Page 1 of 12 1234511 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 175

Thread: Ebay fiber laser, I'll be the guinea pig--

  1. #1

    Ebay fiber laser, I'll be the guinea pig--

    Out of sheer necessity- and my fascination with buying the cheapest of something to see if I can make it work (Usually I have good luck, my big Triumph for example)

    One of my customers picked up a job making parts for an established company that moved into town from CA, they sell worldwide, and the parts that need engraving just keep coming in- at the moment the one item I have in house will keep the fiber busy for 3 days. That's okay 'cept for the fact I have another 3 days work waiting, and more comes in daily. My fiber is the only piece of equipment I don't have at least 2 of around here, and while I could really use a 50w fiber, I'm going to pull the trigger on a cheap 30w ebay machine...

    So, as soon as I'm done here, I'm going to order one, guaranteed delivery by next Tuesday--

    Progress reports to follow
    Last edited by Kev Williams; 11-21-2018 at 5:57 PM. Reason: removed ebay link
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  2. #2
    the deal is done...

    bought.jpg bought2.jpg
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  3. #3
    emails received--

    b1.jpg b4.jpg
    Last edited by Kev Williams; 11-21-2018 at 11:53 AM.
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  4. #4
    so far so good

    b3.jpg
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    so far so good

    b3.jpg
    I'm watching closely to see how this goes. Very interesting. I am curious, how you decided which vendor to choose? Was there anything particular about who you bought it from?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Medina Ohio
    Posts
    4,513
    When I bought my laser off E Bay I had an ongoing chat with the seller. everything went as we had discussed. My laser came faster then I thought it would and was just as she had told me. She even gave me some tips on un packing it so it would be easier.

  7. #7
    I'm sure it'll be fine... I hope so, just got another 2000 or so parts dropped off, most of them need 2 sides engraved... may end up needing even another one if this doesn't let up!
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Clearman View Post
    I'm watching closely to see how this goes. Very interesting. I am curious, how you decided which vendor to choose? Was there anything particular about who you bought it from?
    Nutshell- cheapest I could find, seller (there were many selling the same machine) is 'top rated plus', and where it's shipping from is only 700 miles from me...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    where it's shipping from is only 700 miles from me...
    Check the tracking info when you get it, I've heard stories of "Shipped from USA!" being a bit on the deceptive side

  10. #10
    its a nervous thing to do, I am also looking at a china purchase and its scarey

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Iowa USA
    Posts
    4,438
    Kev is an experienced laser user and buyer. I think he has evaluated the seller and the product pretty carefully. Its the Newies who know zero about lasers and do not even own a meter are the ones having the issues on eBay.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  12. #12
    The upside of buying this way is the person selling is simply looking to move product. This means very competitive pricing and typically good general customer service.

    The downside of buying this way is the person is selling a whole bunch of stuff and this is just another item to them. This means no technical support of any kind.

    Ultimately, as long as you bought with a credit card you'll be protected. This does seem kind of foolish only because if you have so much work coming in and need this machine to produce, if it's not perfect, it's going to cost you all sorts of time troubleshooting and fixing it.
    Equipment: IS400, IS6000, VLS 6.60, LS100, HP4550, Ricoh GX e3300n, Hotronix STX20
    Software: Adobe Suite & Gravostyle 5
    Business: Trophy, Awards and Engraving

  13. #13
    If it's not perfect, it'll be pretty much like every other machine I've ever bought About all I'm really expecting is that it will need a couple of hours of alignment tweaking. And one reason for picking this seller is because Fedex ground from CA to my house is 2 days. Even if this one is faulty, I can have a 2nd one here before any other first one will show up
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  14. #14
    So guess what showed up this morning before 8am?
    It was snowing so I had the Fedex driver bring it in.
    DSC07905 (Custom).JPG

    Once I got my shoes on I moved it back outside and pulled the crate apart.
    It was well packed-
    DSC07909 (Custom).JPGDSC07912 (Custom).JPGDSC07913 (Custom).JPG

    It's seems to be put together well. I noticed in the ad it has a 'different' scanhead than mine.
    Quite different, as it has a rather small lens, never seen one like it, about 2-1/2" diameter.
    I removed it to have a look, I see no reason why it won't work, seems like a 'nice' lens.
    If it proves to have limitations- well, it already does, none of my other lenses will fit it-
    a replacement identical to my other one is only $649 away...
    DSC07914 (Custom).JPG

    for the moment all I care is that it'll engrave anodized aluminum! I'm sure it'll handle that...

    The goody bag contents:
    DSC07915 (Custom).JPG

    Next problem, WHERE am I going to put the thing? First thought, I have some
    old 1950's school desks that will hold up a freight train, the main unit will fit on top fine
    and the control box will fit underneath fine, just where to put the desk is going to be a trick.

    And the next issue will be: computer. I have 3 separate EZcad programs set up to run my current fiber, each with settings for the 3 lenses, but only one program will run at a time. The version I'm used to is 2.5.2, the one with this machine is 2.14.10, so I'm wondering if both programs and machines can be run from one computer? Easy enough to find out I suppose

    Just noticed it came with a pdf handbook concerning all the control board connections and such.

    More later...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  15. #15
    Had to clean out a messy spot that needed cleaning out anyway, and for now I lose only little table space but after moving the desk from where it was, I was able to put my rolling cart in its place- the cart had been out in the way, just been living with it, now I have that floor space free again

    So the business end fits the desk as nice as you can ask, and the box fits great under the desk, and I can put odds & ends in the desk
    DSC07916.JPGDSC07917.JPG

    I plugged it in, connected up the USB, transferred the program from the supplied flash drive to my hard drive, and ran the program...
    It loaded up, and I drew a 3" square on screen, and red-lighted it, which you could almost see
    DSC07918.JPG

    put a piece of scrap anodized on, and used the scanhead-mounted focus lights-- My my 150 focus tool tells me the focus distance is about an inch or so farther away than my other lens. Wasn't sure which was right so I went with the red lights. I hit the MARK button, and zwip, I had a white box!
    DSC07919.JPG

    I red-lighted the white box, and there's some mis-alignment I need to tweak. The box seems nice and square though.

    so next a text test:
    DSC07921.JPGDSC07920.JPGDSC07922.JPG

    So color me happy! And I must add, this being a newer machine there's some features I really like:
    The pedestal mounted scanhead, completely adjustable, I'm really going to make good use of that!
    And the new EZcad is pretty cool- haven't gotten into it too far but one thing it does I'll love is the 'automatic' cross hatch within each of the 3 hatch per color setups- So now I can have 3 completely different x-hatch routines without having to stack different colored clones of the graphic.

    So, I have some alignment tweaking to do, then I need to rig up a clamp to hold the parts for the current job, and start doubling my output!
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •