New Purchase Selection help...

[Wayne Soule]

Hi folks, we are looking at a laser and I have a few questions. Sorry if this is a duplicate, but my specific applications might be new...

We will be using the laser to engrave the usual stuff, plastic, wood, etch Aluminum and such.

We need one large enough to etch/engrave cabinet doors and cabinet door glass inserts.
We want to do 3d engraving, more specifically checker gun stocks....
We are a firearms manufacturer as well, and ATF has a requirement for serial numbers. They have to be at least .003 deep and 1/16" tall. I know CO2 will not mark Stainless, so the initial plan is to mask an area, laser away the mask and then electro-etch to get the mark required.

I understand that some fiber lasers can mark metal..... Will the Trotec FLEXX line mark metal?

I was initially looking at the Full Spectrum professional series machines and during my research on them and finding some of the negative feedback about their hobby machines, I found this forum. Does anyone know if the poor quality control/support reported on the hobby stuff, bleeds over into the professional stuff? I understand their software is very powerful, especially for 3D engraving....

With that said, and finding this group, now I have broadened my search field and have come to look at the Trotec and Rabbit machines as well as others.

So selection criteria:

Quality Build
Approx 24x36 bed, or doors to allow material to hang outside the bed (engrave top half of cabinet door, flip for bottom half.. etc)
Approx 90W-150W Laser
Rotary fixture for engraving round items
Good software that allows for 3D engraving


Thanks
Wayne in Wyo

[Dave Sheldrake]

Hi Wayne,


We will be using the laser to engrave the usual stuff, plastic, wood, etch Aluminum and such.

First problem here, Wood and plastic can be etched by low power CO2 lasers but to etch metal you need a different wavelength or a LOT of power. Sadly that means that a laser that etches wood won't *usually* be any good for Metal, a laser that etches metal will have no effect on wood. (Plastics can be a middle ground that work with many kinds of lasers)


We want to do 3d engraving, more specifically checker gun stocks....

Ahh, careful, engraving in 3D is different to 3D engraving, 3D engraving like some of the plaques , pictures etc are produced on flat materials using a variable power method, to engrave in 3D (such as round a curved surface can take a lot more specialist equipment.


I understand that some fiber lasers can mark metal..... Will the Trotec FLEXX line mark metal?

They will


I was initially looking at the Full Spectrum professional series machines

Oh dear.... the term professional is often used to differentiate an item as being above basic standard, it doesn't confide that the Pro version is actually any good, just that it is better than the basic version. The Pro engravers are made by G.Weike in China, then have a US designed card added and marketed for 5x the price of the same Weike machine.


With that said, and finding this group, now I have broadened my search field and have come to look at the Trotec and Rabbit machines as well as others.

Rabbit are excellent machines that are made in China and supported / imported by Ray Scott, Ray is a fantastic chap and will always go above and beyond to help people. Trotech are again excellent machines but Western made and of a higher general build quality. The biggest difference is in speed and method of laser generator. Most if not all Chinese machines use a DC excited, water cooled glass tube that is thrown away when it wears out. Trotech and other Western makes use an RF excited tube that can be refilled when it reaches the end of it's useful life. They are still very different animals with different price tags attached. Expect a big Western made machine to cost 10x what a big eastern made machine does. It's one case though where I couldn't in all honesty recommend getting a Chinese made machine, they do have the occasional glitch or problem that while easily sorted if there is somebodies $5,000 firearm in it when it goes wrong.....well I'm sure you know better than me the potential for problems there.


1:Quality Build
2:Approx 24x36 bed, or doors to allow material to hang outside the bed (engrave top half of cabinet door, flip for bottom half.. etc)
3:Approx 90W-150W Laser
4:Rotary fixture for engraving round items
5:Good software that allows for 3D engraving

1: Quality is relative to price, it's simply not possible to get $40,000 quality for $5,000 no matter who you buy from.
2: Eastern is going to go about $8,000, western is looking closer to $40,000 for that sort of size.
3: Western 150RF is expensive, the source alone could add $20,000 to the price, Eastern DC 150's are wayyyyyy too powerful to give sharp engraving, think of eastern tube lasers as using a nuclear device to crack wallnuts for an idea. No higher than 80 watts if you want quality engraving from an eastern DC tube.
4:Not a problem, east or west both have them available.
5: The clincher....Chinese machines simply don't do 3D engraving very well if at all compared to even basic Western machines.

My opinion (and this is just opinion) spend the extra and go for a Trotech for the jobs you have outlined, a Chinese machine just isn't going to make the grade (and I'm a big supporter of Chinese machines usually)

cheers

Dave