We (think|haus) went the cheap chinese route as well. The main problem we ran into was that the original control board and software sucked. Really sucked. Fortunately, some of our members have the skills to modify it:<div>
<a href="http://www.thinkhaus.org/2010/06/24/howto-turn-a-cheap-chinese-laser-engraver-into-a-pretty-good-laser-cutter-2/">http://www.thinkhaus.org/2010/06/24/howto-turn-a-cheap-chinese-laser-engraver-into-a-pretty-good-laser-cutter-2/</a></div>
<div><a href="http://www.thinkhaus.org/2010/06/24/howto-turn-a-cheap-chinese-laser-engraver-into-a-pretty-good-laser-cutter-2/"></a>We ended up with a pretty decent 40W CO2 laser for a little over $1000 CAD in initial purchase costs + parts.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-Adina<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 7 February 2011 17:15, Russ Garrett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:russ@garrett.co.uk">russ@garrett.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im">On 7 February 2011 17:15, bre pettis <<a href="mailto:brepettis@gmail.com">brepettis@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> I will also donate on kickstarter to any hackerspace wanting to get a<br>
> lasercutter. I recommend getting a non-chinese knockoff brand. Get the<br>
> biggest one you can afford!<br>
<br>
</div>We found a dealer in the UK who imports the cheap Chinese laser<br>
cutters and provides spares for them. We bought a 40W, 800x600mm<br>
(24x32") model for less than a third the cost of the equivalent Epilog<br>
model.<br>
<br>
We have had a couple of problems with it, but primarily due to cooling<br>
issues which were our fault.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Russ Garrett<br>
<a href="mailto:russ@garrett.co.uk">russ@garrett.co.uk</a><br>
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