Well, after acquiring a small galvo fiber and playing about with it i decided to splash out for a proper MOPA engraver, because the one i have is pretty much good only for coated aluminium cards and some plastics. Barely usable for stainless (50mmps at 90% for darkish mark, nope).
What good can be bought today for around 3k ? Looking for 60W JPT MOPA M7, found some Monport machines, both split and non-split designs ranging between 2.5k and 3.5k. Some with rotaries, some without. Some not Monport brand, etc, etc.
Any reliable UK sellers out there within this range of parameters ? What should i look out for ?
Looking at non-split designs i start thinking - “prone to overheating on long runs” ?
Looked at usual suspects (laserply, omtech, mantech), their machines being same’ish (spec wise) cost over 1k more than, say Monport. Not looking importing directly from china (all the import/duty nonsense). Obviously needs to be LB compatible.
I’m in a process of searching/reading/watching, but any advice is very much appreciated.
Browsing previous discussions concerning “Monport MOPA” suggests the missing kiloBuck (kiloEuro, kiloPound, whatever) might buy useful features found elsewhere, but I admit to not closely following those discussions.
Stipulated: Forum discussions rarely occur when a machine works well, so a very popular brand with few problems can generate more kvetches than an uncommon stinker. Monport may be one of the former, but consider the problems carefully.
Kilo-great-british-pound ? as questions pertain to UK market.
But yeah, i was wondering about all the support the monport apparently sucks at.
For now considering 60-100w jpt m7 off amazon for 2500-2800gbp. Return policy would guard me some against catastrophic failure out of the box, i guess. And the small problems i will fix myself should stuff break, provided standard parts used. M7 being kind of widely used i can mix and match rest of components, no (galvo, controller BJJCZ, power supplies, etc)?
Note carefully how (some?) manufacturers / OEMs protect themselves against warranty claims on machines sold anywhere other than their Official Websites: just because the Amazon “storefront” is their Official Outlet does not mean they will honor a warranty claim.
This limited warranty does not apply to OMTech-branded products purchased from third-party websites such as Amazon or eBay.
Regarding a laser machine as a comprehensive parts kit, rather than a finished machine, seems prudent. However, unlike common CO₂ machines, many of a fiber laser’s parts seem to be unique / undocumented / proprietary hardware and will be exceedingly hard to replace.
? as questions pertain to UK market.