I'm contemplating the purchase of a new laser and I'm kind of stuck and looking for advice...all of our current lasers are c02 but none powerful enough to cut metal and I'm looking to add the capability of cutting thin metals of under .5mm thickness, into highly detailed cuts, like jewlery sized and detailed as well as ability to engrave detail into the metal...I was looking into my next machine being a gas assist powerful c02, but I don't think this is the best option for clean edge on thin highly detailed small pieces and besides, our metal cutting and engraving will not be on any large production scale so I can't justify the high cost of either a metal cutting yag laser or a gas assist c03 like kern( both options over $100,000 and the yag won't even allow me to engrave, only cut.

A little research and I discovered the low cost galvo fiber desktop engravers that I'm told can also cut thin metals as well as engrave and I'm wondering if anyone has experience with these and if they can indeed cut metal, even if slowly, I was wondering just how slow, how clean of an edge and how thick can they cut ( can they do .5mm steel?) Because that's the thickest I think I'd go and considering the size of the elements I plan on engraving and cutting, even a 6" x 6" work area would allow me to set up a dozen or so pieces in the work area and then set the machine on multiple passes to cut through the sheet....even if it takes 20 minutes to engrave and cut 12 pieces, then I'm happy....is this a reasonable option for engraving and cutting jewlery type jobs? Anyway, I'd love to hear from anyone with experience using or selling these type of machines because if they can do what I hope they can, it might save me the need to buy a much more expensive machine than I need..thanks!