Need advice for trying out lasers at the trade show

[Natalya Murphy]

I will be attending the Awards & Custom Gifts show in Indianapolis next week and want to use the opportunity to test drive the various lasers out there. While doing my research on this forum, I've seen several mentions of taking your own material and files and have the reps cut them.

Being completely new to the laser world, I'm not even sure what specific materials I should take along. As far as files, I'm assuming they would need to be in CorelDraw format, yes? What file extension should I be saving files under? And what about materials?

To give you a little background, we own a custom framing business in the midwest and want to get a laser to expand our product offering to custom-cut and engraved wood items. Since we work with local artists, I was also thinking of trying to work with them to get their artwork engraved onto wood, acrylic or glass. With that in mind, what kind of samples would you recommend I take with me to the show? My initial thoughts:


Buy some 1/4" thick wood pieces - both hard and soft wood (the 4" x 2' variety)
Cut some of the UV-filtering glass that we use on framing projects and bring that along (assuming I can get it past airport security)
Cut some of the UV-filtering acrylic we use for framing projects and bring that

Any other suggestions? This is a case of I-don't-know-what-I-don't-know, so any advice on how best to test-drive the lasers at the show would be appreciated.

[Bob Perdue]

I found that at the shows the laser salesmen and women did not take the time to do another file except the ones they have set up. I looked and talked to the salesmen at the Indy show four years ago, then when I got home I decided which lasers I wanted to go look at and made appointments with them and took my own files and had them work with what I wanted to see. Good luck with your pursuit of a laser. I will also be in Indy to see what is new.

[David Fairfield]

Bob has a good point. I wouldn't stock up on materials to test burn, especially if you're flying to the event. I'd listen to their sales pitch, take home any samples they offer. These will help you to help you think over & compare what you saw. Then you'll be in a better position to talk to your local reps and have them run sample files and materials for you.

Good luck and hope to hear more from you.

Dave

[Albert Nix]

I will say that if you have a special need put them on the spot and see what they can do with it. They will most likely have an experianced laser tech there. BUT what you may find is that they may have second thoughts about using someone elses files. I did the same thing and had to talk for a while to get them to try it. I feel like they do not want to try something that may not work with a lot of folks watching. If you will notice everything they take to shows is picked to wow prospective buyers. this includes samples done before the show by experts. Some of the really nice stuff was produced form hard to find files and by very talented people with years of experiance. It is like the poor newbie guy that wants a large formate printer and he goes to a show and sees all the super large super sharp prints with all of their special effects being turned out and no one tells him how hard those high resolution images are to find (free). I got caught up in all that with my laser and boy what a learning curve it has been and will be for a long time to come LOL.
Have fun
Al

[Mike Null]

Natalya

Glass, uv or otherwise does not present a challenge for any of the laser machines. I would go armed with all the questions you can think of and allow time to see all the machines.

I do work with photgraphers and artists regularly and we use more plastic, especially reverse engraved and color filled, than anything else. Next would be metal plates. I do not get requests to do glass although I like the effect and have done some for myself. (I'm talking about identity type markings)

[Dee Gallo]

From what I've heard here, it's possible you won't get a personal demo. I suggest bringing a file or 2 you've prepared and at least see if the various reps will take a look at it and tell you how well it would do on their machine, even if they won't run it there and then.

We've all benefited from Peck's Epilog advice when it comes to settings and such. So rather than just seeing what the experts have produced on their lasers, add the aspect of your own skills to judge what kind of results you can expect.

It might be more instructive to find out whether you are setting up your jobs correctly, whether signs or photos or anything else.

I found out, for instance, via email with my rep that my illustrations which included a few hairlines would raster better if I bumped up their size a fraction. Just small things add up to overall better work.

my two cents, dee

[Scott Shepherd]

I'd personally ask them why I should buy their machine versus their competitors. Have them explain in detail what their machine/company does better than the others. I think you'll find some very in depth answers that you can walk right over to the next guy and check out.

For instance, there's one machine that boasts being the fastest machine on the market. Go over and ask them to engrave full speed, to the edge of the engraving field. They can't do it (and several of them can't). Just because you're the fastest in the market, doesn't make you the best. If you ask questions, more questions, and then check those answers, you'll be better educated for selecting the machine that makes the most sense for you to purchase.

Any of the top brand machines will do what you want to do. It's the finer details that set them apart, and most of the details won't become obvious until after it's sitting on your floor and the check has cleared. Asking them what they do better is a method to get them to explain some of those finer details, even though you might not be familiar with them.

Personally, I love a machine with Job Control software. Several of the manufacturers have that. Take a little time and get them to show that feature to you and see if it's something you'd like to have or something you can live without.

[Rodne Gold]

If I were paying a large amount of money to be an exhibitor at a show , I would not consider messing around with someones artwork and materials during the show , especially if I saw it being touted to my competitors.
You need to contact the local reps near you and let them demo the machines with your stuff.
All the lasers you will see at the show will do more or less the same things , there are no major differences tween all the brands of laser we all use to do what you want. The differences will be service and support and thats why I would ask representitives in your locale. The best you can do at the show is give your name to the exhibitors , see which one gets a rep to you soonest and which one is prepared to answer your questions the best.
Take it from there ---Use the show to get the brochures and product ranges of laserable items you think you might offer.
One thing I will warn you of is that starting up cold with a laser doing onesies and giftware is a hard road , you will need a lot of marketing and a lot of experience before you make decent money....
If I had a framing business , I would be thinking more along the lines of a largeish format digital print and cut machine like the roland SP300v or the equivalent before getting a laser.....I think it makes far more sense for your business as well as serving your clientelle better .
A machine like that prints on Canvas , paper , vinyl , cloth , bannwer material etc and can make stickers , labels , flags , signs , reproduce artwork and so forth and is a lot easier to use than a laser.

[David Fairfield]

Those are really good points, Rodne.

The up side of being a hard choice between the top three or so manufacturers is, you can't really go far wrong with any one of them. In my case, it really did boil down to the local representatives and which one was reliable. But now that I'm used to that machine I'll swear its the best! :D

As for providing services to artists, highly creative people have a lot of ideas but only so much time and money to execute them. I've worked with artists, and though I always enjoy it, I've found them prone to "flake out" and certainly would not invest serious money on promises of future business.

Seems to me the laser is primarily a commercial engravers and signmakers tool. If you want to earn money doing something else with a laser, you gotta be prepared for a hike up the road that Rodne mentioned. We can give you some directions though! :)

Dave

[Robert Ray]

I took a thumb drive with a sample file of a 1" x 1/2" drawing ( Z Scale Caboose Underframe Part) that cuts in <15 seconds with me to the Maker Fair.

I had saved the file as a Corel 11, and exported as an AI and DWG in older versions so I was sure to have a compatible file handy.

Both the Epilog rep, and the Universal rep had no problem opening the sample and sending to their lasers. All I asked was to run at 100% speed, with a power good enough to cut paper. I had them cut it in all 4 corners of the machine's table without re-focusing, so I could see focus and check for squiggly lines.

As far as laser power and cutting specific materials, I already knew how many watts I needed for the thickness of materials I was going to use.

I felt that anyone can stage a show, but if they want my hard earned jack, they better be willing to look at my more than reasonable test file without special preparations. Guess what... they are willing.

-Robert Ray

[Leigh Costello]

We shopped for our laser at Indy and we were treated fairly by all companies. Some were a little too pushy, but they are there to sell product and you can't blame them for that.

Natalya, take your ideas and a thumb drive. We made the reps engrave on some stuff and they all did as we asked. Good luck, and grab every bit of info you can. Go home, re-read everything then start scheduling demos. If the glass won't go thru security, google frame shops in Indy and go from there.

Indy or bust!