Trotec Laser: Speedy 400 vs 500 Walkthrough Video

I’ve released my latest CNC walkthrough video, this time comparing a Trotec Laser Speedy 400 and a Trotec Laser Speedy 500.

You really want to watch the first one I made focused specifically on the Trotec Speedy 300.

The other ones I’ve made are one showing the range of CNC lasers I work with.

Afterwards I made one specifically for my ShopBot Desktop.

Trotec Laser: Speedy 400 vs 500 Walkthrough Original Transcript

Trotec recently released what I consider the most beautiful CNC laser on the market, the Speedy 400 which to me, has all the benefits of the Speedy 300 which I did a walkthrough of earlier along with some of the major pluses of the larger format Speedy 500.

Although these machines sell themselves, my focus here is education, not on sales so if you want more info about these machines and the whole Trotec Laser range, head over to TrotecLaser.com.au and they’ll get you sorted even if you aren’t in Australia. Trotec Laser has offices and reps all around the world who can run you through these machines better than I ever could.

Also keep in mind that Trotec Laser does tend to come-out with regular updates to their machines both hardware and software wise so the specs I tell you in this video may change.

So, without further ado, let’s compare these two awesome platforms!

Speedy 500

First off, let’s take a look at Trotec’s ultimate cutting machine, the Speedy 500. This machine is only currently available using a CO2 laser up to 200 watts which is plenty of power to cut through most materials quickly and easily… of course, it’s also an awesome engraving machine!

The overall usable bed size of the Speedy 500 is 1245 x 710 mm which is the second largest available unless you wish to purchase Trotec’s Speedy 1500 which is essentially two Speedy 500s back to back.

Speedy 400

The first thing you should notice here is that the Speedy 400 has a smaller bed size, it “only” measures 1 000 x 610 mm in size – I have to quality this as generally, you will not be using the entire bed size of your laser for most projects so you aren’t really losing all that much bed wise except on those rare occasions or if your specific application demands a huge bed sizes. The extra power of the Speedy 500 does come in handy though.

The Speedy 400 is available up to 120 watts CO2 and 50 Watts Fibre but here’s a major selling point, unlike the Speedy 500 that’s only available with a CO2 tube, you can get both of these tubes in one machine! It’s called a Speedy 400 flexx which would allow you to engrave, not cut, stainless steel without having to use toxic Cermark while in the same process, cut or engrave a material like wood in one shot. Let me give you an example where this shines.

If you had to engrave a thousand steak knives with the company logo on the steel and the customer’s name on the wooden handle, this is the only machine that would allow you to do this in one shot even if they are at different heights! That’s a MASSIVE time savings and huge win precision and ROI wise.

Speedy 500

One thing that becomes apparent with the Speedy 500 is the size of the laser head, it’s massive in comparison to the 400s. Why is that? Well, it has a larger travel area so everything needs to be beefed-up to maintain the precision Trotec is renown for. Remember, the stronger and more overbuilt your machines, just like my CNCKing.com models, the longer they will last and the better they will perform over their lifetime. Imagine having a CNC router where the gantry bent each time it plowed through your material, all the precision you put into your drawings quickly becomes worthless.

The ribbon you see here is what Trotec calls the InPack Technology, this protects the mechanics and sensors found in the arm from the fumes that could reduce the life of your CNC laser machine and just under the head, you’ll notice an extraction unit… this makes sure the fumes stay away from your mirror and lens, greatly increasing up-time as you aren’t spending all your time stopping jobs to clean them. This little tube here pushes air through the head’s optics, again, helping to keep vapour away from them to keep them clean.

Speedy 400

See how small the head is in comparison to the Speedy 500? That means your Speedy 400’s head can move up to 355 cm/sec with 4G acceleration, just like the smaller Speedy 300 which I reviewed earlier! Why is speed important? Well, the faster you cut through or engrave your job the faster you can complete the job, the more money you make per hour with this machine! Like most machines, the faster it moves the higher your ROI.

Although you don’t have extraction on the head like the Speedy 500 on this machine, you still benefit from Trotec’s InPack Technology and the optics are flushed just as well. As the bed is smaller, not having extraction on the head isn’t as big a deal as on both machines, you still have active extraction through the back slots and if you have a vacuum table, under the project as well!

Both of these machines have a built-in laser pointer to help with the proper placement of your engraving, optional air-assist that allows you to blast air down on the cutting surface to put out any flames on-command using an air compressor and a dead-easy focusing system.

Speedy 500

In the back of the Speedy 500, you’ll notice hinges, this allows you to greatly extend the size of your bed to basically infinity if you are so inclined as you can open-up the back for larger projects. Although I doubt you’ll have a project that’s infinitely long, it does come in handy when you are trying to engrave a full-sized door or large signs. What’s really cool is that you have this pass-through ability also available on the 400 so in reality, your usable cutting area is 1245 mm to infinity for the Speedy 500 or 1 000 mm by infinity for the Speedy 400.

Background

Both Speedy 400 and 500s offer a host of accessories, from rotary kits to easily engrave round objects like wine bottles to industry leading JobControlX software which you really have to play with yourself to understand how truly powerful it is for a business.

So, which is best? Well as you can see, it’s based of your applications – if you see yourself needing a massive bed for your projects that doesn’t require any fibre laser use, the Speedy 500 is your natural choice but if you want ultimate flexibility in a relatively small footprint, the Speedy 400 is awesome! Where does the Speedy 300 fit in all this? Well, if you don’t see yourself needing pass through ability and you are budget conscious – it’s an awesome platform to get your feet wet in the CNC laser industry!

I know I’ll be getting e-mails and comments asking me about how much these machines cost, there are more options than I can list affecting the price of these machines so head over to TrotecLaser.com.au and get one of their sales guys to give you a call.