[oxus]

Great forum guys! I am thinking of building/buying a laser system to cut 1mm Aluminum, mild steel, and acrylic sheets.

I thought about getting a CO2 laser system that would be versatile and be able to cut the mild steel and acrylic easily. I found out that it would be borderline for the aluminum since it is reflective at the wavelength. Further research showed it is possible to do it at a minimum of 200W with oxygen assist. >400W would be ideal probably.. Looking over several vendor, a reliable laser at that power would be the Synrad firestar f series with their beam delivery solutions maybe.. I need to call them for prices..

Does these sound right guys? Any other suggestions on how else I should proceed? Any build thread you can recommend?

[underthetire]

Just installed a 400 watt YAG, made by Rofin. Nice set up.

[Melody-gweike]

Sounds right.

[brian257]

What kind of cost for a YAG?

[underthetire]

Ours is both hard optic and fiber optic, so the price goes up quite a bit for that option. I think it was ~ 260K.

[keebler303]

A 400W Synrad CO2 laser will run you about $60-80k. That's just the laser, then you need the machine, beam delivery, etc. etc.

Matt

[underthetire]

Matt is correct. 37k for the mill base, plus all the knick knacks to put it together. Our laser came with full optics, so we didn't have any additions there.