Laser engraving

[black2002ls]

Congratulations on some good months and building the cash reserves. It sounds like you guys are doing pretty well. Keep on track and do your expansion at the speed of cash. Slow down your expansion plans if that is what it takes.

I've been involved in several businesses that kept outdated equipment long after they should have upgraded to newer, more efficient machines. I've also seen businesses that were always buying the newest machinery on the market. The ones that have seemed to be strongest over a period of time were the ones in the first category.

Glad to see that it is a prosperous time!

Thank you. Honestly, we needed to upgrade lasers 2 months ago, but I have fought it, even before the corona stuff. Now that people are sitting at home, and shopping, the need for 2 larger format machines, as well as a bigger machine is getting worse. We currently run our original machine for 3 types of products. When I run cups, I have to tear the machine down, change settings, re-adjust everything, etc. To have a larger format machine to cut our flat items (wood, patches, acrylic, etc) and a machine set up for just cups, will greatly improve efficiency! I have a few steady clients that are good for $800-1500/month just with our hat business. We keep a pretty solid margin on hats, even when we sell them at what we are calling wholesale or bulk pricing.

[Ruffdaddy]

Thank you. Honestly, we needed to upgrade lasers 2 months ago, but I have fought it, even before the corona stuff. Now that people are sitting at home, and shopping, the need for 2 larger format machines, as well as a bigger machine is getting worse. We currently run our original machine for 3 types of products. When I run cups, I have to tear the machine down, change settings, re-adjust everything, etc. To have a larger format machine to cut our flat items (wood, patches, acrylic, etc) and a machine set up for just cups, will greatly improve efficiency! I have a few steady clients that are good for $800-1500/month just with our hat business. We keep a pretty solid margin on hats, even when we sell them at what we are calling wholesale or bulk pricing.

Congrats on the success...it's good to hear in these trying times.

Changing setups is a pain and something id hate to do. I guess if you have the cash to buy a new machine then that helps a lot. For a typical machine shop, it's a bad sign to have a machine sitting idle...how much idle time do you expect to have if you scale to 3 lasers?

[black2002ls]

Congrats on the success...it's good to hear in these trying times.

Changing setups is a pain and something id hate to do. I guess if you have the cash to buy a new machine then that helps a lot. For a typical machine shop, it's a bad sign to have a machine sitting idle...how much idle time do you expect to have if you scale to 3 lasers?

I can definitely understand that. Adding the larger format machine does put us at 3 lasers. The second laser I have now is a smaller format purchased almost for the exclusive use at trade shows and fairs for on site hat patches and personalization, it will pay for itself 10 fold at the first event we are able to use it at. The larger format machine would become our primary machine. In terms of machine time, It should reduce machine time per sheet of material by at least 1/2. It takes me 2.25 hours to cut an entire sheet of hat patches (approximately 50 patches). That is the largest time suck for hat production. It should increase wooden cut out production speed by more than 1/2. Increasing our production capacity, not only in the size of material we can cut, but also the quantity of items that we can cut in the same amount of time. It may leave our original machine idle for extended periods of time but it is a necessary evil at this point.

So, the original machine would be dedicated to rotary device/cups, prototyping, and customs

Machine 2 is our traveling machine

Machine 3 would be the work horse.

Right now our tumbler/rotary business is minimal, and they always pop up in the middle of running large quantities of hat patches or wood items. requiring me to break the machine down, set up the rotary, change device/software settings, and run the job. So being able to leave the rotary set up, and run smaller jobs in a quadrant of the machine that doesn't contain the rotary, would alleviate a lot of the trouble with have with machine time. Machine time and these equipment changes is a lot of what has my custom orders out 1-2 weeks.

[black2002ls]

We just got tracking info for our new laser! It should arrive next week. More power, larger cut area, greater speed! I've had to change machine formats so many times in the last two weeks since we started marketing tumblers that it is going to save me several hours just in machine set up time!

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[black2002ls]

Weighing in at almost 700 lbs, meet Bertha. 80 watt CO2 laser, 25x35 cut bed. I can't wait to get this thing fired up!



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[black2002ls]

Well, I got the Nova up and running tonight. This thing is a work horse. It is built to run and is much faster than our Muse. It is twice the power, so that accounts for some of the speed. One of my more popular items has been vertical paint racks for hobby paints. On the muse, it was taking 30-45 minutes to cut a rack. On the new machine, it is about 10 minutes. I can probably run them faster when I get the settings dialed in.

Here is a shot of the gantry and drive system.

If anyone is interested in a Muse, riser, and rotary, ours will be for sale soon. As efficient as the new machine is, I can't justify keeping it.

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[fordracing19]

Pic.of the product it cuts?

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[black2002ls]

This is all I ran tonight. We run 1/8" woods, faux leather, cutting boards, acrylic, glass, powder coated metals

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[black2002ls]

I found this file on Etsy. It takes quite a while to create, just over an hour, but I think it looks pretty damn good. This is a Texas regions map with roads and cities/towns



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[Ruffdaddy]

Thats awesome man. Its even more amazing that you consider an hour to be a long time for something this detailed.

[black2002ls]

Thats awesome man. Its even more amazing that you consider an hour to be a long time for something this detailed.

For the overall size, it takes while. We try to bill laser time at $1/minute, minimum, plus materials and finish time. However, at less than 20" tall, people don't want to pay $75-$100 for one.

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[dsrtuckteezy]

Are the names clearly read? Sorry can't tell from the pic. As a native Texas boy now far away, i really like that and might be interested.

[Ruffdaddy]

For the overall size, it takes while. We try to bill laser time at $1/minute, minimum, plus materials and finish time. However, at less than 20" tall, people don't want to pay $75-$100 for one.

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Hunt County man...gotta get after the higher income areas man.

This dude has been in business for awhile and his stuff is even simpler.

https://linearedge.com/products/circuit-of-the-americas-track-engraving

[black2002ls]

Are the names clearly read? Sorry can't tell from the pic. As a native Texas boy now far away, i really like that and might be interested.

They are pretty clear. I'll snap a close up tomorrow.

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[black2002ls]

Hunt County man...gotta get after the higher income areas man.



This dude has been in business for awhile and his stuff is even simpler.



https://linearedge.com/products/circ...rack-engraving

I fully agree that location and audience plays a HUGE role in the market price of stuff like this.

Right now, my focus has been on TOTS headwear, trying to build a following there, so Canyon Ridge has just been idling along.

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