Hi Goddess,
I would buy a second laser tube and probably a lens. If you look after the mirrors and be careful with them then they will last a very long time if you are only using around 40 - 60 watts. Don't touch the mirror or lens surfaces with your fingers and if you clean them then use a good quality blower brush and be gentle. If they ever get a residue that can't be blown off them then use the drag method to clean them. This means get a piece of blotting paper and soak it with a little bit of Isopropyl alcohol or high grade Acetone and slowly drag it across the lens/mirror letting the fluid dry behind the blotting paper as you go.
The belts should last hundreds if not thousands of hours if they run correctly and are readily available from parts suppliers in the States like McMaster Carr and Stock Drive products and are not that expensive. Lasers are only noisy because they need a suction air pump to rid the cutting area and the machine of smoke which should be vented through activated carbon or allowed to be vented outside (but the neighbors might not like the smoke especially if they have asthma like so many do now-a-days).
Any computer will do from a 386 and up but if you get a faster one then you don't have to wait around for things to get done. Cheap Pentium computers can be had for the asking if you check out a photocopy/printing house or advertise in the local newspaper. You should be able to get one for a few hundred as people upgrade these things regularly. Just ask around for a donation of a computer for your "special project" and you never know who will take you up on it if you let them have a few cut parts for free.
Cooling is a must for the Tube and refrigerated would be a better choice as the tubes work more efficient if they are not running hot and will last longer. It's like everything. Keep the heat out. It's not a must for it to be refrigerated though as distilled water passed through a radiator with fans blowing through it is also OK and quite acceptable. Place 1 drop of photographic wetting agent in the water so that bubbles don't stick to the sides of the laser cooling tube. (puritans may not like this idea though)
Hope this helps somewhat.
warm regards
Richard.
[QUOTE=goddessofchaos;305239]I have decided that to order the 3040 from WKLaser with Frank Fang's help will be the best way for me to get into a small part-time business. Reading as much as possible on this forum and also Sawmill Creek I have appreciated all of the input from everyone and people have been most helpful!
I am not completely useless.......I can always serve as a BAD example.