Laser cutter

[John S]

Had thought about that but my router is in regular use and the base doesn't allow cutting thru without a redesign.
So by the time you have redesigned it you have built a new machine. with my workload this could take up to a year in the doing and to be honest if it cuts thin ply anything like, the first job, which will fit in two hands, will pay for it.

[Musht]

Looking at laser cutters was what led me to CNC mills.

Started looking for cutting acrylics, which lasers can do really fast, with the gotcha that laser cut acrylic wont solvent weld after without annealing, tends to stress crack.

Two other things that put me off the lowest cost laser cutters are the software , which dosen`t sound a biggie its included with its dongle, problem being that it will only engrave or cut raster images, not vector, it scans like a TV not traces like a plotter.

The driver hardware is locked to the software which is locked to it`s dongle, several vendors offer a DSP control upgrade which will handle vector at a good few hundred quid extra.

Other catch for cutting is usually no motorised lifting table, got to alter the focus to cut through thicker materials and low cost way is a hand wheel on the side.

Dunno this forums tolerance for linking to other forums, but the words `chinese laser support forum` should lead you to a lot of info on them.

Cheers
Adam