Laser welding machine - thoughts?

[Johnnybravo]

@Johnnybravo has, or had, a laser welder, I seem to recall.

Yes. I still have it.

 

[Rkweld]

Is it similar to plasma welding? I have seen that in tube production at the wire and tube expo.

 

[Guzrik]

We have one at uni (Rofin Baasel Select YAG laser cnc 4 axis) for very tiny jobs. It simply amazing but since it is only 120 Watt I could never weld a cilinderhead like above.
Even though I find the cnc interface horrible (windows nt I think) the manual welding is easy peasy looking through the 20x microscope.
As it is coming off age now(2009), I sometimes get weak in the knees because of the fragile and unstable electronics.
Currently awaiting service engineer to fix cnc part and an annual service with coolant filters etcetera costing the price of my car.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Funnily enough we’ve been having a discussion about these at work. Anyone got a ballpark figure for a machine?

 

[Johnnybravo]

£50k- £60k

 

[Brad93]

£20k from China

 

[tom2207]

have a look at laser rust removal on you tube ,,, it even makes the right noises.

 

[tom2207]

 

[Robert Weaver]

$500,000

 

[Tinbasherdan]

£20k from China

About what I thought. Not a far stretch

 

[tom2207]

$500,000

yep ,,, but listen to that noise ,,, its pure Star Wars ,,,

 

[AndersK]

$500,000

Seen the same clip with price around 300 USD
Last idiot isn't born yet so some might have fallen for such scam

 

[anto44]

Give it ten or fifteen years and generic Chinese laser 50 welders will have as many threads on here as cut 50s do now.

 

[Guzrik]

Since my experience with the rofin dealer was not all that good, I would look at one of these if I was going to buy new;
https://www.joke-technology.com/en/2068/eneskalaser-750-open-system
Always impressed by their miniature handmills and tested this welder briefly on a show.