Probably looking for a response from VDX more than anyone due to his extensive high power DYI projects but I will gladly take advice from anyone. I have been looking to procure or build a 1kw fiber CNC cutter for a while now. I love my 80W co2 cutter but the obvious limitation is the ability to cut metal. I find that the fiber laser cutters on AliExpress are pretty decently priced and I would grab one in a heartbeat but I run into the problem of physical size. For my home projects and small stuff I do at home, I don't need a huge honking industrial sized machine. Those 1kw+ machines are massive. I have been looking at the Wazer waterjet but, the work area is too small, there is no passthrough option, and I don't want to clean up garnet slurry. I have also been looking at the
Langmuir CNC plasma system because it's the right size but the kerf of a plasma torch is pretty damn big and cleaning up excessive dross looks like a pain in the ass.
Keeping the Langmuir system in mind, the size is just right, it will fit in my garage and has a large enough work area to meet all my needs. Seeing as that the Crossfire Pro model has a Z axis which can be set in-software, I was wondering about the feasibility of modifying it to use a fiber laser head instead of a plasma torch. The Langmuir system basically triggers the plasma torch with a simple relay across the trigger switch in the torch handle. I figure with a fiber laser, I could set the power of the fiber laser as needed for the material I am cutting and trigger the laser as the machine would a torch. The cut speed and everything else would obviously be trial and error but I had to learn that with my co2 cutter as well.
The advice I am looking for is, the feasibility of using a fiber laser head in place of a plasma torch, where to procure a decent(enough) fiber laser head (though I have a feeling I will be back to AliExpress for that), and what kind of cost I am looking at for a fiber laser system along with shield gas. Also, I would opt to go with the pre designed CNC table because I don't really have any experience with home brew CNC and wouldn't even know where to begin with designing and building my own CNC table. I'm not really looking for cost effective per se, I am just looking for a fiber laser cutter that won't fill my entire garage!