Buying your first laser machine
1
00:00:00,600 –> 00:00:07,040
Haha, so you want to buy a Laser machine?
2
00:00:07,040 –> 00:00:18,140
Now, look, you are ripe for picking and I don’t want to laugh at you, but you are just the sort of person that the Chinese are looking for.
3
00:00:18,140 –> 00:00:26,720
You don’t know much about the technology. Therefore, they can sell you absolute junk.
4
00:00:26,720 –> 00:00:30,980
You’re dreaming of one thing, but you’re going to get something else.
5
00:00:30,980 –> 00:00:37,910
So the purpose of this video is to tell you about the six years of experience that I’ve
6
00:00:37,910 –> 00:00:45,440
got myself and from thousands of people around the world that contact me with problems.
7
00:00:45,440 –> 00:00:54,620
Now, my name is Russ and I’ve got a couple of video channels that I run on YouTube.
8
00:00:54,620 –> 00:01:06,980
One is called LightBlade Learning Lab, which is a summary of all my learning that I put into some videos for a company that I did some work for.
9
00:01:06,980 –> 00:01:14,210
And I have one of their machines. The other channel, which is called RDWWorks Learning Lab,
10
00:01:14,210 –> 00:01:22,490
is basically a channel where you look over my shoulder while I’m learning about this technology and the machine.
11
00:01:22,490 –> 00:01:28,520
Now, as I said, I’ve been doing this for six years and I still haven’t come to the end of my learning.
12
00:01:28,520 –> 00:01:38,180
I’m still a student. Okay. Now, I don’t proclaim to be an expert, but let me tell you that I have a lot more knowledge than most people.
13
00:01:38,180 –> 00:01:47,780
You are going to buy one machine. You will have no experience of any other machine, and you won’t know whether what you’ve bought is good or bad.
14
00:01:47,780 –> 00:01:55,130
So what I’m going to do today is very quickly run through the key things you should be looking for when you buy a machine.
15
00:01:55,130 –> 00:01:57,260
This is not a machine comparison website.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
16
00:01:57,260 –> 00:02:06,110
I’m not going to tell you how to spend your money other than to say that if you want to spend anything between a 1000 and 2000 pounds or dollars,
17
00:02:06,110 –> 00:02:16,380
maybe 3000 pounds or three thousand dollars for a larger machine, you are not going to get a plug and play perfect machine.
18
00:02:16,380 –> 00:02:25,620
If you want a plug and play perfect machine, you’re going to have to change your budget and move up to somewhere like eight or ten thousand dollars.
19
00:02:25,620 –> 00:02:36,540
But for the budget end of the market where you’re going to go to eBay or maybe Amazon Marketplace or maybe even buy something secondhand,
20
00:02:36,540 –> 00:02:45,150
all these machines will be made in China. And I’m afraid you’re not going to get anything other than a project.
21
00:02:45,150 –> 00:02:52,260
Perhaps I could describe it slightly different and, say, it’s a DIY kit where it’s fully assembled.
22
00:02:52,260 –> 00:02:57,390
But quality control is not an option that you can buy with the machine.
23
00:02:57,390 –> 00:03:03,990
You’re going to have to spend time making it good. Now, there are four main parts to a machine.
24
00:03:03,990 –> 00:03:11,850
One of them is the mechanics of the machine itself, the case, the hardware that goes inside the machine.
25
00:03:11,850 –> 00:03:15,840
Part two is the laser tube itself.
26
00:03:15,840 –> 00:03:25,680
Part three will be the controller, which is like the brain of the machine, and part four would be the high voltage power supply.
27
00:03:25,680 –> 00:03:30,960
Now there are three main expensive components inside the machine.
28
00:03:30,960 –> 00:03:38,580
They are those components that I’ve just mentioned, the high voltage power supply, which is maybe 100, 150 dollars,
29
00:03:38,580 –> 00:03:48,660
the tube, which could be 200 dollars, and the controller, which may well be 250 to 300 dollars or something like that.
30
00:03:48,660 –> 00:03:56,760
So you add those up and it comes to maybe seven or eight hundred dollars and you still haven’t got the machine yet.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
31
00:03:56,760 –> 00:04:07,080
You just bought the three main parts. So how are you going to buy a machine for a thousand dollars, shipped from China built when
32
00:04:07,080 –> 00:04:12,690
the three main components cost nearly as much as what you are paying in your country.
33
00:04:12,690 –> 00:04:21,390
So it makes no sense at all for those products to be A-Grade. I can assure you from my
34
00:04:21,390 –> 00:04:26,670
six years of experience and many other people’s experience that I’ve gathered together,
35
00:04:26,670 –> 00:04:32,310
that you will not be buying A-Grade components inside your machine.
36
00:04:32,310 –> 00:04:45,630
The tube will definitely be B-Grade. It could be anything from okay to virtual rubbish because the tubes that they fit to these machines are reject.
37
00:04:45,630 –> 00:04:51,090
They reject tubes from proper manufacturers. They can’t be repaired.
38
00:04:51,090 –> 00:04:57,030
So they sell them onto the let’s call it a gray market shall we, for half of nothing.
39
00:04:57,030 –> 00:05:01,650
So your tube didn’t cost 200 dollars to the person that’s building the machine.
40
00:05:01,650 –> 00:05:05,560
It might have cost 10 dollars. The second thing is the power supply.
41
00:05:05,560 –> 00:05:10,500
One of its key features is its ability to respond quickly.
42
00:05:10,500 –> 00:05:15,720
So there is a specification when you look up a power supply, which is its response time,
43
00:05:15,720 –> 00:05:22,080
which is less than one millisecond to give you 90 per cent of what you ask for.
44
00:05:22,080 –> 00:05:30,720
Now, that might mean nothing to you at the moment, but the chances are that the power supply that’s fitted to your machine will again be a B-Grade.
45
00:05:30,720 –> 00:05:35,400
It’s most likely to have failed this particular test.
46
00:05:35,400 –> 00:05:41,790
It’s a bit sluggish. You won’t notice that until you do certain things with the machine.
47
00:05:41,790 –> 00:05:47,550
So, yeah, there’s not a lot of chance that you’re going to have any serious problems with that part of the machine.
48
00:05:47,550 –> 00:05:57,100
It’s still a B-grade, and instead of costing 150 to 200 dollars, again, that may have only cost twenty or thirty dollars.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
49
00:05:57,100 –> 00:06:06,240
And then finally, you’ve got the controller. Now, I wouldn’t recommend you buying a machine unless it has a Ruida controller.
50
00:06:06,240 –> 00:06:14,880
And I’ll show you what a Ruida controller looks like. You can recognize it from the pictures that you see in the adverts by looking at the keyboard.
51
00:06:14,880 –> 00:06:19,560
Ruida controllers cost 250, 300, maybe even more dollars.
52
00:06:19,560 –> 00:06:24,450
The very complicated computer driven systems. When Ruida to test these,
53
00:06:24,450 –> 00:06:33,070
they run through a whole slew of tests to make sure that every part of the computer is working properly.
54
00:06:33,070 –> 00:06:35,340
Now. If, for example,
55
00:06:35,340 –> 00:06:44,160
there are one or two memory cells that are not working properly, because of the way in which the whole electronic package is assembled and built,
56
00:06:44,160 –> 00:06:48,210
they won’t take that apart and fix that particular problem.
57
00:06:48,210 –> 00:06:54,090
They will reject the controller and sell it into this grey market that I’ve been talking about.
58
00:06:54,090 –> 00:07:02,970
So instead of a two or three hundred dollar controller, they may well be selling this controller on for fifty dollars, hundred dollars.
59
00:07:02,970 –> 00:07:09,060
It’s only a small proportion of the cost that you will have to pay for a new controller.
60
00:07:09,060 –> 00:07:15,930
So now you can see with a B-Grade tube, a B-grade power supply and a B-Grade
61
00:07:15,930 –> 00:07:24,300
Ruida controller costing maybe no more than a 100 dollars instead of six or seven hundred dollars,
62
00:07:24,300 –> 00:07:29,310
why you can buy your machine for a thousand dollars or twelve hundred dollars.
63
00:07:29,310 –> 00:07:36,760
So there’s good margains to be made on these machines. Now, the people are building these machines are not machine designers.
64
00:07:36,760 –> 00:07:39,750
They’re just little assembly factories.
65
00:07:39,750 –> 00:07:47,850
They buy the components they assemble them to a government approved blueprint, which is basically a skeleton blueprint.
66
00:07:47,850 –> 00:07:56,310
And then the builder can put his own components into the machine, i.e. they could be cheap components or expensive components,
67
00:07:56,310 –> 00:08:00,720
depending on which part of the market they are looking to sell the machine into.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
68
00:08:00,720 –> 00:08:07,420
Most of them will be at the cheap end, which is why I’m saying to you they would be filled with B-Grade components.
69
00:08:07,420 –> 00:08:15,630
They’re not designers, so they will just be assembling these machines with very few skilled people.
70
00:08:15,630 –> 00:08:19,890
So what you get will work but might not work very well.
71
00:08:19,890 –> 00:08:25,890
But if, for example, you were to find out you’ve got a B-Grade tube,
72
00:08:25,890 –> 00:08:32,460
you can’t go back to the company that made the machine because they’re much cleverer than that.
73
00:08:32,460 –> 00:08:38,970
What they do, they pack these machines into containers and ship them to warehouses around the world.
74
00:08:38,970 –> 00:08:48,440
So when you look at your advert and find that it’s coming from a local warehouse somewhere and not from China, you will know what the scam is.
75
00:08:48,440 –> 00:08:58,190
The seller of these machines will not be the person that built the machine, it will be a guy in China in his kitchen with a PC.
76
00:08:58,190 –> 00:09:03,920
He’s selling you a product that he’s never seen, that sitting in a warehouse somewhere around the world.
77
00:09:03,920 –> 00:09:06,950
And when he manages to sell it, he will get commission.
78
00:09:06,950 –> 00:09:15,920
So if there’s a problem with your machine, he is the person that’s responsible to you because he is the person that sold it to you.
79
00:09:15,920 –> 00:09:22,220
But, hey, he’s just a private individual on eBay who could just disappear.
80
00:09:22,220 –> 00:09:31,730
So the fact that it might say in the advert it’s got a two year warranty or something like that, let me be slightly crude and say absolute crap.
81
00:09:31,730 –> 00:09:35,510
You are dealing with a guy in China who has never seen the machine.
82
00:09:35,510 –> 00:09:42,350
He’s not technically competent. If you send him any technical questions, he will refer them back to the factory.
83
00:09:42,350 –> 00:09:49,550
So this is a very flaky buying mechanism when you work through eBay or through Amazon Marketplace.
84
00:09:49,550 –> 00:09:53,700
Now, Amazon Marketplace offer you a little bit more security than eBay.
85
00:09:53,700 –> 00:10:00,770
So whenever you buy one of these machines through eBay, first of all, make sure you pay for it with your credit card.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
86
00:10:00,770 –> 00:10:08,870
If there’s problems, you can go back to eBay and talk to the vendor via eBay so you can raise an official
87
00:10:08,870 –> 00:10:15,050
complaint with eBay to say that your machine and be very careful how you describe it.
88
00:10:15,050 –> 00:10:18,440
So there’s a key phrase that you always need to use.
89
00:10:18,440 –> 00:10:26,480
When you were talking about a machine that is not to your satisfaction, you must use the phrase not as described.
90
00:10:26,480 –> 00:10:32,360
You can always go back to the eBay advertisement and say why it’s not as described.
91
00:10:32,360 –> 00:10:40,610
If you’re paying through PayPal, don’t use your PayPal account, pay with a credit card through your PayPal account.
92
00:10:40,610 –> 00:10:46,160
That way, not only have you got some degree of protection from eBay,
93
00:10:46,160 –> 00:10:54,980
you will have some major protection from your credit card company who will be there to protect you against fraud.
94
00:10:54,980 –> 00:10:57,350
And you might have to jump through a few hoops.
95
00:10:57,350 –> 00:11:09,770
But I have successfully helped 30 people in my five or six years of doing this to get either refunds or in some cases free machines,
96
00:11:09,770 –> 00:11:18,620
because the guys in China didn’t respond. And after two or three weeks, eBay say that if they do not respond, they will take up the case.
97
00:11:18,620 –> 00:11:26,420
And in the case of these guys in the states, they’ve got free machines because they got complete refunds.
98
00:11:26,420 –> 00:11:32,990
Okay, so they’ve got a tube that didn’t work. So they had to pay out two hundred fifty dollars for a new tube.
99
00:11:32,990 –> 00:11:35,210
But you’re probably going to have to do that anyway.
100
00:11:35,210 –> 00:11:42,830
One of the other reasons why I’m making this video now is not only to warn you about what you’re going to get,
101
00:11:42,830 –> 00:11:50,750
which is a machine where you probably will have to replace at least the tube. In about five and a half years,
102
00:11:50,750 –> 00:11:57,530
I came across maybe two instances where people have said to me, I’ve got a problem.
103
00:11:57,530 –> 00:12:03,470
How can I get past the encryption that’s on my Ruida controller?
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
104
00:12:03,470 –> 00:12:07,370
Initially, I didn’t understand what they were talking about, but when I researched it further,
105
00:12:07,370 –> 00:12:15,650
I find out that Ruida have got a piece of encryption software that they can supply with the controller.
106
00:12:15,650 –> 00:12:21,740
So if you are a seller, as many years ago when I first started this,
107
00:12:21,740 –> 00:12:29,840
a lot of these machines were sold to start up companies in China who didn’t have the funds to buy the machine up front.
108
00:12:29,840 –> 00:12:38,840
And so they bought it by installments, maybe two or three payments over maybe one or one and a half years.
109
00:12:38,840 –> 00:12:47,270
Now to make sure that the seller got paid, what they would do is they would encrypt the controller.
110
00:12:47,270 –> 00:12:55,430
And that meant that after the first three months when your first payment was due or your second payment was due after the deposit,
111
00:12:55,430 –> 00:13:03,260
you would have to pay them your money or the machine was basically held to ransom because it would stop working.
112
00:13:03,260 –> 00:13:11,240
You would effectively have to buy a code to buy another six months worth of use of your machine.
113
00:13:11,240 –> 00:13:15,140
And then if you didn’t pay, your machine stopped working again.
114
00:13:15,140 –> 00:13:27,200
So there are a series of payment steps and encryption codes that you have to buy when you use, when you buy a machine in China like this.
115
00:13:27,200 –> 00:13:37,400
Now, in the last six months, I’ve had maybe 10, 12 emails from people who are suffering with a problem downloading programs.
116
00:13:37,400 –> 00:13:43,880
I can’t download a program because the keyboard says it’s encrypted.
117
00:13:43,880 –> 00:13:48,060
Now, I don’t know how this scam works, but I’m presuming
118
00:13:48,060 –> 00:13:56,610
that somebody has bought a machine and not paid for it and what they’ve done, they’ve ripped out their old controller from a machine,
119
00:13:56,610 –> 00:14:01,710
from a machine that might cost a thousand dollars in China and for 250 dollars,
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
120
00:14:01,710 –> 00:14:14,040
they’ve put themselves a new controller in and passed off what is maybe a good controller onto the second hand market because it still works.
121
00:14:14,040 –> 00:14:17,880
It will work for three, six months until the encryption runs out.
122
00:14:17,880 –> 00:14:21,990
So when the machine was shipped, it ran perfectly OK.
123
00:14:21,990 –> 00:14:29,620
When you receive it, it may have run out of time.
124
00:14:29,620 –> 00:14:40,060
This is a scam that’s become very popular just recently, so I need to warn you about it, there is no fix for this problem.
125
00:14:40,060 –> 00:14:44,350
There is no master password that allows you to bypass the encryption.
126
00:14:44,350 –> 00:14:49,010
And if there is, which I’m sure there is, it’s not available.
127
00:14:49,010 –> 00:14:56,830
Ruida are not going to release that master password because it immediately makes their encryption software invalid.
128
00:14:56,830 –> 00:15:04,120
So if you do buy a machine and find that it somehow gives you an encryption message,
129
00:15:04,120 –> 00:15:11,530
I’m afraid the only solution to the problem is to spend out about 250 dollars on a new controller.
130
00:15:11,530 –> 00:15:14,980
Now, if you buy the machine with a credit card,
131
00:15:14,980 –> 00:15:26,440
then you probably have maybe six months to talk to your card supplier about this problem and maybe get a full refund from the seller.
132
00:15:26,440 –> 00:15:31,090
There is no guarantee you are jumping into the China Sea of lasers.
133
00:15:31,090 –> 00:15:38,710
It’s full of sharks and stingrays. There may be a few cuddly dolphins in there as well, but you have to look very,
134
00:15:38,710 –> 00:15:45,130
very hard for the trusted Chinese suppliers. Now, as I promised you earlier on.
135
00:15:45,130 –> 00:15:53,910
I will show you what a Ruida controller looks like as far as the pictures on an advert are concerned.
136
00:15:53,910 –> 00:16:03,220
OK, now we’re going to drop in to this company here called CloudRay, who are one of the cuddly dolphins in the sea of sharks.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
137
00:16:03,220 –> 00:16:08,380
This is a company that you can trust. They’re not necessarily the cheapest company around.
138
00:16:08,380 –> 00:16:13,090
But what you get from here is a good quality product.
139
00:16:13,090 –> 00:16:20,140
They do not sell junk. You can buy all sorts of products from these guys for your machine,
140
00:16:20,140 –> 00:16:26,200
but you generally won’t buy machines from them because they only sell the large machines.
141
00:16:26,200 –> 00:16:34,150
So let’s go and have a look here at controllers. And one of the controllers, the most popular controller that you’re going to get is this one.
142
00:16:34,150 –> 00:16:43,510
So here’s what a Ruida controller looks like. It’s a little box which is inside the machine, which you cannot see when you buy a machine.
143
00:16:43,510 –> 00:16:49,060
But what you’re looking for is this pattern here: colours,
144
00:16:49,060 –> 00:16:56,410
a little screen, the arrangement of the keys and particularly these colours sometimes in these positions,
145
00:16:56,410 –> 00:17:02,380
which will tell you that what you’ve bought or what you’re buying is this Ruida controller,
146
00:17:02,380 –> 00:17:08,050
which is that almost industry standard controller for these cheaper machines and mid priced machines.
147
00:17:08,050 –> 00:17:15,400
The other must have, in my opinion, when you’re buying a machine is a set of good quality linear rails.
148
00:17:15,400 –> 00:17:24,130
There are some of the rails which are made in Taiwan which are not bad, and some of those that are made in China, which are, um, OK.
149
00:17:24,130 –> 00:17:30,700
These are copies of an American product called HiWin linear bearing systems.
150
00:17:30,700 –> 00:17:35,830
Now here’s basically the skeleton of the inside of a good machine.
151
00:17:35,830 –> 00:17:42,790
OK, this is what you’re expecting to see. These rails here, linear rails.
152
00:17:42,790 –> 00:17:50,440
They’re basically almost a square section. And they either mount on top of the gantry or on the front of the gantry.
153
00:17:50,440 –> 00:17:56,840
It doesn’t matter which, personally I prefer front mounted, but that’s a personal preference.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
154
00:17:56,840 –> 00:18:02,020
And then you’ll find down the side here on the Y-rails, you’ll find the same sort of rails.
155
00:18:02,020 –> 00:18:11,500
Now, I can tell you from a distance from my experience that because of the spacing of these screws that fix the rails down,
156
00:18:11,500 –> 00:18:22,870
that this is a 15 millimetre rail set. If you see lots and lots of screws along here, you’ll know that it’s a 12 millimetre rail set, 12 millimetres.
157
00:18:22,870 –> 00:18:33,910
Okay. It still works perfectly Okay. Personally, I would prefer to see a much heavier duty, 15 millimetre rail, but either is OK.
158
00:18:33,910 –> 00:18:40,060
OK, look, let’s just take a quick look at one or two of these adverts that you’ll find on eBay, OK?
159
00:18:40,060 –> 00:18:46,120
Typically, they will cost you around about 12 to 14 hundred or 1500 pounds or dollars.
160
00:18:46,120 –> 00:18:56,260
And let’s just take a look at this one, that does not look like a Ruida controller because the button colours aren’t right.
161
00:18:56,260 –> 00:19:01,300
So do they describe in here anything about the controller?
162
00:19:01,300 –> 00:19:12,130
So you take a look down here. Power supply, you see, that’s not, that’s not a Ruida controller.
163
00:19:12,130 –> 00:19:22,720
So I personally would pass on that. Now, the chances are all these pictures look the same because they’re adverts that have been
164
00:19:22,720 –> 00:19:29,890
supplied by the parent company to the people that are selling these for commission.
165
00:19:29,890 –> 00:19:33,710
So they will post the same set of pictures on eBay.
166
00:19:33,710 –> 00:19:38,620
They’re all trying to sell the same products from the same warehouse.
167
00:19:38,620 –> 00:19:42,430
If you take a look, they’re all exactly the same pictures as you can see.
168
00:19:42,430 –> 00:19:49,670
They might say, oh, this looks like a good one at nine hundred and ninety nine pounds, I can guarantee.
169
00:19:49,670 –> 00:19:54,140
It’s not what it appears, that is definitely a Ruida controller, look,
170
00:19:54,140 –> 00:20:00,820
you can see the colour pattern on there, so that is, relatively speaking, good news.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
171
00:20:00,820 –> 00:20:05,990
Hmm. We can’t really see what the bearing rails are.
172
00:20:05,990 –> 00:20:12,230
We could have a look at the specification and see if they give us any more information down here.
173
00:20:12,230 –> 00:20:23,210
And we’ve got some pictures, which is good. Size; a 50 watt tube will be about a thousand millimetres long.
174
00:20:23,210 –> 00:20:32,660
You need an additional 200 millimetres inside the case to fit a thousand millimetre tube.
175
00:20:32,660 –> 00:20:36,920
That case is not 1200 millimetres long.
176
00:20:36,920 –> 00:20:43,070
Therefore, that is basically a 40 watt, 800 millimetre long tube.
177
00:20:43,070 –> 00:20:47,660
It’s not what it claims. So let’s have a look at the bearing system.
178
00:20:47,660 –> 00:20:54,380
I can see that it has got a 12 millimetre linear bearing rail system on the top here.
179
00:20:54,380 –> 00:20:59,480
Can you see that? And look how close the screws are together. Yeah, this has got some promise.
180
00:20:59,480 –> 00:21:03,740
You can see, the bearing rail and the screws are very, very close together.
181
00:21:03,740 –> 00:21:10,310
So that’s a 12 millimetre bearing rail system. What else can we see?Hmm the side bearings are
182
00:21:10,310 –> 00:21:23,240
more difficult to see down here, but it looks as though these side bearings are round rod bearings, which is not good news.
183
00:21:23,240 –> 00:21:34,010
And in addition, what I see on here is a strange bed shape, which basically is the same bed shape that you get in a K 40 machine.
184
00:21:34,010 –> 00:21:39,170
So this probably is like an overblown K 40 machine.
185
00:21:39,170 –> 00:21:43,340
Now, for a 40 watt machine, you will not need a chiller. In fact, that’s not a Chiller.
186
00:21:43,340 –> 00:21:51,920
That’s a CW3000, which basically is a radiator, a reservoir and a fan, even though they call it up here
187
00:21:51,920 –> 00:21:59,930
a chiller, it’s not. So if you live in a warm climate, 40 degrees C, for example, in the summer, you’re going to heat your water up with that.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
188
00:21:59,930 –> 00:22:10,760
You’re not going to cool it down. So on balance, I would probably buy this in preference to a K 40, but I would tend to steer clear of it.
189
00:22:10,760 –> 00:22:16,040
Seven hundred by 500 (mm) is what many people go for.
190
00:22:16,040 –> 00:22:24,640
Let’s have a look at this machine. Well, I can see at a glance the controller on there is not a Ruida controller.
191
00:22:24,640 –> 00:22:30,650
So here we’ve got another 60 watt machine, which I can immediately see has not got a Ruida Controller.
192
00:22:30,650 –> 00:22:34,070
50 watt machine hasn’t got a Ruida controller.
193
00:22:34,070 –> 00:22:48,880
It worries the Hell out of me when I see a machine that looks like that which they’re selling you, or are they selling you that machine?
194
00:22:48,880 –> 00:22:56,920
Oh, there we go. So it’s not a Ruida Controller. So I think you might get a flavour for what I’m trying to get to here.
195
00:22:56,920 –> 00:23:00,790
You need to be very, very careful what you’re buying.
196
00:23:00,790 –> 00:23:10,900
You can ask questions of the buyer, but don’t expect honest answers because remember, in most cases, the buyer is not a company.
197
00:23:10,900 –> 00:23:23,830
It’s a private individual. When you buy a machine that costs you 1500 pounds like that, you may need to factor in another 250 pounds for a new tube.
198
00:23:23,830 –> 00:23:30,130
If you go about it the right way, you can complain to the vendor that the tube is not as described,
199
00:23:30,130 –> 00:23:34,510
remember that key phrase, through eBay,
200
00:23:34,510 –> 00:23:44,290
so there is a record and you can possibly ask for maybe 150, 200 pound refund.
201
00:23:44,290 –> 00:23:49,630
Remember, what you’re doing is eating into this guy’s commission.
202
00:23:49,630 –> 00:23:58,180
So don’t be too greedy. Just accept the fact that maybe you’re only going to get 120 or 150 pound refund.
Buying Your First Laser Machine Transcript (Cont…)
203
00:23:58,180 –> 00:24:04,030
But any refund is better than having to spend the whole amount out on a new tube.
204
00:24:04,030 –> 00:24:09,250
And when you go looking for a new tube, do not go looking on eBay.
205
00:24:09,250 –> 00:24:19,840
Go to this reputable company that I was talking about earlier, CloudRay, for a known good quality, A-Grade tube.
206
00:24:19,840 –> 00:24:23,500
The chances are if you go onto eBay, you’ll get a great bargain,
207
00:24:23,500 –> 00:24:31,930
you’ll be replacing rubbish with rubbish because there’s a good reason why they’re cheap and I’ve told you what that reason is.
208
00:24:31,930 –> 00:24:37,940
So if you’ve got any doubts or queries, add a comment to this video.
209
00:24:37,940 –> 00:24:46,610
Post a link to the machine that you’re interested in and I will give you an honest opinion of what I think of that machine. It’s your money.
210
00:24:46,610 –> 00:24:52,760
I can’t tell you how to spend it. I can only just warn you to spend it wisely.
211
00:24:52,760 –> 00:24:57,530
Thanks for your time and patience and good luck with your new purchase.
212
00:24:57,530 –> 00:25:00,961
And welcome to the Laser community.
Buying your first laser machine
