Bare Naked Diode Laser Cutters - Petite but Problematic. The xTool D1 Pro

[@bitluni]

I tried acrylic with a 10W diode laser and it didn't work. Seems to be translucent to the wavelength. I got the darker acrylics molten a bit but there was no precision. Btw I didn't release the review because the fumes gave me headaches and I didn't want people to assume it could be used without proper ventilation

[@Clough42]

Lightburn is definitely worth it for this machine. I have the 10W, and it's no CO2. Not even close. But I have limited space, and I can hang it on a pegboard.

[@MikesTropicalTech]

You need to put up the classic safety sign: "Do not look into LASER with remaining eye". Thanks for the unvarnished review.

[@barrettdent405]

The existence of higher power diode lasers is really exciting. The idea of building an enclosure from corroplast covered in fabric worries me. What I’m hoping this heralds is a new generation of properly enclosed 40W lasers without the CO2 laser tube. Move over K40!

[@AntmanIV]

Always appreciate the unbiased reviews.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

You're not going to cut clear acrylic with a blue laser - even opaque acrylic will reflect a lot of the beam from the surface - that's the big advantage of CO2

[@xmetal280]

I've seen a number of these open-air models lately, and as someone that has done 1000+ hours of detailed laser engraving and cutting on wood, papers, acrylic and leather, these open setups are utter madness. Even in a shop environment, the fumes/smells could be terrible depending on the cutting media and my experience is that it can be pretty overwhelming even with a fully enclosed, air assisted and fan-jetted exhaust outside. The potential for dumb accidents is just so much higher as well, I just hate this concept.

[@CameronVarley]

Please be safe and ensure you are cutting material that is safe for laser cutting. Makers muse has an amazing video about open air gantry style cutters. "Are cheap laser cutters safe"

[@strangerparts]

Yeah, totally. In particular, plastics with chlorine would be really dangerous on this setup.

[@DarkArtGuitars]

I thought the xTool was supposed to be the more polished one, but this seems just like every other cheap laser just for much more money. Another issue with many of these Chinese laser engravers is that they run the diodes way to hard and after a few months of use they have like half the power compared to when they were new.

[@EvanBoyar]

I would be really interested to see what happens. Hopefully Scotty sees this and gets a laser power meter now and retests it again after a bunch of projects

[@tgziceblood]

Great to see to you back on YT , Hope the Concussion is healed and you are back for good!

[@KarlBunker]

I have an XTool D1 (no "Pro," only 10 watts). I've seen that problem where there's a hiccup of some kind and the laser starts being misaligned. Doing a "Home" before starting a project seems to prevent that. Also, LightBurn software is pretty much a must-have for any laser cutter/engraver (and it allows you to do a "Home).

[@davidkay1386]

Happy to see another video from you. Hope all is well with you.

[@bockshophollumameland7716]

Great to see a video from you again. Hope your fine and looking forward to see more videos in the future😇

[@austin_andrade]

Would take a serious look at setting up some sort of outside venting that is permanent. Currently run 2 glowforges for my small business and if there are 2 bits of advice I can give. CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN and have good venting of fumes especially if your cutting a lot or like you said at the end if you want to get into acrylic.

[@DanielGliebe]

You should give Lightburn software a try. I use it on my homemade 80W Co2 Laser.

[@CoinSilver800]

Awesome to see you posting new content, keep up the great work and hope your recovery is going well! (posting before watching video)

[@NicksStuff]

$1,800 and the software is not finished, fuck me!

[@Lucky32Luke]

It is good to see you back Scotty.

[@jjfromhonolulu9023]

Great to see you back online!

[@WhiteG60]

That seems to be the problem with so many of these tools that try and make it accessible for people that don't know what they're doing. The hardware is usually pretty good, but the software always is bad. Cricut is another example. Is this machine locked down to JUST their own software or can you use LightBurn or similar with it? If it's JUST their software, this is dead to me.

[@gangleweed]

Wow, at only $4,700 for the whole all bells and whistles package....... just the thing I want for Xmas.

[@Heushreck]

Really great job to the editor, the build montages were fire

[@Mr.OCanada]

It's good to see you again. ❤️

[@JustinsTrainJourneys]

Great to see your videos again , keep em comming

[@JerryBiehler]

I finished building a large format 150W co2 a few months ago. It has been so handy. And I found out I can cut steel and stainless with it which is extra nice. These things still need an interlocked enclosure though. The little shield would not satisfy FDA/CDRH.

[@walker1054]

The base 5w version of this that was in the first half of the video appears to be £340 atm on Amazon UK. I wonder how well 10w versions from other brands do though since they cost around the same and might be more than good enough without needing to jump up to £1,500 for a 40w version.

[@UpLateGeek]

LOL RSVP your eyesight after getting that thumbnail! It is very interesting, but you definitely need something to deal with the smoke. Having the cover with the hose you can poke out the window is good, but kind-of defeats the purpose of buying this over a regular enclosed model. And I can see having to pull everything out separately to set up the laser cutter every time you wanted to use it would get old pretty quickly. So yeah, I hope it works out for you, and anyone else who decides to go for one of these. At least they can always improve the software, which sounded like the main problem anyway.

[@soniclab-cnc]

Get the most out of your laser with Lightburn....the material test generator is very helpful for finding the best settings. The X-tool software is kinda janky.

[@TheBekker_]

Recommend doing a speed and power grid test on materials, to get an idea of the optimal settings 😊

[@o.e.r.3287]

Pretty cool lasers and not terrible if you source name brand appropriate laser safety glasses. Still, the fact they still just don't sell a fully configured 40W system ready to go at a decent price is just weird. Skip the rebuilding of the system and just snag a cheap 60W CO2 system for the price and the build volume and ability to cut clear acrylic makes this a hard sell. Maybe if you weren't buying multiple control boards and diodes, the price could be more competitive.

[@zviper]

Perfect flammable enclosure!

[@MrMartinSchou]

Am I the only one thinking that "percentage of power" and "mm/second" are silly settings? Only one of those can translate across devices, and it's useless without context. Why not "joule/mm"? You already know the power of your laser (let's assume the 5W and 40W are the output power). If you wanted 10 joules/mm, you'd need to have the 5W move at 0.5 mm/second, and the 40 W could do 4 mm/second. You can also use this across products. A manufacturer could specify that their 2 mm thick material needs 10 joule/mm for two passes, and their 4 mm thick material needs 10 joule/mm for five passes.

[@christopherj3367]

you might find using a program called "LightBurn" easier to use than the standard software.

[@TechnIx12]

I enjoy the editing in this video, nice one

[@legacynick81]

Finally a new video.

[@realfutbol1]

"Not sponsored." Also, "They gave me a free machine and commission on sales through an affiliate link." Well, good that you disclosed clearly- but that still sounds a lot like sponsorship to me.

[@chibicitiberiu]

I find these laser cutters terrifying without a proper enclosure... if that laser can cut through wood and metal, they sure can cut through skin. I would definitely want an enclosure that the laser can't penetrate. Also, the fumes can be pretty toxic, those definitely need to be taken care of. Another big concern for me is that this is a huge fire hazard. I would definitely want to mitigate that risk, like having an easily accessible power switch to quickly cut power, having an extinguisher nearby, getting a fireproof enclosure etc

[@diyhard666]

You developed a little like my channel did. I bought tool after tool and stopped producing serious project videos 😅

[@RadiantPhenom]

Do yourself a favor and get a license for LightBurn :)

[@TheWebstaff]

FYI. On cnc stuff your origin tends to be where you set it as your providing the working surface. So its sometimes centre on your work piece or sometime a corner. This is just path of the machinists toolpath.

[@MikeHarris1984]

Hooking up an airline to the laser will greatly increase your cut quality and less of the burning effect that is around the cut. I see the air line is capped off how you are using it. EDIT : I see the new laser you setup with has the air line attached. Does the ESP32 control board that came with the new laser, does that just control the laser, or the steppers too? I never even thought to use an ESP32 for that kind of work if it does control the steppers too. I didn't think it would have that kind of processing power. I use ESP32's in all my home electronics projects and use them on my own PCB builds too... ESP 8266 got me hooked and then ESP32 opened me up to more power! LOL I always used Raspberry Pi's for my CNC projects.

[@babbagebrassworks4278]

I got a 3018 with 2.5W laser and also use Raspberry Pi, bCNC and Fengrave work ok for routing but I had to use LaserGRBL on a laptop to drive the laser. Everything takes longer but hard to beat the pricing for a learning machine. Corflute sheet and duct tape enclosure would be easy to do. Still looking for orange sheet/film

[@DashMan-g7z]

Huh, I was wondering where Elegoo pulled their phecda laser cutter from, now I know lmao.

[@TheWebstaff]

I was always told don't move heads on CNC to much or fast or the back EMF from the motor can damage the controllers if there isn't enough protection.

[@velojsh]

LOL when I need to make a video but don't know dick about the subject...😆

[@toddbowers5673]

Sad that companies break down parts and sale separately. Created a problem and then sold you parts to fix or make the machine better.

[@shangrilai1990]

Totally rewound a couple times for that sound 🤤😛

[@pankajgupta2730]

I can see our idol getting old.

[@hanslain9729]

Great content and appreciate your honesty.

[@heyyouseller]

Its not sponsored, they just gave it to me for free and pay me for selling them.

[@ChongMcBong]

looks handy, but maybe a bit pricey. careful with the fumes and juices that come out of some materials. some of it is pretty nasty. (might give superpowers, but the side effects probably cancel them out)

[@Geeksmithing]

Wow, that thumbnail really encourages bad safety practices that can literally blind someone if they copied you. I am not one to usually safety police a channel, but those diode lasers are incredibly dangerous when operating without proper PPE. Hell, they are pretty dangerous when you do have proper PPE.

[@josuelservin]

And you click on it, so it accomplished what a thumbnail should do, and in the video you can see he is using the proper glasses. This is what KZbinrs are required to do, entice you with a thumbnail and retain you with a good video.

[@Geeksmithing]

@@josuelservin the thumbnail would have been just as good with glasses on. Same lighting, same dopey "KZbin Face" that the algorithm requires.

[@strangerparts]

Yep, I get it. We did shoot some with the glasses on, but decided the ones without worked better as a thumbnail. I feel like I addressed it enough in the video to be responsible. If you're making safety decisions based on youtube thumbnails alone, I feel like you've got bigger problems:)

[@Geeksmithing]

@@strangerparts haha, fair point! Thanks for addressing it!

[@birdpump]

you should look at those MOPA lasers that can etch PCBs and engrave in color on some metals

[@Peter_A1466]

Is that enclosure fire retardant?

[@zerofox3d]

That is so dangerous. I mean who wears flips flops in the workshop 😡

[@strangerparts]

I wear workboots when I'm welding or woodworking or doing more serious stuff. But for this, flip flops are fine.

[@zerofox3d]

@@strangerparts I probably should have added a winky emoji to indicate I was being silly 😆

[@Olof123]

Looks very similar to the new creality machine

[@shazam6274]

For expert advice about this product ask a dog! Not just any dog, but "Buster Beagle" As for the lousy software and instructions, you (having a background in software dev) should know that 1) nobody ever tries it out and 2) that the devs automatically work around the issues and assume that "everyone knows THAT!". I found that having someone totally unknowledgeable (like from administration or the warehouse) open the box, follow the instructions and make the demo is priceless and almost bulletproof. Yet nobody seems to do this, even after decades of proof that it is absolutely invaluable.

[@KonradTheWizzard]

...also a good exercise for developers (regardless of whether they develop hardware or software): use your product under real world conditions, in the real factory (or wherever the users are), using real material/data, doing a real job (not just a simplified simulation). I learned that years ago when my users kept begging me for an auto-config feature in a software and I just waved it aside as "unnecessary, totally bloated, it's easy to use already... yadda, yadda". Eventually my users lost patience and forced me to come into the factory with them and use their tiny little laptop with thick gloves on and no mouse... long story short - the feature was implemented a few hours later and I never again waved complaints away quite as easily as back then.

[@wizerd5150]

SUPER NERDS will take over the world : )

[@greenmaillink]

When I saw "Naked and Confused," I thought this was a new series of videos. Thanks for the honesty!

[@zachradabaugh4925]

I’m always glad to see the honest truth when you talk about something. A lot of other creators give the same speech at the beginning about how they were sent this but aren’t biased. It’s much more obvious that you care about just presenting the truth here. Cheers

[@Notfound4747]

let's goo new videoooo XD

[@skinnwalk3r586]

i feel like that laser cutter is way overpriced but i can see the usefullness of a laser cutter

[@Max_Marz]

Please photoshop some glasses onto your face in the thumbnail >.

[@TheRealMrCods]

Looking healthy Mate. You losing weight too? 👍

[@randomviewer3494]

Doesn't really look like a 'pro" version. The concept is cool but yeah, looks very rough around the edges

[@Nikmal]

If only they would send these engravers to someone that actually KNOWS what they are doing and actually READS the ENTIRE manual :;sigh:: They didn't even use the focusing tool on the head.

[@Sakura0754]

This is a long way of doing cut and engraving tests

[@juts89]

Troll thumbnail 🤔

[@Korgann]

Noice !

[@waterup380]

cool laser cutter just sounds like the software sucks right now

[@addohm]

I honestly regret ever buying an Xtool. Obviously they're REALLY good at marketing but they don't know jack shit about writing good, reliable, and useful software or firmware.

[@TheDementation]

Theres plenty of much more powerful laser modules on the market, but they are quite expensive.

[@jackwt7340]

Can you copy a Bell LABS pnp transistor from the 1950s? Of course, you need a crucible that heats to 1500 degrees Celsius. 🫕