All, Any pitfalls I should be worried about with fiber lasers? I’m currently running an 80 watt CO2 Omtech and have had good luck with it. Producing some really good stuff. Now, I want to get into metal engraving, mainly firearms. As a backup, do they work well for tumblers? Anyone use them for tumblers as a primary?
Fiber lasers can do some amazing things, but they take time and patience to figure out. Each and every fiber laser is a bit unique, and requires testing to figure out settings for your machine. In my opinion, you are much better off with a co2 laser for tumblers. You’ll find that each color from each manufacturer will require different settings, and can take some time to perfect. On my co2 machine, I use the same settings for every color and manufacturer of tumblers. Fibers have their place, but I don’t feel it’s for tumblers. If you’re doing a ton of tumblers, likely better to look at a galvo co2 machine.
Thanks. I didn’t expect to use the fiber as the primary for tumblers, just wondered. Seems like it might be faster. 
My CO2 works great for tumblers but I have a few gun manufacturers wanting me to laser suppressors.
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The perfect application…
There are a ton of youtube how to videos of beautiful gun work with fiber lasers.
A co2 is a cw (continuous wave) device and the fiber is a pulse type.
For simple engraving on anodized aluminum a low power fiber will work fine… If you want deep engraving of the slide and frame, you’ll have to up the power…
You have speed and power adjustments… but also frequency and pulse duration … these seem more mysterious as a new user myself…
There are a number of people that have great videos on these… Russ Sadler has a good set, but is usually speaking about what exactly is going on at the material level rather than the Laser Everything group does theirs … I like both …
Try both and see which you prefer…
Keep us updated…
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Any preferred manufacturers? I’ve had good luck with my Omtech CO2, might just keep the same brand.
Your profile doesn’t list the power of your co2, but I’d wager it’s less than what OMTech advised… 
Guess that’s better than no luck 
If you’ve watched any of the videos by Russ, he’s mentioned many things about Chinese distributors…
One of which is that Cloud Ray uses/sells only grade A parts… I can tell you my OMTech was a 50W model and measured only 44W with a Mahoney meter… They were not very truthful.
Russ suggested Cloud Ray when I purchased another co2 tube … Performs exactly as expected. It also had maximum operating current and maximum current ratings…
I purchased a fiber from them and got it 20 days ago, so I’m in a major learning curve, but it’s seems to work fine, unlike the OMTech that needed an alignment out of the box.
I’ve been more than happy with them, but I’ve had no issues either…
I guess I’m new to lasering (other than Diode on my CNC which was horrible for speed and power!) so the 80W I bought seems to be working fine. I had no pre-conceived idea about percentages prior to this one so when I buy a good one down the road, I’ll probably start burning holes through my materials. 
All joking aside, this one has performed very well and honestly, I had a very specific thing in mind (lasering cutting boards) that I was trying to fix and the $15K machines seemed overkill and I figured $5K was a decent level to speed up my lasering and stop running a 7W laser on a $40K machine!!
I’ll give Cloud Ray a look, I appreciate the info!!
Fiber for cutting boards…?
It depends on the material… if it’s wood … well fiber is generally for man made materials, like steel and the led/co2 are for natural materials, wood and leather… With a MOPA type you can damage them but it’s pretty ugly compared to a co2…
All lasers seem to have some coverage outside of the normal range, co2 cuts acrylic very well and it’s not what I’d classify as a natural material.
I was referring to my CO2 working well for it’s purpose but the fiber is obviously for engraving firearms and other metal items. Expanding my product lines due to request.
I’ve been very happy with my 60W JPT MOPA that I got from OMG Lasers. https://www.omglaser.com/
Direct from China, but reputable company with good gear and decent prices.
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If their fiber laser is as good as the CO2 laser (60 Watt) I bought from OMT, I will not hesitate to do business with them again.
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Have you measured your lasers output to see if it’s actually 60W?
Haven’t measured mine but honestly don’t care, just like I don’t care if my Truck is actually 385 HP… it pulls what I want. :))
I have not bought a measuring instrument which costs about the same as a new tube and I am actually reasonably sure that the “agreed” 60 Watt (max 70 Watt) that my tube is labeled with matches what I have ordered and paid for. And if it only delivers 55 Watts, it’s not the end of the world either. I calculate with a lifetime of my CO2 tube of approx. 3 years, 2/3 of that it has almost managed now without noticeable power loss. About once a week, I write down which mA value corresponds to the % setting in LighBurn, so I am ahead of the aging of my tool. It is still possible to cut 15mm acrylic, usable parts or 25mm solid wood, fortunately I rarely have both tasks. (I work mostly in 3-6mm MDF, acrylic and BB plywood)
When the current tube can do no more, I order a new one in the 60-80 Watt range with a built-in red dot and the corresponding power supply. I am lucky enough that my modest production has earned my costs more than once.
For my OMT-60Watt laser machine I have paid us-$1756.8, delivered to my door.(the price and exchange rate is a little different today)
But the point is, and that was probably also the original question, am I satisfied and can I recommend a manufacturer/retailer of laser machines? - yes, I can. 
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What if it pulls what you want, but only puts out 100hp and you don’t know any better?
Paid for 385 and got 
… Good people to deal with? I guess it’s all relative.
An issue that I had and that I keep seeing repeated… I didn’t know any better…
I now know the Chinese understand that very well.
All I’m saying is that I’m holding them to an acceptable standard, that you don’t seem to care about. When they advertise and sell a product they know is not what they sold you… I have an issue with that…
Part of the reason we get such junk from them… we just accept it as a deal… In the end we get 
'd sans lubrication.
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Honestly, the performance is there. I’ve managed to cut 1/2” walnut so I’m guessing it’s close. I also didn’t measure the 5HP on my CNC spindle because it performs as advertised. I’d notice a 70% drop in power but what I’ve seen is people paying for 80W and getting 75W. That’s minutia to me for what I’m doing. I pick my battles. For instance, the Ruida panel had an intermittent issue with the right and down keys not working. I can fix that if I want but I made them send me a new panel. Not saying you’re wrong at all, you should get what you pay for but in the overall scheme of things, it isn’t that important to me to measure. I will say this, my buddy has a 130W Thunder and my settings to cut wood are what I would expect to see in relation to his. For instance, if he uses 40% power to cut a piece of wood, I’m using 65% and getting the same results so I assume it’s close to the 80W advertised. Long term, it’s 2 months old and I’ve already made back my money in net profit on it!! If it dies tomorrow, I’m not out of anything.
you can buy tape or paint (Cermark) that lets you use the CO2 laser for marking metal. works great.
I agree, used it on some polar cups but I’m looking for deep engraving capabilities. The first ask is serial number engraving on suppressors.
What is the depth requirement for the BATFE?
I assume it’s aluminum… I think mine is…
It’s .003". I’m not sure what this guy’s suppressors are made of but I have a second company that makes theirs out of Titanium. While they do their own SN’s, they did mention that they get lots of requests for custom designs that need to be lasered.