New member here. When doing searches on fiber laser engraving, the majority of the posts seemed to be here, so I read a lot, and signed up.
I am a FFL, a type 7 manufacturer with a 02 SOT. I am interested in being able to mark the NFA items we manufacture, as well as custom graphics on various firearms.
After a few days of looking at various lasers I have to say I'm pretty confused. I believe what we need is something like a 30 watt fiber laser. Don't need a really large printing are. 6x6 would seem to be sufficient.
The firearm business is a serious sideline, but my main job is a real estate developer and builder. I would like to be able to engrave house numbers on aluminum as well. The numbers need to be at least 5" tall, and some address have 5 of them. I have a mill and a shop full of metal working equipment. As long as there is a way to index a larger piece, it would be great to be able to print address plaques that are up to 18" wide or so.
The eBay fiber laser engravers seem to be the bargain basement variety, and there seems to be a fair number of pretty happy users. Seems like an inexpensive way to try it out, though I'm sure there probably isn't much support after the purchase?
The US based companies, many of whom seem to be using the same, or similar Chinese components, seem to ask much higher prices, but probably offer better after sale service and help?
I've looked at some of the websites of companies I have seen mentioned here frequently, like Rabbit Laser. Any recommendations any of you with experience could offer would be very, very much appreciated. To get started I'd rather not spend any more than necessary until we find out how it works out for us. I have no problem upgrading within a year or two if it works well for us.