As part of the wood workshop build (hello retirement!) I have gradually been accumulating the bigger tools that we need while I'm gainfully employed. Two of the biggest areas of indecision have been around a CnC router and a laser cutter/engraver. Now I already have a small laser engraver and while it has certainly proven useful its not a great laser cutter (to be fair its an engraver not a cutter) and the "cutting" area is small. It has proven quite useful on several projects so I think there is real value in having this tool in the woodshop. Recently Xtool has released its D1 laser cutter/engraver and I have been very impressed with what I have seen it do and the maker's that are using it.
They had a sale in March and since we had a little extra money we opted to take the plunge. I also pre-ordered some of their accessories at the same time including a more powerful laser head. Still based on what I have seen the existing 10w laser is going to be able to handle most of the ideas that I can come up with and there are more than one or two ideas percolating around in my head. The other big plus is the much larger cutting area 17" x 16" which means that a couple of my ideas will be much easier to pull off especially for cutting out buildings for Calamity!
As you can probably tell I'm pretty excited about this tool, the only drawback I see right now is that I don't have anyplace to set it up and start cutting things out!
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| That's a lot of black foam! The first thing you see in the box are the instructions and the risers. There is an extra set of risers so you can increase the height based on the material you need to cut or engrave. |
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| Side supports |
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| The coolest bit in the box, this is the rotary engraver that allows you to engrave cylinders and spheres (I'm thinking some pens will find their way into this at some point). |
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| More side supports, the laser head and power and communication cables |
I have read through the instructions and it should be pretty easy to setup. Then it will just be a matter of picking the software and learning how to use it. Xtool has their own software; Laserbox basic or just about any other software will work we will probably be going with Lightburn.
Very exciting! That cylinder tool is pretty cool too. I wonder if it could make Victorian house turrets? (so, cutting and engraving a cylinder of plastic)
ReplyDeleteThe rotary device is relatively short. As long as you are willing to do it segments I don't see why you couldn't. Its interesting that they are, currently at least, including this. Most of the other lasers like these sell it separately and they are always out of stock.
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