Latest Toy - A Laser Cutter / Engraver - for Home Projects

A little while back I posted an article on the latest 3D printer (toy) we got to fiddle with, and while working on a 3D print project, it called for cut acrylic plastic. Now this project was basically "free" as we had all of the parts to create the thing, and we used our 3D printer to print the case, but we "needed" to cut acrylic. SO, $950 and a new laser cutter / engraver tool later, and we were all set!

(note: this is NOT an endorsement for this product, just happens to be the thing we settled on, there's definitely "better" things available that if I wanted to spend $2000 or $4000 for, it'll be way better, but it was a budget thing of having a new toy and be able to not have to overly justify the expense to my wife...)

What's a Laser Cutter / Engraver?

These laser cutter / engravers basically have a laser that will cut through things (like paper, wood, plastic, leather, even the fancier ones will cut through stone and steel...) to create shapes of things.

They'll also engrave the wood, plastic, metal, etc so you can basically burn in designs to stuff.

As much as you can download templates and designs off the Internet to "burn" with the laser to wood, or create fancy engravings, I found I would also upload a JPG photo or line art of something and simply insert that into the app it comes with, and proceed to "burn" the image or cut out a stencil or whatever easily out of the device. Here's a 3D printed bluetooth speaker project we did with jerry rigged cut clear plastic (more on that further down in the article)

Choices in Laser Cutter / Engravers

I started off looking at some $250-$300 cutter/engravers that seemed a great price and something I could easily just buy and play with, but after reading the reviews, I found they were serious hobby/crafts project devices that required a lot of babysitting, handholding, and a lot of patience to make the cheap models work.

So I immediately went up another level and settled on this xTool S1 laser cutter and engraver that was $895 for the base unit, but everything I read said I wanted to buy the "Air Assist" option that effectively blew air on the area where the laser was cutting, thus allowing for faster and deeper burns (cuts) making the thing do a cleaner job in a shorter amount of time. I found a bundle of the base unit + Air Assist less a $50 Amazon coupon and the whole thing cost $950!

There was another $169 option I didn't buy and might get later which is a thing that'll hold a round object (like a cup, mug, water bottle) that spins around and lets you engrave on something not flat (like a piece of wood, plastic, etc) as the base model I got did. I figured I'll start with the $950 and might buy the circular option thing later.

Other Decisions / Cost Variations

For this $1000-ish, the unit I got will cut/engrave something that is 12" x 18" which is a "good size" for the craft stuff I was doing. for twice the price you can get one that will cut / engrave about twice the size. If you need to cut/engrave bigger stuff, the more $$ is needed. I figured I'd start off with the size I got, and that has been plenty.

Another option is how tall the item I'm cutting/engraving. The laser on my device sits about 2" above the base of the unit, so I can easily do things that are generally thin and flat, like a 3mm board, 1/2" piece of wood, etc. If I wanted to shove in something like a thick piece of wood or a large piece of plastic, I'll need a deeper bed. They make printers that are 4" or 6" deep (or deeper) and my model has an option to replace the bottom with a deeper 4" bottom. So something to think about to buy later if needed, so far I haven't found the need to do something deeper...

Blue Diode vs CO2 Laser

This is one decision that I wasn't completely aware of when shopping, but the unit I got has a "blue diode laser" which is why the thing is so inexpensive. At $895 for a 10-watt unit, the unit I got was half the price of a 10-watt CO2 laser unit. or some of the bigger 20-watt CO2 units reach into $3000-$4000!

The "problem" with a blue diode laser is that it won't cut clear acrylic (or blue acrylic). Mostly clear acrylic is my beef. We do these electronic projects and I was hoping we could cut clear acrylic covers to the boxes we print on the 3D printer. But the blue diode isn't strong enough nor can it figure out how to cut something clear or something blue.

To cut clear acrylic, I needed a CO2 laser unit, which for the same bells and whistles would have set me back $2500. Nope, I'm having fun playing with my latest toy, but at $2500, that's not a toy for me.

SO, I have a lower cost blue diode laser that will cut wood, opaque dark colored acrylic, leather, engrave stone, metal, etc which is just fine by me now that I know and have gotten over it. I did find a trick where I put blue painter's tape on the top and bottom of the clear acrylic, and at a lower power (80% power) and slower speed (5 passes at a speed of 5) it would cut the clear acrylic. It would leave a burn mark on parts of where it cuts, so it's definitely not perfect if I was looking for a fancy clean cut. But for our home projects, the jerry rig workaround was plenty fine for us.

Fun Wood Cutting Projects

What we have found are a bunch of these wood cut projects where the laser cutter would cut out wooden pieces to glue together as a box, little airplane, ping-pong cannon, mobile phone holder, etc.

Wrap-up

SO, yet another toy that gives us little random projects to do in our free time. My wife has been designing neckerchief slides for the Boy Scout kids she works with, my youngest son is drawing designs on paper that we take a picture of, import into the engraver app, and burn the design into wood (or rock, opaque acrylic). So "things" to do.