Question for Trotec owners on power

[Chris Bratton]

I'm getting ready to buy a 400 flexx but had a question for owners on CO2 power. Does the 120watt laser have the same engrave quality as the 80watt? My only reference is using Chinese lasers and when you go higher in wattage engraving quality suffers.

[Gary Hair]

I don't know that you'll find too much difference in the quality with 80 vs 120 but what you may find is that it is difficult to get power settings exact because you are dealing with larger numbers per increase in percentage of power. ie - each increase of 1% of 80 watts is .8 watts and with 120 it would be 1.2. That may not seem like much of a difference, but you may find materials that are harder to get the exact mark you want with 120 watts. If you'll never need to cut or mark paper, basswood, cardboard, or anything like that, and you know you'll need to cut thick acrylic and/or wood, then 120 watts will be much better than 80. So, it really boils down to what you want and need.

On another topic - some may disagree with me but I think most will agree. For the money, you would be better off with a single-purpose machine. Get a Speedy 400 (80/120/whatever) and a separate fiber. The difference in price would easily pay for a stand-alone fiber and you would have two machines that could work at the same time. Plus, I am absolutely not a fan of gantry fiber. They are inferior in almost every way compared to a galvo - speed and settings are the main difference. The only thing you get with a gantry fiber is a much larger working area - not worth the trade-off for me. I've got a Speedy 400 that I could upgrade to include fiber, but instead I bought two 30 watt galvo fiber machines and I wouldn't trade this setup for anything!

[Chris Bratton]

I was also planning on getting a galvo also. I really just need the large work area. The Trotec galvo with 12 x 12 lens would work for me but it is more than I want to spend right now. I get good results with my chinese lasers. I'm just tired of messing with the software and I'm to the point where i need to save time as I'm to busy to keep up

[Chris Bratton]

How do you like your G. Weike LF-30, 30 watt galvo fiber laser? These are the ones I was looking at buying.

[Gary Hair]

How do you like your G. Weike LF-30, 30 watt galvo fiber laser? These are the ones I was looking at buying.

Love the lasers, not so happy with Lucy, the rep I bought them from. Short version of the story is the three I bought didn't come equipped as they were supposed to and Lucy handled it very poorly.

[Keith Winter]

I don't know that you'll find too much difference in the quality with 80 vs 120 but what you may find is that it is difficult to get power settings exact because you are dealing with larger numbers per increase in percentage of power. ie - each increase of 1% of 80 watts is .8 watts and with 120 it would be 1.2. That may not seem like much of a difference, but you may find materials that are harder to get the exact mark you want with 120 watts. If you'll never need to cut or mark paper, basswood, cardboard, or anything like that, and you know you'll need to cut thick acrylic and/or wood, then 120 watts will be much better than 80. So, it really boils down to what you want and need.

On another topic - some may disagree with me but I think most will agree. For the money, you would be better off with a single-purpose machine. Get a Speedy 400 (80/120/whatever) and a separate fiber. The difference in price would easily pay for a stand-alone fiber and you would have two machines that could work at the same time. Plus, I am absolutely not a fan of gantry fiber. They are inferior in almost every way compared to a galvo - speed and settings are the main difference. The only thing you get with a gantry fiber is a much larger working area - not worth the trade-off for me. I've got a Speedy 400 that I could upgrade to include fiber, but instead I bought two 30 watt galvo fiber machines and I wouldn't trade this setup for anything!

I would agree with most everything he said except it is no harder to dial in a 120w vs a 80w Trotec. I have both, one is just as easy as the other to use. The 120w does make people lazy though, since you have more power you don't have to be as precisely dialed in to get a good cut or engrave on things like wood as you do on a 80w.

[Keith Winter]

I was also planning on getting a galvo also. I really just need the large work area. The Trotec galvo with 12 x 12 lens would work for me but it is more than I want to spend right now. I get good results with my chinese lasers. I'm just tired of messing with the software and I'm to the point where i need to save time as I'm to busy to keep up

Chris what other lasers are you running I don't see it in your footer? What are you aiming to cut/engrave with the flex? Knowing that will allow for better recommendations from the group...

[Gary Hair]

I would agree with most everything he said except it is no harder to dial in a 120w vs a 80w Trotec. I have both, one is just as easy as the other to use. The 120w does make people lazy though, since you have more power you don't have to be as precisely dialed in to get a good cut or engrave on things like wood as you do on a 80w.

Coming from someone who has both, that's good info! I can go home happy, I learned something today...

[Chris Bratton]

I have 60 watt and 80 watt thunder laser co2 machines. I engrave everything from wood, ceramic, stainless and acrylics. I also do a lot of powder coating engraving with lasers.

[Chris Bratton]

I'm a one man custom shop with some production runs.

[Chris Bratton]

Just got a quote for the LF-30. Man those things are cheap. Have does software compare to rdworks?

[Keith Winter]

I have 60 watt and 80 watt thunder laser co2 machines. I engrave everything from wood, ceramic, stainless and acrylics. I also do a lot of powder coating engraving with lasers.

Nice to meet another thunder owner! Thought Gozzie and I were the only ones on the board. Engraving is where you are going to save a lot of time on the Trotec, which you probably already know.

[Chris Bratton]

I think I'm going to go with Gary's recommendation. I think I'm going to just buy Speedy 400 120 and get 2 Wiesley 300 x 300 mm color galvo's. 1 man 5 lasers :)