New to lasers - but considering upgrading already.

[Alex LaFave]

Hey Folks,

New to this side of the forum, greetings. I recently purchased my wife an FSL muse core that she has been wanting for crafting. I decided to have a bit of fun myself and make some items that go along with another hobby of mine. Other folks liked the items too, so i opened a website and have seemed to stumble on a somewhat under-served market. I have only been running a week or so but am already averaging $200-$300 in daily sales, at an 80% margin. I am not yet ready to upgrade, but am already finding the limits of this Hobby machine. My main product, a 12x18" raster sign takes 50-52min to engrave, if i get many more orders per day, there just wont be enough time in the day to fulfill the orders.

So.. i am beginning to (already) look at options for the next machine. I am considering larger machines from FSL (PS36), Boss, Aeon and thunder. Each of these will be in the $10k-$14k range. However, i am also considering going all-in on an Epilog Fusion at $25k, but the thought of putting such a young business into debt on the machine is stopping me short. Can anyone else share their story/path to upgrading machines or pointers on when it might be time to upgrade?

Alex

[Bruce Volden]

Alex,
I bought my 1st machine for $22,500 (25W LMI 36" X 12" table). I just wanted a laser, I'm not a businessman at all!
I did NO advertising but word of mouth got out and I started getting too busy. I continued working my full time job with overtime.
I had 2 of my kids running the machine while I was @ work. I ended up buying another machine about a year later (LMI).
A couple years later I got an Epilog. I NEVER spent for advertising and had so much work to do I was getting bummed out.
I don't know where you are located but I am in a very rural state and have kept busy! Funny---I just bought it to have fun but
I burned out.

Bruce

[Kev Williams]

Alex, check my signature--

Every time I've bought another machine, shortly thereafter I always wondered how I got along without it! (notice I didn't say "new" machine, most of my machines were purchased used)-

This was especially true with lasers :)

Research used machines by Epilog, Universal, Trotec, Gravograph, and GCC/Pinnacle. All of these brands are upper-tier machines with RF-driven tubes, much faster than DC-driven glass tubes, very reliable, and as used equipment goes, they hold their value fairly well...

I've found- for my situation anyway, that more less-costly used machines are much more productive than fewer very-costly machines; The fastest $30k Trotec or Gravograph simply won't put out anywhere near the work that three $10k machines will! :D

[Alex LaFave]

Alex,
I bought my 1st machine for $22,500 (25W LMI 36" X 12" table). I just wanted a laser, I'm not a businessman at all!
I did NO advertising but word of mouth got out and I started getting too busy. I continued working my full time job with overtime.
I had 2 of my kids running the machine while I was @ work. I ended up buying another machine about a year later (LMI).
A couple years later I got an Epilog. I NEVER spent for advertising and had so much work to do I was getting bummed out.
I don't know where you are located but I am in a very rural state and have kept busy! Funny---I just bought it to have fun but
I burned out.

Bruce

This sounds familiar to how this little venture is starting. Hoping i can get my wife involved to help out, as i do have a full time career that i do not currently intend to leave. Luckily, i work from home 3 days per week which allows some flexibility.

[Alex LaFave]

Alex, check my signature--

Every time I've bought another machine, shortly thereafter I always wondered how I got along without it! (notice I didn't say "new" machine, most of my machines were purchased used)-

This was especially true with lasers :)

Research used machines by Epilog, Universal, Trotec, Gravograph, and GCC/Pinnacle. All of these brands are upper-tier machines with RF-driven tubes, much faster than DC-driven glass tubes, very reliable, and as used equipment goes, they hold their value fairly well...

I've found- for my situation anyway, that more less-costly used machines are much more productive than fewer very-costly machines; The fastest $30k Trotec or Gravograph simply won't put out anywhere near the work that three $10k machines will! :D

Thanks Kev, i was hoping for a 24x36 machine, but i do have a link on a 2015 Epilog M2 20x32 which is lightly used for ~$12k, which does not seem too far out of line.

[John Lifer]

One thing I will say, is that I would work to stick to one OS. I've thought about an Epi or trotec a couple of times, but there is a big difference - not bad at all- but a difference in setting things up with an epilog or trotec vs a cheap chinese like I have. Just the way the images can be handled. If you can get the Epilog for $12k, I'd jump on it. You do have the advantage of actually using grey scale outside of a bitmap with these vs a chinese. And you don't have to bother about a chiller. GOOD Luck!

[Kev Williams]

I've stated this many times: ALL lasers are different. And that goes for "identical" ones too :) I learned that back when the only laser I had was the little Universal; a customer called on a Friday afternoon, needing $5000 worth of black/white labels in their hands the next Monday morning before their noon flight to Spain to install them all on some bridge. I called my machine rep, who sold me the laser, asked if he had a demo machine he rent me over the weekend as that was the only possible way to get the job done in time. By sheer coincidence, he'd just loaded an identical-to mine just-refurbed Uni into his minivan to deliver to a customer in Montana. The new owner wasn't in a big rush for it so I got to use it over the weekend--thankfully!

All the plates were identical sized, and needed screw holes on the left & right edges. First thing I found out was I had to reduce the engraving speed of the borrowed machine to match the engraving of my machine, as my machine seemed to have more power. But when it came to cutting the holes, MY machined needed the speed reduced, the borrowed unit was much more efficient at cutting than mine was.

No idea why!

This of course isn't the same as running identical software to drive the machines, but not much difference really, in the end it's all about learning how to make each machine do what you want it to do!