Changes

[Darrell]

After 23 years and 11 months doing the same job, I'm about to change positions in the company I work for. Geez, the longest I ever worked anywhere before was four years, a mortgage will do that to ya... I've been working on large printing presses, cutting and finishing equipment all this time, my employer has sent me to Europe, Canada and various places in the US for training, and I'm very good at what I do. The last couple of years I've spent most of my time doing design and fabrication, and having to deal with management who want their pet projects done ASAP, and minimizing cost while I'm at it. Every job has become an adventure in scrounging, trying to scrape up the materials needed for the project. It gets old! I've been getting burned out on it for some time now. My boss is moving me to a completely different production area, where I'll be taking care of various "personalization" equipment, including embroidery, engraving and such. I've said for many years that I wanted an industrial laser, now I'll have a half dozen or so! A couple of them are 100 watt machines, and can do serious damage. I've been wishing for something different, we'll see if this is different enough. I wish I was rich instead of just so pretty!

[DwightG]

A couple of them are 100 watt machines

Don't mean to rain on your parade but 100 watts isn't very big actually. I have acrylic parts cut on a 100 watt machine and it works well for plastic and wood up to around 3/8 thick. It will also do nice etching/engraving. I don't know what the threshold for cutting steel is but the company I use for that has a 3000 watt laser and I know it's starting to strain (edge quality-wise) at around 3/8 to 1/2 mild steel. Works great on the sort of stuff I do which runs from about .025 to .25 in steel. The laser is indeed a great tool and even with limited wattage, in the right material, you can do some pretty cool stuff. Hope you LOVE you new position.

BTW..I'd be happy with rich OR pretty

[HTRN]

3000 watts is a high end of average industrial laser - That's why laser machines tend to be used mainly for sheetmetal, and anything beyond a quarter inch or so is sent to a waterjet, or even a plasma shop.

100watts is pretty small - most of the laser engravers that you see coming out as desktop models are in the 25-100 watt range


HTRN

[Darrell]

Darn, and I was just getting used to saying, "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to DIE!"