If you are looking to start a laser engraving business from home, you may be wondering “How much does it cost to start a laser engraving business?” In this article, we will break this question down and talk through the many different entry points for starting a laser engraving business.
There are many different options when it comes to starting a laser engraving business, be it as a part-time business from home or a fully-fledged business with a large investment.
In recent years the cost of laser cutters and engravers has fallen dramatically, meaning there is a wealth of options available for starting a business cheaply.
How much does it cost to start a laser engraving business - Introduction
To make things simple, we’ve broken down starting a laser cutter business into two price brackets:
- As cheaply as possible (under $1,000)
- With a larger investment (over $1,000)
There are many different things to consider when it comes to starting a laser engraving business with different amounts of investment and different equipment.
Smaller businesses with cheaper equipment will be more suited to making small, personalised items to sell locally and online.
Businesses with large, industrial-sized laser cutters may be more likely to move into a B2B (business-to-business) type model, as they can make vast quantities of items repeatedly and quickly. Having more money to invest also opens up the opportunity for using Fibre Lasers which can be used to cut and mark metal efficiently.
So, let’s dive in and see how much it costs to start a laser engraving business.
Starting a laser engraving business as cheaply as possible (under $1,000)
You may be shocked to discover that it is possible to start a laser engraving business for less than $1,000!
In this price bracket, you are pretty much limited to two choices:
- A desktop diode laser
- A K40 CO2 laser cutter
Which you choose will depend on exactly what your budget is and what kind of products you want to make.
Diode lasers are more suited to an engraving than cutting but are easy to use.
K40 laser cutters are much more versatile in what they can produce, however have a much steeper learning curve to be able to use effectively. Due to this higher complexity we have written a separate beginner’s guide to the K40.
Equipment
Most equipment in the under $1,000 price range is suited to hobby or very small business use.
Diode lasers are very affordable, being the cheapest way to start a laser engraving business. We’ve even done a rundown of the best laser engravers for under $500.
If you are going with a diode laser, our pick for starting a laser engraving business for under $1000 is the Atom Stack A5 PRO:
Atomstack A5 Pro
This laser engraver comes in at way under the $1,000 price point, but don’t let its low price put you off. This is a serious laser engraver that is well up to the task of starting a laser engraving business from home.
If you are willing to spend longer learning how to use your equipment, then a K40 laser cutter is a great choice. K40 laser cutters are very versatile machines with amazing capability considering their low price, however require a lot of modifications to make them efficient.
There is a large market of K40 sellers, with a lot of the machines shipping from China with virtually no quality control or post-sale support. Our pick for a K40 supplier is Omtech, who offer a much better service than no-name K40 sellers on eBay and AliExpress.
Omtech K40
Limitations of low budget equipment
There are two main limitations to using smaller, cheap laser engravers:
- Lack of cutting power/speed
- Small working area
Diode lasers are able to cut thin materials such as wood, however, the cutting speed of these machines is much slower than that of more powerful laser cutters. This puts a bottleneck on how much you can make in a set time so can be quite a limiting factor to growing your business.
Diode lasers are much more suited to engraving on pre-made objects such as cutting boards. You can buy a blank pre-made item and personalise it to your customer’s needs, such as engraving their name onto it.
The other limitation is a limited working area. Laser engravers at the lowest price point struggle with this in particular, with some machines only having a working area of 100mm x 100mm.
The real key to growing a laser engraving business with a diode laser is to focus on creating a lot of small, personalised items. You may be surprised at how much more people are willing to pay for a personalised item!
If you have gone down the K40 route then you have a lot more options as you can cut thicker material.
We go into a lot more detail into starting a laser engraving business with a low investment in this article: The 5 key stages to starting a laser engraving business.
Starting a laser engraving business with a more investment (over $1,000)
With a larger budget, you have a lot more options in what kind of machine you can buy, as well as a large selection of suppliers. You can even look into cutting and engraving metal with a Fibre laser.
Having more money to invest will allow you to buy a larger and more powerful laser cutter. These machines allow you to make items a lot faster and work with much thicker and larger sheets of material.
A larger working area on your machine will allow you to make multiple items in one go, without having to stop to remove items and put in fresh material. This will allow you to make far more items in a given timeframe than on a smaller machine.
There are some premium diode laser engravers that come in over the $1,000 mark, however, for this price, I would recommend investing in a CO2 laser cutter instead – try to get one with the largest working area you can afford.
There are a lot of reputable sellers in this price range. Some of the most well-known are Glowforge and Full Spectrum Laser.
Other things to think about when starting a laser cutter business
Safety
Laser cutters can be dangerous when not used properly. Ensure that you always wear eye protection when operating a laser cutter. Also, ensure that the material you are working on is laser-safe.
Space required
Larger laser cutters take up a lot of room, have you got enough space available to house the machine? You will also require some way of venting away the smoke and fumes created by the laser cutter.
Consumables
CO2 laser tubes and mirrors don’t last forever. Make sure you budget for replacing consumables or any replacement parts should your laser engraver malfunction or break down.
Maintenance and calibration
Laser cutters require regular maintenance and calibration to keep them in good working order.
Sourcing raw materials
Where will you source your raw materials from? This will depend largely on what products you plan to sell. Are you planning on buying large sheets of wood and cutting your own items from them, or just engraving on pre-made items?
Where to sell your products
How are you planning to reach customers are sell your items? Local craft fairs are an option but the biggest market is online – think Etsy, Amazon Handmade or even eBay.
How much does it cost to start a laser engraving business - Conclusion
Hopefully from this article, you have seen that starting a laser engraving business doesn’t cost that much – it is in fact achievable for less than $1,000.
One possible strategy is to start off with a smaller, cheaper machine to see if laser cutting and engraving is something you enjoy. Once you are up and running you can make some profit and in turn, put that towards saving for a larger and more powerful machine!