Here the question. 2 slower engraving lasers or 1 faster!

[Clark Pace]

so chinese lasers are slower at engraving, but at cutting they are similar correct?. So do you buy a laser that can engrave faster?

Or do you buy 2 lasers. So each can engrave at the same time. Thus cutting down your engrave time. Well if you are doing multiple items.

Also you would be doubling your cutting speed again, if you are doing a production run. And if 1 machine goes down you are have a second backup.

What do you think.

[Dan Hintz]

Look at your time management... if >50% of your time is spent lasering, then you want one fast laser (assuming it doesn't break down). If a lot of time is spent filling fixtures, swapping out parts, etc., then 2 slower lasers is probably better.

[John Noell]

I agree with Dan. However, it also depends on where you are. Parts do not come "overnight" to Fiji; they take a week or more even with FedEx. I wasted a LOT of money on Epilog parts, especially when two tubes in a row failed under warranty. The replacement tubes were free but I paid duty and 15% VAT on the VALUE of the parts plus major FedEx charges (and duty on VAT on the shipping costs!). If I had had two Chinese machines instead of one Epilog I would not have lost as much money due to downtime.

[Scott Shepherd]

It completely depends on what you do. If you vector cut all day long, same types of things, you're probably better off with the 2 Chinese machines. If you are a job shop and you see something different every day then the one machine might better suit you. I've said it about a zillion times, there are a number of things we do for customers that are not possible with the Chinese machines. In 2014, that number totaled over $37,000 worth of product that we could not have done on a Chinese machine. That ranges from really small text to very thin, delicate cutting, running with numbers like 1% on our power. I'd hate to think that we would have to give up that volume of work because of machine limitations.

But, we're essentially a job shop, so we have to be able to handle a wide variety of things. If I were cutting baltic birch plywood all day, I'd probably have as many Chinese machines as I could fit in one room. It just depends on what you do and what services you offer.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Two machines are never twice as fast as one of the same type,with mine to get double the speed (production) I have to use 3 machines (whether that be Chinese, Japanese or Western built) given the extra time involved in running separate systems.

cheers

Dave

[Scott Shepherd]

Two machines are never twice as fast as one of the same type,with mine to get double the speed (production) I have to use 3 machines (whether that be Chinese, Japanese or Western built) given the extra time involved in running separate systems.

cheers

Dave

Somewhere there's a post here by me when we first got our Speedy 300. We had a large job for it on a tight deadline to deliver a certain number of pieces per day to the customer. That machine worked me a lot harder than I wanted to work :) I was hoping I could go back to running the slow machine soon! I can't imagine trying to keep up with 2 or 3 fast machines in a production environment. I'd suspect what Dave describes, the machines would sit while waiting on the operator more than they ran.

[Gary Hair]

I'd suspect what Dave describes, the machines would sit while waiting on the operator more than they ran.

It really depends a lot on the job. I have one customer that I engrave a lot of anodized parts and I am always waiting on the laser. This is one of those rare jobs that would get done faster by a factor of how many lasers I had running - up to a point anyway. Right now I can load a full fixture of parts, 80 pieces, in less time than it takes to laser one row of 20. So, in this case I could increase my production by a factor of 4 if I had 4 lasers and could keep up loading all of those parts. Unfortunately, it's not running all day every day or I would have bought multiple lasers already. Besides this job, I have just two others that are similar but they come in so seldom that it doesn't matter. For me? One co2 and one fiber are all I need.

[Scott Shepherd]

Yeah, we're the opposite Gary. I have a job we do about 20,000 at a time. I run 300-400 (can't recall off the top of my head) at a time in a fixture. It takes less than 4 minutes to run, then I have to dump out 300-400. I have a number of fixtures and with multiple people, we can't keep up with the machine. That seems to be what we run into more than anything else. Another repeat job we do, runs 36 pieces each run, it takes 3 minutes to run, and in that time, I can unload the other fixture, load it back up, stack the done ones in a box, and then the machine beeps at me, wanting to be fed again. I couldn't keep 2 running if I had to on jobs like that.

[Rich Harman]

Almost everything I do is cutting, I'd say on average about 20 to 30 minutes at a time. A second machine would definitely help in my situation. If my volume increases that is what I will do.

What I have done in the mean time is get a more powerful tube. That alone has decreased cutting time by about 40%, but my ability to engrave has suffered.

[Clark Pace]

I guess in my case. At least currently, 80% is cutting so I'm happy. But things might change. Is there are faster chinese laser? Mine maxes out a at 400mm

[Rich Harman]

Is there are faster chinese laser? Mine maxes out a at 400mm

I changed mine to 800mm/sec a long time ago. I did a lot of testing up to 1,000mm/sec. At 1,000mm/sec it would skip steps occasionally. It has never had a problem at 800. Yours will probably be different.

For rastering, which I don't do much of, I rarely go over 500. The 800 max comes in handy for jogging and frame tracing.

[Ray Scott]

Buy 2 smaller laser machines. I have several customers with multiple machines. You can leave machines setup for certain projects. Spare parts... Common software, ...