[kodsnoba]

Hello

I want to buy machine that will be used primarily for cutting paper, fine cardstock in 200-400 grams per square meter weight.
Level of detail is similar to these examples:

Taviori - Origami Gifts and Wedding Invitations
I miei lavori :: bianchepieghe.it

Can you please recommend me which laser tube to buy. Regular or RECI. Can RECI tube be operated at lower power for paper and use higher power when I need to cut something like acrylic or wood?

I am looking at gweike LC6090 laser cutter. I will do mostly cutting but also some engraving text and a little graphics on paper. Is laser cutter more suitable machine for my intended use of cutting paper. Does engraving machine have any advantages over cutting machine in my intended use of cutting paper cardstock?

I was looking at US made machines and they are just too expensive for me and my small bussiness. Can anyone that has operated both US made and chinese machines tell me how much slower would be chinese made machine in comparison with US made machine like Universal VLS3.5 in cutting of paper cardstock. Is that several times slower or two times slower. Just interested to know the order of magnitude.

Of course if anyone have recommendations or any kind of advice feel free to share it.

Thank you

Pino

[gweikelaser]

hI Pino,
for the RECI laser tube ,if power less than 20%,there will be no light, only 40% above,it can work,while for paper cutting ,maybe the regular tube will be better,but for acrylic or wood,it will cut thinner ,what do you think?

And one more importan thing is we would like suggest with big power blower,which may help on paper cutting

we also have paper vodeo,if interested,we can send you by E-mails.

Any others please feel free to ask us

Best Regards
Lucy Lee
G.WEIKE LASER
[email protected]

Hello

I want to buy machine that will be used primarily for cutting paper, fine cardstock in 200-400 grams per square meter weight.
Level of detail is similar to these examples:

Taviori - Origami Gifts and Wedding Invitations
I miei lavori :: bianchepieghe.it

Can you please recommend me which laser tube to buy. Regular or RECI. Can RECI tube be operated at lower power for paper and use higher power when I need to cut something like acrylic or wood?

I am looking at gweike LC6090 laser cutter. I will do mostly cutting but also some engraving text and a little graphics on paper. Is laser cutter more suitable machine for my intended use of cutting paper. Does engraving machine have any advantages over cutting machine in my intended use of cutting paper cardstock?

I was looking at US made machines and they are just too expensive for me and my small bussiness. Can anyone that has operated both US made and chinese machines tell me how much slower would be chinese made machine in comparison with US made machine like Universal VLS3.5 in cutting of paper cardstock. Is that several times slower or two times slower. Just interested to know the order of magnitude.

Of course if anyone have recommendations or any kind of advice feel free to share it.

Thank you

Pino

[epilotdk]

You don't want a high power tube for cutting paper. They cannot be turned down low enough as Lucy said. A 40 watt tube is more than enough. Of course then you have a limitation on how thick acrylic and wood you can cut. There really is no "one size fits all" machine unless you go with a dual laser tube machine.

Paper is a flimsy material so give some consideration to how you hold it in place and ensure that cut out bits don't fly around and get in the way of the beam.

[Rodney Gold]

You will need a galvo with a wide field lens to be anywhere near effective time wise , the XY type lasers will take FAR too long , especially the chinese ones which are slowish.
A complex design can take 1/2 an hour on an XY and 2 mins on a Galvo , if you doing wedding invites and the like , you will be doing volume. You cant do 2 invites an hour and make moolah...

Chinese Galvos with 80w Recis and a 200mm x 200mm marking field will run you $10k.
(galvo is where a mirror steers the beam and the head is fixed)

[kodsnoba]

You will need a galvo with a wide field lens to be anywhere near effective time wise , the XY type lasers will take FAR too long , especially the chinese ones which are slowish.
A complex design can take 1/2 an hour on an XY and 2 mins on a Galvo , if you doing wedding invites and the like , you will be doing volume. You cant do 2 invites an hour and make moolah...

Chinese Galvos with 80w Recis and a 200mm x 200mm marking field will run you $10k.
(galvo is where a mirror steers the beam and the head is fixed)

Thank you all for your replies.

Mr. Gold. Could you please tell me which company makes this $10K galvo laser your mentioned. I really need advice at which company I can buy nicely built machine with as good reliability as it can be expected from budget machinery.

Does anyone knows roughly is it for cutting of paper cardstock 200-400 grammes per square meter sufficient 10-20 watt solid state laser to achieve max speed or higher power co2 laser is needed in order to maximize machines speed capability? Solid state lasers "look" to me as no maintenance devices as opposed to co2 glass laser tubes, but as thread subject says, I am a Newbie :-)

Those are the machines that are advertized as marking machines, right?
I saw that there are galvo lasers but thought that they are much more expensive.
Also with these XY machines I am confident that I can repair any problem because they are so modular and simple (and that there is wonderful cnczone :-) ) I guess that galvo is a little bit more trickier with not so common or cheap parts.

The only drawback could be a little small max cutting area but I think majority of my work pieces would fall into 200x200 mm.

Thank you

Pino

[Rodney Gold]

When I was at the Shenui factory last year in May , I saw their galvos in action..they were $10k. Their Fibre lasers were $20k.
Contact and search for posts Jiten Patel at sawmillcreek.org , go to the laser boards Engravers Forum , he does a huge amount of custom wedding invites etc - uses a galvo. He can help more than I can.

[cinematic2]

Look here:
VERY NICE SYNRAD 50 WATT DUO LASE CARBON DIOXIDE LASER CO2 MODEL E48-5-28/2W | eBay

[Flynt]

Hello Pino,

(Thanks for the shout Rodne.)

I'm Jit and I cut card day in day out! Galvo is the way to go - xy laser are simply too slow - saying that, we know a few companies who have had huge success using an XY and cutting card, but they are using Trotec machines which are much quicker than the Chinese machines.

10-20w will cut paper/card but using multiple passes, then you have to worry about charring and browning of the stock. The quicker you can cut through, the less chance of burning.

You can get larger cutting areas but you will lose on detail. Ask around and send in sample files and card-stock and see the results - ask for cutting time too.

Hope this helps.

[quetomty]

hi jit sorry for bothering you, but i saw that you cut invitations everyday, and i want to ask you something, i have an small business with my wife, and we are looking for machine that can makes invitations, so please help me recommend me a good machine and where can i buy it

thanks

[Storen]

Every laser can cut paper, at the same time paper is one of the most difficult materials to work with.

The laser beam will essentially burn and evaporate the material leaving black carbon dust on the edges.
That will make the edges appear dark and if you touch them you may spread the dust over the clean surface therefore make the paper products look dirty and messy...

The way to limit this problem is to run the laser beam with the highest stable-speed so it can penetrate the material but build less carbon on the edges. The maximum stable-speed varies greatly from machine to machine and unfortunately this most important parameter is never listed on the standard machine specifications. If you run the machine pass its stable limits the cut edges will be jagged/ridged/rough.
The maximum stable-speed will depend mostly on the machine mechanical construction, quality of the components and the type of motors used. As you may guess for high-stable speed you will need expensive construction.

Another important factor is the selection of the laser source (tube). There are 2 types used for paper: Radio Frequency (RF) metal tubes or general Glass tubes. The glass tube technology is significantly cheaper but it has some very unpleasant side effects when working with paper. The ignition power is often higher than what necessary for cutting paper and the power will vary greatly during the cutting. The result will be uneven cut lines with darker (burned) areas and lighter or even uncut areas. The RF tubes are the better choice for cutting paper because they don't have any of these issues.

Another thing to look at are the camera-controlled systems. They are essential if you plan to work with printed paper. With the help of the camera the machine will accurately detect the printed graphics or the edges of the paper-sheets and align the cutting accordingly.

Selecting the right paper is also very important. Some will cut cleaner then others.

I may be able to suggest specific models, but I need to know what size machine you need, how many hours per day you intend to run it and what's your budget?

[quetomty]

thank you very much. i have never use a laser before, so i think its gonna be hard foe me and my wife to use it or find an easy to operate machine, we also wanna cut acrylic, plastic mdf wood etc, but i dont have any knoweledge about using a laser, do you think.. is there a machine easy to use to do that,.. we are planning to use maybe 4 hours a day

[Storen]

Laser machines are super easy to use. You will feel like a pro after experimenting with it for only a couple of hours There are no universal configurations that will be great for everything. A specialized machine will always produce better results. In general, cutting acrylic, wood and MDF is more forgiving and requires less expensive machine - most general purpose machines out there will do the job. High quality engraving and cutting paper would require higher-end configuration.

4 hours a day requires a reliable machine. What size work-bed you need and how much you are willing to invest?

If you don’t feel ready to buy high-end equipment yet maybe you should get one of the cheap Chinese eBay machines (like mine) to experiment and learn.

[quetomty]

thanks again and sorry for the questions, size 50x 70 centimeters or 60 x 90 centimeters and my budget is from 3000 to 4500.. but ive seen chinese on ebay and some of them says scam or something like that, so thats why i wanna hear reviews about some brand or suppliers that already work with them

[Storen]

Ok the western brand machines with these sizes will start at around 14K (with tax and all) so you will have to focus on the Chinese options.

In this case I guess the main question for you would be do you want to import a machine straight from the Chinese factory or buy one from a local reseller and pay his markup (often between 100%-300% on top of the factory invoice price). I would suggest to get quotes from China first so you could compare the prices and options. Register on Alibaba and get some quotes from there. Popular Chinese brands are: Bodor, Thunderlaser, Gweike, Argus-Sunic, HSG, Keyland.

The ones on eBay are fairly priced for what they are but keep in mind they are very cheaply made. Most of the posts in this forum are about them.