Redsail 3040A laser engraving machine.

[diarmaid]

Hi,
Does anyone have one of these 3040A laser engravers from Redsail at http://www.hflaser.com/jgdkj.html ? Im looking for any possible information I can get on it. Its performance. What was the service like buying it? Did it ship ok? Is aftersales service any good? Is the machine solid? Does it work ok? etc etc etc.
Any info would be useful and if you own one and could post pics of it and items you've cut with it would be great and much appreciated. Thanks.

[diarmaid]

I guess nobody had any info on these?

[diarmaid]

Just move this back into the New Post list again...

[scott wiggins]

I'm just curious. What is about this particular machine that you find so intriguing?

[diarmaid]

In a word.....PRICE!! Its $1990.
In more than one word.....it has a decent cutting area for what I want and the cost. Also the distributors are in Canada so I imagine that it will be easier to deal with them (Maybe someone with a RedSail product can confirm service quality) than with an Asian company who dont speak fluent English or use standard western business modis operandi.

[smparkinson]

I have to put in my new 2 cents now about the Redsail 3040A laser engraver. First of all, it doesn't look like what they have in the Redsail site, it looks like the earlier pic that diarmaid posted. Also you can find the right pic on Redsail's site in their download section under catalogs. Anyway, while I have no doubt that it is a much better machine than the ie300, shipping by Fedex air would add about $700. to the price. Fedex doesn't pick up in their city in China, so there would be additional cost just to get it to Fedex for shipment to the US. And since I haven't found anyone who has actually purchased one of these machines, the shiping from mainland China makes me cautious. I tried to get their Canada rep to arrange for me to pick one up in person, but he didn't feel he could arrange the sale in that manner. I offered to pay half up front via wire transfer to their bank in China with the balance to be paid when I picked up the unit in Canada. Please don't misunderstand me. I think the company and the Canada rep are probably fine, and unit is probably great for the price. The problem I have is the purchase and shipping from mainland China, and the fact that I can find no purchasers who have received them. Anything can happen, and your money and or equipment could end up anywhere.
Considering the above, I have for the time being made the decided to go with the ie300 from Ink Express in Hong Kong. I have been told that the software has now been improved to allow vector cutting from files in PLT format, and the fact that Cidi Steve has actually received one of these units made up my mind for me. I've been to Hong Kong a couple of times, and business is conducted in a more familiar manner to me. The ie300 is in all likelyhood made on the mainland, but shipment is from Hong Kong, and that puts my mind at ease. And for a total of around $1200. including shipping, I will take my chances. The Redsail unit would be over twice that amount with shipping, and that's a little too much for me to leave to chance. I still hope to get the Redsail unit down the road, but I think I'll wait until I can work something out with their Canada rep. If anyone else decides to go with Redsail, I certainly hope it works out well, and I hope they will share their experience with the rest of us.

[diarmaid]

Thanks for the info. I'll certainly keep all that in mind when Im purchasing and if I go with redsail I'll let everyone know. I have since received another e-mail from them (I didn't email them again) with a pdf file and the picture of the 3040A is different to the one I put into the first post so I have removed it.

The pic in their pdf file looks like the IE300 and is shown below. I also attached the pdf file for anyone interested.

Can someone tell me what 'T/T' payment is?

[smparkinson]

While the 3040A looks similar to the ie300, the specs show it to be larger, with an engraving area of approx. 11" x 16", compared to the ie300's approx 8" x 11". It's a substantial increase in work area, about double the ie300. The 3040A is also heavier at a shipping weight of 70kg, and that makes it a lot more expensive to ship by air.
If the 2 machines were in front of me now, I would pay the extra bucks and take the 3040A over the ie300 hands down. Like I said, I still plan on getting one of the 3040A's when I can work out delivery arrangements with the company. Nothing wrong with having 2 laser engravers, right? Anyway, I hope to hear more about the 3040A when somebody out there gets one.

By the way, a TT stands for a telegraphic transfer. Kind of an old fashoned term for what we usually call a wire transfer. A lot of international companies still use the term. The service charge varies with the bank that transfers the money for you, mine cost $45. A lot more than a money order, but you have the peace of mind knowing that the money is deposited directly into the other company's bank. Happy laser buyins!
smparkinson

[diarmaid]

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[tobytorkn]

guys, how good would this thing be for cutting balsa? also, doesn't look like it supports .dxf input? thanks, toby....

[diarmaid]

I don't know about the .dxf.

I dont have experience cutting with these yet re. the balsa, but I know most laser engravers I've researched state it as one of their 'cuttable' materials. You should however contact 'sidi steve' using these two threads, he might be able to help.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14100

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20332

[smparkinson]

Hi tobytorkn,
If you are talking about thin balsa sheet, say 1/4" or less, any laser is probably the best way to go. Laser's are used by both hobbiest's and manufacturers to make RC airplanes, model buildings, etc. Manufacturers love them because unlike die cutting, the balsa is cut clean without touching it, and they really love the fact that they dont have to make a cutting die. That not only saves the cost of the die, but also allows them to make changes in the design or pattern without having to start from scratch.
Another thing they able to do with balsa airplane kit parts is to provide their customer with them in sheet form, but ready to pop out of the sheet with their fingers. Say for example, the kit comes in a box measuring 8" x 20". Instead of a bunch of lose fragile parts, when they open it they find a group of 8" x 20" sheets with the parts outlined on the sheets with a series of tiny perforations, allowing them to just pop out the parts without having to cut them. This has a number of advantages.

(1) By keeping them in sheet form, the parts are kept in tact because they arent banging into each other during shipping.
(2) Each sheet has a known number of parts, which makes it much less likely that a part or two might turn up missing. The manufacturer knows that the kit contains, say, four sheets of parts, and each sheet is numbered. The likelyhood of failing to pack a sheet of parts is much less than missing one or more small parts.
(3) Each sheet can be laser marked with information such as the manufacturer's name and contact info. And each part can be laser marked with a part number, either on the part inself or right next to the part on the areas between parts on the sheet.

These perforations are easily lasered into the sheets by determining the number of pulses per inch and the power of each pulse. This will require some trial and error, but once you know what your laser will do with different settings on different thicknesses of balsa, you just make a little cheat sheet with the info for future reference. The same goes for marking balsa rathering than cutting it.
Obviously, if you're cutting the parts for yourself, you will probably just cut them right through rather than perferating them, but it's nice to have the ability to do both. Think about the possibility of producing a few perforated kits to give to friends, and packaging them in a nice laser engraver gift box.

Now for an update on my purchase of the Ink Express model IE300 table top laser engraver. Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of my perchase as of today.

First, a little of the good. I paid for my unit via wire transfer from my bank to the Ink Express bank in Hong Kong. The total amount was $1269. ($999. for the laser and $270. for air shipping). I wired the funds on Tuesday, June 6th. I took delivery (shipped bt DHL) on Tuesday, June 13th. That's one week from the time I payed to the time I got the machine from the other side of the world! I wish all businesses shipped that fast.
I got it in two packages, one big and one small. The small one was the voltage transformer, and it was a bunch of loose parts in a metal case. I put them back together, but it's no good. I notified Ink Express by email, and they responded that it was damaged in shipment and that I should buy one locally. No offer to replace it or anything like that. It looks like it will cost me around $100. to get a replacement.
The exhaust fan didn't work, and they said that it was a 240V fan and that I should use the transformer to power that as well.
There was no owners manual with the laser, but since that is available as a download from their website I just printed a hard copy, so that's no big deal.
The power cord they sent (to go between the transformer and the laser) was the European type which would not plug into the transformer, which was set up with US type outlets. Again, not a major problem since I had a few old computer power cords laying around.
Now for the software, which so far is the only thing I've had a chance to play with. There is a USB software electronic key that needs to be inserted into a USB port for the software to function. I'm happy to say that the key works. I think the software will do an OK job when I figure out it strengths and weakneses. I've fooled around with it for a few hours now, and have some of it down. But you have to approach it from an open perspective, as it's commands are different from what you may be used to. Some of this is due to translation and some of it is due to approaching things from a different point of view from what I am used to with other graphic software. In all fairness, from what I have figured out, it's not really so bad.
As for the above problems, I am trying to be objective. Assuming that I can get this laser up and running once I have the proper voltage converter, and assuming that the software functions as I hope, I have to say that for well under $1500. total, a 40watt laser engraver might be worth dealing with a few problems. Anyway, that's what I am hoping. I'll keep you posted.

smparkinson