[WolframSlides]

Hi all,

New member here, in a bit of a quandary.

My business makes high-end accessories for guitarists; my newest product is an acrylic guitar pick which is laser cut and engraved. The first batch was cut for me by a laser cutting service, and were just about ok but I wasn't completely happy with the quality (e.g. lots of picks were unusable due to the laser burning chunks out of the back of the acrylic). A proper cutting service costs about double and would need much larger batch sizes to be economical. Using a 3rd party cutting service also slows down product development, both in terms of lead times between revisions and having to batch jobs up to avoid high minimum job costs; also, I want to introduce a bespoke service that would need to be cut on-demand or in small batches. There are a couple of other CNC processes involved in creating these picks (thicknessing etc.), which I currently do in-house on a small router.

So, I'm considering investing in a small laser cutter of my own to handle prototyping, bespoke production and small-scale production of new models, before transitioning the best-sellers out to a 3rd party service.

I don't think I can justify a Trotec or Epilog laser for this task - at the moment it just wouldn't get the utilisation to make it economical - but had been looking at some of the (hopefully?) better Chinese lasers.

So my questions for you guys: is something like the Bodor 5030 PJDT5030 Desktop CO2 Laser | Radecal Machines just a toy, or could it handle the type of work I need to do (basically 1-2mm acrylic for the most part)? Secondly, what would I really be missing out on vs a higher-end Trotec or Epilog, bearing in mind that utilisation will be low (a few hours per week) and speed is not a major issue (the high-volume stuff I will be sending out to a specialist)? Also, any other lasers I should be looking at? Budget is £4-6k.

Thanks!

Cheers,
David

[Storen]

Hi David,

Since you are talking about a production and not a hobby I would suggest a slightly different approach:

- Prepare a detailed description of the process involved in the production of your products
- Provide a sketch of the product with callouts if you don't want to disclose the design
- Define a technical criteria and tolerances - exact numbers for the acceptable deviations of the processes involving the laser machine(s)
- Projected volumes
- Send that information package to several brands (different classes and prices) and see what response you will get. You may post that here too but frankly this forum is populated mostly by Chinese salesmen and hobbyists.
- The next step would be to request samples made by your own files/specifications/instructions, so you can inspect and test them yourself.

It is going to take awhile but it will help you narrow the options and establish a relationship with the right company.