Thousands of people search for a laser sander every month. It is a reasonable thing to call it, and it is not what the machine is. This page is the straight answer, because you should know that before you spend money rather than after.
A laser sander is not a sander. Nothing touches the surface, there is no abrasive and no grit size. A pulsed fibre laser removes paint, varnish and coatings with light: the coating absorbs the pulse and lifts away as vapour and fine particulate, while the cleaner, more reflective material underneath absorbs far less of it.
People search for a "laser sander" because sanding is the job they are trying to stop doing, and that instinct is sound. A laser does replace a lot of sanding. It just does not do it by sanding, and the difference decides whether it suits your work.
Usually it removes a stage rather than the whole job. The laser takes the coating off, and a light abrasive pass may still follow to finish or to key the surface. That is still a large saving when the stage it removes is the slow, manual, awkward one.
The useful question is not whether a laser can replace sandpaper. It is how many hours of preparation it takes out of a process you are already paying for. On a run of spindles or a carved staircase that number is large. On a flat, open panel that needs levelling, it is small, and we would tell you so.
The range starts at £6,650 for the 200W and runs to £73,400 for the 2000W. For work people describe as sanding, timber, joinery, furniture, cabinet doors, the 200W and 300W are the relevant models: the constraint is control, not throughput. Prices exclude VAT, freight, import charges and UK mainland delivery, which are quoted at the point of purchase. Business finance is available to UK businesses through an FCA-regulated broker, subject to status and lender criteria.
Applications
The jobs behind the search, and which of our pages covers each in depth.
Which machine
For work people call sanding, the lighter machines are usually the right ones. The 300W is the common choice; the 500W is for shops processing volume.
Machine finance is available to UK businesses through an FCA-regulated broker. Limited companies can be funded on any machine; sole traders only above £25,000. Check whether you qualify → LaserStrip is not a lender. See also the Business Launch package.
Further reading
Standards and guidance
A pulsed fibre laser is a Class 4 device. These are the primary UK sources, linked so you can read them rather than take our word for it. Our own measured results, including the combinations that did not work, are in the surface ablation database.
Common questions
Not as the name suggests. There is no laser tool that sands. What people mean is a pulsed fibre laser cleaner, which removes paint, varnish and coatings with light rather than abrasive. The name has stuck because sanding is the job it displaces.
The range starts at £6,650 for the 200W and runs to £73,400 for the 2000W. For timber and joinery work the 200W at £6,650 and the 300W at £7,800 are the relevant models. Prices exclude VAT, freight and UK delivery, quoted at the point of purchase. Finance is available to UK businesses subject to status.
Often it leaves a clean, dry surface a finish can go straight onto, and often a light abrasive pass still follows, either to key the surface or to level it. Which of those applies depends on the coating specification and the substrate, so it is worth establishing on a test piece before quoting a job.
Timber is heat-sensitive and varies enormously between species, ages, moisture contents and previous treatments, so results vary more than on metal. It is used successfully on timber every day, with correct parameters and testing. We will not tell you it is safe on every timber, because nobody can know that before testing your material.
On detail, profiles and awkward access, considerably. On a large flat panel that needs levelling as well as stripping, often not, because levelling is a job a laser does not do. Tell us what you are actually stripping and we will give you a straight answer rather than a brochure one.
Application enquiry
Tell us what you are trying to remove and what is underneath it. We will tell you honestly whether a laser is the right tool, where it would sit in your existing process, and which machine would suit. If conventional preparation is the better answer for your job, we will say so.
We reply within one business day. Your details are never shared.