Looking for a new laser

I currently have a 50w blue/white shenhui ebay machine. Overall it works pretty good since I discovered lightburn!

I’d love to get a trotec but that is out of the budget. So I’m looking for something with a little more bed space and a bit more power. I think 60w would be fine. One of my major issues with the current machine is that it can’t repeatably find the same location. If I’m cutting out a shape I have to set it to 2 passes. The start of the first pass will usually be off but the second pass will be perfect. I’ve checked laser alignment and leveled the bed out and made sure the belts were tight.

I’d really like hear from people who are running bigger machines with lightburn. I’d like to keep using LB if I can. I’ve considered Boss and Thunder but I don’t know what I ultimately want.

We run a couple of 100w Ruida controlled Black/Red chinese machines. They work well for what we do with them. I’d recommend getting the LB camera / a working webcam and using that for lining things up. Your alignment issue sounds pretty weird though, and I don’t think the camera would help with that.

Not sure what you’re looking to hear about exactly, so feel free to ask questions, and I’m sure I and others would be happy to answer them.

Have you had any issues with the machine? How is the fine detail? I primarily do leather engraving and people want insanely detailed stuff on the their leather items. The other thing that keeps me somewhat busy but isn’t my main use is bottle engraving. Right now I don’t have a motorized z-axis so that would be a plus. I’d also like to not have to power down and unplug the y to plug in the rotary.

The machines were here before me, so I don’t know of any initial pains in getting them going. I’m willing to bet it wasn’t just plug and play though. I know a stepper got replaced at one point. Other than that though, no issues since I’ve been here.

I’ve done engraving on painted tile, and can get really decent resolution out of that. I run at about 190dpi. I’ve only ran leather once as a test, and haven’t messed with it since. I do plan on making a book cover and some shoes for my son at some point in the future though.

The Z axis on our machines are motorized, but not stepper driven. I think you’re going to have to power down for rotary usage, unless maybe you can find a different axis to use. I think some people got an A axis working for rotary? Maybe U? I don’t recall. I don’t recall if you can do that on a Ruida either.

Thanks Blake. That is helpful!