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Thread: Rabbit Laser or Universal

  1. #16
    It's all relative to what you are doing. All you will get here is textbook cases of Confirmation Bias. "I have one and I love it, so you'll love it too".

    No one can answer the "Which laser should I buy" questions without knowing your budget, the type of work you plan on doing, etc. Some people might do things that the Chinese machines do just fine, and they do that all day and not much else. To them, the Chinese machine is "perfect", while others might have work that requires 3-4 pt fonts and extreme detail and accuracy at high speeds. For them, a Western machine is the only good choice. You have to buy the machine that's right for your budget and type of work. There is no right answer that fits everyone.
    Lasers : Trotec Speedy 300 75W, Trotec Speedy 300 80W, Galvo Fiber Laser 20W
    Printers : Mimaki UJF-6042 UV Flatbed Printer , HP Designjet L26500 61" Wide Format Latex Printer, Summa S140-T 48" Vinyl Plotter
    Router : ShopBot 48" x 96" CNC Router Rotary Engravers : (2) Xenetech XOT 16 x 25 Rotary Engravers

    Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Medina Ohio
    Posts
    4,516
    I agree with Scott I have a LG500 that I bought from Automation Technologies and bought it to cut certain jobs. If I was engraving all the time I would have gone with a western unit.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Maple, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    1,010
    Here is my view on this subject.

    I have owned Universal machine and had no issues with it performance wise but it was so painfully slow. For that reason I got Trotec Speedy 300 for my needs (best move I made). I also get local support for parts and answers if required.
    90% of my work is raster engraving and speed was needed to get the orders quickly. I own Xenetech rotary engravers and could have gone with their laser as speed is on level with Trotec but support was from USA (some other issues there).

    If I would go with Chinese laser of any sort it must have a local support as well. I just cannot be without fully operational machine more than 24 hours.
    Trotec Speedy 300 - 60w, with Quatro CSA-626 fume extraction
    Xenetech 1625 x2,
    New Hermes TX pantograph, CG4 cutter grinder
    Brady Globalmark2 label printer,
    Assortment of custom tooling , shears & punches, heat bender.
    Software: Xenetech XOT, Corel X3, Bartender label software

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Iowa USA
    Posts
    4,441
    I had an older maybe 8 years old ULS I purchased used and it was built like a tank. It was 6 years after a tube recharge and still put out nearly 10 watts more than its rating. If I needed a larger machine again, it would be a no brainer. Sure for like $20,000 more the Trotec is faster.... and it should be.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  5. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Bill George View Post
    I had an older maybe 8 years old ULS I purchased used and it was built like a tank. It was 6 years after a tube recharge and still put out nearly 10 watts more than its rating. If I needed a larger machine again, it would be a no brainer. Sure for like $20,000 more the Trotec is faster.... and it should be.
    What that $20,000 (not sure why you compare the price of a used Universal to a new Trotec, but okay) gets us is a competitive advantage on pricing and throughput. We are doing a $7,000 job right now that we took from a competitor because they were taking to long to get them done and their price was too high. Without the Trotec, our quote would have been more and it would have taken us longer. They specifically told us our pricing and throughput capabilities where what got us the job. Just for reference, that $7000 job is done in one week, and they came in yesterday and told us the orders were pouring in and we'd see another order soon.

    Like I said, it's all relative to your business. If I did it as a hobby or vector cut all day, I'd probably have a row of Chinese machines.
    Lasers : Trotec Speedy 300 75W, Trotec Speedy 300 80W, Galvo Fiber Laser 20W
    Printers : Mimaki UJF-6042 UV Flatbed Printer , HP Designjet L26500 61" Wide Format Latex Printer, Summa S140-T 48" Vinyl Plotter
    Router : ShopBot 48" x 96" CNC Router Rotary Engravers : (2) Xenetech XOT 16 x 25 Rotary Engravers

    Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Anaheim, California
    Posts
    6,903
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Shepherd View Post
    If I did it as a hobby or vector cut all day, I'd probably have a row of Chinese machines.
    I might agree if I were starting out today, but not in 2005 when I got my ULS.
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  7. #22
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Hayes, Virginia
    Posts
    14,760
    I should remind you guys that we purchased a Xenetech 60 watt laser engraver at CNU that had a bug in their software that was never fixed and the last time I called them for tech support after the machine was out of warranty I was asked for a credit card if I wanted assistance.

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