Join Early Retirement Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Laser engravers
Old 12-10-2022, 04:02 PM   #1
Moderator
braumeister's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Flyover country
Posts: 25,199
Laser engravers

I have a few things that feature laser engraved wood panels. Some were trophies, some were gifts, nothing outstanding, but I really like the look.

So I've considered the possibility of getting a laser engraver to make my own. I see them for sale, anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

Does anyone here use such a gadget?
Recommendations, cautions, advice?
__________________
I thought growing old would take longer.
braumeister is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 12-10-2022, 04:27 PM   #2
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
OldShooter's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: City
Posts: 10,337
Quote:
Originally Posted by braumeister View Post
... advice?
That is the kind of thing I always buy on CraigsList, FB, or, third choice, eBay. Often the first one I buy just teaches me what I really wanted, so it is less painfull to resell a used one without taking a big loss.
__________________
Ignoramus et ignorabimus
OldShooter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-10-2022, 05:18 PM   #3
Moderator Emeritus
Ronstar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Northern Illinois
Posts: 16,543
I've been looking for an engraver also. I can see this thread being a prelude to a BTD thread post.
Ronstar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-10-2022, 05:53 PM   #4
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Seattle
Posts: 6,008
I know quite a bit about laser engravers if you have questions.

Well, more about the lasers they use (different flavors of CO2).

There is a wide range, from the several hundred dollar Chinese units which may or may not arrive completely working and may only last a few weeks (think of these as the Harbor Freight laser engravers). Then there are the ones like Epilog, which are tens of thousands of dollars but are generally well made and have a large work area and good support. The Festool of laser engravers.

The cheapest ones use a small (usually 25 watts or so) sealed glass tube high voltage DC excited CO2 laser with a glass water cooling jacket. These can be long lasting if made well (there were some medical lasers I used to have which had a 55 watt hard sealed glass tube co2 laser which was still putting out 50 watts after 22 years!). It is doubtful the $200 laser engraver would have a long lasting tube...expect about 6 months max out of the tube...although it is replaceable.

The expensive lasers have something like a Synrad Firestar RF excited sealed metal tube laser. The smaller ones of these (under 60 watts) are usually air cooled and fairly compact (maybe 20 inches long). They will last decades under light use. I have a 25 watt Firestar made in 2002 that is putting out 27.8 watts still. The laser itself is about $3000 to $9,000 new from Synrad, so this is why these type of laser engravers don't sell for $999.

There are places that will recharge Synrad laser tubes somewhat cheaper than Synrad does (Synrad charges A LOT to recharge). I think ebay has some advertisements on these recharge places. Most of the smaller RF excited metal tube CO2 lasers have the RF supply built in, although the really big ones (100 to 400 watt) it is usually a separate rack mount thing.

None of these will really cut metal....you need gas assist and 200+ watts or more. They can engrave anodized aluminum quite well though.

If you want to cut thin steel, I have used a small, cereal box size IPG laser which puts out 10 kilowatt pulses and can punch through about razor blade thickness material. It is a much shorter wavelength (1064nm vs the 10,600nm of CO2). Very eye dangerous as well...CO2 is dangerous but the beam is stopped by most (almost all?) plastic safety goggles...well, for awhile. If your vision through the goggles starts looking like a Dali painting, move out of the beam quickly.
Fermion is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
How Much Power Does a Laser Printer Draw? haha Other topics 21 11-01-2013 08:51 AM
Laser back surgery Samtex Health and Early Retirement 0 09-05-2009 12:13 AM
Cheap laser all-in-1 printer cute fuzzy bunny Other topics 2 09-06-2008 09:38 AM
Decent cheap starter color laser cute fuzzy bunny Other topics 0 06-02-2007 08:14 PM
Help me buy a laser printer thefed Other topics 10 03-30-2007 08:00 PM

» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:42 PM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.