laser cutter

[DoctorGalifrean]

A friend of mine who is a graphic designer, asked me if it's easy to
find a laser cutter (plotter) for his work. I didn't know, but I told him that I could ask
the experts (that is you guys) !
He wants to have it at home and he wants to cut aluminium. That's all
I know. And If it's easy to find how much does it cost?
Thanks!

 

[millirad]

How about this? I just did a little searching, but don't really know that much about it.

2600 Watt Trumpf CNC Flying Optic Laser - eBay (item 200375824479 end time Sep-15-10 12:03:46 PDT)

 

[Asherz]

You would be looking in that price range for something that cuts aluminium. It would need to run on a CO2 gas laser system, they're big expensive and dangerous

Depending on the size and thickness of the aluminum will dictate the cost. The most you could get out of a DIY plotter would be around 1.1W, not nearly enough to cut aluminium, if you were to build it you'd need to fit the gas laser tube, and maybe watercooling as well.

 

[DoctorGalifrean]

I'm barely able to build a diode laser since i started all this a couple of months ago, so building a CO2 laser cutter for him is out of the question
And what Asherz said was pretty much what I said to him when he first mentioned it (about the cost and the danger).
Thanks guys!!