Best Beginner Laser Engraver and Laser Cutter in 2024 - The xTool S1 with 20W Laser 

Very much appreciate that feedback! I’m in the middle of filming a couple of things and will take that into consideration.

Thanks for watching and commenting, Gary! I've been playing with a bunch of material, but have yet to try glass but now I'm very curious to try it.

It has to fail. Diode lasers can’t do transparent materials and only do acrylics of certain colors. You would need a CO2 laser. The by far best beginner and pro diode laser for organic materials would be the Roly Lasermatic MK2. For Lasers precision is everything.

@@crowguy506 I know very little about lasers at this time but I thought it worked if you painted the glass with water soluble paint first (like tempera paint) to allow the laser to focus. When finished you just rinse the paint off.

Thanks for watching! I hadn't heard of the ACMER P3 but just took a look and it's a nice looking enclosed laser. I'd imagine the experience would be similar to what I had with my Creality Falcon2 Pro where the unit and laser itself are great, but dialing in the focus and settings takes some trial and error. Likely great for those experienced with lasers, but the xTool S1 is in a class of it's own as far as ease of use using their XCS software. Of course, this is all my opinion as a laser beginner.

That’s great you got the framing to work! I’ve been using the S1 a lot over the past month on many different materials (including glass and stainless steel) with great success. I am planning to post a review video on or around May 31 where I’ll note what I like and what I don’t like. Like you, I really like the XCS software and I think we’re both lucky to have experience the v2.0 version as the previous seemed to get a lot of negative feedback. I’ve been using Lightburn while testing the Creality Falcon2 Pro laser and while the software is quite powerful, it’s much less accessible for a beginner like me. Without spoiling the next video, a couple of thinks I don’t like are the size of the honeycomb (wish it were a bit larger with a more click-in fit) and not having enough space under to effectively clear smoke. I also wish there was a home button on the unit that could automatically move the laser to one of the back corners for honeycomb and material management as well as control over the fan as I don’t think it runs long enough after the cut. On the positive side, I absolutely love the beginner friendliness of the unit and XCS software. Setting the focus with the pin is amazing and something that wasn’t great on the Creality and the pinpointing layout method is also quite amazing. I have seen some people use the mobile app with a camera-like function but I haven’t tried that myself. I do plan on getting the riser base and potentially rotor tool so I can play around with other things but the main thing I want to address is managing the smoke as right now I just pipe it out my garage door.

@@MasonWoodshopI can’t wait for your next video. Not sure if you’re aware, but I too am a RU-vid content creator, and once I learned you were also going to do a video on the laser, I decided there was no need for me to make one. You've been doing such an awesome job. I’m not into numbers; I just love to share my points of view on all sorts of products. That said, I may have an answer to address the smoke: the Genmitsu MD13 Smoke Purifier. This is perfect for the S1. The S1 hose fits right on the air filter without needing any clamps. I will admit, I haven’t done any heavy cutting and engraving to determine how adequately the purifier draws the smoke, but it seems to do a great job for what I’ve been doing at the moment. And its price tag is not insane. Again, my friend, I’m looking forward to another amazing video from you and will definitely be sending folks over to watch 👍😎 Genmitsu MD13 Smoke Purifier: www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTHPMYWP?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

@@LouRao Looks like you have quite the collection of videos, nicely done! Big thanks for the link to the purifier, that's a solution I'm definitely going to consider as it seems to be similar to a few of the other purifiers out there but at about half the price. I'm deciding between going with an inline fan to an outside vent or going the purification route. The only thing I don't like about the purifiers is the cost of replacement filters.

Interesting! With the pinpointing system I haven’t found the need to use the framing feature and I do recall the few times I tried it in the software that nothing happened but I didn’t think too much about it. I’ll check mine again this evening to see if it works.

@@MasonWoodshop If you can I would really appreciate it. There are times I would like to use the framing. Plus, for what I paid for this system it should work. Again, any feedback is appreciated. And Thanks for replying- means a lot!

@LouRao I just did a test of this and didn't have any issues. Other than setting the material distance, I didn't have to set anything else to get it to work. Here's a short video I put together: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SrWhwk0pqh4.html

Haha, guilty!

I’m glad you expressed that concern and I completely understand the sentiment. This is my first time doing such a video and the reality is that I’m amazed by what it (and likely other lasers) can do. I have been building up my experience with it over the past couple of weeks and there some shortcomings that I’ll share in my review video. As for getting started as a laser newbie, this has been a great gateway into that hobby.

I agree that’s it’s not woodworking in a traditional sense, but using it to augment other woodworking makes it more of an accessory than anything. Other than the occasional craft for family and friends (which has been kind of fun the past couple of weeks), the primary use is going to be engraving my logo on items. Thanks for watching and sorry to see you go.

@@MasonWoodshop …I appreciate your response. I’ve no problem with a maker using a laser to engrave a logo, to my mind that’s not much different from using a branding iron. In the same vein, I regularly watch a violin maker’s channel, and he uses a modified laser (I think he’s lowered the power somehow) to do nothing more than burn a very shallow cutting line….not much different than using carbon paper. He then shapes the wood using traditional tools….the end result being dependent on his skill. Given what you’ve said, I’ve resubscribed. What I’m really tired of is these “makers” who think they’ve got a special skill because they can assemble parts that are produced by a laser or CNC…I’ve had enough of that nonsense.

Thank you for your response as well! I think we're very much on the same page and while there are an infinite number of cool things you can do with lasers, it's very much a software or CAD skill that produces those works, not woodworking skill - unless you count putting a sheet of 3mm plywood into a machine woodworking, haha!

It is woodworking, ie, working with wood. What you mean is, it's not carpentry.

@@SteveRoberts1 Sooooo…..using your definition…cutting a branch off of a tree would qualify as “woodworking”, because it is “working with wood”?