[skalleknull]

Now that I have your attention with a bogus title I just need general feedback. Getting ready to purchase a Laser for the wife to expand and grow her tiny little company. This is either going to grow into something great or fall flat on its face. But I am going to support her and give her the best that I can.

So I have been reading through the forum about lasers. Very overwhelmed with it all. Seems that these chinese machines are extremely popular and they also seem to be extremely popular with issues as there are tons of threads pertaining to it. It also seems that when people are purchasing a new china laser they tend to compare it to a Epilog more so than the other brands like ULS, Xenetech, Tortec, and so on.

The main purpose of the laser will be marking bare metal (Stainless to be exact) using something like Cermark or similar. She wants to branch out into every aspect with the machine and attempt to find what else she will enjoy doing with it. What that could be I have no idea. So I do not really know what other jobs she will want it for. But I am guessing that wood cutting/engraving will be high on her list after she attempts a few projects.

Where I am at, right now I am leaning toward the Epilog Mini 24 30 watt or 50 watt and Rotary Table. I am keen on Epilog mainly because of the local support. As I travel often and I can not always be there if a issue comes up. Secondly is the obvious, its made in Merica.

However I would be open to looking at a ULS, Xenetech, Tortec, and others that I do not know about. Currently looking to spend around $13k to $16k on a setup for her. I also have to be cautious of the size of the machine as anything over either 32" or 34" will not fit through the doorway. So tell me if the Mini is a legit move, if not what would you look at in that price range based on the limited material that I mentioned we would be using?

If you are Chinese Laser manufacturer or distributor please do not comment, I am not going to import one from you.

[Jmhx2]

I have been using lasers for more than a decade. I highly recommend the epilog at 30-50 watts. It will be very user friendly with sufficient power for the projects you mentioned. The only drawback for me would be table size. A lot of my stock comes in
12" x 24", I would hate to cut it down to get it on the table. In my opinion the only other nation option ( in budget) is ULS. They are very good and similar machines as well. I would love to have a trotec, but they tend to be pricey. Last note, the epilog will hold its value well.

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[skalleknull]

Thanks for the reply. I guess my biggest concern is the laser watt. As I am very naive to this so understand is taking a fair bit of research. The Mini 24 is already a fair sized investment and I want to be sure the additional chunk of change is worth upgrading from 30 watt to 50 watt. Speed is not really a issue as saving minutes on our current production is not beneficial to justify the cost if that is the only difference.

If you could help me understand why increasing the wattage is beneficial I would appreciate that. As we do need to plan for the future as well.

[Jmhx2]

For engraving 30w will do everything the 50w will do, the 50w will allow you to do it faster. For cutting, the 30w will cut 1/4"-1/2" material in one pass. The 50w will cut 1/2"-3/4" in one pass. You can use multiple passes but that can create challenges with edge finish. If you plan a lot of cutting it is nice to have the extra power. If you google epilog mini manual, you can find power settings for different materials, near the end of the manual.

[skalleknull]

We decided to go with the Mini 24 30 watt. Reason being is basically what you said, speed is the difference for us and is not worth the additional $3,000. At least not today and not in the foreseeable future. However I hope one day soon that is our only complaint on the machine as it can not keep up with the demand.

So hopefully in the next 4 to 5 weeks we will have it up and running at the house.

[skalleknull]

Ok, so after a couple days of sleeping on it we had a change of heart. It appears that we are going with the 50 watt Mini 24. Though during the past couple days I did speak to a fellow over at ULS about the VLS3.60. The price is on par with Epilog and I think the only disadvantage for us the the weight of the machine. As we will be taking ours on the road once or twice a year.