I use Mach4 and it appears to be able to control a laser cutter as well. I have been trying to engrave some pictures with my CNC and am finding it difficult to be able to make clear faces. I have seen some pictures done with laser cutters that have appeared to be much clearer, maybe because it burns the wood as well. I also want to do some metal work as well. It seems to me that there must be some information on using the same table and just changing the router with a laser head for different applications.
Thanks for any information,
Rich B.
There have been many approaches to this. The details really depend on your router, though.
When you want to do metal work, can you say more about what you want to do?
Mr. Johnson,
First let me thank you for responding. A few things that I want to do with the metal working such as decorative signs, brackets for various applications, cutting names or other words in metal tubes. I realize that the brackets will lend themselves to the router using a proper cutting tool.
Diode lasers aren’t going to do much to cut metal. The more powerful ones can cut foil or shim stock. There are some that have aspherical lenses and combine the output of multiple diode lasers that are fairly powerful. They aren’t particularly cheap either, last I checked. 
Thank you for the information. For a diode laser would that make pictures better than using a cutter due to the burning effect?
You could probably attach a laser head to a CNC router, but a laser system does not have big enough stepper motors to handle a router.