Engraver Recommendation

[Ed Gibbons]

Looking to get into engraving on wood. Looking for recommendations on how to get started.

[John Lifer]

First, what is your goal? Hobby, one or two pieces a month, to full time, running a business. There is a MILE or 100 between those.
Hobby, maybe a diode laser, or small k40 CO2, or business, the largest Trotec or Epilog you can buy. From a $100 to $100K. Seriously.
Second, research. TONS of stuff here. Just start reading. Once you narrow down your objectives, then you can ask questions.

[Ed Gibbons]

Not looking to go into production; plan is being a hobbyist. But I’ve learned that most times for a few more dollars, the value and potential is greater.

[James Cheever]

I don't have a laser yet but I'm doing some serious looking. A lot of people seem to like Thunder lasers.

[Bert Kemp]

So what size projects do you have in mind? what thickness of materials do you plan to cut . will you cut and engrave or just engrave. Laser come in all sizes and power. so you need to know what your gonna do before we can recommend whats your budget for a laser???????

OK to give you an idea I have a Rabbit laser, 6040 bed size about 24x 14" with a 60 watt tube. cost about 7k. It will cut 1/4'' wood no problem and engraves pretty fine stuff like the Mayan Calendar will cut and engrave most materials, you can google a list of co2 materials it will cut and engrave.
So this should give you a starting point.oh it has a 9" z axis

[Grant Wilkinson]

Take a look at the LAHobbyGuy's website, forum and/or Facebook page. He does very objective reviews of all kinds of lasers. His forum has good discussions, too.

[Bill George]

Not looking to go into production; plan is being a hobbyist. But I’ve learned that most times for a few more dollars, the value and potential is greater.

I had a Lightobject 40 watt CO2 machine and it worked fine, had for sale on here before it sold on Facebook Marketplace. Techi stuff does not sell on here for some reason. This is a machine I used for a couple of years and I can recommend, the Rabbit USA laser that Bert has is also good.

[Steve Morris]

Depending on what finish you are looking for as engraved have you looked at mechanical engravers as well as laser.
Different methods and very different results.

[Cary Falk]

I have a Thunder Laser Nova35. I was impressed with the customer service and the machine when I got it. You can get it shipped from within the USA for the same price as having them ship it from overseas. I fired it up this weekend to laser engrave some writing pens. I am still impressed. It came with a toolbox full of tools and miscellaneous parts like belts, mirrors, etc. I ordered a rotary with it. It is a RotoBoss rotary which I really like. They have a lot of videos on their website on how to use it. It came with Lightburn and RDWorks software. It fired right up and did exactly what I needed it to do without any fuss.

20221007_185012.jpg

[Chase Williams]

I find the engraving quality between a glass tube and metal/ceramic tube is night and day. If you are just cutting either works. The problem is you have a lot of difference in price between them. If money isn’t a problem I’d lean towards the metal/ceramic with the largest bed for the largest object you want to engrave/cut. I’m preferential towards Trotec but I know many swear by Epilog universal and gcc as well.

[Bill George]

I have owned both types and did not see any difference except the speed?

[Chase Williams]

I have owned both types and did not see any difference except the speed?

I guess it just depends on what you are doing, we do a lot of very small detailed work and Trotec claims we can go down to 3pt font with the iRadion tube. I can say having had a Synrad T60, Coherent Gem 40, and iRadion 156f; there is a pretty noticeable difference in beam size. If my memory is right the metal tubes are suppose to be in the ballpark of 70-90 microns of beam size at the highest resolution, while glass is 120-150 at the highest resolution. Theres something to be said too about servo vs steppers. Servos are not only faster but they actually know their position, whereas steppers are less accurate and do not know their position and rather know go positive x amount or negative x amount. All depends on use but i do think servo based systems are noticeable as well.

[Kev Williams]

Two things I can recommend:
Glass lasers, and Universal 1-touch

DC controlled/fired Glass lasers are excruciatingly slow compared to RF controlled/fired metal/ceramic lasers. But with patience and willingness to tweak settings, a glass laser can be set up to engrave nearly as nicely as most RF lasers. My only glass laser is a dumpster-sized (came in a 1 cubic yard box!) 1300x900 Triumph designed for cutting. I have the settings tweaked to where no one can tell the difference between .05" high text engraved by my best-engraving-quality LS900 and the Dumpster. Yup, it's slow, but absolutely nothing wrong with the engraving quality.

As to 1-touch, if you're ever considering engraving photos, you NEED this!
simply running this photo thru it, and making zero tweaks--
pink floyd original.jpg

my Dumpster created this on the first try, which considering the
variegated wood my customer made this tray out of, IMO is remarkable...
pink floyd wood2.jpg
seriously, check out the detail! And by a lowly glass laser!

However, my favorite photo-engraved rendition of anything, was done
by my LS900, simply using 'photo mode' engraving in the Gravograph driver;
the original, a photo of my basement shop--
AbyssOrig (Custom).jpg

And what my LS900 made of it, engraved on 'non-laserable' GravoplyII material--
AbyssAll resized.jpg

now, I'm not sure the Dumpster could ever re-create this, or how well the LS900
would do with Pink Floyd, but to be sure, the LS900 IS a superior machine. But
it's surprising what I can get that Dumpster to do, so I'll never try to talk
anyone out of getting a Glass laser