00:00:00
so lasers have been improving on a
00:00:01
pretty rapid Pace over the past few
00:00:03
years especially when we talk about
00:00:05
diode machines but in the past it's kind
00:00:07
of been hard to recommend those to
00:00:08
everybody for one big reason and that is
00:00:11
safety but now we're starting to see a
00:00:13
generation of machines that really are
00:00:14
getting into a sweet spot and one of the
00:00:16
standout companies as well as machines
00:00:18
in that group is from Raleigh automation
00:00:20
which is what I have right here laser
00:00:22
mtic Mark I and we're going to put it up
00:00:24
against the competition to see if this
00:00:26
is something that you might want to get
00:00:28
all right let's jump into it in
00:00:29
disclosure Raleigh automation was nice
00:00:31
enough to send me this machine for
00:00:33
review uh they have no input on this
00:00:35
review whatsoever so if you like it get
00:00:37
it I just want to give you my honest
00:00:38
opinion about this machine so you can
00:00:40
make the best purchase for you so this
00:00:41
is the Mark I version so there was a
00:00:43
Mark 1 version Raleigh is a pretty
00:00:46
newish company from what I can tell I
00:00:48
think they started in about 2022 even
00:00:50
their Mark 1 version was really nice you
00:00:53
can tell they have been watching the
00:00:55
development of all these open Gantry
00:00:56
style diode machines but this guy their
00:00:58
Mark two version is really impressive
00:01:01
and they're starting to put together a
00:01:03
really nice entire package and probably
00:01:05
the biggest element of that is the fact
00:01:07
this is a full enclosure and this isn't
00:01:09
just like a box you put over an existing
00:01:11
Gantry style machine but this is like
00:01:13
fully integrated into the machine's
00:01:15
design so actually the linear rails and
00:01:17
the stimer motors are built into the
00:01:19
frame itself so this feels a lot more
00:01:21
robust and not like quite as janky as
00:01:23
you might see with some of the other
00:01:24
enclosures you might put on a machine
00:01:26
you've already got and for lasers in
00:01:28
general enclosures are a great idea one
00:01:30
of the big things is you can exhaust the
00:01:32
fumes out the back it's got like a low
00:01:34
powered fan on the back but then it's
00:01:35
got some ducting that you can take this
00:01:37
outside another nice thing about this
00:01:39
enclosure that's specific to diodes is
00:01:42
this acrylic or plastic is tinted and
00:01:44
that's going to protect your eyes from
00:01:45
the light that is coming out of the
00:01:48
diode always in the past I've
00:01:49
recommended not running these machines
00:01:51
around people that may not know that you
00:01:53
need to be wearing safety glasses while
00:01:55
it's running especially if this is
00:01:56
around kids but because of this with
00:01:58
this being fully enclosed you don't have
00:02:00
to worry about that as much and like
00:02:02
most machines with enclosures it's got
00:02:04
the great safety feature where there are
00:02:05
a few switches that will trigger if you
00:02:07
open this up and it'll cut the power to
00:02:09
the machine another thing about the lid
00:02:11
that is great is the fact you've got
00:02:13
pass through so this piece right here
00:02:15
can unscrew so then you can put in
00:02:17
material that is bigger than the work
00:02:18
bed itself as well as a panel on the
00:02:21
back so you can get material that is a
00:02:23
good bit bigger than the machine itself
00:02:25
to be able to laser engrave and speaking
00:02:27
of work area it's pretty standard to
00:02:29
what you find in most other machines
00:02:30
it's 410x 390 mm and usually you're
00:02:34
going to be around the 400x 400 mm range
00:02:37
for these machines and then the last
00:02:39
thing about the enclosure that is great
00:02:42
is the fact that you also have an
00:02:43
integrated camera and so this is the
00:02:46
camera right here and it's definitely
00:02:48
well thought out so you've got all the
00:02:49
cable management um contained and inside
00:02:51
the frame and it's coming out the side
00:02:54
and so you set this up just like any
00:02:55
other webcam that you would use with
00:02:57
lightburn and really the only drawback
00:02:59
with that means that the camera is going
00:03:00
to be a different connection than the
00:03:02
machine itself just know you're going to
00:03:03
have two different connections to be
00:03:05
able to get all of this machine hooked
00:03:07
up now you definitely can use the
00:03:08
machine without the camera camera is
00:03:10
just a nice feature that gives you an
00:03:11
overlay of your work area inside of
00:03:13
lightburn so if you're trying to
00:03:15
position artwork or cut things out of
00:03:16
material that's already been cut out of
00:03:18
so you're trying to find like the empty
00:03:19
space uh it's really great at doing that
00:03:21
just like with any laser you pretty much
00:03:23
have the standard positioning abilities
00:03:25
where you can basically trace an outline
00:03:27
of what you're about to cut out and for
00:03:28
Di machines like this is actually going
00:03:30
to use a low power setting on the laser
00:03:32
itself and because this is visible light
00:03:34
you'll be able to see it Trace around
00:03:36
and just on the construction and the
00:03:37
quality of the overall assembly itself
00:03:40
um honestly this might be the nicest one
00:03:43
that I have checked out you've got
00:03:44
linear rails for all of the movement and
00:03:46
the cable management is super nice it's
00:03:48
all contained in single runs with all
00:03:50
the wires put together something you
00:03:52
might see more on a CNC versus just a
00:03:54
standard diode I know from testing a ton
00:03:56
of machines like these in the past
00:03:58
having kind of the cables all over the
00:04:00
place has always been really annoying
00:04:01
you've got an all metal frame with a
00:04:03
polycarbonate lid as well as side but
00:04:06
then even the base is metal as well and
00:04:09
that's something if you're just getting
00:04:10
into lasers you might not even notice
00:04:12
because with open Gantry machines a lot
00:04:14
of times there's pretty much like
00:04:15
nothing under it so if you're firing
00:04:17
your laser through the material whatever
00:04:19
is below your laser is going to get cut
00:04:21
up so I definitely have cut up
00:04:22
workbenches in the past a lot of times
00:04:24
those manufacturers will give you like
00:04:26
metal plates that you put underneath but
00:04:28
you still kind of have to move it and
00:04:29
adjust and it can be a little bit
00:04:30
annoying with this you don't have that
00:04:33
and speaking of moving and adjusting a
00:04:36
super nice quality of life Improvement
00:04:39
there pretty much no other machine has
00:04:41
is the fact that it has a honeycomb bed
00:04:43
that is removable and honeycomb bed
00:04:45
itself isn't unique but what it has on
00:04:48
the other side is you actually have
00:04:51
holes and so you've got four posts
00:04:53
inside of the base of the machine and so
00:04:55
when you put the honeycomb bed in this
00:04:58
will not move relative to the machine uh
00:05:01
it probably looks like it's wobbling
00:05:02
that's just because like my work table
00:05:04
is pretty janky but why that really
00:05:05
matters to you is if you're doing a
00:05:07
project that requires like multiple
00:05:09
layers so it's going to have to do
00:05:10
multiple layers of cuts on the same
00:05:12
piece of material I definitely have
00:05:14
bumped my honeycomb bed and then
00:05:15
everything just gets off regardless of
00:05:17
where the position of the machine is so
00:05:19
having all that locked down is great and
00:05:21
that's also great because you can have
00:05:23
predefined positions inside of lightburn
00:05:25
so maybe you have a fixture or something
00:05:27
that is set up to where you're just
00:05:28
doing the same thing over and over again
00:05:29
like maybe just a ton of business cards
00:05:32
or ornaments or whatever that you guys
00:05:33
are cutting out um you can have all that
00:05:35
set up inside of the software and
00:05:37
because this is locked to the exact same
00:05:39
position every time you know when you
00:05:40
put your material in there you're good
00:05:42
to go and I don't currently have it but
00:05:43
Raleigh actually makes a fixture jig
00:05:45
which is just a metal plate with a bunch
00:05:47
of different holes and then you're able
00:05:48
to put like pins and bars and stuff to
00:05:50
be able to position material in
00:05:51
different locations okay so let's talk
00:05:53
about the laser itself this is a manual
00:05:57
focus laser so there is a knob on the
00:06:00
top and you just screw this up and screw
00:06:02
this down in terms of focus they give
00:06:04
you this which actually gives you three
00:06:05
different positions to be able to focus
00:06:07
and it's really easy to use you just put
00:06:09
it down and then screw this in now one
00:06:12
Improvement in the future that would be
00:06:13
nice with this is some type of autofocus
00:06:15
I know the xtool S1 as well as the we
00:06:18
create Vision um has autofocus built in
00:06:21
but just turning a knob to move the
00:06:22
z-axis up and down is not hard
00:06:24
whatsoever and pretty easy to do now
00:06:26
some other open style Ganer machines
00:06:28
like the xtool D1 actually has a lever
00:06:30
built into the laser module itself and
00:06:32
when that is down you're able to drop it
00:06:34
down and find focus and that's real nice
00:06:35
to have it integrated into the module
00:06:37
because you're not going to lose it but
00:06:38
it's also nice having something to where
00:06:40
you have a few different Focus settings
00:06:42
because since the laser beam only comes
00:06:43
to a fine focus for a certain distance
00:06:46
you do want to drop this deeper than
00:06:48
just the surface if you're cutting
00:06:49
through thicker material now if they do
00:06:51
have autofocus built into this in the
00:06:52
future they can do things like nicer CO2
00:06:54
machines even do where when you're
00:06:56
cutting through thick material it'll do
00:06:57
multiple passes and it'll slowly drop
00:06:59
the laser beam down with each pass you
00:07:01
get each cut as INF Focus as possible
00:07:04
now a feature that is starting to be a
00:07:06
little bit more common is how they are
00:07:08
messing around with the wattage so Ry
00:07:11
gives you three different options in
00:07:12
terms of power for the laser itself so
00:07:14
you can buy a 10 watt a 20 watt or a 30
00:07:17
wat option this is the 20 watt and
00:07:19
what's nice about it is it gives you the
00:07:21
option of jumping down to a tin Watt and
00:07:24
all these companies are pretty much
00:07:25
doing it the same way to get higher and
00:07:26
higher laser power you're adding more
00:07:28
laser diodes into the module itself so
00:07:31
usually those diodes are around 5 Watts
00:07:33
so to get to 20 watts you need to have
00:07:35
four laser diodes and all those are
00:07:37
combine together and they shoot out
00:07:38
through the lens and if you want to do
00:07:40
10 watts you just turn half of those off
00:07:42
with this switch right here now you
00:07:44
might be wondering like why would you
00:07:45
ever want to do 10 watts when you always
00:07:47
want to use the most power and it all
00:07:49
depends on the type of stuff that you're
00:07:50
wanting to do because as you combine
00:07:53
more and more of those laser diodes
00:07:55
together the laser dot size so
00:07:57
physically like how big that laser dot
00:07:59
is when it is engraving or cutting is
00:08:01
going to get bigger so 10 watts is
00:08:03
usually a really nice wattage for these
00:08:04
diode machines if you're going to be
00:08:06
doing fine engraving and then obviously
00:08:08
as you add more power that's going to be
00:08:10
better for cutting now this connects
00:08:11
just with like four screws uh so it
00:08:14
seems pretty easy to be able to upgrade
00:08:16
this machine to a higher wattage in the
00:08:17
future because I can definitely see them
00:08:19
making even bigger modules like 40 Watts
00:08:21
that kind of seems to be the top end at
00:08:22
least currently with these style
00:08:24
machines and if 10 watts is all you need
00:08:26
you definitely can just get the 10 watt
00:08:28
option and then save a little bit of
00:08:29
money now another big thing that these
00:08:31
open Gantry laser dive machines didn't
00:08:33
have at the very beginning was any type
00:08:35
of air assist and all air assist is it's
00:08:38
just a compressed stream of air coming
00:08:40
out right where the laser nozzle is and
00:08:42
that's great to give you nicer Cuts but
00:08:44
it's also a really nice safety feature
00:08:45
because if there are any flare reps
00:08:47
you've got that air putting it out as it
00:08:49
goes and slowly manufacturers have
00:08:51
started to add air assist to their
00:08:53
machines but a lot of times this is a
00:08:55
little bit of an afterthought meaning
00:08:56
that you have to turn the air assist
00:08:58
pump on whenever you're going to be able
00:08:59
to do cutting but lightburn is great
00:09:01
because they have air assist settings
00:09:03
built in so lightburn can send custom
00:09:05
commands to the machine to tell it to
00:09:06
turn it on and tell it to turn it off
00:09:08
and Raleigh has incorporated that into
00:09:10
their design so this pump is wired
00:09:12
directly into the brain there's actually
00:09:14
a little airport on the side for the
00:09:16
electronics to where it's able to
00:09:17
capture that signal and then you have
00:09:19
the actual air tube itself on the back
00:09:21
sending that air into the machine and on
00:09:23
the setup side of things this is very
00:09:26
easy to get going it pretty much comes
00:09:28
fully assembled you just take it out of
00:09:30
the box um you hook up your laser module
00:09:32
which literally is a power cable a hose
00:09:34
and four screws plug in your air pump on
00:09:36
the back and you're good to go uh so
00:09:38
you're like up and running in like 15
00:09:40
minutes because pretty much the entire
00:09:42
machine is preassembled for you now
00:09:44
we've been talking about how you control
00:09:46
the machine and that is through light
00:09:48
bur and they give you kind of the
00:09:49
standard option you can connect it over
00:09:51
USB there's also a Wi-Fi antenna on the
00:09:53
side then you can also upload your jobs
00:09:55
to an SD card and then run it from here
00:09:58
now when I say control this wirelessly I
00:10:01
don't mean you have to go to the
00:10:02
internet to do it so like with glow
00:10:04
Forge where all their software lives in
00:10:06
the cloud you have to connect to the
00:10:08
cloud which then connects to the machine
00:10:10
to run it some people like that because
00:10:11
it makes it super easy but then a lot of
00:10:13
people don't like that because what
00:10:14
happens if the cloud just stops working
00:10:16
and they don't let you have access to
00:10:18
your machine all this is is a wireless
00:10:20
connection to your local network that
00:10:21
doesn't even need to be on the internet
00:10:23
so that's great if you want to use it as
00:10:24
well now one thing I don't have set up
00:10:26
that they also offer with this Mark I
00:10:28
version is a rotary and the connection
00:10:30
for the rotary again is integrated into
00:10:32
the machine itself so they make it super
00:10:34
easy so if you are wanting to do
00:10:36
Tumblers or pretty much anything that is
00:10:37
round you've got the ability to do that
00:10:39
with this machine so overall what are my
00:10:41
impressions of this machine this is very
00:10:43
very nice and it definitely stands apart
00:10:46
from any machine that you can get that
00:10:48
is open ganging meaning it doesn't have
00:10:50
an enclosure but we are starting to see
00:10:52
more of these machines in fact let's
00:10:54
check out some of its competition and
00:10:56
actually if you want to check out this
00:10:57
chart yourself which includes all all of
00:10:59
the machines either I've reviewed or
00:11:01
checked out in the past with a lot of
00:11:02
the different characteristics like power
00:11:04
price pros and cons all that kind of
00:11:06
stuff there is a link in the description
00:11:08
for you to check out and then you can
00:11:09
filter it however you want all right so
00:11:11
let's look at the competition and
00:11:12
there's really two that are in the same
00:11:14
range the we create Vision which I've
00:11:15
done a few videos of in the past as well
00:11:17
as the xtool S1 which is their enclosed
00:11:20
Gantry style machine and in terms of
00:11:23
price we're kind of in the $1,000 to
00:11:25
$2,000 range one thing you do want to
00:11:27
make sure that is the same when you're
00:11:29
comparing these is the power because
00:11:30
most of these machines you can buy in
00:11:32
different Power configurations so in
00:11:34
this case um we've got 20 watts for uh
00:11:36
the wi create Vision at 1500 uh the X
00:11:39
tool S1 this is at 40 watt so twice the
00:11:41
power of this machine as well at 2000
00:11:45
and then we've got the laser Matic Mark
00:11:46
2 for 20 watts at 1,00 bucks and on the
00:11:50
xtool S1 if you look at the 20 wat is
00:11:53
$6.99 so 1,700 bucks so still a good bit
00:11:56
more as we're kind of scrolling over
00:11:58
these are pretty much much the main
00:11:59
differences that I'm finding with these
00:12:01
machines uh one is the integration of a
00:12:03
camera notably the X2 X1 does not have a
00:12:06
camera that is built into it that's
00:12:08
probably the biggest drawback that I've
00:12:09
seen from that machine so far we create
00:12:11
Vision does uh then the focus is also
00:12:15
another big thing because pretty much
00:12:16
with all these machines other than the
00:12:18
anom stack 824 Pro which is like
00:12:21
packaged together with an enclosure all
00:12:22
that focus is going to be autofocus so
00:12:25
if you don't want to play around with
00:12:26
Focus whatsoever those other ones could
00:12:28
be a good option uh you can also see
00:12:31
that I have glow Forge thrown in here so
00:12:33
their glow Forge AA this isn't the CO2
00:12:35
machine you've probably seen in the past
00:12:36
this is something totally new they came
00:12:38
out with last year it's only 6 Watts but
00:12:40
it is more expensive at 12200 and glow
00:12:42
Forge is kind of its own category
00:12:44
because you're in their entire ecosystem
00:12:46
like we talked about before you've got
00:12:48
to use their software that is all
00:12:50
cloud-based and if we come over to the
00:12:52
software side of things pretty much all
00:12:53
of these can use lightburn which is like
00:12:56
the gold standard in terms of laser
00:12:57
Control software currently this is what
00:12:59
I love to use but also you can do a
00:13:01
laser gerbal which is a free option and
00:13:04
then um on the X tool side of things
00:13:06
they also have their own software that
00:13:08
really has come a long way and if you
00:13:10
don't want to get into all of like the
00:13:12
details and the craziness of lier it can
00:13:14
definitely get the job done and in the
00:13:15
same vein we crate also has their own
00:13:17
software which also looks pretty similar
00:13:19
to what xtool has on the work area side
00:13:22
of things this could be a deal breaker
00:13:24
depending on the type of stuff that
00:13:26
you're trying to do the xtool S1 shape
00:13:28
is a little bit different than all these
00:13:29
other ones most of the times the work
00:13:31
beds are square so again around that
00:13:33
400x 400 MM uh but the S1 goes pretty
00:13:37
much 500x 300 so more of a rectangle now
00:13:40
one pro I would throw towards xtool is
00:13:42
this the fact they've been around a
00:13:43
little bit longer meaning they have the
00:13:45
open Gantry style machine this xtool D1
00:13:47
Pro the xtool M1 which is like a Cricut
00:13:50
built into a diode machine uh the F1
00:13:52
which can do metal uh the S1 that we're
00:13:54
talking about and then the P2 which is
00:13:56
their big desktop CO2 glow for
00:13:58
competitor style machine so they've got
00:14:01
a little bit more experience there's
00:14:02
going to be a little bit more support a
00:14:03
little bit more Community built around
00:14:04
it and then on the we create side of
00:14:06
things kind of the drawback with them is
00:14:07
they are very very new so this is their
00:14:09
first machine uh but I think overall
00:14:11
they've done an excellent job with it
00:14:13
it's got a really cool like lifting
00:14:14
mechanism to be able to do Focus which
00:14:16
is just fun to use few others that are
00:14:18
also on this list is the snapmaker ray
00:14:20
40 which if you're familiar with
00:14:22
snapmaker it's like the 3 in1 3D printer
00:14:24
CNC and Laser and basically the ray 40
00:14:27
is like if you flip that down so imagine
00:14:29
a 3D printer that goes to the floor that
00:14:31
one also is going to be a good bit more
00:14:34
expensive um but their software is
00:14:36
really nice but in general snapmaker
00:14:37
just their product design is really nice
00:14:40
very well put together probably even a
00:14:41
step over the laser Matic then one I
00:14:43
wanted to throw in here just because uh
00:14:45
this is pretty wild uh is iir uh which
00:14:48
has come up a lot more recently they
00:14:49
have a lot of open Gantry style machines
00:14:52
but they also have an enclosed machine
00:14:55
that is the most expensive so
00:14:57
$2300 but I haven't tested to this so I
00:14:59
don't know how this works but they're
00:15:00
saying this is 70 Watt and this is
00:15:02
output power so I'm guessing that's like
00:15:04
14 laser diodes versus this guy which is
00:15:07
four but again this guy is much much
00:15:09
more expensive and then one other option
00:15:11
for you if you wanted to go the open
00:15:13
Gantry style but then put an enclosure
00:15:15
on top of it uh the atam stack a24 which
00:15:18
is pretty much a direct competitor to
00:15:20
the xtool D1 but then you can get this
00:15:23
uh they're calling it The B3 enclosure
00:15:25
um which is just a box that goes on top
00:15:27
that also has a camera integrated as
00:15:28
well as a fan on the bat but again
00:15:30
that's going to be different than this
00:15:31
which is all integrated into one unit
00:15:33
this is basically two different things
00:15:35
you're kind of stacking on top of each
00:15:36
other and then one other thing I like to
00:15:38
watch especially when I get into the CO2
00:15:40
side of things is the speed and you can
00:15:42
see pretty much all of them except for
00:15:44
the ik here are in the 5 to 600 range so
00:15:47
how fast you're going to get something
00:15:48
done isn't going to be limited by how
00:15:50
fast the machine can move but more
00:15:52
limited by the power of the diode itself
00:15:54
so normally if you have more power
00:15:55
you're going to be able to run things
00:15:57
faster whether you are Engraving or
00:15:59
cutting things out now this machine is
00:16:01
actually the one you guys have mentioned
00:16:02
the most in my comments saying that I
00:16:04
should check it out so I'd love to know
00:16:05
if there's something that I missed that
00:16:06
you also love about this machine and in
00:16:08
general I would love to know what you
00:16:09
guys would pick between this and the
00:16:11
competition all right until next time go
00:16:14
make a break something in your shop see
00:16:15
you
00:16:16
[Music]
00:16:23
guys
![The best pull-up grip: everyone got it WRONG [study]](https://ruhnrawpgxrzdrgaohnf.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/video/QxtqcE2GqoI/thumbnail.jpg)
