new to laser

[Clarence Miller]

Hi,

I have a shop built cnc router and am thinking strongly about adding a epilog mini 24 to my arsenal of machinery. any advice ?

[Tom Bull]

They have unsurpassed customer service.

[Larry Bratton]

Use it as a tool, not something to make a living with. Epilog's tech service is top notch and so are the machines.

[Dee Gallo]

It's one of the best toys money can buy... if you have a use for it! It will complement your CNC router nicely, each doing things a little differently so you'd be able to cover pretty much all engraving needs in a woodshop.

Did you have some specific concerns or questions? There are a ton of posts you can read through to address all kinds of issues from technical to artistic to settings to accessories to business management.

cheers, dee

[Viktor Voroncov]

You will not be dissapointed :) Buy it now to return a lot of investments in October-December

[Clarence Miller]

I was browsing and found a triumph model Model:TR-9060 with a rotary attachment for about 4200 shipped. Is the Epilog line really that superior that it is worth the extra cash? In my profession I have had the privilege of running several different CNC routers (Heian, Komo, Shoda, ) and hands down if I had the cash I would spring for the Heian line in spite of the higher cost. I was not able to afford any of them so I built my own. I had kicked around the idea of building a cnc laser but have to admit that the prospect of a laser related blindness has me concerned enough to look into a manufactured machine instead. I am confident I could probably build it but my experience with lasers is limited to watching my cat (who served as my associate engineer of the router building project) chase a laser pointer around the house. It is fun but less than functional experience.
I have to sell this purchase to my wife as a legitimate use of funds so I need to be prepared to justify the Epilog cost.

[Larry Bratton]

Clarence, that is a Chinese made machine. If your going to buy a machine to just mess around with, this may suffice. However, given your lack of experience with these machines, if it were me, I would give very careful consideration to this before parting with my money. Practically all Chinese manufactured machines have very poor tech support and customer service. However, they are people that have success with these machines and have been able to overcome the short fall in tech support.
The good things with this machine are table size,(36x24), 60 watts, and it can use Corel Draw for input. I can tell you that a comparable Epilog EXT machine, size and wattage would be 5 times the cost of this machine. Is it worth it? I guess that depends on your budget and what you intend to do with it.

[Clarence Miller]

Is there anybody out there who has personal experience with a Chinese model? Perhaps (if I buy one) we can create a DB of common problems and solution. I am traveling to a different plant for work in set up and training on some Heian routers right now. They have an industrial 5' x10' laser that they let me play with a little bit the last couple days so I kind of got the laser bug stuck in me.
On the router in my shop I use 1/32 PCB end mills for engraving wood but have am limited to resolution due to the nature of a rotating cutter. This make small projects a challenge that I hope to overcome with cutting with light instead of carbide.
I have tried doing photo carving on my machine with such a bit but the feedrate needing for such a small bit add far too much time to the project. For larger projects (the router has a 50 x 55 inch cutting surface) I will use the router but for delicate engravings on small projects I think I am best to look to a laser. Am I off the mark here?
My website is cherokeewoodwhispererdotcom if you would like to see what I am aiming to do. I am a blank slate when it comes to laser tech so I have formed no fully developed opinions as of yet as to what direction will be best for my small shop enterprises.

[Mike Null]

Given the skills you possess you may be able to do quite well with a Chinese laser but take the time to read all the threads on the forum related to them so you'll know what to expect.

[Viktor Voroncov]

I have a lot of laser skills, but can't imagine ME and CHINESE LASER together :(
I want work, not fighting to keep laser working.

[Dan Hintz]

Clarence,

James Jaragosky is probably the resident Chinese machine guru, and there are already a few threads recently bumped that deal with setting them up. Every new Chinese owner wants to start a database, but they all end up doing the same thing... they find their problems listed somewhere, they fix them, and then they move on. The "database" is the years and years worth of threads...