Newbie- A series of Dim Questions...

[DukeEuphoria]

Hi all, I'm looking at getting my grubby, byte stained paws on a smallish laser cutter, and by the look of things this is one of the places where I can get a decent answer to some questions that only the most clueless of newbs needs to ask.

I'm looking at the various largeish desktop model cutters, equipped with water cooled sealed glass tubes in a 35w-60w range.

For the most part the components I'm considering cutting are small (jewlery and small mechanism) and materials are most likeyl to be acrylic, ABS, thin wood/ply, and various fabrics.

Hobby to light industrial useage.


Questions:
The first, and possibly most contentious.
Is there any special advantage to buying from a UK supplier and paying at least twice the price for a machine that looks (on paper) to be exactly the same model as many for sale on Ebay ?

Is there any advantage/disadvantage to an electric as opposed to manual raise bed ?

Does the "red dot" advertised on many systems allow alignment of the cutting beam by means of a (nominally) safe to look at visible red laser

Is air assist simple to retrofit to a machine or would it entail a rebuild.

Is "NewlyDraw" software capable enough for practical use, or would upgrading to lasercut 5.x be pretty much mandatory.
eg, I'm told that newlydraw does not provide laser power control and thus one must adjust power on the machine front panel.

Will a 40 to 60 watt sealed glass laser cut through any thickness of metal at all ? eg, aluminium foil, Copper foil, 0.1mm brass shim etc... ?

Any reccomendations for a machine in the £0 to £2000(ish) range ?

Many thanks for any information you guys can provide.

[Litografa]

Questions:
The first, and possibly most contentious.
Is there any special advantage to buying from a UK supplier and paying at least twice the price for a machine that looks (on paper) to be exactly the same model as many for sale on Ebay ? Check price with HPC Laser for example. Pay slightly higher price but get SUPPORT -important if we speak about Chinese equipment.

Is there any advantage/disadvantage to an electric as opposed to manual raise bed ? If you have a lot of different work, electric is more convinient, but manual is also OK.

Does the "red dot" advertised on many systems allow alignment of the cutting beam by means of a (nominally) safe to look at visible red laser SAFE

Is air assist simple to retrofit to a machine or would it entail a rebuild. You can easily add air assist

Is "NewlyDraw" software capable enough for practical use, or would upgrading to lasercut 5.x be pretty much mandatory.
eg, I'm told that newlydraw does not provide laser power control and thus one must adjust power on the machine front panel. Sorry - not familiar with this software

Will a 40 to 60 watt sealed glass laser cut through any thickness of metal at all ? eg, aluminium foil, Copper foil, 0.1mm brass shim etc... ? Forget about cutting of any metal with any thickness

Any reccomendations for a machine in the £0 to £2000(ish) range ? See first point

[zax15uk]

I agree with the answers that Litografa posted, but will add a few additional comments.

Questions:
Is there any special advantage to buying from a UK supplier and paying at least twice the price for a machine that looks (on paper) to be exactly the same model as many for sale on Ebay ?

If the cost is comparable I'd buy from a local vendor, but I suspect you'll find it much cheaper to import. Just remember you'll have import duty and additional charges, these are reduced if you ship air.

Is there any advantage/disadvantage to an electric as opposed to manual raise bed ?

No, not much. The manual height adjustment is quick and easy. If the cost is similar I'd get it.

Does the "red dot" advertised on many systems allow alignment of the cutting beam by means of a (nominally) safe to look at visible red laser

Yes, that's the idea. It is definately worth having but not essential. Again, if the cost is reasonable I'd get it.

Is air assist simple to retrofit to a machine or would it entail a rebuild.

Yes. I'm sounding like a broken record by now, but if it's less than 50 quid extra I'd add it.

Is "NewlyDraw" software capable enough for practical use, or would upgrading to lasercut 5.x be pretty much mandatory.
eg, I'm told that newlydraw does not provide laser power control and thus one must adjust power on the machine front panel.

I believe it is, but it isn't a design program so you'll need Corel or something else and then use the software as a 'driver'. Newlydraw DOES have capability to set power by layer but if the machine only has manual power setting then obviously the software can't control it. So it's not so much a software issue as a hardware one.

Will a 40 to 60 watt sealed glass laser cut through any thickness of metal at all ? eg, aluminium foil, Copper foil, 0.1mm brass shim etc... ?

No. It won't do anything.

Any reccomendations for a machine in the £0 to £2000(ish) range ?

I've been pleased with the Artsign 40W desktop system, and the Strong machines also get good reviews.

Many thanks for any information you guys can provide.[/QUOTE]



Zax.

[KPBadger]

Hi -

i think the other guys have answered most of your questions and a bit more reading on the forum will elaborate on the technical side of things.

With regard to import costs - i imported a machine from Jinan in january 2009.
it does mount up so the saving versus a UK distributer might not be quite so clear-cut.


the upfront costs are as follows:-

- Cost of Machine and accessories from manufacturer obviously.
- Any % added by the bank for transfers/ fees / exchange rate.
Remember you dont get many dollars to the £ at the moment!
( worth shopping around but supposedly you get some consumer protection if you use a credit card, )
- Cost of shipping by manufacturer. ( i forget the terminology but mine was FOB "freight on board" which means your pallet is paid for from the factory on to the container ship only. this is a surprisingly low cost like less than $100. This should include insurance of some kind also should the boat sink god forbid, or be jumped by piratical Somalians )


Then you will get a "Bill of Lading" detailing the container number, ship name etc - Hooray your laser engraver is off on the high seas. great to track the boat on vesseltracker.com !

The fun and additional cost starts at UK end.

- VAT at the current rate of 15% or 17.5% whatever it is. Obviously if you can declare this as a business purchase you can reclaim the VAT.
- Import Duty into the EU at 2.5% - 5% based on the commodity type . You could argue the toss whether its computer equipment or machinery or whatever.
- Customs inspection. you have to pay about £150 for it to sit in a dockside warehouse for a week till someone x-ray's the box or their beagles sniff it or whatever they do.
- Agents Handling Fee might be £100 or so.
- Freight forwarding to destination - if you cant collect it the shipping agent will be able to arrange forwarding to your address at the current rate - allow £75 or something like that.


Remember to budget for the above!

cheers

KPB

[KPBadger]

Acts of piracy are probably in the insurance companies' list of get-out clauses!

:O)

[Litografa]

I have bad experience with one delivery from China. Everything was fixed with Chinese company and we paid for sea delivery direct to Lithuania. After some time I have got call from Denmark and one dannish company ask me 200 Euro more for unloading/loading in their port. After week of negotiation between China, Lithuania and Denmark I was blackmailed to pay this amount

[fantasy2]

Well.. that's normal business. For example, I paid 125 dollars shipping for a 2.34CBM, 355kg shipment. When they unloaded the machine I had to pay about 300 euro's more for the unloading, customs handling(excluding the VAT), security and a bunch more of stuff. But that's kinda logic, it's impossible to ship something that big for 125 dollars.

[Litografa]

Agree with you, but better and fair tell ALL charges from beginning as I calculate price for customer for this item

[fantasy2]

well, I know that they sell the same machine as mine from the same factory for 6000 euro's more. On that amount, 300 is nothing.

But anyway, now you know it for the next time