The usual question!

[walnutboydave]

Thanks jazz, so if I wanted a second hand router for that kind of money what would I be looking at machine wise?

[JAZZCNC]

Thanks jazz, so if I wanted a second hand router for that kind of money what would I be looking at machine wise?

I can't tell you that I'm afraid. All I can say is lookout for something which appeals and falls in your budget range and if you are not sure if good or bad then drop me a PM with a link and I'll give you an honest assesment. Or if you don't mind the chance someone may Pip you to it post on here and we will all give our opinions. (and blow your mind..Lol)

[depronman]

there is a very common chinese CO2 laser sold on the likes of ebay, its know as a K40

It is only A4 bed size, so may be too small for your needs, but when you move up to A3 size then the cost goes well over the £1200 mark
The K40 can be had new for the £400 bracket

The mechanics of the machine are OK, but the control board and software is crap
I bought one a few years ago to engrave nad cut balsa wood and light ply for model making (Aircraft), I converted the control board to LAOS. However I think this project is now dead as GRBL has basically taken over and is a fair bit cheaper.
My LOAS laser has been trouble free for the lst 5 years, other then needing a new tube, so I fitted a 50W tube, the original being 35W
At 50W its not pushed as hard and cuts upto 1/4" birch ply easily. You need to install air assist which is basically a pipe connceted to a fish tank air compressor that is aimed at the spot the laser is cutting.
Also the bed on the std machine is rubbish, I fitted a ally honeycombe bed on a rise and fall mechanism, its manual to jack up or down, but only needs adjusting for material thickness.
It makes a great job of perspex cutting leaving a really polish cut directly of the laser, its also incredably accurate and repeatable, it will cut to +/- 0.001" all day every day

Also with any laser you need to manage the air coming from the machine, either vent it outside or arrange a filter unit to filter the air, mine is vented outside using 6" cloths dries flexi pipe
You also need to cool the laser tube using distilled water in a bucket with a pump forcing it through the tube, It will heat the water over use, so I made a chiller from an office water cooler (tiny fridge unit) so I can cut all day and maintain tolerance. If the water temp increase the laser is not as powerful, and therefore the cut line will vary over time, hence the need to maintain water temp
A rather more crude method is to have some freezer packs and place them in the bucket of water, replcing the cooler pack when needed for frozen ones.

If you need a bigger bed than A4 (320mm x 212mm is what I can cut, I can however hold slightly larger stock, but not by much) then you are looking attowards the £2000 mark, but you may get better software and therefore not need to change the control board
the one to avoid is moshi-cut / moshi-draw
I can use any DXF or SVG file to cut from, and can cut, mark and engrave all in the same job my using different layers or line colours to tell the laser cutter to either cut / mark / engrave
Engraving takes a fair length of time as the laser head is moved side to side and fires as it moves to engrave the work, its is advanced in the opposite axis a very small amount for each pass, engraving say a 1" square would take about 4 mins, engraving a line of text say 1" high and 6" long would take about 20 mins

Hope this helps a bit

BTW I fully agree with not mixing machines, a laser cutter does its job well, so does a mill or router, but neither is going to do a proper job of the others work


Cheers,
Paul