chinese laser cutters

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ed
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#1 chinese laser cutters

Post by ed »

Anybody know anything about these?

I've been researching for the last couple of days and there seems to be much conflicting feedback on t'internet about how good these things are. I'm not sure if I want a 40watt or 50 watt...but I'm leaning towards the 50 as they seem to be the only ones with a bigger bed. A bigger bed must be favourite, surely?

any info?
I might have to join another forum and ask some more embarrassing questions, where's it all end!
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#2 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by Dave the bass »

Have you a Chinese laser that needs cutting then?
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#3 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by jack »

Why do you need one - will you use it enough?

The price is only going to come down and getting spares can be... interesting...

Have you considered joining a MakerSpace? Or using on-line cutting services, or a local college etc.

(I use a MakerSpace - they have 100W & 150W beasts, and if they break, it's their expensive problem)
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#4 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by ed »

Jack,

not only are you answering a question with a question, but you're answering a question with two questions!

smiley snigger

but seriously,

2-5mm laser ply(the stuff with water based bonding) and possibly 6mm acrylic
daily use...business requirement.
there are no Makerspace places near me, and my requirement is commercial and frequent.

the reason I'm investigating is because online services are prohibitively expensive and my enterprise would be in direct competition with them.

I'm particularly interested in native file formats and the advertised Chinese machines are expressly guarded about such things. Most if not all say something like: will accept x,y and z formats and for use with Coreldraw. Well for the cheaper end of the Chinese machines it's all very well saying that but if you pay £300-£400 pounds for a machine you've got to factor in £800 for a legit copy of Coreldraw. I'm also interested in bulb types, makes and longevity.

I wondered if anybody here had experience....It's a minefield of reading on the cnc forums and lots of the content is conflicting...

I'm tempted to just buy a cheap one for evaluation.
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#5 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by SimonC »

Hi Ed,

My experience has been with an Epilog Mini 24.
The one I use has a 50W laser, and this will cut through 3mm ply and 6mm acrylic with ease. These are the main materials I work in so I've not pushed it to see what the limit is. Its also awesome for cutting cardboard once you get the hang of the settings (it tends to catch fire if you overdo it :))

I'm sure that one of the guys at the local fablab has looked into Chinese lasers as he was talking about getting one for home use. I'll drop him a line and see what he comes back with.

Cheers
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#6 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by ed »

thanks Simon, much appreciated.
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#7 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by Tony Moore »

One of my friends has had a chinese laser cutter for some time now, is on his 2nd rebuild with a bigger tube, I will ask him for a small writeup to post here.

He makes some amazing things with it.
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#8 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by jack »

Derek Woodroffe from Extreme Electronics, one of the UK Tesla lot I used to hang out with, has done a write up of his experiences:

http://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/tal ... re-checks/
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#9 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by ed »

Thanks Jack

that was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. It shines the light in all the right places.
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#10 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by Dave the bass »

ed wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:01 pm It shines the light in all the right places.
Like a good Laser cutter should?
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#11 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by ed »

Dave the bass wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2017 9:03 pm
ed wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:01 pm It shines the light in all the right places.
Like a good Laser cutter should?
aint nobody appreciates my humour like you...
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#12 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by Dave the bass »

Image

:)
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#13 Re: chinese laser cutters

Post by ed »

Evelyn?
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