I'm new to the sawmill creek site and have a couple of questions for those of you with laser experience. I am in the market for a laser engraver to mark logos and other engravings on my product. My product is duck calls, so the engravings are small and will be done on a round surface. Most of the material I use for calls is wood, acrylic and delrin. I'm not too worried about how fast I can engrave - I will probably engrave no more than 1000 calls a year. I have been contracting out all of my engraving, but have run into problems with most of the engravers that I have dealt with and am ready to make the investment in an engraver. My biggest problems I have had with having others do my engraving is 1) quality and 2) turn around time. Plus, I prefer to do 100% of the work on my product and at this point the engraving is the only thing I don't do myself. So most of you can probably figure out where I am going with this..........
I am curious what engraver out there would be best for my application. I have done some research and I know this is a very general question and everyone has their own opinions and experience. I am scheduled for a demo next week with Epilog and am looking forward to it. I am thinking that the smallest Epilog mini 12x18, 45 watt, with rotary attachment would suit my application well. I guess my main fear is that this machine is overkill for what I am doing and that there might be something out there that is a little less complicated (also less money) for what I am doing. Although I have no direct experience with engravers, I do well with computers and machinery so I think I can figure it out.
Any words of advice from folks who know a little more and maybe have had some of this same experience?? Thanks for any help!!
Brian