reman laser or new chinese laser

[Noah Grant]

Hi
I am new to the forum however I have a quick question that can be answered with a quick answer. I have done my research but I am unsure of the quality difference between a chinese resell company like Boss or Rabbit as compared to a used remanufactured laserpro or universal. So here goes.

If you had 8000 would you purchase a larger chinese model from Rabbit with larger wattage and most likely larger table, or a remufactured 30 or 40 watt from laserpro, pinnacle or universal (the universal is a bit more) . I know its an open question and I have researched the threads but its my first post :-)

[Ernie Balch]

I made a list of criteria important to my sign business. 1) cutting performance (power) most important ...... 2) table size ...... 3) price ..... 4) support .......5 ) engraving performance was least important. ........ I selected a Rabbit system, and have not had to call the service people in 3 years of use. .........I did have to replace the lens after modifying the air blow off thus causing a lens contamination problem. Get a western system for fast accurate engraving, Chinese systems are cheaper and work well for cutting.

[Scott Shepherd]

Depends on what you plan to do with it. Might be just fine, might not. Without knowing your plans for it, we're all just guessing.

[Bryan Rocker]

Agreed, gotta know what you need before you can narrow it down.....

[Kev Williams]

I have 3 different lasers, and all three have their strengths & weaknesses.

My little 25w Universal is my favorite for engraving Rowmark stuff and leather, but it's not all that fast, and not great for cutting. Does Cermark on SS okay, but settings are finicky. Going on 20 years old and still works great.

My 40w LS900 is my workhorse, it's fairly fast, and the engraving quality is great, but not as consistent as the ULS. It does Cermark on stainless nearly perfect, if not a bit slow. It's okay for cutting, but not great.

My 80w Triumph is a wood engraving and plastic cutting fool. The thing will cut Rowmark at least 4x faster than the LS900, with nearly no mushroomed edge if I transfer tape first. The laser beam is gone so fast there's no time for residual heat buildup to melt the edges of the kerf. As for basic engraving, I've been teaching it to sing and dance, I'm getting very impressive results with high detail stuff. However, I can't get it to Cermark SS like I'd hoped, but I need some time to fiddle with speeds & such. And Chinese machines are slow to raster. Very fast to vector however, but at the cost of smooth curves. That's another thing I need time to fiddle with is curve cutting speeds...

Western machines are very "automatic", like driving a Beemer. Chinese machines exactly the opposite, like driving Peterbilts. Nothing automatic about them, manual backlash adjustments, manual high-to-low power settings, etc... But like driving Peterbilts, they're fun as hell once you learn it!

Western machines usually = better customer service (sorta) but can be spendy to repair. Chinese machines, customer service is okay but usually not so local. But cheap to repair.

What would I do? If you buy from China, you can get 2 machines for that 8 large you're holding. If you're new to this, I'd consider buying ONE, save the other 4 and save a little each week until it's 8 again and then pick up a western machine...

[Bert Kemp]

without knowing details like others have asked if cutting is your main thing then a Rabbit 80 -100 watt 400x600 or 600x900 table. If engraving is your thing then 25 to 45 watts will do most of it

[Dave Sheldrake]

+1 for need to know more but that said, Kev just about covered what I would do as well.

cheers

Dave

[Noah Grant]

Thank you guys for the help. My primary purpose is engraving logos and pictures on top of wood boxes. 8 inch by 8 inch is typical some a little bigger or smaller. Doing 15 or more a day. Hope that helps refine your answer as I am ready to purchase.

[Ross Moshinsky]

I'd go with the western machine because of the software and it's slightly faster. The software is big because it's much easier to do logos with the WYSIWYG type of engraving. Assuming you get something around 35W, you're engraving time will still be faster than a 60-80W Chinese machine. That comes down to the fact that the Chinese machines engrave at a max of about 25ips (which is the speed you should run at) and the western machine about 80ips. Assuming you run at about 40% speed on average, you're still talking about 32ips which is obviously faster.

[Kev Williams]

I'm on the fence concerning which machine for engraving on wood, based solely on the machines I'm familiar with. For sheer wood engraving "strength", my Triumph will KILL both my western machines. My BIL has an LS800, 12x24x 30watt that he lasers cedar boxes on. He engraves text/graphics to about 3/16" deep, the engraving area is typically 2" x 8", and it takes him 20 minutes to get the engraving that deep. My 40w might get it that deep in 15-16 minutes...

My triumph will run a 2x8 x3/16" deep pass in 6 to 8 minutes.

Below is a 24" diameter alder table top, the pattern is "I-Ching"-- It took the Triumph 1 pass to engrave it 3/16" deep, took 1 hour 44 minutes total. For my LS900 to engrave this that deep would've taken probably 4 or more hours... or days...

btable.jpgbtable2.jpgbtable3.jpg


This is the very first piece of wood I engraved in the Triumph. I was still tweaking backlash settings, and as you can see from the 'box', my corner power was way too high. But pretty good detail for first pass, and much deeper, faster, than my LS900 could accomplish.

DSC02800.jpg


Like I say, this is just based on the machines I know.

For a first machine, and intending on using it mostly for wood, I have to vote for an 80w Chinese machine...

[Scott Shepherd]

I'm on the fence concerning which machine for engraving on wood, based solely on the machines I'm familiar with. For sheer wood engraving "strength", my Triumph will KILL both my western machines. My BIL has an LS800, 12x24x 30watt that he lasers cedar boxes on. He engraves text/graphics to about 3/16" deep, the engraving area is typically 2" x 8", and it takes him 20 minutes to get the engraving that deep. My 40w might get it that deep in 15-16 minutes...

My triumph will run a 2x8 x3/16" deep pass in 6 to 8 minutes.

Below is a 24" diameter alder table top, the pattern is "I-Ching"-- It took the Triumph 1 pass to engrave it 3/16" deep, took 1 hour 44 minutes total. For my LS900 to engrave this that deep would've taken probably 4 or more hours... or days...

That's a horrible comparison. "Hey, let's compare a 1 year old Chinese machine to a 20 year old Western machine and then claim that the Chinese machine destroys the Western machines".

Come on Kev, you can't even begin to make comparisons like that. If you want to make that claim, you have to make it on machines from the same time frame. If he would have said that he's buying it to mark Stainless, then you'd have to state how the 20 year old machine smokes the 1 year old Chinese machine.

Apples and Oranges.

I'm not saying a Chinese machine might not be the right tool for the original poster, but be fair about the comparison. A 1992 car isn't going to have the same features a 2014 one does.

[Steve Morris]

I would expect 80w to be faster than 40w whatever the make. Comparisons that are not levelled up don't really give great data.

[Ross Moshinsky]

I would expect 80w to be faster than 40w whatever the make. Comparisons that are not levelled up don't really give great data.

As I posted above, that's not always the case. The examples Kev posted are not what I'd consider normal. Most people don't try to get 3/16 depth in wood. Most are happy with 1/32 or a bit deeper. When you target that depth, the western machine with half the power should be faster.

The thing to remember is Chinese lasers are slow. So slow that to mark Cermark you only need about 40-50w because anything more can't be useful. 25 IPS vs 80ips. It's significant.

[Noah Grant]

30 watt laserrpro 80 watt jcut or 60 watt rabbit all same size?

[Noah Grant]

The jcut is only 3500 and it's a 2013 model the laserrpro is a 2006 and rabbit is new