Question from the new guy........

[William A. Foster]

Well I made my first post yesterday and already got in trouble.... seems it was considered a want ad.. Sorry about that guys, didn't mean to get started on the wrong foot here.

Anyway I have been looking at laser engravers till I'm cross eyed and my head is spinning.......

I have looked at Epilog and Universal lasers but the initial outlay is just more than I want to spend for an untested market, I have looked at a number of the Chinese lasers, FSL, DigiCarver, Boss, Rabbit, and a list of others as long as your arm.

Anyway I guess I just need a little feed back from users of the various machines and their experiences with them to help me in my decision process.

I have some ideas that I hope would be marketable but would prefer to test first before I make a significant investment into equipment.

Thank's for putting up with another new guy.
Best regards to all.

William

[Scott Shepherd]

Welcome to the forum William, no worries about your first post. It happens all the time and by long time members as well.

Can you tell us a little more about what size products you are looking at making, what materials, quantities, etc? Those things can help us help you. Is it most engraving? Mostly cutting, a combination of 50/50 of each? Also, what part of the country are you located in? That might help, as someone close by you might be able to reach out and help, privately.

[William A. Foster]

Hello Scott.

The material I will be using is driftwood with a prepped area for the engraving.
Size will be variable but no larger than 10x18 ish. The actuall engraving area will vary depending on the natural contours of the piece.
I am on the Oregon coast so I have lots of material readily available to work with.
The work will require all engraving with no cutting.

I am very new to this (the laser aspects) even though I have been thinking about these projects and possibilities for quite a while.

Thank you for the feed back.

[Bert Kemp]

Hmm did my reply to his first post get deleted also???? I asked all those questions in my post to him. Whats up with that.
Anyway as far as machines go stay away from FSL. I think you'll find that if your going the Chinese route most people here will steer you towards a Rabbit. Their well built machines with top notch USA support right in Ohio. Ray has everything you'll ever need to take care of his machines.( I have one) Boss might be ok but we don't have a lot of feedback on them yet.
I think your idea is pretty good but not sure what the market is for something like that. I'm sure they would sell but how many at what price point would need to be tested I guess. I don't know how driftwood will engrave I'm sure some will be awesome and some maybe not , I think it would depend on the species of the wood .

[Tim Bateson]

William, I would suggest you first outsource the work. Sure this gives you less profit, but it'll let you test your market without a major investment. Depending on who you outsource to, you may learn a lot too.

[Scott Shepherd]

Lookup Gary Hair on here, I think it's in Oregon as well. Maybe he can help you.

[William A. Foster]

Thank you guys for all the great feedback....
This is a great forum....

[Mike Audleman]

If you are looking at feedback on specific machines...well I can help with one.

See my sig for the specific ebay printer. I have been told its actually a shenhui laser. It doesn't say that anywhere on it so I can't confirm but it really looks like it and everything matches up perfectly.

My experience has been mostly a positive one with the machine. Nothing noteworthy has gone wrong with it. More user error than machine error. Its been able to do most of what I thought I wanted to do. I simply can't afford a box that can etch (really etch) metal.

I have added LED strip lighting (ebay, comes in self adhesive spools 191211931325). I added a honeycomb bed (again, ebay 151358120115). And I used my 3D printer to make a laser crosshair but you don't need that (but its nice!). All told, I have spent less than $75 on addons since I got the laser approximately a year ago.

Its served me well. Its easy to clean. Big enough to do the projects I have. Small enough to fit through a basement door. Cheap enough to make it affordable to start with. Powerful enough to cut most sheet stock and etch most non-metal products. Does fine with CerMark paints and Rowline plastics. Easy to use. Decent quality output.

The software is fair at best. Don't rely on it for daily bang. Get Corel Draw to do your designs in and ship it out to the RDworls that came with the laser to actually generate the gcode to the laser.

Like any new tool, there is a learning curve. How steep it is depends on your temperament and tech savvy.

[Mike Null]

Mike

Clear concise and to the point. Nice review of your machine.

[William A. Foster]

Thank you for the great review Mike.
Info like that is a valuable help in making my decision.

[Keith Winter]

Mike do you have a budget in mind? Most of us on here are cost concious to various degrees, but keep in mind you also get what you for when setting your budget. Also do you have a shop or is this a home garage setup? Any samples you can post of what you're wanting to do on driftwood? Will help people on here better determine what type of machine you might need if we can get additional details.

[Keith Winter]

Great suggestion Tim!

William, I would suggest you first outsource the work. Sure this gives you less profit, but it'll let you test your market without a major investment. Depending on who you outsource to, you may learn a lot too.

[William A. Foster]

Here is an example of what I have in mind to do.
The image on the left is the kind of raw material I would be looking for, I would choose the area to be engraved, smooth and prep the area then do the engraving....
The image on the right is along the lines of what I would like to do with the unique pieces of driftwood.
I have given thought to how a router may come into the process in all of this as well.
Screen Shot 2015-05-21 at 6.34.52 PM.jpg

[Keith Winter]

One issue you might run into is the curve. That fish looks like it really has a step curve it's engraved around. When a laser goes out of focus it looses power quickly. Have you thought of how you will handle that or are you just going to do the flat pieces? How hard is that drift wood in comparison to something like maple?

[William A. Foster]

One issue you might run into is the curve. That fish looks like it really has a step curve it's engraved around. When a laser goes out of focus it looses power quickly. Have you thought of how you will handle that or are you just going to do the flat pieces? How hard is that drift wood in comparison to something like maple?

That particular example is not exactly what I would do.... I would prep the engraving area to be "flat" so there would be no focal issues... It was just an example of the concept.