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Thanks again Philip and Neville!
I'd love a system like yours Neville but don't have the money. Ideally, I will only be using it for cutting acrylic up to 4-6mm maximum and messing with burning little dots in the back (light guide plate). Cutting and polishing the edges I can already do without the laser (varying stages of wet and dry and a good application of Silvo does wonders, Brasso for finer scratches).
I already bought the tube, saw it cheap and decided I could afford that as a start and build something around it.
I'm quite familiar with welding fume extraction, in my late 30s I studied fabrication engineering (welding). I've also looked into the water chillers (also used in welding machines), that came up while chatting with my son last night, he'd seen them recommended.
While basically cheaping out and doing this on a very restrictive budget (disability pension) time isn't an issue, I'm in no rush.
I have a milling machine at my disposal (when I finally get to welding a stand for it) and a lathe, the milling machine isn't CNC but that is in the planning stages too.
I'm also familiar with the concept of purchasing decent power supplies for projects like this, I originally had a background in electronics but added electrical, welding, machining, hydraulics and pneumatics, IT and few other bits and pieces with a former desire to get into mechatronics. My health doesn't particularly lend itself to a lot of what I'd like to do.
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