I work at a local makerspace (shared workshop) and we are in the market for a new laser. We have had a few different lasers over the years with their pros and cons. We have *roughly* $15k to spend on a new machine. I wanted to try and get a little feedback on some of the options we are looking at to find the best balance of power, speed, work area, and service/support options. Since it is a shared machine quality tech support and affordable servicing are a big thing to us. We've been spoiled by fast engraving machines in the past so looking for something reasonably quick. We are in Columbus, OH so the nearest company would be Rabbit.

Past Machines:

Desktop Epilog - Worked great but was small so we got rid of it to upgrade.

Trotec Speedy 400 - Extremely fast and had several useful features. We ended up with a lemon of a machine that kept burning up the tube frequently and Trotec support was never able / willing to find the underlying problem, just had us keep replacing tubes. Recently gave up on the machine and sold it to a production shop that plans to use it as a parts / backup machine.

Full Spectrum - Older model that was extremely slow. Couple parts failed so we had it refurbished by Rabbit since they are semi-local.

Rabbit Laser (FSL refurb) - Works pretty well for what it is. We were able to tweak a few things to get a bit more speed out of it than the stock FSL components. Currently using RDWorks V8 for software.

Potential Machines:

Boss - We would either go with a 150W 36"x24" machine or a 100W 55"x36" machine. We spoken to several small shops that love their machines. It would include Lightburn. The biggest con is that some people we have spoke to received fairly high quotes for onsite tech support. Would also be a bit more expensive because of shipping.

Rabbit - Would probably be stuck with a 80W or 100W tube with a 47"x35" bed unless we wanted to special order a machine and wait. Our current laser that they refurbished for us works pretty well and they have been very supportive the handful of times we have needed service. They are roughly an hour away so onsite service is affordable if necessary and we could avoid shipping charges.

Thunder - We would probably go with a 130W tube and a 51" x 35" bed. Biggest selling point is that this is the best cost to power/size of any of the options. Also uses hybrid servos instead of stepper motors so claims it can engrave at 1000mm/s as opposed to the 600mm/s max (in my experience 400mm/s practical) but not sure if that is practical or just hype. Downside is that all their tech support is online or via phone, no onsite option.