The best laser for birch plywood 1/16 & 1/8 Thickness

[Carl Van Houten]

I have been using laser cutter services to cut my kits & parts for about 8 years now and we have recently decided that we need our own laser in-house to cut down long seasonal lead times and one off prototype kit prices. After hours of searching and reading all the pros and cons of every kind of problem you could dream of with lasers it became clear that I had better make a good choice the first time to avoid problems down the road. There are all kinds of claims of performance from every manufacturer out there and from what I understand from the laser cutters I have used over the years a 120w to 150w laser is needed to burn fast enough to keep the edges cut without the charring issues of the lower wattage lasers.

After reading until my head was about to explode I thought that maybe the most cut and dry method of choosing a suitable laser would be to ask you guys what kind of lasers you use and briefly why. I hope to get a machine that will do the job without wishing I had purchased something else. I need a bed that will except a 24" x 48" panel. The price of the Precision brand laser looks good to me but it is made in china. Is it really as good as they say?  If I could find someone who is happy with theirs it would help. Sending that much money over there makes me a little uncomfortable.   

Any advice would be very helpful.

Thanks,

-Carl

If you had rather contact me via email, my email is: [email protected]

 

[rhomodel]

Carl, would it be worthwhile to find out what laser your cutting services had / is using? Obviously you were content about their quality, it is for other reasons you decide to do this in house yourself.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

One service used a 150w Kern but I am not sure about the other services and what brand lasers they used. In the beginning I tried to use services that had 80watt machines and they did okay for 1/16 thickness but produced too much edge charring in the 1/8" thickness. While the Kern may be a great machine it is VERY expensive with a 150w tube and an acceptable bed size. I am curious about the cheaper models. Is it really possible to get a good machine for somewhere in the $5k range? And if so, what brand brings an acceptable level performance and tube longevity?

Thanks,

-Carl 

 

[brad nichols]

What about a router head instead?

Brad

 

[Chris Davis]

Brad you should give Carl Jeff Ross's contact info. I,ll bet he has some good information on that type of equipment.

 

[RaceMechaniX]

I was using an Epilog 60W helix laser cutter although it has a bedplate limit of 24"x18" It would cut 1/8" birch ply in a single pass. Anything thicker required multiple passes.
https://www.epiloglaser.com/laser-machines/product-line.htm

 

[Grimracer]

We have a Boss Laser and its been easy to setup and use. Price was good and performance is nice!

Grim

 

[BobHorowitz]

Maybe give Mike Luszcz at ML Boatworks a shout. I don't think he has his own laser, but he sure has some experience with laser cutting. He might be a good source of information.

 

[SayMikey]

Id call Brian Blazer,ive seen his in action. One hell of a setup

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Grim: The Boss and Precision brand lasers are the two I was looking at. What wattage and bed size do you have?

Bob: MLBW uses AK laser. AK uses a 100watt Kern so it produces nice edges but communication was an issue. I hear that they have someone else running that shop now. I am actually looking for a laser machine for our shop. Another issue I had with AK was that he would never cut my kits cheap enough to compete with other kit prices and some of the kits I was competing with were cut there as well. Go figure...

SayMikey: I have talked to Brian about cutting kits and if I don't find my own machine I may contact him again. He seems like he would be easy to work with.

Thanks for the replies!
-Carl

 

[Grimracer]

24-36

 

[Carl Van Houten]

24-36 let me guess that is an 80 watt tube.

 

[Grimracer]

65 for us.. works nice.. I would like 100 but that can wait.. no hurry.. cuts 1/4" cheap ply no issues.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

65watts is too light for our needs. I am glad to hear that you are happy with your Boss machine though. Hearing things like that from an actual customer makes us feel better than hearing it from some fabricated review.
Thanks -Carl