Modifying a Commercial Laser Cutter

[Nogginboink]

I have the opportunity to buy a used commercial laser cutter in 'guaranteed broken' condition. I don't know the model, but the description of the unit I have is:

. I paid $40,000 for it in ’92. It is a 50 watt dual CO2 laser with a 11”x17” cutting area. it has infinite setting from engraving paper to cutting about 1/8” hardwood. The lasers are depleted of CO2 and would have to be recharged but had new mirrors and lens. I ran the system off of software called Arts and Letters. Autocad will drive it as will Corel Draw, anything that will produce a vectored file. Manufacturer was Universal Laser Systems, which was called Advanced Laser Technologies at the time I purchased it. They are based in Scottsdale AZ.

This machine is far more capable than I need, but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

My primary goal is to be able to cut stencils for surface mount soldering from Kapton film. (Which, I suppose, is like shooting mosquitoes with an elephant gun.) I'm hoping the community can help me estimate what my repair/modification budget might be. I know next to nothing about laser cutters, but the two big questions I have are:

1. What are the likely costs of recharging or replacing the laser tube? (I imagine I'd only need one tube.)
2. What would I need to do to get a device like this to cut raster images? I'm not afraid of bypassing the machine's control circuitry and adding my own. I figure that if I buy this I'm probably buying it for the mechanics and power supplies and would replace the control circuitry.

I don't want to lowball the seller, but I want to keep my offer price in the context of a $2,000 DIY laser (is this realistic?) or a $2500 unit from Full Spectrum and back out the repair and modification costs.

Any input from the community would be most appreciated.

-Nogginboink

[TLHarrell]

40w laser tube through EBay - $169 delivered
LO DSP (if needed) - $465

If all the other bits are functional (cooling water pump, exhaust pump, steppers, linear bearings, belts, power supply, etc.), then this would be all you need to bring it up to current standards. There are others who have done conversions on ULS systems.

[r691175002]

I don't know what he is expecting for the machine, but I would be very careful about offering more than 800$ or so.

The technology is likely so old that the laser, software and some of the control electronics are worthless.

All you are really getting is a box and some steppers (perhaps optics).

[macona]

I would get the tube rebuilt if you can afford it. You can use only one if you want and deepening on the machine it will combine the two 50w lasers into one 100w beam or some machines have two cutting heads on the machine.

You will probably want to be sitting down when you get the price. It is not cheap but the lasers are leaps and bounds higher quality than the chinese ones. Also the software that drives the machine is much nicer.

The machine will do raster engrave as well as vector cutting.