[mochouinard]

Hi,

I'm looking at the full spectrum laser 5rd gen cutter, and one thing that I wonder about is resolution / cut quality.

I found a sample of the Aztec Calendar from my 2009 CES visit (Soo glad I kept it right now ...

Here the image:


The kickstarter of fsl provided this image of a competitor X :




And we have the FSL sample here :




I'm disappointed at the image quality provided by FSL since I would imagine that as a manufacture I would be equip to do high res capture of it. Mine is better and it was a quick photo hand held with poor kitchen light.

Now except the poor image quality, I would rank the Epilog 2009 in first place, the unknown sample as second place, and FSL in third.

But the FSL image and the two other seem different... (not much difference but there is difference (like the nose)). So maybe that the reason for the difference.

I'm not basing myself that they didn't operate the machine correctly as I would imagine that they tried a few time on similar material to set it up correctly.

One thing I'm looking at particulary is the dice 5 face at about mid radius. The shape is really well define on my sample, not too bad on the unknown model, and on the FSL it look like it too burn out...

If I get equivalent output from the 5rd FSL model than my 2009 sample I have in hand... I would be REALLY happy. But from the picture here, I'm not sure what to expect.

I would love to know what you think, and maybe post sample from other laser engraver model.

[lovebugjunkie]

Just a comment on the example you picked up at the show.

Something to me did not look right until I realized the FSL example the calendar image was flipped.

[mochouinard]

Just a comment on the example you picked up at the show.

Something to me did not look right until I realized the FSL example the calendar image was flipped.

True, apparently FSL didn't realized before they laser cut the reverse side of their example. Not a big deal though.

Note that the first image is the one I picked up at CES 2009... But the 2 second come from the kickstarter page made by FSL.

[SlikChit]

I don't really notice many differences in the epilog and the FSL pics, except in the second pic (FSL), the center face looks like they added detail around the cheeks, like a line or two, but nothing that just jumps out at me. Then again, you can only tell so much from a pic

[TurbineJesse]

I've studied both these images before as well, and surprisingly there isn't much difference in the photos (other than being mirrored as mentioned). I've been looking into getting an Epilog machine for commercial purposes, however, for a FSL machine that costs roughly $10,000 less, I would have expected some significant differences.

But what a single picture doesn't tell, is how many tries did this take? Is this result typical of what you can expect on the average FSL machine? Is this repeatable over a period of time?

[mochouinard]

But what a single picture doesn't tell, is how many tries did this take? Is this result typical of what you can expect on the average FSL machine? Is this repeatable over a period of time?

I feel that my epilog sample and the hidden one from FSL are also an epilog... The print does look extreamly similar.

I did find the FSL one to be more 'burn out'. But it true that it still amazing, especially looking at it with my eye... The details I complain about are actually really small to begin with.

The epilog seem to have lot of feature that come standard that FSL missing. Autofocus is one. Now I never manually focus a laser, so no idea how big a difference it make between print. Probably have some more advance balancing system to make sure the table is straight with the laser. They have water chiller... Probably include lot of security feature for water/air flow... Include relay to control activation of fan/water...

There is lot of difference that make the everyday usage different... But for the money saved, I don't care much... I'll be the sole user of it... So I'll follow my own check list before and after print and that it. If I had a shop with employe who use it... Then I'll go with some more secure setup. Or modify my FSL setup to include those security (and I probably will just for fun)

[OldEngraver]

Looking at these photos, T think that the detail in the Epilog one is far superior.
The other two are burnt, but the differences could be explained by differences in the timber and that the Epilog probably used air assist. Sometimes. I will give the finished product a light sandblast to take away the burnt area depending on the effect I require.

[Rodney Gold]

The aztec calender tells you bugger all about how the laser is going to engrave and how it will operate.. you cant even begin to use those to compare lasers and their outputs.

[tejaswood]

I have had the FSL 40w for 8 months now with a whole lot of usage. So far I have had zero degradation in quality of the engravings. We do a lot of custom logos on wood, acrylic, etc. and the results have been great.

I don't know how fast the epilog runs, and the FSL is not the fastest machine out there, but it works just fine for us.

Out of the box, we aligined the mirrors, installed the RetnaGrave software and after a little bit of a learning curve are producting very good results.