5 Things to Know Before Buying Your First Laser Engraver

When I bought my first laser engraver, I knew practically nothing about laser engraving. I didn't know there were different types of laser, I didn't understand the difference between a diode and an infrared laser, and I certainly didn't know what a galvo was. I very nearly bought a machine that would have been completely wrong for what I wanted to do.

Since then I've used a huge range of machines, from inexpensive entry-level lasers to some pretty advanced equipment. No tutorial and no product review this time. These are just five things I wish I'd understood at the start, because they could save you time, money and a lot of frustration.

Jump to: Know what you want to make · The machine and the space it needs · Try the software first · Find your community · Be ready to experiment

1. Know what you want to make

Have a reasonably good idea of what you want to make before you start looking at machines. When I started, I had one very specific problem. I was designing and 3D printing small brackets and accessories to sell online, and some had writing on them. I was printing the text in a second color with a very fine nozzle, and some of those small parts were taking six or seven hours.

I wondered if I could print the part plain and add the text with a laser afterwards. I didn't even know if that was possible. After some research I saw someone doing something very similar with the xTool F1, and that's what led me to my first laser. Luckily it worked out, but I could easily have made the wrong choice, because different laser technologies suit different materials.

Here's the rough picture from the video:

A machine that's brilliant on wood isn't necessarily right for marking metal or working with certain plastics.

So start by writing down what you'd like to make. It doesn't need to be an exact list of every material, just an idea:

• Which materials? Wood and leather, metal, glass, plastics?
• Do you want to engrave, cut, or a bit of both?

Once you know that, you can narrow down which laser types are actually suitable, rather than buying something because it looks impressive in an advert.

2. The machine, and the space it needs

Next, understand what type of machine you're buying and whether it suits the space you have. There are two common types of movement on desktop lasers.

Galvo lasers, like the xTool F1 or F2, use mirrors to steer the beam. They can be incredibly fast and they're often quite compact, but they usually have a smaller working area. Because the beam is directed at different angles from one central point, there can be limits when you're working with thicker materials or trying to cut straight sides.

Gantry machines move the laser head around the working area on rails. They're often larger and give you a much bigger area to work with, especially for cutting and bigger projects, but they can take up a lot more space. Depending on the machine, there may also be extra things to think about, like extraction, maintenance and where everything goes.

Before my F1, I came very close to buying an old CO2 laser I'd found online. At the time I thought a laser engraver was a laser engraver. I hadn't thought about its size, the maintenance, or whether it even suited the materials I wanted to use. My introduction to lasers could have been very different.

Think about safety before you buy

This is incredibly important. A laser uses concentrated light to change materials, and depending on what you're working with, that can produce smoke and potentially harmful fumes. Not every material is safe to put under a laser either, particularly certain plastics. Before you buy, ask yourself:

• Where will the machine live? A workshop, a spare room?
• Who can get to it? Could children or other people have access?
• Does it have a proper enclosure?
• What laser class is the complete machine rated for?
• How will you deal with the fumes?

You also need to be ready with proper extraction, know what materials you're working with, wear eye protection where required, and be prepared for the risk of fire. I don't say that to put you off. I absolutely love laser engraving. It's just much better to think about it now than to have a machine delivered and realize you've got nowhere suitable to use it.

3. Try the software before you buy

I feel really strongly about this one. I think people massively underestimate how important the software is. Having used lots of machines from different manufacturers, the software experience varies enormously. A machine can look fantastic on paper, but if the software is clunky, confusing or missing basic features, it can be really frustrating to use. You often don't find that out until you've bought it.

Anyone who watches my channel knows I use xTool machines a lot, and one of the biggest reasons is xTool Studio. I find it intuitive and fairly easy to learn, and xTool regularly adds updates and new features. That's just what I personally value, not me saying everyone needs an xTool. LightBurn is another very capable option that supports a huge range of lasers, though you need to check it supports the specific machine you're looking at.

Here's the easy bit:

1. Find out what software the laser you're considering uses.
2. Download it and have a look around. xTool Studio is free to download, and LightBurn has a free trial.
3. Try the design side. You don't need to own the machine to get a feel for whether you'll enjoy using it.

4. Find your community

This is another thing people overlook when comparing machines. When I got my F1 out of the box, I remember thinking, right, what do I actually do with this? I knew what I wanted to achieve but didn't know where to start.

What helped me enormously was finding online communities, particularly the xTool Facebook groups. People share their projects, their settings and their mistakes, and help each other solve problems. Somebody has usually already hit the same problem, and they're often happy to explain how they fixed it.

It's not just xTool, either. There are great communities on Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and dedicated forums. The important thing is that they're active, people share useful information, and there's somewhere to go when you get stuck. I'd join a few before you even buy, because you'll get a much better idea of what owning that machine is really like.

5. Be ready to experiment

This is probably the most important lesson when it comes to actually learning: stop worrying about getting everything perfect straight away. Be prepared to experiment, make mistakes and ruin a few things. In my case, a lot of things. I've burnt things, engraved with completely wrong settings, and spent hours trying to get one material to look right. I still do it today, because every experiment teaches me something about how the machine reacts with that material.

There are lots of places to find settings to get you started. I've got a free Laser Settings Library on my website, and I share settings in my tutorials all the time. Use them, absolutely, that's what they're there for. But somebody else's settings won't necessarily give you identical results, even on the same machine. The material, the coating, your setup or the batch of blanks can all be different.

So use other people's settings as a starting point, but don't become completely reliant on them. Learn what happens when you increase the power or change the speed, and learn to recognize when something needs adjusting. Once you can work that out yourself, you get far more confident, and you'll start trying materials and projects you might never have attempted.

What do you wish you'd known?

Those are the five things I wish I'd understood when I started. I did end up with a machine that worked for me, but I could easily have made an expensive mistake simply because I didn't understand what I was buying.

If you've been engraving for a while, I'd love to hear what you wish you'd known at the start. Tell me in the comments on the video.