Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

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Thread: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

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    Default Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    Hi there folks, I'm starting up a new engraving business (going from employed in laser engraving to owning my own).

    My budget doesn't allow me to get an expensive machine like a Trotec, but the Chinese machines are in my price range.

    The products I make are trophies. I use laminated plastic for trophy name plates, and I also cut and engrave acrylic.

    Questions:

    Q: Is there any problems with a 100w CO2 laser tube engraving laminated plastic sheets?

    Q: Does anyone own this machine?
    UPGRADED 100W CO2 LASER ENGRAVING CUTTING MACHINE USB PC ENGRAVER CUTTER CNC | eBay
    I have tried to contact the ebay sellers to ask if this machine is compatible with a rotary attachment, but so far I have had no reply. Can anyone shed light on this plz.

    Q: Also, I hear people saying that they've installed ammeters on their machines. Is this necessary for me?

    Q: Do you guys know of any special clips or fasteners to hold engraving material to the bed? I've used a Trotec before, and their bed is flat, and I used magnets to keep everything flat and unmoving.

    Anyhow, thanks in advance for any wisdom you can share.

    Cheers,

    Grant.

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    Default Re: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    Phew...
    That particular unit is interesting: what does 'upgraded' mean? that they fixed a broken one and are reselling it with improved specs?
    The water cooler that ships with it is not labelled nor identified, meaning it is highly probable it'll be rather ineffective for anything but hobby use as you give it time to cool down again.
    You'd really need something like a CW5200 chiller (preferably a genuine one- look on Fleabay), and NOT the CW3000 unit which is basically an aquarium pump and a PC fan blowing on a little radiator. Many Evilbay sellers will push the useless CW3000 unit.
    The 5200 has a small fridge type compressor for cooling - BUT expect to pay $750 to $1100 for the cooling unit alone.

    Engraving you ask? Generally it is accepted that chinese CO2 units are not good at being switched on and off fast as needed for engraving - you'll get a deeper spike at each start than end - compared with the better ceramic RF air-cooled american tubes, that ARE excellent for engraving, but where an exchange tube alone costs more than this entire unit you're looking at.
    However you CAN engrave with them - just not as well as an Epilog/Universal/Trotec will do.
    Also, the bigger Chinese machines won't handle the tinier stuff quite as well, and willl be MUCH much slower at engraving than the smaller USA machines.
    (we have a 130W chinese and a 45W american, and the same file takes exactly half the time in the Universal as it does on the Golden laser, if you're engraving.
    The Chinese one is better for cutting thicker stuff though)

    That shows a max speed of 1000mm/sec. For cutting that's way plenty, but for some engraving, that's slow. I've set ours at 2500 to 3500 mm/sec for some engrave jobs, and that's still taken half an hour or more to plug through, as it has to accelerate up to sleed, then slow down and turn around and start again for the next pass.

    Software is another item, haha. The chinese stuff- depending on the controller than drives the axes, will have a learning curve, or a learning plummet.
    The american stuff will generally work quickly and directly from Corel Draw or Illy etc.

    Rotary - no idea on this machine.

    Ammeters - yes... ours came with one already on it. The value is that a CO2 tube will lose it's optimal lifespan very quickly if fired at 100% of its rated current a lot of the time.
    (An RF/Ceramic american tube can handle 100% all day long.)
    So, a 100 watt chinese tube might have a rated max current of 25 milliamps (I'm guessing here), therefore you should not really use it at much more than 20mA (which is 80% of max) for the longest life. Our machine has a 28-29 mA max as spec'd on the tube, but the power supply for the tube must have been tweaked so when the software says 100%, its's only cranking out 21-22mA on the ammeter, which is quite OK. Each machine will be a bit different and needs to be individually checked & sussed out. This machine MIGHT even have its own ammeter - I have no idea.

    Fasteners for the bed? I find gravity works fine 95% of the time. A chunk of steel or a bit of masking tape works the rest of the time.

    Hope that helps.

    P.S. IF you buy it, please check back in here with your thoughts as soon as you get it, and again 2 months later.
    It might be a unit worth having, BUT will need work to get tuned and cooled and set up, etc.
    Expect to lose a few hours as you figure out how to align the mirrors etc.

    Last edited by Stewey; 10-15-2017 at 03:23 AM. Reason: typo


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    Default Re: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    Thank you for your reply Stewey. That gives me plenty of insight into buying a Chinese machine. I ended up ordering a machine from Alibaba just two days ago, direct from a company that makes the machines. I'll post a full user review of the machine on these forums once I've had some time to play with it. I've used a Trotec for so long now that I'll have a tangible benchmark to compare it against.

    Thank you again for your information

    Cheers,

    Grant



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    Default Re: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    If you're used to a Trotec... you mightn;t like the Chinese one at all!
    But I wish you well - there's still an adjustment curve, to the software, and the procedures, but you'll handle it OK!

    P.S. what software does it use? RDWorks? or something with a dongle?

    Last edited by Stewey; 10-16-2017 at 06:44 AM. Reason: typo


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    Default Re: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    Who needs a fast engraver, when you have no jobs yet!
    The idea is, get the machine working full time, then it can pay for a faster one.

    Wow you already ordered. I was going to say get an 80 watt, since it is recommended as the highest power for engraving. The size of the font is smaller than 100 watt, and the replacement tubes are cheaper. Also you can find a good company to order from, and not roll the dice on some of the ebay/alibaba sellers. What machine did you go with? A link would be good!



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    Default Re: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    Hi Greg, I totally agree I did actually get an 80 watt Chinese machine from one of the major manufacturers, and after using it for a while now, I absolutely love it. The company I went with was Jinan Derek.

    https://drklaser.en.alibaba.com/prod....ad55de1uiBeIA

    I'll be posting a full review on these forums later, but it's safe to say that I'm 100% happy with this machine. I really don't have a valid reason for wanting a more expensive American made machine now, as the this Chinese one performed well above my expectations.



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    Default Re: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    Impact... how does your total cost- laser + freight & duties - compare with similar lookalikes on Fleabay, if you don't mind me asking?



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    Default Re: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    Never actually heard of Fleabay before, but I googled it and took a look at their website, and I could not find anything about laser engravers on there. Do you have a link to an advert that I could have a look at?



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    Default Re: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    Sorry- my sense of humour: Fleabay, Evilbay...it masquerades as many things: E-bay:
    link below
    Ebay-Australia | eBay

    Last edited by Stewey; 01-06-2018 at 08:22 AM. Reason: typo


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    Default Re: Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

    Ah, lol XD

    Ebay was actually the first place I began to look for machines. Originally I was looking for a bed size of 700 x 500, and there were plenty of machines on there this size, and they came with a rotary attachment, which was something I needed. Getting closer to the time of wanting to purchase, though, that size machine disappeared from ebay completely. They had bigger sizes and smaller sizes, but nothing in between.

    So I ended up doing some research, and a forum somewhere (may have been this one) recommended Alibaba.com which had machines from the manufacturers themselves. Which was awesome. I ended up with a newer model machine for about the same price as ebay, though it was bigger 900 x 600, and seemed to be built with better parts (Leadshine 3-step motor, RECI laser, etc, better water cooler, etc). Because it was from a manufacturer, the warranty was much longer too, and presumably more trustworthy.

    One of the big issues I had with shopping around for Chinese laser engravers, is that there was always something that didn't meet my needs, in some shape or form. Some beds were too small or too big, or the wattage too high. Some didn't come with rotary attachments or water coolers. Some had pictures where the control panel was covered in Chinese (which immediately scared me off). It wasn't until Jinen Derek send me a brochure for one of their machines that all my boxes were ticked.

    As far as my research and experience is concerned, Alibaba is definitely preferable over eBay for laser engravers. Alibaba has the manufacturers, and there is a tremendous amount of flexibility and comfort when dealing with the makers direct.



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Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.

Buying Chinese laser engraver, but I need your wisdom.