Hi all, I'm looking at getting my grubby, byte stained paws on a smallish laser cutter, and by the look of things this is one of the places where I can get a decent answer to some questions that only the most clueless of newbs needs to ask.
I'm looking at the various largeish desktop model cutters, equipped with water cooled sealed glass tubes in a 35w-60w range.
For the most part the components I'm considering cutting are small (jewlery and small mechanism) and materials are most likeyl to be acrylic, ABS, thin wood/ply, and various fabrics.
Hobby to light industrial useage.
Questions:
The first, and possibly most contentious.
Is there any special advantage to buying from a UK supplier and paying at least twice the price for a machine that looks (on paper) to be exactly the same model as many for sale on Ebay ?
Is there any advantage/disadvantage to an electric as opposed to manual raise bed ?
Does the "red dot" advertised on many systems allow alignment of the cutting beam by means of a (nominally) safe to look at visible red laser
Is air assist simple to retrofit to a machine or would it entail a rebuild.
Is "NewlyDraw" software capable enough for practical use, or would upgrading to lasercut 5.x be pretty much mandatory.
eg, I'm told that newlydraw does not provide laser power control and thus one must adjust power on the machine front panel.
Will a 40 to 60 watt sealed glass laser cut through any thickness of metal at all ? eg, aluminium foil, Copper foil, 0.1mm brass shim etc... ?
Any reccomendations for a machine in the £0 to £2000(ish) range ?
Many thanks for any information you guys can provide.