Okay, let me just say I will not have the words to describe how amazing this machine is. First of all the laser not only cuts, but engraves. The engraving part is not so much what we are looking for, but the possibilities are great.
We tested several substrates: wood, paper, leather, acrylic, foamboard, spandex, fleece, 1/2" high density green foam, 1" low density white foam, half dome eyes, flash list, pens......oh my, so many.
Fr engraving purposes the laser works like a printer except instead of laying down ink it burns away layers of the material to create an image. If desired you could print off an email right onto a piece of leather or etch a puppet photo onto a piece of fruit. LOL. Again, this aspect of the machines capabilities were like, but not as necessary for us as the cutting aspects.
These are the results we found for a few of e materials we tested that we use on a regular basis:
Spandex, we tested cutting a star pattern into 4 layers. The star pattern was only to test the details of sharp angels and to see of the fabric curled. We use this type of fabric mostly for cloths. Cut a 4" star in about 10 seconds. Yeah baby! Only not the result you might think. The star was beautiful, but the laser fused the four layers together. HA. So we tried two layers, removed the fabrics quickly, but same results. Note to self, only cut one layer of spandex. So, because of the cutting are we could still cut one full shirt in under 1 min. SWEET!
Next, double sided fleece, similar to Antron in quality, but polyester not nylon. We use this for most of our blacklight puppets. Cut the same star pattern into 2 layers, could have cut 4. It worked beautifully.
If you were cutting a fabric that frays the laser seals the edges.
The two materials I was most impressed with we're the foamboard and foams. In Vorel draw, the rep. plotted a basic mouth plate
shape, replicated it and set the images to the laser. Cut out multiple foamboard shapes in a matter of seconds, something that would have taken us 10-20 min to do, now would that seconds.
Smooth edge, no tearing from dull blade, seals the foam. Oh my.
The foams: 1/2" and 1": I will post photos later, but the rep cut a gingerbread man shaped into both foams again in a matter of seconds. Extremely clean line, no charing, only slight yellowing and an oily feel to the edge. The foam is a byproduct from the oil industry, so I gues the heat brought that out. I will have to test gluing the foam and working with it to see if this will cause any problems. I do 't think it will because you couldn't feel it that much.
Na, this would definitely cut the shadow puppets. Such intricate details. Anything you can draw it can cut out.
I'll try to post photos later.
Haven't decided if we will purchase it, of course they brought a larger model than we originally were thinking of, but after seeing the cutting area, this is most of what we would need anyway.
Let me just take a moment to say how impressed we were with this company, Epilog. Quick response time for first inquiry, multiple follow ups, extremely knowledgable sales team and intuitive machine (US manufactured).
Julie
