How I Made $100k With My Chinese Co2 Laser Cutter Engraver

today I'm going to show you how this big blue machine took my home business from surviving to thriving in this video I will answer your comments and questions I'll show you how I ended up with this RM laser specifically I'll give you the cost and a breakdown of how much revenue it has helped my home business produce we'll look at the long-term durability of it I'll show you as many products and examples I have made with it and we will take a look at what some other RM laser users are doing and saying about their machines so how did I end up with this RM laser the owner of RM laser a man that goes by the name Ray contacted me after he saw my eBay CO2 laser that I posted back in August of 2020. he had a laser that was damaged in transit and it had a cracked glass laser tube he asked if I would be interested in replacing the laser tube and comparing it with my own CO2 laser I felt no pressure at all from him he genuinely just wanted someone who could showcase his product with no strings attached this all happened in the midst of my eBay CO2 laser springing a water leak in the middle of a huge production job arcing high voltage electricity to the water thus cracking the glass laser tube and frying the power supply putting it out of commission when I so desperately needed it A very wise man once said said one is none and two is one this was the point that I realized having a second machine is a redundancy that my business needed desperately I have received quite a few comments asking for an update on how my RM laser is holding up since posting the first video over a year ago so I figured I would share my experiences with this machine after having it for over 17 months now here is a quick look at the logged hours on the machine where we can see how much use my machine has had so far it has 1016 hours or 42 days of time with the machine on overall 453 hours or 19 solid days of actual run time where the laser head is moving around and doing a job and 206 hours or eight and a half days of laser burning time where the laser tube is active in sending the laser beam to engrave or cut for a total of 2873 laser jobs in just 17 months which would average to about 169 jobs per month or 42 jobs every week and looking at those numbers you might be thinking wow I expected that run time would be much higher considering how many jobs have been completed but you gotta remember this machine can be run extremely fast compared to some of the slower lower end laser machines being offered like my eBay laser horse some of the other offerings you can find on Amazon I use this laser in my woodworking shop and it has been an essential tool in helping me produce a huge percentage of My overall income from products that I have sold through my home business I promise I will give you the actual dollar amounts and proof in this video If you decide to stick around I do believe there is a misconception that owning a laser is a get rich quick scheme and though I can say that if utilized properly it sure can bring in some incredible return on your investment but that does not come without a good business plan trial and error marketing know-how and most of all hard work and determination all of which I think could deserve their own dedicated videos all of this to say that simply buying a machine like this will not make you rich it takes a lot of hard work and it requires the right person and personality behind it so please hear me out when I say you should really consider the cost to risk benefits when purchasing something as costly as a machine like this one of the things that I really appreciate about this laser is how it's helped me to be more efficient and effective in my work with its Precision accuracy power and speed I've been able to create intricate designs and details on my wood products that I wouldn't have been able to do by hand this has helped me to stand out in a competitive market and offer unique products to my customers here I'm going to show you as many products that I have produced and sold with the assistance of this machine I originally started my business with a scroll saw and a few woodworking tools today I still utilize a large number of woodworking tools but have given up the scroll saw work to the laser and it has allowed me to expand my business into what it has become today okay so let's go through a bunch of examples of different products that I have made using my RM laser here we can see some trophies that I made for a local car show next a very popular product has been these military plaques for people in the Coast Guard Army in different services like that this is another military piece but these are Big rounds cut out and a piece like this can hold something like 70 challenge coins this client here sent me a picture of a challenge coin and asked if I could turn The Coin into the entire plaque this piece here has multiple layers the first layer is pallet wood that is all Edge glued together and then the profile is cut out with the laser then the second layer with the wings is cut from some three-quarter inch plywood then in the center there there is a piece of aluminum that I cut into a circle with some woodworking tools I spray painted the aluminum black and then used the laser to remove the black spray paint to reveal the aluminum underneath signs for families are always very popular items and there's templates that you can use and find online to make getting their names and Designs created quite quickly and easily I'll leave a link to the online template creator that I use for this sign in the description I believe it's something called like sun catcher Studio or something like that this past year I was lucky enough to have one client who wanted to order over 60 Christmas ornaments to give away as gifts so I really love running big Productions like this piece here this was real easy after creating the image in the shape of the ornament all I had to do was engrave cut sand it a little bit spray some lacquer on them tie a string on the top and then these pieces we're ready to go these jobs here are not something that I take on very often this is where a client will bring me a material and they want me to engrave it most the time I tell them no just in case something does go wrong I don't want the liability of not being able to replace their pieces but this person insisted that it was okay if any pieces did get messed up and luckily with these trays made from wood from an old church organ no mistakes were made restaurants bars and places like that are always needing custom signage I have been lucky to be connected with a small chain restaurant called Top Dog Tavern and they've used me in the past to create a lot of signs for their restaurants this is a real simple piece you can go to Lowe's you can purchase a round like this that's already cut it's already rounded over I just stained the wood and the raised up portion is just pieces that were cut out with the laser and then glued onto that round I've had good luck with rolling pins cutting boards and slate coasters this is a product that I help to prototype and design with a local baking company they wanted these rocking horse boxes that they put their cookies in and they sell to people as gifts for newborn babies and things like that I've been Amazed by the success of these QR code Engravings on plywood it's really the simplest product it has very little touch time it just pretty much requires a little bit of sanding and then a coat of lacquer then it's pretty much ready to go with this product I was lucky enough to land a really big client I was contacted by one of the developers creating a brand new Hotel in Salt Lake City Utah I try to make a really good first impression with them they emailed me their design and then I overnight it the next day some examples to them and I think that's what helped me to land that job but later on you will hear me refer to this job as the hotel job as it was a big portion of my total income from the past year I also get lucky enough to have restaurants and bars purchase these as pieces that they can put on tables for for menus where people can scan the QR code they can see the menus and what's great about this kind of in a bad way but these things get stolen or lost quite frequently so there's a lot of returning customers with this type product and with that simple design I offer different sizes majority are the four inch size 8 inch 12 inch 16 inch and I believe sometimes I even get orders for 24 inch signs like these another look at some of the pieces of that the hotel job included some were these four by four inch Maple blocks with the menu each room at the hotel received one of these small four inch coasters and then of course there's a few concierge signs that are around the hotel and also these reserved signs that they ordered and here we can get a look at the large quantity of items that the hotel purchased I believe there was over a thousand items total and they all ended up in these three big boxes here that each weighed probably about 70 pounds a piece and I just scoured the internet for some videos online and I was able to locate a few of my pieces online here you can see one of the QR codes in the room and uh at the restaurant you can see on the table over there there's one of my blocks there for the menu that people scan so it's pretty cool to be able to see that even though I haven't been able to visit the hotel yet this is a large negative engraving on a big old slab of Pine and if you've been following along with my videos you might be happy to know that this is some Pine from the trees that I had dropped on my property here that we had cut up and now you can see that like I hoped these trees would be eventually turned into product you've probably seen lots of signs and products with the name Fieldstone on it this is a local client of mine it is a nationwide clothing brand they have these signs featured along with their hats shirts and more at hundreds of retailers across the country now I'm not here to sugarcoat it the products that I make for them do require a lot of Hands-On time painting sanding taping and the bases require a lot of Woodworking know-how and tooling at the numbers they order it makes all the touch time well worth it when we get to my income breakdown a large portion of it can be contributed to this client alone as you can see this laser has handled daily work in my dirty Dusty production Woodworking Shop sawdust Grime drastic temperature changes and the humidity found here in Georgia in the summer months you would think a laser with all these crucial mechanical and electrical components would not last very long at all on top of all of that I am definitely not the best about routine maintenance and cleanings I've been really impressed with its durability and how it's held up over time despite running it at a hundred percent power and speed for the majority of my work I have not seen any decrease in power and I believe that is because the authentic recce glass laser tube that you get with a RM laser there's even a sticker on the tube that says this tube will Outlast your laser machine recently I did a very deep cleaning on the laser actually the first ever cleaning to this extent and I must have been a little over ambitious on where and what I was blowing the sawdust into and around on the electrical components I noticed that the main controller started to flash after being on for a few minutes I wasn't sure what was going on so I sent a quick video to Rey at rmlaser and you can reach him through email or an app called WeChat he was able to quickly help me diagnose the issue and it turned out that nothing was actually broken during my cleaning I accidentally bumped one of the electrical connections and it just needed to be pressed back in I was really impressed with his customer service and how he was able to help me get the laser back up and running in no time this kind of support is not something I could expect from my mysterious eBay seller Ray really knows his machines and he stands behind the name in the products that he is selling I've tracked down a few other users who have purchased an RM laser let's take a look at what they are doing or saying about their machines first up we have Amy at rust and Shimmer I can tell she has been very successful with what she's been doing here as you can see just the high quantity of products that she's been putting out I remember seeing her post about these around Christmas time and she just kept selling out of these Grinch Christmas ornaments I reached out to Amy and asked how she's doing and what she's doing currently and right now she's making these for Mother's Day you can see these flowers are cut out with the laser and put together these are looking really beautiful nice job Amy Amy does a great job incorporating hand painting in her works and it really gives it a nice human touch here's a video of her laser cutting out the flowers next up we have Derek at Deacon's wood shop and again you can find him on Instagram as well he's been running a successful business while also being a full-time teacher I've talked with him before and I always tell him how impressed I am that he's able to do all of this be a family man be a teacher and run a successful business like this a lot of his work early on was done with CNC and I think that's what he does a lot of but recently he has also purchased himself an RM laser and Derek was able to get this sweet black unit here I don't know he must have gone back and forth with Rey and was able to get a unit that looked like this very cool and here we can see Derek was able to engrave on these whiskey bottles super cool that you're able to engrave even with the liquid inside the bottle that's something that me and him were not quite sure if it would work or not but apparently it worked really well here's a close up on one of those whiskey bottles and you can see just the amount of detail that you're able to achieve with the laser looks like he's even engraved some bottle openers here here are some more examples of pieces that Derek is doing with his laser here we have some really great products that would do great around Easter time these letter name banks are great you've got acrylic that can be cut on the laser and I'm betting that the case itself was probably cut on his CNC but it's something that you could do with the laser if you did it in layers this is a super great idea it looks like he's basically just laser engraving and cutting what could be coloring pages it looks like down there in the corner you can see one of his children coloring in some of these pieces that he's cut out that's a great idea lastly we have Steve who was nice enough to leave some comments on my last video about the RM laser and he shared about his experience purchasing directly from Rey which I think is very valuable as I know there is definitely a lot of nervousness around purchasing from a company overseas and here we can see Steve says I'm hoping to purchase this with a credit card try to purchase with money transfer however my bank called me and said that they thought it was a scam and if I really wanted this I should use a credit card because they can get my money back if there is an issue I've talked to Ray at rmlaser and I really believe this is the laser to purchase I just can't seem to get a link to enter my credit card anyone else have this issue I know Steve had a little back and forth trying to get payment over to Rey but eventually he was able to work it out here I found an update in the comments Steve says payment update I worked with Rey and Yeta chose to pay the 4.3 percent and pay with a credit card RM laser is 100 trustworthy they also have fantastic customer service I received my RM 1390 and the quality of this machine is outstanding if you're looking for a CO2 laser you can't go wrong with RM laser or the company and I replied back so glad to hear it Steve and thanks for giving everyone an update alright now let's talk money how much revenue has this machine contributed to my small business since owning it and putting it as my main production machine big blue was delivered August 2021. I had it fixed set up and running all jobs by October so it has been contributing to my business now for 18 months total so I'm going to go ahead and apply that to my to my filters here shout out to Mint not sponsored but I love this app you can combine all of your accounts financials into one place and it is just such an easy way to get everything organized so I'm going to go ahead and apply that custom date range and I've also got it filtered to just income which is going to give us just the physical product sales here in my accounts the total revenue from physical products sold over 18 months was 100 264 dollars and four cents this does not include business expenses such as material cost and other miscellaneous expenses that go along with running my business so please keep that in mind but Etsy fees and shipping expenses are already subtracted from the amounts shown running a business like this can be quite a roller coaster ride for example my worst month was in December and if we look at that we can see the total for that month was only two thousand and six dollars I don't know about you but for me that's not enough money to survive on or support my family but in comparison my best month was in August of 2022 and that total Was Eighteen thousand six hundred and eighty two dollars and to be honest the amount of work during that time just about killed me it was a lot of work and like I mentioned earlier this amount here did include the hotel job that I landed and if we sort it by Merchants we can get a little bit better breakdown here we can see forty three thousand dollars came from check deposits so this is going to include a lot of my local clients so that would be like the school that I make pieces for Fieldstone the cookie school and other clients like that 26 000 came from sales on Etsy and like I said earlier the fees and shipping are already subtracted from this amount here majority of venmo is also local clients and here you can see the hotel job got its own category because the total for that job did come out to 8 365 dollars purchases made through PayPal came to 3 500. other is also going to be payments coming through PayPal in such smaller amounts that didn't get categorized this two thousand dollars here is just a job from Fieldstone that didn't get bundled with everything else and then 650 dollars came from oh well I think this might be a good place to stop with a detailed reporting with my total revenue at one hundred thousand two hundred and sixty five dollars and four cents this gives me an average of five thousand five hundred and fifty five dollars every month if we averaged it out big blue has been an essential tool in helping me to grow my home business and I'm excited to see how it will continue to help me in the future overall I'm really happy with my RM 690 CO2 laser and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a reliable high quality laser with Incredible production and speed capabilities I think these lasers are great for people who have the space who can handle the maintenance that comes along with CO2 lasers maintaining the water cooling aligning and cleaning mirrors and cleaning and replacing the lenses if you are looking for a professional quality machine RM laser is a product and Company you can trust if you have been following my business you may have noticed that my online store Chad's Custom Creations has been temporarily closed for the past 12 months and I have ceased essentially all local commissions and with that I am making more money than ever before by killing this business that I've been growing for the past 10 years of my life but the reasoning for all of that will have to come in a future video so until then you can catch me on the next one

Channel: Chads Custom Creations

Views: 92,299

Keywords: making, etsy, business, sign making, laser, RM laser, Raymind laser, Chads custom Creations, Chad's Custom Creations, Chad Dowdell, acrylic, polypropylene, Co2 Laer, diode laser, ortur, made the best, which is best, speed, comparison, Laser engravers, laser cutter, machine, ebay, amazon, best, small business, ruida, lightburn, laser software, cutting, wooden sign, stencil, laser stencils, rayming, rmlaser, toolots, fastest, 90w, 100w, boss, thunder, epoligue, laser machine, lazer, lazer machine, Omtech

Id: 5OeJQlu5NfU

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2023