Creality Falcon2 40W Laser Review: The Ugly Truth!

[@djs7515]

You need to adjust your acceleration settings creality has it set at 400 it should be around 3000, night and day difference in speed after you change it, you'll see it in the machine settings it's the max acceleration settings

[@MandSWoodworks]

Now where the heck were you when I was trying to solve this? During my testing, I actually took the acceleration up to 1000, but I didn't see any noticeable improvement, not to mention I have always been of the understanding that you don't want to increase acceleration anymore than 3 times the default value. But to test your suggestion I went out to my shop and increased it to 3000, and tried another material test. Now I am seeing no difference above 700inches/min, but at least that is progress! When I have the time, I will test again and raise the acceleration a bit more to see what I can squeeze out of it. But I am of the mind that might be too fast because of how heavy the laser head is. But even if it is, 700ipm ain't bad! Thank you for commenting! I will pin this comment in hopes that someone who needs it will see it. Thank you for watching!!

[@MandSWoodworks]

I wanted to add to my reply above... I couldn't stand not knowing, so I went ahead and made the time to increase the acceleration to 5000 and try another material test. Sadly, no change from the previous test but still a noticeable improvement from the test I did on the video. So I am guessing that approximately 18,000mm/m is about the max it can run. I still fault Creality for boasting a speed that the machine is not capable of reaching, and that they intentionally limit the machine out of the box, to not even get anywhere close to it's potential. I did research the speed limitation before making the video to try and fix the problem beforehand, and though I found a few folks complaining about the slower speed, I found no solution. So again, I thank you for mentioning it here and as I mentioned earlier hopefully someone that needs to see it, will read these comments.

[@gunracksonline]

liked the inlay, Never seen that done before. Will have to look up videos on it.

[@markheck9490]

What were your settings to engrave the laser engraver foil? Looks really cool!

[@MandSWoodworks]

Thank you! The foil is so thin, that you don't have to change anything from doing a normal engraving. So it would depend on your particular machine in how deep and dark you want the engraving. But to answer your question, I believe it was 350ipm (sorry, I use imperial) and 10% power. Thank you for watching!

[@MachinedInWood]

FYI, acceleration determines how fast the machine can get to whatever speed you’ve told it to go. They rate the machine on what the maximum speed that can be achieved, and that is going to be based on the largest length of travel in 1 axis, probably X. With the machine moving back and forth over a very small area, it will never reach that max speed. You can increase the acceleration settings until you’re blue in the face and it will never reach the advertised speed unless you are engraving a very large thing with straight, uninterrupted moves. At some point, however, those acceleration settings will be high enough that the machine will jam up trying to move more mass than it’s actually capable of moving at that speed. Remember that the acceleration setting affects both speeding up to the speed that you’re asking for, and slowing down to zero to reverse direction. Both of those periods of speeding up and down lower the overall actual speed of movement. This is the same whether it be laser engravers, 3d printers, cnc machines etc. The speed number the manufacturer is boasting about will almost certainly never be achievable in actual use of the machine. If you use drag racing as an analogy, the manufacturer is measuring the peak speed of the car, when the time it takes to cover a 1/4 mile is what really matters. This is where we get the phrase “when the rubber hits the road”…

[@MandSWoodworks]

You explained it well indeed. I suspect that I could get the machine to achieve the advertised speed, but I would have to increase the acceleration to a value that (as you explained) would most likely push the machine past it's safe limits. But you would also have to sacrifice cutting area because whatever you were engraving would have to be much smaller than the cutting area, and placed in the very center of the machine to give it room to over scan at that speed. I think I found a happy place of increasing the speed without sacrificing too much cutting area and I found that speed to be around 18000mm/m. Better than what I found in the video but still not the advertised speed. My disappointment still stands. Thank you for the feedback and thank you for watching!

[@MachinedInWood]

@@MandSWoodworks no problem! I have 3 CNC machines, the fastest of which can EASILY move at 800 inches per minute… unless it’s actually cutting. The extra forces that happen during cutting are unpredictable at best, and I’ve found over the years that I have to do certain operations slower and others can be done much faster. At one point, I started increasing the acceleration and sure enough, the machine was way faster, but there were SOME moves that were too abrupt for those acceleration settings. It took a lot of trial and error coupled with the need to NEVER have the machine screw up a job just so that it would run faster for me to settle on the conservative side. One thing is true with these types of hobbies: There’s no such thing as “turn key”. You’re going to have to get in the weeds with this stuff. I’ve been doing this full time since early 2020 and the number of nights spent deep diving on one oddball topic or another are too numerous to count at this point. Fortunately, I was an engineer in my career before this, so I have a leg up… a little bit.

[@dougbennett1275]

That's a great explanation. The 5mm squares which Lightburn make in the material test are too small to allow full speed. I use a 5W laser and found that when I obtained a nice cut in the material test, it just didn't "cut it" when applied to my much larger work. Reason is, as you say, when cutting the small 5mm squares, the module doesn't get up to the full speed setting. Then when cutting a larger item, the speed increases and it doesn't cut as expected. I now tend to do my own material tests using a much larger sample than the 5mm grid. Alternatively, you can make the grid any size in the material test settings.

[@williesims7224]

Well, Scott, you have done it again, another a well produced video. I'm sure the baldheaded guy understood the subject, but it is one step above my pay grade. I enjoy the video.

[@coolguy21420]

What laser cutter/engraver would you recommend for a beginner with room to grow?

[@MandSWoodworks]

It honestly depends on what you are wanting to achieve. Do you just want to engrave small things with no ambitions of doing large projects? Do you want to make stuff to sell? Having learned so much about the subject in the last several months, if you just want a small hobby machine you couldn't go wrong with the XTOOL brand of lasers. It's bullet proof and reliable. And it has a huge support group if you run into issues. If you plan on doing larger projects, and/or want to create things to sell, which means you intend to mass produce stuff, then a CO2 laser is the way to go. The larger CO2 laser that I used in this video, completely changed my thoughts of owning a CO2. Up until I got it, I always thought that a Diode laser would completely suit my needs. But after experiencing the power and the speed of the CO2, and Diode doesn't hold a candle to a Diode. It's important to consider that Diode technology is improving at an exponential rate, and I think that in the very near future that they will come out with Diode lasers that can compare to a CO2. But be aware that there are some things that a Diode laser can engrave/cut that a CO2 can't, and vice versa. But you should easily be able to research the differences to help you make a decision. For what I do, a CO2 meets my needs perfectly. I am sponsored by Monport laser so if I were to make a shameless plug, I would certainly recommend them. :) But I wouldn't stand behind something that I don't believe in, so if you chose them, you couldn't go wrong. I hope this helps.

[@zbanxeille]

I'm sorry to bother you like this, and hope to hear back from you by email!🥰

[@joshuadelisle]

Yeh the acceleration isn't great despite what the max speed is and basically can't reach it.

[@djs7515]

Your welcome, I got the 60 watt version and it was set at 400 I think it's supposed to be 4000, because all my other lasers,Xtool D10, Aetzr 20 watt are set at 4000

[@MandSWoodworks]

I replied again to my previous comment and mention it here just in case you don't see it. I raised the acceleration to 5000 with no noticeable difference from 3000. I guess I could continue to raise it to see if it met the advertised speed, but that I worry that I am pushing it beyond it's limits. So 700ipm ain't bad, which is twice the speed of what I was able to get before. Thanks again!

[@djs7515]

Your very welcome ​@@MandSWoodworks

[@zbanxeille]

This content is really fantastic and your creativity is always commendable! I'm sorry to bother you, but I have a new project I'd like to work with you on, so if you're interested, you can email back for details.🥰