Looking for upgrade advice.

[Kev Williams]

Just noticed we're talking about cutting a 20 minute job down to 3-4 minutes with a Trotec... in wood? Someone's gonna have to prove this one to me!

pure math says that at 30 ips, running a 10" x 10" x 400 line per inch area will take 22.22 minutes, and at 140 ips that cuts down to 4.7 minutes... but that's in a perfect world!

For one, a machine running 30 ips is probably much closer to an ACTUAL 30 ips rate than a 140 ips machine, regardless of how fast it can change direction.

For another, the only way you can ever achieve this is if the 140 ips machine can duplicate the results of the 30 ips machine at full speed. In many materials, this is do-able with 60 watt hi-speed machine. 80 is better, but I'm thinking you're going to need closer to 120 watts or more to duplicate a 35 watt/30ips engraving at 140 inches per second, particularly in wood.

Note!! >>this is purely conjecture, based on my experiences with 4 different lasers. I know this to be true: my 40 watt 72 ips machine running 100 power and speed will barely mark a piece of wood at all. Math says an 80 watt 140 ips machine would do exactly the same- however, I realize laser output isn't necessarily linear (Dave will explain! )

An 80w Trotec or similar may very well cut HALF the time or slightly more off a 20 minute wood job, but IMO you'll need a lot more than 80 watts to cut the time by 80%...

[Jacob John]

Just noticed we're talking about cutting a 20 minute job down to 3-4 minutes with a Trotec... in wood? Someone's gonna have to prove this one to me!

pure math says that at 30 ips, running a 10" x 10" x 400 line per inch area will take 22.22 minutes, and at 140 ips that cuts down to 4.7 minutes... but that's in a perfect world!

For one, a machine running 30 ips is probably much closer to an ACTUAL 30 ips rate than a 140 ips machine, regardless of how fast it can change direction.

For another, the only way you can ever achieve this is if the 140 ips machine can duplicate the results of the 30 ips machine at full speed. In many materials, this is do-able with 60 watt hi-speed machine. 80 is better, but I'm thinking you're going to need closer to 120 watts or more to duplicate a 35 watt/30ips engraving at 140 inches per second, particularly in wood.

Note!! >>this is purely conjecture, based on my experiences with 4 different lasers. I know this to be true: my 40 watt 72 ips machine running 100 power and speed will barely mark a piece of wood at all. Math says an 80 watt 140 ips machine would do exactly the same- however, I realize laser output isn't necessarily linear (Dave will explain! )

An 80w Trotec or similar may very well cut HALF the time or slightly more off a 20 minute wood job, but IMO you'll need a lot more than 80 watts to cut the time by 80%...

When I asked the Trotec rep, he said 3-4 minutes was not going to happen, but more realistically probably in the 8-9 minute range. He offered to have Trotec set up the job and test for the exact numbers, but I'm comfortable with even a 50% reduction at this point. I'm getting bombarded with Christmas orders (NO COMPLAINING!), but the realization that I need another laser has set in. I could be done with my daily orders in only a few hours as opposed to 12 hours a day!

Again, no complaints, and to be honest the Trotec Speedy has always been my dream laser purchase so I'm making it happen!

[Keith Outten]

My metrics are dead on accurate over five years and thousands of signs on each machine, and I probably have more production time using a Trotec than the majority of their company reps. I have also engraved a substantial amount of wood over the years but not enough repetitive jobs to provide the level of accuracy that I can using Corian. Even so wood generally takes less time to engrave than hard plastics like Corian and achieve the depth necessary for ADA signs.

Check our archives, there are some very interesting threads concerning Trotec performance.

[Jacob John]

Well, it's official! I am a Trotec Speedy 300 owner! Waiting on it to come in right now! I'll post some pics once I get her unboxed and set up. Looking forward to comparing engraving times versus what I have going on right now. I'll sadly be putting my workhorse Epilog up for sale. She has served me admirably.

[Jack Clague]

Well, it's official! I am a Trotec Speedy 300 owner! Waiting on it to come in right now! I'll post some pics once I get her unboxed and set up. Looking forward to comparing engraving times versus what I have going on right now. I'll sadly be putting my workhorse Epilog up for sale. She has served me admirably.

congrats, you will love it, i know i love mine.

[Bert Kemp]

Congrate on the new speedy but I'd think twice about selling your epilog. Its always nice to have back up. Ya never know.

Well, it's official! I am a Trotec Speedy 300 owner! Waiting on it to come in right now! I'll post some pics once I get her unboxed and set up. Looking forward to comparing engraving times versus what I have going on right now. I'll sadly be putting my workhorse Epilog up for sale. She has served me admirably.

[Kev Williams]

The minute you sell your Epilog, the next minute you'll need it and wish you still had it.

I was going to sell my little 25w ULS to my BIL as soon as I got the Explorer I bought from Gary up and running. That was almost 3 months ago and I still have it, because I keep finding work for it!

[Gary Hair]

The minute you sell your Epilog, the next minute you'll need it and wish you still had it.

I was going to sell my little 25w ULS to my BIL as soon as I got the Explorer I bought from Gary up and running. That was almost 3 months ago and I still have it, because I keep finding work for it!

If it weren't for the fact that I have a fiber (second one arrives any day now) for backup I would never have thought of selling the Explorer. I do miss that machine though...