I thought I'd just peep in here and give my opinions on the redsail stuff.

I've got a M900. It came in a well build crate, with everything secured down with zippy ties and foam. Once I got everything going to this point of using it (10 months now), these are the things I can say about my experience and possible points to improve on:

Setting up:

I must admin the manual was not quite up to par, but the videos included in the CD helped setting the machine up.

- I didn't like the "paper towel/toilet paper" on the mirrors bit to align the mirrors. Thankfully the mirrors were aligned for me so I could start testing right away.
Fix for Redsail --> include round guide circles that you can tape on the mirrors (the guides would fit snug into the mirror socket so when you take it away, you know exactly where the laser fired). I cut a bunch of circles just for that job of aligning mine a little better.

- The soldering on the laser tube didn't work out for me.
Fix for Redsail --> put stakeons on the ends of your wires (or connectors that fit the prongs). Don't make it so that a user has to solder the joints.. a simple plug would be much better!.

After running the machine for a while now, I find that the machine is capable of doing what I want it to do.

A couple points I would like Redsail to try and improve on:

- introduce a guide pointer for knowing where the laser beam will hit on the material before running the machine.
- introduce more ability to adjust the mirrors. Specifically, the second mirror and the laser tube. The second mirror's bracket should be adjustable too so that you can make the beam parallel to both axis's (if it is out of alignment). The tube should be able to be adjusted up and down, not just side to side. (all adjustments should be with set screws with a locking compound).
- make your springs on your mirror adjustment set screws thinner.. they fall off the mirrors. (or make the mirror base larger).
- make the software capable of changing the DPI. (from what tests I've done under a microscope, the dpi is closer to 400 than 1000.. that makes it hard to work with pictures as you get over lap on such a high resolution of the machine).
- Set boundaries on your laserhead. Under no circumstances should the head be allowed to hit the sidewalls of the machine. (even if you set it to do that in the software).
- make the driver a printer driver.
- In autocad, I've noticed that if I type "Hello", and then a second line "Hello/", the second line will come out smaller. I think this is because the "/" extends higher than the words and that Redsails programming to convert it takes the overall hight and converts that into a font size. The same issues happen with any font that over extends its boundaries in autocad.
- there should be a ground on the stepdown transformer that comes with the machine. (for those of you hooking up the machine and want to ground it, I would suggest leaving the machine ungrounded and install an arc/fault breaker in your panel instead.. who knows whats going on inside that transformer)
- there are a couple more.. if anyone would like to know more - pm me.
- use lock washers or locking nuts on everything! It didn't really matter to me, but one of my door arm hangers was missing the bolt.. must have walked off in transport.

All in all I will say that the redsail machine has made me money and that's what matters. I think you should be a little educated in the area of electronics and mechanics but once you fine tune everything it's a machine that works.

Cheers,

Beeman