What laser would you buy if you want to cut thick MDF & engrave on wood/metal/acryli

[Mike Lysov]

Hi guys,

As you can see in my signature I have a 280W laser than can cut only and 100W LaserPro that can cut and engrave. Both lasers are CO2.

The 280W is good and it would be better if it could cut faster for thin and small pieces and could engrave. However it cannot and that's the reason I am not selling my LaserPro. I use it for cutting thin MDF and engraving. Lets say I would like to get something over 280W that can engrave and cut, possibly with 2mx1m bed. What type of laser I need to look for?
Are fiber lasers can cut through MDF and how they are compared with CO2? For example will a 500W fiber laser be faster than a CO2 laser with 280W power(2x 140W GSI DC tubes)

[Dan Hintz]

Fiber lasers will not cut wood. For speed, why are you not looking at CNC for cutting thick wood? Do you really need the detail the laser offers?

[Dave Sheldrake]

Like Dan says, it's not a matter of power, there is an upper limit in wood a CO2 laser can cut. Once you go above that you no longer cut, due to the energies involved all you do is burn stuff.

Define "thick wood" ?

[Michael Kowalczyk]

check out Kern

[Mike Lysov]

I personally do not like CNC routers, they are very noisy, dusty and dangerous. Also they cannot cut out small pieces and fine details. And they do not even that fast comparing to my 280W laser for medium size pieces that need to be cut with 3mm bit. While they still cannot do the details the laser can. I can do 16mm MDF with 580mm/m while I had to do 5 passes with 3mm bit and 3000 mm/m feed rate on my router. It is almost the same speed.
I had a cnc router before and sold it as soon as I ordered a powerful laser.

Kern is good but they are in USA. If they have a distributor in Australia I am quite sure their margin will kill an idea to buy it locally.
I was thinking about a china built laser but with a 400W RF tube.

Why do you guys think that a 400W RF tube won't cut faster than a 280W DC tube?

[Jerome Stanek]

I personally do not like CNC routers, they are very noisy, dusty and dangerous. Also they cannot cut out small pieces and fine details. And they do not even that fast comparing to my 280W laser for medium size pieces that need to be cut with 3mm bit. While they still cannot do the details the laser can. I can do 16mm MDF with 580mm/m while I had to do 5 passes with 3mm bit and 3000 mm/m feed rate on my router. It is almost the same speed.
I had a cnc router before and sold it as soon as I ordered a powerful laser.

Kern is good but they are in USA. If they have a distributor in Australia I am quite sure their margin will kill an idea to buy it locally.
I was thinking about a china built laser but with a 400W RF tube.

Why do you guys think that a 400W RF tube won't cut faster than a 280W DC tube?

There are places for a laser and for a CNC you just have to weigh what you want to do. I have both and there are somethings that even a 400 watt laser should not do like I cut a lot of 25 mm PVC on my router do you cut that on your laser.

[Braden Todd]

I would second looking into a Kern laser. I'm amazed by their build quality and after sale support. When I was at their facility they did have a unit going to Germany and one for India i think so hopefully they'd have a solution to get one out to you.

I was worried that my machine would be a cut only unit, but the engravings are spot on and the amount of control the software gives you is unbelievable. Also, if you buy a 400 watt machine they're sent with more power, I ended up with 580.

Good luck!

[Dave Sheldrake]

Why do you guys think that a 400W RF tube won't cut faster than a 280W DC tube?

Because my 7.5kW laser isn't much faster than my 200 watt SLC for cutting wood. Absorption rates of materials are a quantifiable unit of time/efficiency/absorption, that doesn't change because you add only more power.

Efficiency is the one to look at, a close nozzle with retraction and small diameter, high pressure air assist will work far better than just adding raw power.

It isn't a linear progression, if it was then the 7.5kW should cut 37 times faster but it doesn't.