"Pass through" on a Fusion 40

[Jay Selway]

So, I'm in the market for a laser. I've narrowed it down to the Speedy Trotec 400 with pass through and the Fusion 40 (120w :cool:).

Have any of you attempted to do pass through on an Epilog fusion? Some of the work I'm planning on doing is going to be large format, which is why I had originally become interested in the Speedy400.

Additionally, how many of you use adobe illustrator rather than corel draw? I work as a designer, so I know illustrator like the back of my hand. Corel, I know, but it's been years since I've used it.

[Kristina Jones]

Hi Jay,

To answer your question about Illustrator on a Trotec, yes you can! Here is a link to a guide that you can use to set up the workspace - http://www.troteclaser.com/en-US/About-Trotec/News/Pages/2012_03-How-to-Print-from-Adobe-Illustrator.aspx Hope this helps!

Kristina

[Gary Hair]

Jay - I don't have either of the two lasers you are looking at buy my Explorer ZX has pass through and I can tell you that in the 8 years I have owned it the additional cost, about $1,000 at the time, was paid for in the first few months of owning it and it has paid for itself many times over. If you are lasering a single pass on a large piece then it is very simple, if you are lasering a large area and indexing it through the laser then it gets a little more tricky. I wouldn't even consider a laser without it, too much money to be lost without it - especially if you find out how many others have the same capability in your area - in my case it was none!

As for Illy vs Corel - it's mostly a personal preference and what you are most proficient with. However, if you need support for Illy you'll find it much harder to come by since it is used by so few people with lasers and the "artsy" users usually don't understand how you need to draw for a laser. If it were me I'd probably stick with Illy and have one less thing to learn.

[Josh Borlovan]

Just buy the Speedy 400 and be done with it! :D

[Jay Selway]

Just buy the Speedy 400 and be done with it! :D

Hah, I know, I know.

I'm testing it out on Thursday. Hope to make the decision this week.

[Mike Null]

My experience is just the opposite of Gary's with respect to the pass through feature and large bed. I can count on one hand the jobs I've missed because of not having the feature. I've been doing this for more than 17 years. I did pass a job to a friend which was a 5 figure job but that's only one.

[David Somers]

Good morning Mike!

I am asking this out of curiosity, not from a desire to get into this line of work on a laser. But since we have had a number of folks in recent posts mention some fairly high value jobs done on their systems I am curious what would be considered a suitable earning from it? For instance, in the 5 figure job you mentioned above, lets say for the sake of argument it was a $20,000 job, what would be an acceptable earning from a job like that?

Dave

[Kev Williams]

slight hijack:

I have a Chinese laser on order. 900x600 with 80 watt EFR tube and a 30 inch Z height. - Care to elaborate? I'm considering a 4th laser, and your sig caught my eye, particularly the 30" Z clearance. I'm currently pantograph engraving 24" to 28" tall black anodized aluminum boxes on a regular basis that are a complete pain to pantograph engrave!