New purchase footprint size and watts

[mitch stephens]

What are the ups an downs of small footprint vs larger footprint and wattage of machines.I other words would you buy bigger now if you have a small laser or if you have a big laser would you buy a smaller one if you had it to do over.( small 50 watt 12x20 bigger 100 watt 24x40) Any opinions would be great and your reasons why.
Thanks in advance
Mitch

[John Lifer]

US? Or China machine? Or should I more properly say metal rf tube vs glass tube?
If Chinese, buy what your pocketbook will allow. I've a 1500mmx900mm 80watt for that reason?

If US machine, will you ever want to take machine in the road? i.e. a craft show, demonstration, etc? If so, smaller is better.
Otherwise, I'd go bigger is better. Better resale value for US larger v smaller. Just my opinion though.

[Bert Kemp]

this is another one of those topic that have been discussed 100's of times here. Use the search feature. search for . what size laser do I buy or new laser purchase , what kinda of laser should I get.How big a laser do I need

[mitch stephens]

this is another one of those topic that have been discussed 100's of times here. Use the search feature. search for . what size laser do I buy or new laser purchase , what kinda of laser should I get.How big a laser do I need

The last time I used the search feature someone chimed in an said start a new thread because that one was a year old. Which happened to be my first post on here.
Thanks Mitch

[Dave Sheldrake]

So far I've never seen anybody say "Dam I wish my machine was smaller or less powerful" ;)

[mitch stephens]

So far I've never seen anybody say "Dam I wish my machine was smaller or less powerful" ;)

Thats what I was kinda thinking also Dave
Thanks Mitch

[Michael Henriksen]

Always buy the biggest you can afford and have room for. I started out with a small machine because that was all I could afford. I tucked away most of the money I made with it so I could buy a larger machine.

[Jayce Patterson]

So far I've never seen anybody say "Dam I wish my machine was smaller or less powerful" ;)

Ok. That one made me laugh!

[John Noell]

Well, when moving into the new shop and looking at the door, then looking at my laser, I was TEMPTED to say something like that. :)

[Robert Bonenfant]

Bigger the better - Bed Size and power.

Most sheet goods come in 5'x5' and 4x8' (if your cutting wood) so the bigger the cutting table the less time you have to spend cutting down materials to fit.
At first this wont be a big deal to cut a few sheets but as your business grows, 2 sheets turns in 200 sheets very quickly.
50 Watts will have a hard time with cutting quickly - I would go with the 100 watt, cuts acrylic and plywood pretty well and with descent speed,
When they say it will cut 3/4" Wood this is true but it will take all night lol , We have found cutting anything over 1/4" Isnt worth it because it takes forever (Wood And acrylic)

[Kev Williams]

Power has everything to do with what you're laser's functions will be. It may be my imagination but it seems like at least 8 out of 10 laser users here CUT with theirs all day long. Probably a good reason my lasers keep going (knock on my head) is because my lasers rarely do any cutting. I make my own laminate legend plates and cut a few other plastic things here and there, but 95% of the time my lasers are ENGRAVING. Even my big Triumph, it engraves a lot of anodized aluminum and Rowmark. The only cutting I do in the thing is to cut 24x48 sheets down to 12x18 or 10 x 16 or whatever my one customer comes up with, it's easier than trying to saw it.

I toyed with the idea of getting a 130w tube for it. If I had, I wouldn't have much use for it because it's too slow to compensate for the lowest reliable power settings. A Gravograph LS900XP or a Trotec speedy 400 can make great use of a 130w tube for engraving, but not a 32" per second Chinese machine..

[Steven Taitinger]

This isn't your size range but know that 50x30cm or maybe 6040 is the only size that fits through standard 36in doors. The 7050 size I have is just too big. They said it comes apart into the top and bottom but everything is bolted to the base so that really doesn't help. My 7050 size is pretty much as big as you can load onto a truck (with a winch). Any bigger and you will be needing a power lift gate anyways. The upfront price difference between different sizes was about $50 US each which was negligible. However... the shipping between the different sizes changed by as much as 50%. A 6040 is a 1m^3 crate whereas my 7050 was 1.5m^3. Sea shipping is directly based on volume. The only other thing that hasn't been mentioned is that a larger machine has more moving mass and my guess is probably still use pretty much the same motors and drivers. I don't have any proof but my guess is some of the larger sizes might have a bit slower acceleration than some of the smaller sizes.