Laser Engraver/Cutter - Questions and Decisions

[Jack Clague]

Hi all,

Hope everyone is doing well, I decided to sign up to the site as I have been a lurker for some time and found most of the threads here to be informative and helpful, recently I have decided to take my workshop to a higher level by looking to purchase a laser engraving and cutting machine, I have been researching the last 2-3 months on these machines and trawling over many of the threads here to get a better understanding of the machines, their capabilities, the requirements to run and the downsides or running the machines for both hobby use and business ventures

I live in Australia so these machines are not easy to come by, we do however have a few of the more common and trusted brands available here in AU, Trotec, Epilog, GCC, Gravograph, and a few others but I do not recall the names
I’m going to be basing my decision on what laser to purchase on the below factors in order of priority:

• After sales service, support and warranty
• Quality of components
• Features of machine
• Price of machine

My Requirements:

I have minimal requirements really, as this will be a joint hobby/side business venture I hope to make use of the machine in as wide a variety of ways, my primary hobby is flying large scale radio control aircraft, I hope to use the machine to not only benefit myself but also create products and parts which I could sell to the local flying community, as with all products the more inventive and unique the better and I have a few ideas up my sleeve in regards to this.
Material requirements will be limited to the capabilities of a co2 machines, I cannot justify the expense of a fibre or even dual capability machine just yet, maybe in the future this is something I may consider
Working area, I am looking to keep the working area in the 24x12” range, this seems to be the best starting point if you’re serious about working with a laser engraver, also I would like to work with rotary objects and the smaller size machines do not offer a rotary attachment as a future option

Budget, although limited many years of failures and dud machines has taught me the long term benefit of buy once buy right and buy with confidence, this in mind I will be less concerned about the overall price and more about the longevity and support of the machine, of course I have a limit but with finance options available with most manufactures this can be stretched out and budgeted

Features, key features I would like and what I would use are probably two different things entirely but I’ll list them anyway; *Air Assist; *optimized raster engraving; *relocatable origin; Autofocus; 3D engraving; *Memory Buffer and saveable settings; *colour mapping; Differing / Halftone Conversion; *Metal or Ceramic Tube; *Good quality optics, Red-dot; there are some more features but I think the above is a good base, the ones noted with * are pretty much a requirement instead of a want.

So I guess I should list what I can get hold of here in AU and what I have discerned so far

Lasers that are supported locally to me here and fit or closely fit the above requirements are:

"Trotec;- Speedy range 100, 300
ceramic tube, great optics, from what I have read very good machines, upgradable to the flex range at a later date to include fibre right into the same machine, similar features compared to other brands, price indicative to the quality"

Epilog;- Zing 16,24 – Mini 18,24,Helix
Metal Tube, Good optics, very feature packed (allot of what I listed above is standard), Higher watt ratings available and seems to be best value machine in its range for an overseas produced and supported local machine (in AU)

GCC;- Laserpro range
Supported in AU but not local to me, highest warranty time from all suppliers, I know very little about these machines though

Gravograph;- LS100Ex
Supported in AU but not local to me, I know very little about these machines though

Well I wrote allot but didn’t really ask anything, I guess I wrote all this down to also help me understand my options better and work from there, my main question is really am I on the right path with the machines I am looking at, are there alternate options I have not considered? Are there features or parts of machines I have not thought about?

Kindest Regards
Jack