I’ve read every message (and some twice) as I move closer to the purchase of my first laser engraver and naturally, I have many questions. I’ll try and space them out and hopefully generate some additional chatter along the way.
I am currently looking at the Pinnacle M Series 25W and the LaserPro Mercury 30W machines.
Any good or bad thoughts on either of these machines?
Will I be able to cut through 1/8″ ply in a single pass with these machines?
Additionally, If I have a mostly loaded table (25″ x 18″ on the Pinnacle, 20″ x 31″ on the Mercury) how long, if at all, can either of these systems run unattended or is this simply not a safe option?
And lastly for now, I am strongly leaning towards Adobe Illustrator as my graphics editor of choice, already being quite familiar with Photoshop. Does anyone think this is a bad choice?
I really appreciate any and all opinions offered.
A conversation last summer with the LaserPro rep revealed that Pinnacle’s entire series is made by LaserPro. They’re the same machine. I wasn’t terribly impressed however with the level of support being offered by either company and got a ULS V-460 instead. As for the software, even though Adobe Illustrator supposedly works, probably more than 90% of the laser users run CorelDraw. If you have to do work for someone else, it’s likely that is the form you will receive it in.
I have a 45 watt machine and at a power setting of 100% and 3.3% speed I can cut through 1/8″ plywood in one pass (usually). So in comparing it to a 30 watt machine, that would be like cutting at 30 watts at about 2% speed. It might do it, but it will seem like FOREVER.
Keep in mind that all plywoods are not created equal either. Baltic birch, solid core, and luan plywood will each cut differently. My example above is with luan plywood.
I’ve got a 30 watt laserpro explorer. I chose it to get the large 38×20 table. Cutting is painfully slow to watch. I’ve got a job where i convert a sheet of 1/4″ acrylic into a bunch of little stands. Think of cutting the sheet into 1/2″ strips by 4″. I’ve got to run my machine at .2% speed). The job runs for 6 hours unattended. You just need to be sure that the material won’t flare up while unattended. If you have a specific application in mind work with a salesman so see that exact demo.
The laserpro is built and tested for corel draw. I’ve had bugs with the driver with photoshop and freehand. An example of the driver bugs. If you draw a box in freehand the engraver only cuts 3 of the sizes but if you ungroup it all 4 line cut fine. If all your doing is cutting vector shapes you should be fine with illustrator, illustrator is on the mac and they have no mac driver.
None of the bugs have been show stoppers but there tech support has been totally useless. I’ve not had any problems with the hardware.
Thanks much for the great info guys. Not what I wanted to hear, but all stuff I need to know before taking the plunge. Look like I need to check out pricing on something more powerful that I 30W, if I can swing it. But I would like the larger table as well. The comments regarding poor support on the LaserPro (Pinnacle) systems seem too consistent for comfort. What does cause me to lean in that direction, however, is that they have a dealer in Greensboro, NC, about a 3 hour drive for me. Does anyone have any experience with Jorlink ( www.jorlink.com )? It may mean nothing in the end, but I do gain a sense of comfort from proximity.
The only dealings I’ve had with Jorlink was to buy some of their marking compound. It’s really pricey, but works OK on metal. The ceramic marking compound got only marginal results. I personally would put all of my resources into getting as much power as is affordable. I got the oversized platform with the V-460, but haven’t had to use it all that much. I was able to get 50 watts of power and it goes through thick acrylic and plywood pretty fast. I think that’s more important than size. J. Stephen Spence points out in his training materials that support with the system is REALLY important. I had looked at LaserPro but got concerned that since they’re a Taiwanese based company, getting replacement parts could be an issue. I was not able to find out what level of inventory they keep in the US. ULS and Epilog ship items overnight from Arizona and Colorado respectively, so if something goes wrong, your business will not suffer as a result.
The more I look at the Universals the better they look. Can you recommend a dealer? I’ve sent a couple of pricing requests, but have yet to hear from anyone. How’s the driver? Buggy at all?
Also, they seem to be portrayed as easily upgradeable as far as power goes whilst elsewhere I’ve read that upgrading the power is usually so expensive as to make getting a second machine a better option. Have you any experience on this?
Thanks again for the input.
I got my ULS V-460 last December. The driver is pretty good, but I’d recommend using an XP based computer as that driver seems to be the best. As with ANY Windows based system, it’s not 100%, but hasn’t caused me any real problems either. It’s better than W98/2000/ME. You might want to call them and find who their local rep is. I deal with Midwest Laser Systems in Toledo, Ohio. It was a virtual tie between Epilog and ULS as far as features were concerned, but ULS ran a year end sale and discounted the platform and tube while Epilog only gave discounts on accessories that I wasn’t really interested in. That tipped the sale towards Universal. Their machines seem easier to upgrade. Just the tube needs to be changed out, but it’s been my observation that hardly any of the machines are ever upgraded.
ULS will provide the name and number of the regional distributor. On that subject, there has been discussion on the customer services issues people have experienced, so here is my tale: After using my ULS-M300, I shut it off and went to lunch. I came back in an hour and turned it on. It went through its initialization and the ‘door-open’ light kept flashing no matter what I did, as well as the READY light never coming on. Additionally, the carriages never moved even when trying the up/down arrows (INTERLOCK system was active). This makes sense since the interlock is suppose to be on when door is open. Anyway, I called ULS and spoke to a very good service rep who had me try several things like cleaning the pins on the memory, setting the magnets directly on the door sensors, etc. In the end, he says it is the CPU board - and he’d get me a replacement out via overnight. We were on the phone for about 1 hour and he was very patient while I worked on the machine and there was no charge for the exchange. The package did indeed go out overnight, and I was back running the next day. Additionally, I have had to call up my local dealer (engraversnetwork.com) and they have always spent whatever time was necessary to help. These guys are in the DFW area and I have to say I am happy with the customer service they provide.
I know some people have had mega problems with their local guy and I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t know if you can buy out of your local distributorship, but I have to say I give high marks to the DFW area guys.
Now, on the second part - I haven’t priced the upgrade although it is as easy as simply changing out the cartridge (limited to 50 watts). But, FYI if you choose to recharge your current cartridge expect a price tag of 1K for that. I don’t know how drastic the price differences are between power levels, but if you’re trying to go from 25w to 50w it very well might be worth buying a new machine. In my case, I’ve got a 45 watt cartridge, so it wouldn’t be worth it to pay that much for only a 5 watt difference.
Thanks much for the additional info. I’ll definitely be calling Universal in the morning.
Hope to get something on order within the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I can work on taming the Corel Draw beast.
I purchased my laser from jorlink, Mac really tries to help and he has a young guy Jay working with him who tries to handle the technical support locally.
The laserpro hardware works well. The issues are stupid things with the driver. I’ve no t had any bugs using corel which leads me to believe that corel is what the developers use.
I’m not advising against the laserpro, I’d only suggest that you test out the features that are important to you. If i had it all to do over again i might well still choose the laserpro. I want the big table and the pass through doors.
Keep asking questions.
In December we purchased our first laser, a Pinnacle 25 watt M-series from Signwarehouse. We chose the Pinnacle based on the speed of the unit and short delivery timeframe. Universal and Epilog were more expensive, and had 4 - 6 week lead times.
The laser was purchased for creating anodized aluminum serialized barcode plates for a local manufacturer.
I’ve had no problems printing from Corel on some glassware and other items, but the software I planned on using for the serialized barcodes did not agree with the laser, driver, and everything else on God’s green earth.
Tech support from Pinnacle was sketchy, but I can understand why they did not want to get involved with an issue with a software package other than Corel.
The end result is we were able to get a newer driver, and had to upgrade our barcode software to the latest release to get the barcodes to print properly.
The LaserPro Mercury looks to be the same machine as the Pinnacle M- series. I did like LaserPro’s website. I couldn’t talk them into letting me register to view the support section of their website, but it would have to be better than Pinnacle’s.
I realize that speed should not be a sole reason to purchase a laser, but we use a fixture to etch 49 barcode plates at one time. Once you fill up the width of the X-axis with work…wow, it flies (100% speed, 100% Power).