/diy/ - Do It Yourself » Thread #894459

[9 / 1 / ?]

64KiB, 630x463, laser-x380-large-image.jpg

Laser Cutter

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 01:48:23 No.894459 View Reply Report Delete

I don't want to get jewed so I thought it'd be better to confirm from you guys:
• There's a billion laser cutters in the market. How can I know that I won't buy a shitty one?
• What are the minimum requirements for cutting 3mm veneer?
• What's the average cost? I know I can get a ultra-shitty one for 700 bucks, but I've seen some Chinese "yes yes very good cutter" -types for 2000 USD. What's the catch? I just want to cut and engrave veneer.
• Is the software always shit?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 02:08:11 No.894463 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>894465 >>894466

The ones from china are shit, yes. The software is shitty and guess what, when something goes wrong you have 0 support. The consensus is that chinese lasers are the best bang for your buck for cutting purposes (higher power for less $), and western lasers are best for engraving.

I've been working for a family member who has a big 4'x8' chinese laser and it's a buggy POS. Don't get me wrong, it works, but I don't like the quality of the engravings, and the software constantly has to be re-installed because it's fucking up.
Personally, I'm looking to get a $30,000 loan for a good laser.

You're most economical solution is getting a demo/used small laser from epilog or universal laser systems. You MIGHT find something for $10,000.

You doing this for hobby or business? Also, there are rebranded chinese machines sold by american companies (with american tech support) but they're still around...I forget...8-15k? Look up rabbit lasers for an example

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 02:11:06 No.894465 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>894463
Forgot to mention, the catch on the $2000 ebay lasers? Look up the horror stories on sawmillcreek and other places. I would not waste my money on a >$5000 chinese laser. Also I'm assuming a 30w would be fine for 3mm but not 100% sure

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 02:12:09 No.894466 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>894463
Your****

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 02:58:35 No.894471 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>894459

I am in the same situation op

Have you seen the forge glow yet?

I am tempted but cloud operation is putting me off

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 03:04:04 No.894473 Report Delete

Quoted By:

Lasersaur looks 2good2btrue but I don't know the specifics.
https://vimeo.com/123456664
There's gotta be a catch

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 23:39:29 No.894897 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>894459

OP have you looked at this? It's pretty interesting. I myself have pre-ordered one. . . . it seems pretty impressive. Also, if you use this link you get $100 off. I researched a lot of laser cutters before coming across glowforge.

http://glowforge.com/referred/?kid=WBpePq

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 29 Oct 2015 12:01:30 No.895053 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>895055

>>894459
What's your budget OP? Is it just something you want to play around with or do you plan on using it for your business?

I've recently acquired a K40 CNC machine. They have a bad rep for being shit quality and bundled with garbage software. Some even consider them unusable but that hasn't been the case for me (although I have built a few CNC routers).

For $370 you cannot beat a CorelLaser equipped K40 machine. Want to use better software and enhance the capabilities of the machine like raster+vector in 1 file?
Upgrade the controller with a DSP. ~$500.
Want more power?
Upgrade the 35w tube inside with a lightobject 45w CO2 tube as well as the mirrors and optics.
An air assist with air pump can be bought for under $50 and is probably the first thing you should do.
You can also add a Z table for easier height adjustment.

In the end you'll have an incredibly capable laser (only limited by the cutting work space of ~340x230mm? and laser power) for less than the $2000 asking price of a glowforge.

I think that the a GlowForge is significantly overpriced for the hardware that you get. No air assist head, questionable quality (their most recent prototypes on display were still being held together with hot glue) and as far as cutting capabilities go it's nothing special. The software is impressive for how easily and quickly you can get some really good cuts going but at the end of the day you're still going to be drawing things in CAD and importing them to the machine just like any other laser.

As far as American machines go, I think the cheapest are roughly $3,000 they're basically a very polished K40. Quality CO2 tube, air assist already bundled with the machine, very well documented, etc.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 29 Oct 2015 12:02:48 No.895055 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>895053
2/2

If you're the kind of guy that doesn't mind exchanging a bit of time for a lot of money saved I recommend you get one of those chinese co2 lasers.

If you have a lot more money to play with but don't know yet how a laser cutter can benefit your business then just for experimenting and learning you should still buy a K40.
I've been busy redesigning the product packaging of a lot of our products with my K40 so it's should pay itself off in just a few months.

best of luck OP.

Subject

Name

E-mail

Password

Capcode	All Only User Posts Only Verified Posts Only Moderator Posts Only Manager Posts Only Admin Posts Only Developer Posts Only Founder Posts
Show Posts	All Only With Images Only Without Images Only Spoiler Images Only Non-Spoiler Images
Deleted Posts	All Only Deleted Posts Only Non-Deleted Posts
Ghost Posts	All Only Ghost Posts Only Non-Ghost Posts
Post Type	All Only Sticky Threads Only Opening Posts Only Reply Posts
Results	All Grouped By Threads
Order	Latest Posts First Oldest Posts First

On these boards

Your latest searches

Laser Cutter