Hi guys,

I’m currently in the market for a CO2 galvo, which will probably be a 60w Chinese build machine. Now I’ve read and seen my fair share of suggestions when it comes to this laser, DAVI seems to be the most used source (as far as I can tell) and a beam expander is also recommended with a 20mm head for a smaller dot size.

Now I’ve been quoted a few machines already, but some Chinese suppliers seem to contradict a few things:

One of the Chinese suppliers suggests a 8x beam expander with a 20mm RC2808 scanner, the bigger the beam expander, the crispier the engraving.

However another is saying that a 6x beam expander is the better option because the 8x combined with a 20mm head is known to have issues? Their exact words are these:

6*20 beam expansion is very suitable, 8 times beam expansion will make marking effect not good. Because 8x beam expansion will make the aperture of the laser become very large, on the contrary, RC2808 galvanometer cannot refract it all, so part of the laser cannot be presented, resulting in poor marking effect.

They also state that the 8x20 beam expander might decrease the actual working area because of this.

Now I’m not expert, and I really just want the best (Chinese build) laser I can buy. Are there any people here that could share there two cents on 8x beam expanders vs 6x beam expanders or even share their current setup that works for them? I do really want the best engraving possible on the CO2 galvo, I'd hate to get my fingers burned on a big purchase like this.