Hi Brendan,
I am embarrassed to say I have a 3d printer (for plastic) gathering dust because I build it badly and it is a pain to use. My DIY skill are no very good at all. My DIY motivation is ever lower. (Ask my partner for references ) So really just trying to get a feel on what it is like to maintain - how much time spent set-up and configuring and re-aligning versus how much time actually MAKING.
How long is a bit of string
joking aside, Laser operator skill levels are directly related to price, take the well known K40 series of Chinese lasers.....out of the box, total tosh..not even worth storage space...but modified with a £1,500 input of bits and you can have a semi decent machine. (read: semi decent, IE shiny rubbish)
Jump to the other end with Trotech or Universal and you have great machines that rarely need user intervention if ever.
K40's run 300 quid at worst, a ULS can run £50,000 at median...everything else is somewhere in the middle.
Chinese lasers in general are built to pretty basic standards (hence the reason I'm no big supporter of direct imports) so when buying one there are often things that need to be done to get where you want to be. With a UK based machine some of those things are already done, with an HPC machine ALL of those things are already done.
They are on the whole "Plug and play" (assembly of a few ancilliaries required like plugging in the odd power cable or water pipe,the same as every other laser), lasers do go wrong, it's the nature of the beast but there is very little you cannot manage if you have a skill level comparable to writing an email on a PC.
I use my machines on a daily basis, up to 18 hour days and have been for the last 5 years and the overall run to maintain ratio is in the fractions of a percentage. (hour a month maybe)
This may all seem like an advert for HPC but I'm one of those people that tells it like I see it
based on experience of Chris,Simon,Charlotte and all the staff as well as ownership of more than one of their machines I'm now yet again looking at buying from them again (a pretty expensive machine as well).
Your welcome to drop by mine (I'm in Salisbury so a lot closer than Halifax) if you want to see an HPC box in action? (1290 80watt) and judge for yourself what they are like
How about -******laoslaser.org/projects/laos/wiki/HPC_LS3020 ?
Means a card change, I'm no real tinkerer with cards but the standard Leetro controller is very good so I have never wanted to swap it out.To me it would be like buying a Ford just to put a Vauxhall engine in it.
best wishes
Dave
ps: I also don't now and never have worked for, or been paid by, HPC for any service or commentary or reviews I have written.
