One thing to keep in mind when purchasing these machines are the consumables (with the waterjet especially). Our lead mentor (also shop teacher at the school) looked into getting a waterjet but ended up going with our current CNC plasma cutter with water bed and exaust hood.
There were several reasons for the decision made, however the 3 main ones were,
- The Plasma uses only electricity, something we don't pay for (the school does)
- The water jet consumes sand. This costs money and is very messy.
- The last and final reason being, we found out that were not actually supposed/allowed to bring sand into the school (I can't recall the reason at the moment).
In terms of the laser, depending on what you buy and how powerful it is, they may consume gases.