choosing a laser cutter

Hello, little help required please....

I am an artist of sorts and i want to use laser printing to take my art to the next level. I can see me printing on wood and acrylic primarily and i need the images to look well defined and detailed. Martin tomsky and spacewolf are the best examples of the standard I'd like to get to.

At this stage i intend to start out with prints possibly around 3ft x 2ft, but this will be dictated by cost. I also want the ability to cut through materials to multi-layer images. What wattage will i need / be best with? Ideally, from a cost perspective, 60watt is as high as i would like to go. And is a certain level of detail in the image dictated by the quality of the machine or is this down to the image settings?

Thanks in advance.

Wellstorm

Hi Wellstorm,

(clear) acrylic binds/limits you to a CO2-lasercutter/engraver.

There are cheap chinese 40W-machines with 300x200mm working range around for below USD1000, but for bigger working areas and better quality you'll better count for USD 2000 to 4000. Look at ebay for "CO2 lasercutter" ...

The finest details are set by the spot diameter, what's in the range of 0.2mm to 0.05mm, depending on beam and optics quality.

Speed and positional resolution/accuracy depends mostly on software ...

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Looking at Martin tomsky and spacewolf work
and
2 x 3 ft
About $100,000
for a big work surface
and a controllable powerful laser.

Look at
[www.epiloglaser.com]

Quote
wellstorm
Hello, little help required please....

I am an artist of sorts and i want to use laser printing to take my art to the next level. I can see me printing on wood and acrylic primarily and i need the images to look well defined and detailed. Martin tomsky and spacewolf are the best examples of the standard I'd like to get to.

At this stage i intend to start out with prints possibly around 3ft x 2ft, but this will be dictated by cost. I also want the ability to cut through materials to multi-layer images. What wattage will i need / be best with? Ideally, from a cost perspective, 60watt is as high as i would like to go. And is a certain level of detail in the image dictated by the quality of the machine or is this down to the image settings?

Thanks in advance.

Wellstorm

Thanks for the feedback guys. 100k is a bit rich for me just now cozmicray, will have to be baby steps to begin with, will go for a model as per viktor's feedback and produce my artwork using that for now.

instructables.com is a good website for the laser cutter,I think you can search the laser cutter in instruction.com

Recommend some B2B marketplaces for you,such as the alibaba ,made in china and en.ofweek.com .What's more,ebay is a good choice too!

Quite late to the party, but get some experience first before you buy one. 2x3 feet is rather large, that will take a long time to engrave. That is where resolution comes into play: a larger resolution means more horizontal scan lines: all distance the laser head has to travel. a 60x90cm image will easily take 1-4 hours to engrave!
A 60x90 lasercutter from aliexpress will set you back about 5k but it comes with horrible software! Nicer machines are GCC spirits (~25k) that behaves like it is a windows printer. Epilog does the same trick but I would advise against buying one based on bad experience (breaks often,+ expensive). Top of the line are Trotec lasers, they will set you back 30-40k for a 60x90 machine.
If you are adventurous: go for a aliexpress/ebay machine and replace the electronics with a smoothieboard, laos-board or something else. If you want guaranteed results let someone else do it for you.