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View Full Version : Time to replace laser engraver?



David Sabot
10-13-2010, 12:03 PM
I have a GCC Mercury 25 watt machine. It is 5 years old, and I have confirmed I am getting 14 watts at the cone. I was offered $3000 for the machine as a trade in to get a new Universal Laser VLS 4.60-25 machine which starts at $16850 before the trade in. Is that a good price on the Universal? Should I try to get this one regassed (takes 2 months), better deal elsewhere? Any advice will help.

Larry Bratton
10-13-2010, 12:21 PM
Gosh, only 5 years old and your thinking of giving up on it? I believe I would consider getting a new tube or whatever before I would spend another $13k. If the machine was doing what you wanted I would try to stick with it.

Dan Hintz
10-13-2010, 12:25 PM
That's not a very attractive starting price on the ULS, either...

Rodne Gold
10-13-2010, 12:35 PM
For that money I would keep the machine as a backup and get a new one as the prime producer - those mercurys are real workhorses.
14 watts will be enough to do most engraving anyway - however if you are getting 14watts at the cone it does not mean the tube is going , your optics might be on the way out or the laser might not be properly aligned.

Chuck Stone
10-13-2010, 12:49 PM
14 watts will be enough to do most engraving anyway - however if you are getting 14watts at the cone it does not mean the tube is going , your optics might be on the way out or the laser might not be properly aligned.

If that machine is similar to mine (Mercury L-30) and I just found another
mirror I didn't know about. It should probably be the one cleaned most often,
since it is the only one that faces UP! But I didn't know about it till an hour
ago. Since then, my cutting depth jumped about 500% on the job I'm doing.

The mirror at the bottom left (rear) is behind a vented panel and under a
black plastic cover. I can see how that one would get overlooked when cleaning.
But the other mirrors face down and so dust is less apt to settle on them.
This one faces up, and I was surprised at how much dust accumulated there!
I re-ran the last job on new material and the depth of the cut went from
0.027 up to 0.149 !

You can't see the smile on my face .. it's underneath all the egg..

Anyway, just a suggestion. Maybe everyone else knows about that mirror
and it isn't an issue.

Viktor Voroncov
10-13-2010, 12:54 PM
David, 3000 is extremely unfair price for Mercury :( Keep it!

David Sabot
10-13-2010, 2:11 PM
Thanks for all the comments so far. I will take another look at all the mirrors, though I am sure they all look pretty good. I was thinking $3000 was too low for the tradein, and $18.5k was too high for the purchase.

Chuck Stone
10-13-2010, 3:56 PM
David .. wasn't questioning your maintenance .. just MINE! :p
I only mentioned it because I never knew the mirror was exposed.
(here's where I found it)