is this laser right for me?

[Derek Voigt]

Hello everyone,

I have been reading a little about laser cutting and stuff and have some questions and don't know where to begin.

There is a used universal laser 25 watt laser engraver with rotary attachment and honeycomb cutting table for sale in my area for $8k. I'm trying to build up a business doing wood working and have many ideas that I would like to use the laser on. I would like to engrave pens, pen boxes, cut inlays on pen blanks and use it for some flat work as well. Can this machine also cut name plates, like for trophy's? What about engraving on glasses or rings? I know that it would take alot of work to justify spending 8k on this, but I'm working on a plan and just want to make sure that this machine could actually do all that I want it to do.

Thanks!
D

[Scott Shepherd]

Depends what model it is. Do you know the year and model of it?

You can buy a brand new Versalaser from Universal for not much more than that and it would do all you have asked about.

[Mike Null]

I had a 25 watt ULS and it was an excellent machine. It will do all you want but prices have dropped so that may be a bit high. Scott's questions are the right ones.

My guess is that you'll have a hard time paying for the machine with wood work. That was my plan when I started 12 years ago. Today I doubt that I do $300 a year in such work.

[Derek Voigt]

Ok, I will ask some questions and see what they say.

Would a 25 watt laser be too limiting, if I need to do other work that i'm not thinking about yet, would I be limiting myself?

[James Stokes]

You are getting some misinformation here. First off 25 watts is not going to cut much. You asked about cutting plates for trophys if the plates are plastic it will cut them. You are not going to be able to engrave jewlery.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Derek,

If you can get me the serial number I can research the system for you.

[Mike Null]

I disagree with James. The machine will cut quite a lot of materials. Virtually anything you need to cut for an awards-engraving business can be cut nicely with a 25 watt machine. Many 25w machines are in every day use in this business.

I never had any problem cutting wood up to a quarter of an inch. thicker than that and I couldn't recommend it.

It will not engrave rings.

[Gary Hair]

I disagree with James as well. My 30 watt cuts everything I have thrown at it, including 1/2" acrylic! You can do jewelry with it but you are limited in that CO2 can really only mark metal with Cermark. 25 watts may have a hard time with certain metals, but it will work fine on stainless and anodized aluminum.

I think that 8k is a bit high for a used machine, especially 25 watts. I would check around before you jump on that machine for that price.

Gary

[Derek Voigt]

Derek,

If you can get me the serial number I can research the system for you.

Thanks I'll see if I can get it from them. They haven't yet responded to my first email.

If everyone is saying that 8k is high, what would be good? Assuming it is relatively new and what not, 6k?

Ok so maybe doing rings would be out with this, but glass would be ok?

If I did do wood thicker the 1/4 would it be possible to do in more then 1 pass? Or is that not how this would work?

What about if I wanted to engrave like a paragraph into a piece of would, would this work?

Thanks

[Tim Bateson]

In James defense - What he was saying is correct - small CO2 lasers will NOT cut aluminum or brass plates for trophies, only acrylics, wood & other laserable plastics such as Rowmark.

Derek,
I have a 35watt & it takes a couple passes to cut 1/4 - depending on the wood - some wood cuts easier then others. Due to this I mostly stick with 1/8. Although possible - It's not worth my time to do 2-3 passes at 2-3 speed.
Glass etches nicely.

[James Stokes]

I have a 100 watt laser and there are a lot of woods I can not cut a quarter inch thick. Ebony is one. Just my personel opinion but I would never buy a 25 watt laser. It would be to slow for much production But what ever ticks your fancy. Not my money. You can engrave wood with one it just depends on how deep you want to go. The deeper you go the slower you have to run as far as engraving bare stainless or bare aluminum using ceramark if you are reall lucky you can engrave stainless but never bare aluminum.

[Scott Shepherd]

Many trophy shops use lower powered lasers. No need for the power in making name plates, etc. Just depends on what you want to do with it.

[Brian Jones FL]

8k gets you a brand new 25 watt epilog zing!

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Dont forget you will need to install a blower as well. You will at the very least need to purchase a copy of CorelDraw. Since you want to do a lot of cutting make sure the model has air assist built-in


Personally if I were going to spend 8K I would look at a new zing.

Also Warranty is important. What happens a month after you spend 8K the tube needs to be recharged. Oh well another 1-1.5K gone.


I do a lot of cutting with my laser. And some wood cuts worse than others. Also the kind of optics and lens will affect how deep you can go. if the machine is more than a few years old its probably not producing 25wats.

If you do decide to purchase the laser I hope its somewhere you can get a demo. Take some materials that you wish to cut.

Now to the area of making money with a laser. If you already have an established business it is possible to enhance that business with a laser. The amount depends on the business. It also depends on your location. I have walked into 3 or 4 tile and flooring stores in my area and the owners all want me to do some some sort of custom work. I now have a nice stock pile of black granite they have given me as an example of the material they want engraved. Im not sure this kind of work is for me. For on thing I dont like all the time you have to spend using there art or searching for just the right piece of clip art. It seems like a major time drain for very little cash.

My local woodcraft wanted to use me as thier goto man for custom pen engraving. Again seem like a lot of work for very little return.

I much prefer the one off art piece or the occasional commision of a large scale piece.

[Mike Null]

Michael

My guess is that if you had the pen engraving business from every WoodCraft store in the country you couldn't make a living.

One thing you will find very quickly about woodworkers--they place no value on your equipment, your training and your time. Your laser costs more than all the tools in their shop but they don't recognize it.

This is the voice of experience speaking.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Watch what you say about woodworkers as I am one of them. But you are correct. There is no way a someone who makes there own pen would be willing to spend more than a couple of $ to have it engraved.

[Derek Voigt]

Well I haven't gotten a response from this guy yet, so i'm not optimistic that I will. But it sounds like I should be a the look out for something with a little more umf.

[Derek Voigt]

So I just got a reply. It said this
"It is an M-300 Universal Laser. It is 5 years old. It has about*640 hours of use on it."

[Scott Shepherd]

I'd say that's a lot for that old of a machine. I personally wouldn't buy it, but that's my opinion.

You have the Zing and the Versalaser in the same class, low cost systems. The Versalaser has been out for years, the Zing is just coming out. We're still waiting for someone to review a Zing on this site, but the Versalaser is represented by many folks on this forum.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Derek,

The M300 series is older than 5 years probably closer to 7-8 years. Although these are good systems 8K is a lot to ask. If you can pick it up for 4-5K then it would be something to consider. The other thing to keep in mind is the laser tube, what is the history has it ever been re processed? this will be something that would be necessary probably sooner than later.

If you can not get the S/N possibly you can PM me the person or company who is selling it and I can research it that way.