Thoughts on Chinese lasers now?

[Keith Winter]

I've enjoyed reading all the older posts about Chinese lasers. Most of the threads are old though, I'm wondering what everyone thinks of the Chinese lasers now? Interested in hearing from both those that have had Chinese lasers for a long time, and newer owners too!

A few questions
1. Do they all suffer from the poor grounding and improperly wired electrical or is that just the shenhuis? Seems once people got them up and going it was fine, but there are at least four threads on the Shenhuis not being grounded properly or not wired properly for our 110/220 circuits here.

I'm going to be cutting with it almost exclusively. 1/4" ply. I know I want at least 100w probably more like 130 or 150 watt. My jobs take 15 minutes at 80w, wanting to shave some time off with more power.

2) What are your thoughts on:
Shenhui
Triumph
eBay guys like "cnccheap"
Others?

3) What tube would you get? Reci, SP, other?

4) Any particular add-ons you would get or things to watch out for when buying?

[Jerome Stanek]

What happened to your Speedy that you need a Chinese laser

[Bert Kemp]

I have a Rabbit 60 watt which so far I love , it takes a little getting use to the lasercut software but its not that big a deal.
Ray gets his machines in then he himself goes thru them and makes sure the wiring and all that stuff is up to par before he ships them out. He usually delivers it himself and sets it up for you and teaches you how to get going fast. Not sure if he does this for all machines but I know he has done it. His support is great , I had a problem on a Sunday and he got right to me and fixed it. It was an operator error but nobody here could help and Ray saw my post and got me going again. Yes they don't answer email to fast but I have always got thru on the phone if I really needed help. Haven't had a real machine problem yet always been software things I couldn't figure out.

[Keith Winter]

My speedys are awesome but I keep them pretty busy doing engraving and other tasks. I would like something cheaper yet powerful just for cutting and the Chinese lasers are much cheaper.

[Dave Sheldrake]

1. Do they all suffer from the poor grounding and improperly wired electrical or is that just the shenhuis? Seems once people got them up and going it was fine, but there are at least four threads on the Shenhuis not being grounded properly or not wired properly for our 110/220 circuits here.

Direct imports all seem to have problems, I won't touch them but a home supply Chinese cutter is a great tool that does the job.


I'm going to be cutting with it almost exclusively. 1/4" ply. I know I want at least 100w probably more like 130 or 150 watt. My jobs take 15 minutes at 80w, wanting to shave some time off with more power.

The 100/130 watt is the relative nobody wants to see at a party, the tubes are expensive for what they can do and don't really offer that much over the better 80 watt tubes. If you want to cut 6.3mm (1/4inch) all day go for the 150 agreed(180 peak) or the newer F series 220 Agreed (260 peak).


2) What are your thoughts on:
Shenhui
Triumph
eBay guys like "cnccheap"
Others?

US supplied Keith, direct imports are the bane of my life..or rather my email. Support can be lacking and on the bigger tubes support is essential (they die very quickly if you screw up)


3) What tube would you get? Reci, SP, other?

EFR ZX series in 150 watt or EFR F-220, the beam mode and profile simply cannot be matched by anything other than the GSI SLC series (but they are $25,000+ for a tube)


4) Any particular add-ons you would get or things to watch out for when buying?

Not really, maybe an extra focal lens or a set of Moly mirrors (you can't use Chinese gold mirrors on 130 watt machines, they crack quickly) A good chiller like the US version of the HPC CW4000 (it's not a CW but HPC use the same naming convention) An 8 head / 4 motor Junwei compressor and a set of 3D printed nozzle extenders and away you go :)

[Scott Marquez]

Ray from Rabbit laser flew to Washington state on April 30th to set up my new laser up.
We started at 8:00 am and he didn't leave until almost 10:00 pm that night. We had to take my machine apart to bring it in my shop. If you call him and he doesn't answer, my guess is that he is with a customer. His phone rang at least 20 times that day and thankfully he only took a few calls or we would have been there all night.
I only use my machine a few hours a week but it rips through fabric with ease. The machine is pretty straight forward, most of my headaches have been learning the different software and laser terminology in general.
I'm happy so far with my machine choice.
Scott

[Rodne Gold]

My 2 shenuis are still going strong...
I have just ordered 4 x 400x600 60w machines from Yarde Feng to replace my dying GCC spirits.
Chinese machines are cheap to keep going and pretty easy to repair too

[George M. Perzel]

Rodne;
Where is Yarde working now?
Thanks
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Rodne Gold]

LIAOCHENG LONGTAI LASER EQUIPMENT CO.,LTD
SOUTH XIAODUAN VILLAGE,BEICHENG STREE OFFICE ,ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT,LIAOCHENG CITY,SHANDONG PROV,CHIna...

He has been incredibly helpful over the years , so thought I will support him.. He says there have been some improvements in the last few years and he is taking charge personally with my build...

I dont need any handholding :)

LT-460 ,60W ,with
electric up and down
table ,CW3000 chiller, blower , airpumps


4 x US$2,350.00 = US$9,400.00

D20,F50.8 lens,IIVI

16 x US$35.00 = US$560.00

60W laser power supply

4 x US$100.00 = US$400.00



3 phase stepper motor

4 x US$25.00 = US$100.00



60W laser tube

4 x US$150.00 = US$600.00


controller

1 US$300.00 = US$300.00


TOTAL US$11,360.00

not a bad price for 4 lasers...

[Rodne Gold]

We just moved at the end of the month to a new Factory - 1200 sq m , gives us space to grow , much better than our old place
All my explorers have died and were dumped
1 of my Spirits is dead and another is dying , thus we need some "new blood"

[Junior hall]

Try Bosslaser out of Florida There customer support is by far above the best. Could not asked for more just simply the best. They will walk you threw it by remote access. They even have a after hours support also. I never heard of a laser engraver until i seen some thing on the news as i looked into it and seen some videos on YouTube and was hooked I contacted several and most were out of my price range. I took a chance on a Chinese made laser engraver and dont have any complaints as Bosslaser goes threw them with a fine tooth comb The software they give you both lasercut and engravelab v9 Bosslaser is by far the cheapest and there tech support customer service is top notch

[Keith Winter]

Hi Rodne,

To clarify your post, you're not into buying Shenhuis anymore, you're going to buy from this Liaocheng now? Is it because you're having issues with the Shenhuis or just because you like the rep?

[Rodne Gold]

Hi Rodne,

To clarify your post, you're not into buying Shenhuis anymore, you're going to buy from this Liaocheng now? Is it because you're having issues with the Shenhuis or just because you like the rep?


Yarde is the tech and R&D guy , I have spent time with him in China.. I follow him...

Really doesnt matter what laser I buy , 6 of 1 , 1/2 a dozen of another.. we can set em up , fix and strip em and change a tube quicker than you can brew coffee... :)
simple cheap machines that do whats in the tin... all for 3k a machine including spares.
I would not hesitate to buy machines from shenhui , but none of my old contacts are there..and in China.. contacts you have met face to face are king..

[Keith Winter]

Great thoughts guys. I'm going to try to buy US China if they can get the price closer. I don't mind them making a few bucks, but none of this double or triple markup game. That being said, I'd like to buy it from and support a US company who's reselling them if they make it reasonable.

Feedback I'm getting from the good folks at Rabbit are the 100/130/150 watt tubes are all garbage. The only good ones are the 80 watts and below they said. However the shenhui folks say they are ok, and I see numerous people on the board with >80w chinese lasers. Going from 130/150 watt to 80 watt is going to seriously slow my cutting, but if the tubes die after 6 months that's no good.

Anyone that has a 100w, 130w, or 150w, have you had any issues with your tube? I may not fully understand the glass tubes; I fail to understand why a 130w or 150w would not be as reliable as a 80 watt say if we kept it at 90% power?

[Dave Sheldrake]

Anyone that has a 100w, 130w, or 150w, have you had any issues with your tube? I may not fully understand the glass tubes; I fail to understand why a 130w or 150w would not be as reliable as a 80 watt say if we kept it at 90% power?

You are quite right Keith, a good 130 150 180 is just if not more reliable than the basic 80 watt. The biggest problem is heat, if people buy the bigger DC tubes and try to save a buck on the chiller that is what causes the problems. The lowest power machine I have now is a 180 watt and thus far I have yet to have a tube fail in under 2 years with most of them going to 3 years + (I have one early EFR tube that managed 5 years and was still pumping good beam when I swapped it for a bigger version)


Feedback I'm getting from the good folks at Rabbit are the 100/130/150 watt tubes are all garbage

Ray is a great guy and somebody I have a lot of time for...he's plain wrong on this one though.

The problem can be that at over 80 watts light engraving becomes close to impossible although the spot size is always smaller on a bigger tube (they have a bigger input beam so the spot will always be smaller for a given focal length)

If you go for a big pump though it is vital that you get a good one...if it's a 150+ then a ZX series EFR is the only type I would chance or maybe the F220 (it's not a standard F series) look for the housekeeper joint on the output coupler (go for metal to glass NOT epoxy) as that is where any problems start on the high power tubes.

Higher power tubes aren't toys though, not something I would suggest a new laser owner going for but given your experience with the speedy you won't have any issues Keith :)

[Keith Winter]

Been looking at Chinese lasers a lot over the past few weeks, reading up a lot on each of the manufacturers from older posts here and on cnc forum. Might be suffering from analysis paralysis at this point ;)

I'm going to be cutting almost exclusively on these (taking the cutting work off the Trotecs) so I'm going to go with a 130 watt EFR ZN-1650 tube in whatever I get per Dave's recommendation if possible.

The 5 lasers I've seen the most on, and/or quoted:
Weike and Shehui seem to be pretty popular in the forums here. On the Weike and Shehui I really liked the price they quoted me, and the sales reps were very friendly. However I have concern on the number of issues reported. Seems like everyone has one quality control problem or another with them when they get them. Some are minor issues of missing items, some are larger issues with the machines themselves. Most seemed to be resolved by the factory, but Weike especially, seems to be having a lot of quality control issues this past year judging on all the posts I've read on cnc forum.

Redsail seems to have favorable reviews, but the tech hasn't be updated as much as some of the others from what I can tell. The sales person didn't know what a honeycomb for cutting was, he was just wanting to sell me a blade table and when I said no I want a honeycomb for cutting he reversed course and he sent me photos of two different honeycombs that he claimed were the same honeycomb. Didn't look like the same unit, looked more like he grabbed two very different honeycomb photos off the internet and emailed them to me. He also didn't have any ERF tubes or RECI tubes available he said. Strange.


There are two others I've found that I'm curious if anyone has opinions on?
1. Thunder laser - They are about $2000 more than Shenhui on the quotes I got for a 1300x900 work area machine, but they add a few extras like servo motors and such standard. The extra features themselves do not outweigh the cost difference, but at least from Gozzie's review they seem to take quality control a bit more seriously. Which is worth something to me if they really do. I'm looking at the Mars 130 it runs Lasergrav, anyone with experience using this program?
2. Automation Tech - They say they have offices in the usa, no frills machines. Similar to the landed price after duties and taxes of the Thunder Lasers if they really do stock them in the USA.

Anyone know anything about or have thoughts on Thunder Lasers or Automation Tech? Any other lasers I should consider?

[Jerome Stanek]

I bought mine from Automation I went there and picked it up and got a day of training. I called John and got a little better price as I was picking it up and he didn't have to arrange shipping. Also I had the control board go out and he sent me a new one and had me return the bad one after I received it. I was only down 1 day. John was really nice to work with.

[Ron Gosnell]

Been looking at Chinese lasers a lot over the past few weeks, reading up a lot on each of the manufacturers from older posts here and on cnc forum. Might be suffering from analysis paralysis at this point ;)

I'm going to be cutting almost exclusively on these (taking the cutting work off the Trotecs) so I'm going to go with a 130 watt EFR ZN-1650 tube in whatever I get per Dave's recommendation if possible.

The 5 lasers I've seen the most on, and/or quoted:
Weike and Shehui seem to be pretty popular in the forums here. On the Weike and Shehui I really liked the price they quoted me, and the sales reps were very friendly. However I have concern on the number of issues reported. Seems like everyone has one quality control problem or another with them when they get them. Some are minor issues of missing items, some are larger issues with the machines themselves. Most seemed to be resolved by the factory, but Weike especially, seems to be having a lot of quality control issues this past year judging on all the posts I've read on cnc forum.

Redsail seems to have favorable reviews, but the tech hasn't be updated as much as some of the others from what I can tell. The sales person didn't know what a honeycomb for cutting was, he was just wanting to sell me a blade table and when I said no I want a honeycomb for cutting he reversed course and he sent me photos of two different honeycombs that he claimed were the same honeycomb. Didn't look like the same unit, looked more like he grabbed two very different honeycomb photos off the internet and emailed them to me. He also didn't have any ERF tubes or RECI tubes available he said. Strange.


There are two others I've found that I'm curious if anyone has opinions on?
1. Thunder laser - They are about $2000 more than Shenhui on the quotes I got for a 1300x900 work area machine, but they add a few extras like servo motors and such standard. The extra features themselves do not outweigh the cost difference, but at least from Gozzie's review they seem to take quality control a bit more seriously. Which is worth something to me if they really do. I'm looking at the Mars 130 it runs Lasergrav, anyone with experience using this program?
2. Automation Tech - They say they have offices in the usa, no frills machines. Similar to the landed price after duties and taxes of the Thunder Lasers if they really do stock them in the USA.

Anyone know anything about or have thoughts on Thunder Lasers or Automation Tech? Any other lasers I should consider?

Actually Thunder laser will run on lasergrav or the newer RDworks 8. I believe Rich Harmon would be the go to guy on that software. I like RDworks because it plays nicely with corel draw once you get it figured out but that's probably like any other software. You have the learning curve.

Gozzie