes they are better quality but is the cost difference really worth it?

In all honesty? nope, western machines have a LOT higher production costs and will eventually go the way of the British made motorcycle if they don't change their working models. China is the worlds second biggest economic power, within 10 years they will be number 1 easily.

The West tends to look at the next fiscal year, or maybe two years, China plans for 30 years ahead.

The West looks at fast profits, China looks at sustainable profits.

Take the western lasers, nice two pack paint on something that will never see any weathering and contributes nothing at all to the machines function. China uses whatever coloured goop they have around.

The West uses high grade lens's made by II-VI or RMI, China uses Chinese made lens's (often from II-VI's manufacturing base there) western lens $300, Chinese lens $15, The difference in cutting power? not a lot on a good day and nothing on a bad day.

I often hear the old soldier "RF sources provide tight beams that are polarised"....so does a $100 Phase Retarder fitted to a Chinese glass tube.

When I moved house I left a hobby laser on my driveway for 7 weeks (Hx 1290 80watt) with it's tube still in it and with no protection from the elements. Rain, -5 to + 30 degree temperatures, wind and all the usual elements hitting it over those 7 weeks. I finally decided to move it into a log cabin I had built and left it overnight to dry out.
Next day it was back to cutting at the same speeds and feeds it always had. I did wonder what would have happened to a $50,000 equivalent western machine had I treated it the same way.

best wishes

Dave

[Kim Vellore]

In many years in this forum, I mostly only see complaints about epilog tube failures. I am sure this is way more then the ratio of Epilog owners to other machines. I hope Epilog gives warranty to real tube usage life rather than time or make the tubes more reliable.
Kim

[Dave Sheldrake]

I am sure this is way more then the ratio of Epilog owners to other machines

I dunno really Kim, it may be just that when a Chinese glass tube goes pop nobody cares about the $250 to replace it compared to $5,000 for an Epilog RF. Same with the DSP system on a Chinese machine, the entire electronic system, steppers, drivers including the PSU can be replaced on a 40 watt machine for less than the mainboard on an Epilog.

The crazy thing is, quite a few of the "Western" machines are made in Chinese factories!

best wishes

Dave

[Mark Ross]

Epilog manufactures their own laser's now. Cost should be around 3-4 grand USD at most.

All I know is our Epilogs "print money" for my company. They are air cooled, reliable, we beat them to death and don't have to coddle them.

[Martin Boekers]

Just bought a lens from Epilog Approx $115, last Tube approx. $3k.

The thing with USA lasers are if I am down I am up and running in
24hrs. the extra money is for that service. so it's worth it to me.

[Jesse Anderson]

I would hate to sound dumb or maybe i was mistaken. But i was under the assumption that a replacement tube for my laser would cost around 2-3k... That is what the Epilog guy told me when i was getting my demo... Then told me the same thing when i got the machine... He also claimed that the tube would last about 20,000 hours tell it burned out ....I purchased a additional 2 year full warranty for a grand or so, just to be safe...

I remember my dad telling me about how much a hand held laser pointer cost decades ago.... Expensive.... Yet now you can get one for $5 ... Even so... U can still get a new high powered laser pointer for like $1000 or more.... Its the market.. The older things get the newer the price. The higher the price the newer the thing......

Its good though that Laser engravers are not cheap... Otherwise everyone would be doing it... In my area people do not even know what a laser engraver is...

[matthew knott]

Could be that as per usual in countries other than the USA they charge lots more! I copied and pasted the actual quote so I know it's right! May be I have the evil twin laser of marks as mine eats money

[Michael Hunter]

Swapping to the new Epilog-made tube is now more cost-effective than having a Coherent exchanged.
Going with the Epilog also means that the built-in RF bit is guaranteed too, rather than putting a good tube on an old (and therefore possibly less than top performance) RF unit.

Matthew's price is now way out of date - my 60W quote was significantly more than that!

One of the problems with the non USA price is that they air freight the tubes backwards and forwards which must add quite a bit to the price.
Then the local dealer takes a cut (rightly so, because they have to arrange everything) but it all adds up.


PS Jesse - I was told £1,000 for a replacement tube when I bought my machine, and that that price would not go up!