[i-make-robots]

Hi!

I'm in Vancouver, Canada. I design educational robot kits and sell them through my web store. I've had access to a redsail CM1080 through the local hackspace. unfortunately it's out of commission for the next month, which leaves my business belly up. I have a budget of $5k and I'd like to get a replacement machine for personal use. I greatly value ease of use and maintenance - I'd rather not be screwing around with aligning lasers, I just want to make stuff. I'm comfortable with many cad, cam, and art programs. I expect that 15% of the budget will be "stuff not in the kit".

Given my location, total budget, and sklil level, what machine would you recommend?

Thank you very much!

[Exsecratio]

$5,000 and not tinkering isn't really going to happen, 50K$ buys a lot of non tinkering (and nice shiny expensive paint)

Lasers by their very nature need to be maintained (aligned, cleaned, aligned some more) and even the best of the far eastern ones will require some user intervention.

In real terms though it's not difficult, no more so than checking oil on the car etc. G.Weike do some good machines in that ballpark.Most of the gear you need comes with them, it can be improved on later but for a startup the kit they supply works. (Bigger extractor,chiller,lens's etc can come later)

I'm sure one of the Weike girls will be along soon with a suggestion. As to local supply..... could try John at Hurricane....he's a decent chap and honest (unlike some US based sellers) Don't know if John will have anything in the price range but worth asking him.
May also be worth speaking to Ray Scott at Rabbit Lasers, he's also one of the good guys but again budget may be a little tight.

best wishes

Dave

[Gweikelasers]

Hi,
Thanks for Dave's recommendation! We have many customers in North America, and we really have confidence in our machines and aftersales service. G.Weike is your best choice!

[i-make-robots]

G weike... you are Laser engraving machine|Laser cutting machine|CNC router-G.Weike Laser ? Your website is so bad I'm a afraid of your lasers.

Exsecratio - Thank you for the quick reply!

I understand they need maintenance and tuning. I'm looking for the machine that needs less tinkering and less after market parts to get up and running. Quick delivery time and lots of software options are also highly valued. I've just had a really bad experience with a laser that had a dongle and the dongle died.

The machine I've used the most never showed up as a printer on my network, which would be fantastic.

I'm only cutting woods < 3/4" and acrylic < 1/4". I'm used to a 1000x800mm work area and would like that again. A fence and limit switches would be fantastic.

Thank you.

[Exsecratio]

Weike's website is bad for a simple reason, all their resources go in to making machines and not web sites

Joking aside, in the 7 years I've been involved with these things and running a laser based UK website I've yet to hear a bad thing about the Weike machines.

Lucy,Mel,Abby and some of the other WK girls respond to support requests almost 24/7 and the machines are bullet proof.

Dongles sadly are par for the course, pretty much all the far eastern machines come with them (they by and large all use the same leetro controller) so long as they aren't crushed or ill treated they last without any problems.

1000x800 is a pretty big machine, you may get one in the budget you have but it will be tight.

best wishes

Dave

[epilotdk]

3/4" wood is way too thick for a laser. You need a router for that.

[34ford]

I am considering the Rabbit RL-80-9060 from Ray but I emailed him Saturday and haven't heard back. Wait or move on to someone else?

[Hurricane21]

Dave,

As always, thank you for the kind words. For Robot and 34Ford please give me a call to discuss your needs more fully. You can also check out all of our lasers at Home page.

All of our lasers come with a 2 year warranty that covers everything including the tube. They also have mirrors and lenses from Meller Optics her in the US and come with the CW5000 chiller as standard.

Thank you for your time.

John