I have a 2004-2007 vintage epilog Legend 36EXT 45 watt machine that I purchased second hand in 2009. It has worked flawlessly with relatively low demand on the same tube for the past 11 years. I am not a production shop but dearly love having the laser for general woodworking tasks. As the age of the tube continues to increase, I worry that one day the machine will be terribly under powered or stop working. I’d like to get in front of this but I can’t really justify dropping 25k for a modern machine like a 24x24 epilog.
Any sage advice? Should I just wait till it’s not functioning? Try to get the gas refilled? I’ve also looked at the cost to upgrade to 100 watts from Bell Laser and this would be about $7k. This seems very attractive both from a cost and capability standpoint. Any thoughts from those in the know on that option? Clearly this machine is long out of warranty....
Thanks!