Universal Laser

TechShop has several of these.

Links

Universal Laser website

User Reviews

A user: The Universal I used had a lot of automatic features in the software, in a attempt to make it easy to use. For instance, the operator could pick a material (e.g. 3mm acrylic) and the software would select settings for speed and power. In practice I found that unhelpful. Instead I always used the manual settings in the software. There was an annoying feature that each color had to have a table height specified or else the laser table would adjust itself.

A user: I've owned 3 universals and have been happy with them all. The minimum size/power I'd buy is a 18"x24" 40watt.

A user: Universal's are the best (easy to use by the untrained public) but pricey. The 18x24 ones at techshop were around 25-26k. I've helped a few old members set used ones up at home they got for around 12k

Universal Laser Systems 60 watt

This is a new laser for the TSMP and SJ locations. A few notes that are key to its operation, and different than the Epilog.

• By default it will recognize three colors, Red, Blue, Black. Items that are Red and .001pt will cut; Blue and .001pt will vector etch; Black will raster no matter what.
• I was told that any other color will show up on the preview of the output but the laser will ignore it. However, my own tests show that a solid shape with a gradient of red will raster the gradient.
• Be sure the document is RGB not CMYK. The three operative colors must be pure (except for rastering).
• Make sure "Auto Z" is enabled, otherwise the table will not move to the correct height.
• Small etch areas take longer on the ULS because it always sweeps through a larger area than the Epilog.
• We're told that the ULS will make correct round cuts (Epilog circles were never quite round).

Settings

Baltic Birch 3mm plywood

• Meterial Type: Natural / Wood / Very Hard Wood / General Very Hard Wood.
• Cutting: Intensity Vector Cutting -50%; this is the setting that would vector cut through.
• Vector Etch: Intensity Vector Engraving +50%; vector etching looked good. Vector Performance Settings seemed to make the vector etching sharper in Qualty vs Throughput mode, but it was hard to tell.
• Raster Etch: Raster etching also looked good - more experimenation needed.

Cast Acrylic

• Material Type: Plastic / Acrylic / Cast Acrylic / Cell Cast Acrylic Standard Engraving
• Cutting: Intensity Vector Cutting +25%
• Vector Etch: Default is fine. I could not see a difference in my test of Quality vs Throughput modes. I tried Cell Cast Acrylic Deep Engraving and the vector etch was significantly deeper.