Trying to decide betweeen a 50 watt Epilog or Universal

[Pat Matranga]

Hello friends: I am going to get a 50 watt laser engraver. Does anyone have any reason to prefer one brand over the other? I will use mostly for regular engraving of my woodwork but also will vector cut out pieces of wood. 50 watt is as much as I will buy at this point. Ordered my Corel x6 today. Thank you.

[Tony Lenkic]

Pat,

If I was shopping for similar machine I would take good look at Trotec machine as well.

[Mike Null]

As would I.

[Dan Hintz]

At the time I was looking (several years back), Trotecs were not as affordable as they are now. So, the decision came down to Universal and Epilog. I selected the Universal because, among other reasons, I like the chuck style of rotary they have compared to Epilog's drag wheel. The GUI was a little more powerful, too.

[Joe Hillmann]

I own universals and have very little hands on experience with epilog. With that said from reading on the forum it appears as if Universals have fewer problems than epilogs. Usually the problems with epilogs are very easily solved by cleaning the encoder strip and reader. The other problem that appears with epilogs is them needing mother boards replaced which is expensive once out of warranty.

I think both companies make good machines, one difference is the rotarys that each companies makes. If you plan to do a lot of round work one may be better than the other.

Before deciding I would suggest contacting the local reps for each company so you can see them in action. When you go to see them bring samples of what you want to engrave and ask them to engrave it for you.

[Dan Hintz]

Also, tube replacements tend to be more expensive for Epilogs than Universals... though to be fair, the price difference has reduced considerably over the last few years.

[Pat Matranga]

Thank you everyone! Pat

[AL Ursich]

Like posted above... Support... A deciding factor would be how close is hands on support... And your evaluation of that support...

Good Luck,

AL

[Scott Shepherd]

The support for both companies will be excellent. There are some substantial differences in the two machines and how they work. The Universal is a more advanced machine with more options and control over the engraving, however, the Epilog is an easier to use out of the box machine. The engraving quality on both will be about the same for your application. I'm not aware that one machine is substantially faster than the other.

The main difference, unless things have changed, is that the Universal has Job Control and a programmable Z-Axis. I personally would not ever buy a laser without either one of those. I would not buy a machine that works on auto-focus principles, rather than a programmable Z-Axis.

Having said all that, that's my opinion based on my business needs. I can certainly respect anyone else that has a different business and those things might not be as relevant.

Honestly, you couldn't go wrong with either machine. If I had to buy a machine today, it wouldn't be either of those, though.