I am upgrading to Onefinity Journeyman from a Shapeoko XL. I was thinking about converting my Shapeoko to a laser. Any thoughts?
That sounds great! We love that idea! 
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You could for sure. But me personally I would sell the shapeoko because I don’t have room for both lol and it would recoup some of the money spent. And I would just use the Onefinity for both. But that’s just personal preference.
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Sell the Shapeoko and get 2-3 stand alone laser machines!
Haha true I sold my old x-carve and ended up getting a Chinese CO2 laser. Well worth the trade
Hi all, I’m brand new to the CNC world and was about to purchase the Shapeoko XXL. Then found Onefinity.
As these are big purchases which ever way you go, can anyone offer a little advice prior to taking the plunge? Would the woodworker be a good machine that a beginner can utilize effectively? Would Carbide create be easy to run a design from ( I’ve been using that to make sure I can even enter things). Surprisingly, did better then I though.
Carbide Create is a good design program to start with. You’ll be able to do an awful lot of good stuff with it. Especially since you’re already feeling somewhat comfortable. The good news is that you can use it with either the Shapeoko or the OneFinity.
I was in a similar position last year. I was coming from a Shopbot Desktop and needed a bigger bed size. I was very surprised that the OneFinity provided similar build quality at a substantially lower price. I ordered a Journeyman. The OneFinity is a more robust machine than the Shapeoko - the ball screws, massive rails, linear bearings, etc. are capable of much more than the belts and v-wheels of the Shapeoko allow.
An hour after unpacking your OneFinity boxes you can be cutting (some people say 15 minutes, but you should take your time, read the instructions, watch the videos 
).
Ben Myers has a good (short) video on why he got rid of his Shapeoko for a OneFinity.
He also did a good write up about why he made the decision on his blog:
This is another good YouTube review from someone who also owned an XCarve (not substantially different than the Shapeoko).
Great video, thanks for the all the information.