Is anyone interested in going in on purchasing a cheap 40 watt eBay laser cutter/engraver, the DC-KIII CO2 (link)? (unless something is cheaper) These look to be $830 after shipping is included.

Annual membership for Laser Cutter Initiative: If the Hack Factory would get one, I would pay for the annual membership fee to provide cash flow. I think it is One year membership for $550 - this includes two free classes. Is anyone else interested in pledging an annual membership if the Hack Factory gets one of these or another laser cutter/engraver?

It comes with a 12" x 8" build area, which for my purposes is probably okay right now, but I would like to maybe mod it to have a larger build area. A search for DC-KIII CO2 information on Google shows these Chinese-made laser cutters are sometimes modded with a more power laser and power supply, better controller, and hopefully a larger build area. If nothing else, allow multiple side-by-side 12" x 8" builds on a larger piece of material.

My question is how much is the replacement tube. I inmagine that this will see alot of use.

The lowest I saw was $163 but generally it looks like $200 for a 40W tube, $480 for a 60 watt tube, $700 for an 80 watt laser tube. $1300 for a 100 watt CO2 laser tube plus the power supply, $2000 for 150 watt. The more powerful ones are rated for more hours.



I think the mirrors may also be considered consumables.

I would also consider 1 year prepay membership to help finance one of these machines. I know nothing about these so I would have to trust others judgement on finding a reliable machine for the wear and tear it would undoubtedly receieve here in the shop. If a machine is agreed upon I will gladly pry my wallet open to for the good of the group. I suppose.

I can help out as well. This is the same or very similar laser cnc that the Dallas Makerspace has. A class was necessary to use it and a fee to use it to help with the consumables. I would suggest a single "owner" dedicated to managing the training, maintenance, etc. since we don't want it to be abused. Also, I would strongly suggest a video camera on the machine to prevent abuse. DMS has training info on their wiki that we can adapt.

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How does one submit a request to the board about buying one of these laser cutters?

I found another eBay listing for a used one currently bidding at $910 (plus shipping) for one made by Full Spectrum, which I believe is a U.S. company, but I can't guarantee that the laser was made here and not in China.

Well I guess that one went for $2447 with shipping anyway.

Per the Wiki

Email: twincitiesmaker at the commercial domain gmail contacts the Board of Directors.

Pete

In probably one my not the best thought out initiatives, on a enthusiastic whim, I decided to offer $750 for one of those $830 (with shipping) laser cutters/embossers/engravers on eBay. They they didn't accept it. I suppose I should have stopped there but I then at 3AM in the morning a few days later, I offered $770 on another listing. Unfortunately they accepted that one, and I felt obligated to go ahead with it. According to UPS tracking it should be here on Monday (5/7).

In good news, I went to that Texas Instruments thing at the St. Paul River Center yesterday and got a $399 Dual axis motor controller (with 3-phase 55W motors) development board kit with power supply and software for only $7.95 using the gift bag coupon. Also supposed to arrive on Monday (5/7) according to FedEx tracking.

Maybe it's karma.

Quite impressive, I look forward to seeing this machine when it arrives. If there is anything I can do to help you along the way let me know.

I actually did write a check as previously discussed for an annual membership so depending on if you decide to keep this machine, loan it to the group or outright donate or sell it to the group I put in my small piece of the pie.

Yeah, the laser cutter is here (on my chair in the picture). I'll probably bring it in tomorrow, but I don't know if we will be able to do anything with it because I think we may need a Windows XP computer for the Moshi software.