Recommend me a Laser cutter.

[shoeswith]

Worse, if I go the way gianluca_g suggests (and ripping the existing controller out seems to be a rather common suggestion with these!), then I'm taking it apart and retrofitting it; and £700 buys a lot of fixing and retrofitting. On the other hand, if £735 is the difference between ending up with working hardware, and ending up pouring lots of precious time and good money into a bad purchase then it's it's worth every single extra penny - all 73554 of them!

Im not sure Hpc is selling the same machine as an eBay machine. I am assuming they have had to do things to meet UK health and safety legislation and its hard to imagine that they could survive and expand selling basic eBay machines. Yes buying from an importer is more expensive but they are supplying a degree of service you can't get from an eBay seller such as a guarantee and serviceguarantee. We haven't had to mess with the motion control stuff and when things went wrong (not their fault) they repaired it under the guarantee. When I said getting your hands dirty I was referring to the water cooling and alignment. I know people who have epilog machines and they just don't have these kind of issues. I understand someone buying cheap who is willing to invest a lot of time repairing but we need certainty and Hpc provided a balance between price and convenience.

[Jess]

Im not sure Hpc is selling the same machine as an eBay machine. I am assuming they have had to do things to meet UK health and safety legislation and its hard to imagine that they could survive and expand selling basic eBay machines.

Yes, I'm not sure either; which is why I said it looks and is specified similarily. For instance, the only machine so far to get banned in the EU isn't the same one komatias linked but looks very similar.

I'm not sure how much they'd have to do; at least to each machine.For the banned one, the issues were that you could reach the laser whilst it was on - presumably through that big hole in the front![1] - some warning stickers were missing and it didn't have localised documentation.

If you've got the documentation handy, what could be informative is who is listed on your Declaration of Conformance (you're required to be given one under the Machinery Directive), whether it's the Chinese manufacturer or HPC. If HPC have fettled it, and not just ensured it's working, then they're the ones needing to make the declaration.

When I said getting your hands dirty I was referring to the water cooling and alignment.

Ah, not so bad then. I think in fairness though, most of the people who decide to rip out the electronics seem to be doing it because they hate the supplied software.

The experience of most of the people who buy a laser from China is that the machine works, there's just the water cooling and alignment - an unlucky few have to get their seller to send over a new tube.

I understand someone buying cheap who is willing to invest a lot of time repairing but we need certainty and Hpc provided a balance between price and convenience.

Yup, agreed. I slightly touched on this issue in the bit about pennies, but I should have been a little clearer that that section was from my perspective - I can see myself getting incredibly frustrated with Mochidraw and I'd enjoy the process of getting it to work - so long as it works in the end.

If it's about a working equipment, say for a business venture; then the extra money for the certainty and support may very well be worth it. Plus, if you've got employees the liability issues of a hacked up Class IV laser device just won't be pretty, meaning you need to buy from somewhere reputable.

[1] I think the hole's function, aside from allowing the users to burn themselves, is to allow airflow across the cutting surface and thus better remove fumes.

[Gasgasbones]

Cheers fellas

Such minefield. I suspect most come from china at some point ? But as the saying goes you generally get what you pay for. I certainly dont mind doing general maintenance but I dont want to be faffing about daily with constant problems as I need it to work for me. I need it basically to plug in and play, be of good quality and have a good spares and phone backup from where I get it from.

Quite liked the look of this one http://www.mantechmachinery.co.uk/la...d-laser-cutter
Any one know about these ?

Youtube brings up tons of the cheap looking ebay stuff but not much else it seems apart from some big industrial ones !

[Jess]

I suspect most come from china at some point ?

That it was made in China tells you almost nothing about the quality, TBH - China produces some great stuff as well as total rubbish.

Quite liked the look of this one http://www.mantechmachinery.co.uk/la...d-laser-cutter
Any one know about these ?

I'm pretty sure it's a Chinese import. You can tell from a few things - the graphic formats it supports, the Chinese character examples work, the control panel and the mention of 'imported' bearing and mirrors.

Youtube brings up tons of the cheap looking ebay stuff but not much else it seems apart from some big industrial ones !

I heard Epilog and Full Spectrum Laser a lot. As I understand it, Epilog's the Rolls-Royce. Full Spectrum Laser produce something a little more affordable.

One of the less obvious differences is the software that you get with these. There are a lot of complaints about Mochidraw (the stuff that comes with the Chinese ones) but I've seen a few spirited defenses.

Also, if you need features like grayscale engraving, I think the Full Spectrum will and the Epilog definitely can, but the Chinese ones I've seen can't. (From what I've seen, the Chinese ones lack the hardware features you'd want for this - the DSP board has no control over laser power and Mochidraw doesn't support it anyway).

I think what you really need to do is to go see these working.

[komatias]

Mine has RDworks and works fine withe changes to the power output, you can grey scale no problem. The contorl board inside the machine is specifically made for elaser work and seems very reliable.

Before commiting, do your own research.

[Gasgasbones]

Im not sure Hpc is selling the same machine as an eBay machine. I am assuming they have had to do things to meet UK health and safety legislation and its hard to imagine that they could survive and expand selling basic eBay machines. Yes buying from an importer is more expensive but they are supplying a degree of service you can't get from an eBay seller such as a guarantee and serviceguarantee. We haven't had to mess with the motion control stuff and when things went wrong (not their fault) they repaired it under the guarantee. When I said getting your hands dirty I was referring to the water cooling and alignment. I know people who have epilog machines and they just don't have these kind of issues. I understand someone buying cheap who is willing to invest a lot of time repairing but we need certainty and Hpc provided a balance between price and convenience.

Are these quality machines ?