I have spent part of this week getting pricing and information on laser cutters. I almost purchased one last year, but the groups I was talking to offered systems that were well above what I could honestly justify. Don’t get me wrong, I could’ve made the purchase. I would have been able to get back to zero pretty quickly. Not acceptable.
The more I thought about it, the more anxious I became. It would have meant taking a financial risk. If anything had concurrently gone wrong with my employment, or any big expense had arisen, we could have been in real trouble. I decided not to make the purchase, and continued on with other plans.
This year it’s a bit different. I’ve been researching different models, and starting to talk to Chinese suppliers. Such nice and helpful folks. I have a space in my garage, I’ve even measured it. I know exactly how much room i have available, where I’ll need to run vents, and roughly the cutting area/power I will want. I now know what some of the extras actually do, and more importantly, why I would want them (or not).
It still won’t be a cheap purchase. I am hoping it won’t be more than 5 or 6 grand, and part of that depends very much on how the US dollar is doing when I’m ready to purchase. I have a few quotes in hand, I plan to get at least 3 more quotes before I make a decision (probably near the end of march).
Maybe by then the Glowforge I ordered will be here. I know, it’s a laser too right? I seem to iterate my purchases. First one’s usually easy and not quite enough, and it gets better from there. Christina will probably find all sorts of uses for the Glowforge, just like she found all kinds of things to do with the 3d printers I’ve given her.
For now, window shopping is quite fun. Knowing I have time (and more importantly, probably wouldn’t be able to really use the laser yet), is helping to keep buyer’s anxiety at bay.