We've recently bought a laser cutter/engraver at work - 2KW CO2 I think. Can't cut metal any thicker than baco-foil, but is great with Perspex/acrylic. Who knew you could cut and engrave plastic infills for your toolboxes so all your box spanners - standard hex and torx - have their own marked homes to live in 
Mine is obviously only a toy one, so pretty limited I think. It was given to me by a mate who had upgraded to one that would cut wood.
Disappointing to hear that your 1KW one can't really cut metal though 
We had a 'toy' one for a few years - Atomstack. Think we started off with atomstack A50 and a 10W laser head, and over time upgraded to 80W. That was about enough to cut 3mm black perspex in a single pass, but needed multiple passes for 8mm and 10mm. The stepper motors weren't great so registration of multiple pass cuts was a problem
Then we got a 50% grant from some obscure govt funding scheme to buy a more powerful Co2 commercial jobbie. Think they're about £5K list price, but with the govt funding and an Oxford uni 'educational' price it was well less than half that. Can cut 20mm black perspex in a single pass.
The problem with metal is that the cutting relies on basically melting or vapourising the material. With most metals, they become very reflective when they melt, so the laser beam just 'bounces' off the initial layer of melt and therefore you can engrave, but not really cut metals. The frequency of the light matters too - Co2 laser light is infra red, whereas the Atomstack (and similar) have a blue LED diode. Different materials absorb different 'colours' of laser light differently, so some materials are easier to cut than others.
The blue LED lasers are good for wood - but be careful things don't catch fire - been there done that :-) Also the fumes from some types of plastic are quite smelly - and some are even poisonous (arsnic amongst other nasties) so if you haven't got a good extraction system best to do it in a well ventillated room. They're great fun and you soon think of lots of things you can build.