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all right this is the flux Ador and it
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is the world's first printer SL laser
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engraver cutter combo now this isn't the
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first machine on my channel that you've
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seen with that combo but it was the
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first one to come out and actually the
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flux Ador came out a while ago uh but
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now it's finally being released in the
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United States so we're going to dive
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into this machine I'm going to show you
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the things I like and some of the things
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I don't like and then especially how it
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Stacks up to probably its main
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competition the X tool M1 Ultra all
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right let's get into it so if you're not
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familiar with flux they have been around
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for a little while and they actually
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have more experience on the CO2 laser
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side of things I've reviewed the flux
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hexa the direct competitor is something
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like the xtool P2 or even the atam stack
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hurricane uh which is coming very soon
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so be sure to check out for that this is
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actually their first diode machine and
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it's great because it is fully enclosed
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let's go through a quick machine
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overview so the body is pretty much a
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full metal construction um the lid is
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acrylic it's a little like wobbly so I
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kind of wish there was a frame but it
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still gets the work done one thing I've
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noticed about this lid and which you'll
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probably see in the footage that I'm
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putting on top of all this I don't have
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a ton of shots of this running because
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uh this is pretty dark and even if
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you're trying to look through this right
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now it's pretty hard to see like what's
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on the other side that is nice because
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that's blocking the light again died
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machines are in the visible light
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spectrum unlike a CO2 machine but it
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does kind of make it hard to see what's
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going on in there so if watching your
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machine is a big thing you like to do it
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might be a little bit harder for this
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now it's got two features that I always
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look for in machines and that is going
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to be a camera in this case their camera
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is right here on the front edge and
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what's nice since that isn't inside of
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the lid uh you can basically take a
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picture whether this is open or shut
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although I have found that pretty much
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the camera is calibrated to take a
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picture when this is closed and if you
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have a lot of lights in your room you
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can like overexpose your image this does
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have autofocus that is going to be
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separate from the interchangeable
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modules which we'll talk about here in a
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sec and it is a touch probe autofocus
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which is always my favorite way to do it
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for work area looking at 430x 300 mm uh
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which lands kind of in the same range as
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most of these other desktop diode
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machines and then you have a Max
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thickness of 30 mm and a lot of their
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marketing flux made sure to note that
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that is pretty much across the board on
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all of their different modules and
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speaking of modules they actually have
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three and kind of four but really like
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two different categories first are going
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to be your lasers you can get either a
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10 watt or a 20 WT there's a 20 WT on
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this machine right now then they also
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have an IR module which again is
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something that a lot of these
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manufacturers are starting to provide
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and if you're wondering why you need an
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IR module if you're doing anything with
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metal that's going to open you up to be
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able to do that and this is the 20 W
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module right here this is a beefy
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construction like solid metal very well
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put together you got a little flexible
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air tube that is going within the module
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itself and then there's a a quick releas
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is system on the Gantry to be able to
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put all of this together and then for
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the printer module it's in kind of the
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same form factor uh but you're going to
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have your print cartridges on the inside
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so will'll be able to pull out the
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individual cartridge and then drop this
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in and then you basically have like the
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same connection system on the back side
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it's got a little Keyhole that will lock
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it into place um one thing that is good
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but it's kind of annoying is it's not
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really a quick release system you have
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to screw down each time you switch of
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these modules I'm always like misplacing
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a screwdriver so it's not just like a
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little latch that you can pop in which
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is something that some of the other
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machines have which I kind of wish they
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had with this but the screw definitely
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locks it in place as long as you have a
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screwdriver for Speed this is at 400 MM
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per second which is kind of comparable
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to desktop diode Machines of this size
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especially ones that have
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interchangeable modules I did notice
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they're using a ribbon cable on the left
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side for some of their Electronics so I
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kind of wish those were more robust
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thicker cables that ribbon cable is
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something you're going to see on glow
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Forge both their CO2 machines um as well
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as their diode machines and on glow
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Forge their ribbon caes exposed a little
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bit more they do a little bit better job
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on this in like hiding it behind the
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back side of the Gantry but it is open
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on the left side so those work but
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they're more prone to like wear and tear
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versus like a fully braided cable where
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everything connects together real tight
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and since this is a laser it definitely
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comes with a few required safety
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features because this is a class one
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machine uh that means it's fully
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enclosed and it's got a few sensors on
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the front to know when this lid closes I
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believe it's just like a magnet and
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there's a little status indicator right
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here to let you know there is an airor
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then right here on the side we've got a
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emergency stop button that will cut
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power completely to the machine and then
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with the laser you're going to be making
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smoke and dust on the ventilation side
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of things you do have a fan on the back
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uh it's got a metal frame in front of it
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a lot of times those fans are like
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completely open so it's really easy to
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get something stuck in the blades
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they've done a good job protecting that
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and it actually has a 4 in dust port on
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the back which you pretty much never see
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on a desktop machine that's nice because
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you can directly connect it up to like a
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bigger dust collection system um or just
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run it out a window and like the bigger
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tube that you've got the more air you
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can get through it so uh they usually do
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a better job and they have an air
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extraction unit called the air which is
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something separate that you have to buy
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but that's how you can run this
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completely indoors if you are planning
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on doing laser stuff you really don't
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have to worry about ventilation if
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you're just talking about printing but
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also you wouldn't really buy this if you
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were just going to do printing anyway
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now the bottom is metal but they have it
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covered in like a metallic uh tape to
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help reflect any of the light that might
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be going through so you're not directly
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etching on the machine itself when
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you're firing through and cutting things
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out for your work bed they don't give
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you a honeycomb that is something I wish
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they would provide but they do provide
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these these little like triangle prism
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guys that have magnets on the sides
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these can just kind of drop down into
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any space that you want and then you can
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raise your Material off the ground which
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you'll definitely want to do if you're
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doing any type of cutting so you're
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getting good air flow both above and
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below your material so you're not
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getting like weird charring underneath
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keeps the cut a lot cleaner so I do like
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that this makes it super customizable so
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you can just put these like wherever you
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want but a dedicated honeycomb or even a
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grid where you can lock these into place
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would be handy cuz you could just take
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all of that out drop it all back in
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really quick all but let's talk about
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the feature that is most unique to this
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machine uh the full color touchscreen
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they have right here that has everything
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that you would want for a touchcreen so
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you have complete jaw controls right
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here where you can do all of your autof
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focus as well as some quick toggles for
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like the ear pump uh ventilator so the
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fans on the back which again both of
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those are automatic but it's nice that
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you can turn those on and off as needed
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and um you can even take a picture
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directly from there as well and since
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this is full color uh you're going to
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get a full color image readout uh right
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there and I found that's actually pretty
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helpful because those can also be videos
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as well so when I was going through the
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setup process there was a video walkthr
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that was taking me through the steps of
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getting this machine up and running so
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that's one of the best setup experiences
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I've ever had normally have to figure
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out how to get it on a computer get it
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connected download firmware do all that
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kind of stuff but it's great just out of
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the box it's pretty much set ready to go
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you just run it through the process it
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shows you now it does have internal
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storage I don't have anything uploaded
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to it it right now but you could run
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files directly from the machine itself
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so you wouldn't have to be connected to
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the internet to do it so that is super
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handy so this control pad is one of my
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favorite Parts about this machine and
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something that sets the flux Adar apart
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from pretty much any other machine I
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can't think of any desktop diode
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machines like in this price range that
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will give you onboard controls that are
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a touchscreen so this is great that they
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provide it and speaking of price let's
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talk about how much this guy costs and
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again with most of these full reviews
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I'm not being paid to make this video
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but they did send me this machine to
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produce this review and I'm not sending
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flux this video beforehand before it
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comes out because I want to keep it as
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honest as possible for you guys but if
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you do think this is something that you
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want to check out potentially some of
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the links down below might be affiliate
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links and the might be part of that gets
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into kind of the interesting aspect of
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flux uh they normally go through uh
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Distributors so I don't think you can go
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directly to flux's website unless
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they've updated it and buy it in the
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United States a lot of times you're
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going to go to a third party to get into
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this for the least amount of money is
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going to be $11,000 for the 10 wat laser
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diode and if you want to bump that up to
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a 20 W which is what this machine is
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we're talking 1,400 now the printer
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module is going to be separate that's
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going to be around
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250 bucks and then the individual print
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cartridges are going to be an additional
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purchase as well now the price of these
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I'm not totally sure about on matter
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hacker each of these are $100 like
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individually so this is just the black
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one you also have yellow magenta and
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cyan so four total colors so if these
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are actually 100 bucks to replace know
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that's going to be a pretty good amount
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in terms of the cost that you're adding
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on to this machine now let's talk about
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the actual print module again this is
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the case fully metal very substantial
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not going to go anywhere I've kind of
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had a hard time getting this to set in
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uh completely flush so it can take a
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little finagling to get there then
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you've got your like Electronic
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Connection on the back which matches up
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the pins inside of here you basically
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kind of drop it in push it down which I
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think I got that time and that pops into
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place and then you can take this and
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drop this onto the Gantry but if you
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notice that is only one cartridge so if
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you're doing a full color print where
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you also require black that means you're
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going to be doing your print in four
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different stages so you're going to have
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to go through the process of taking this
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out dropping the new one in and being
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good to go what's nice is you can do
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that with this attach to the machine so
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that will save a step and I guess you
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would get kind of quick with it but
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especially compared to the xtool M1
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Ultra they have one cartridge that has
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all three colors connected together so
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you're not having to switch those out
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now one great thing flux has going for
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it compared to the X2 M1 Ultra is you
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have a dedicated black cartridge you can
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kind of get close to Black combining
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those three colors with the M1 Ultra but
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you don't get like a proper black that
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you would get with a black ink cartridge
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and I did a few different tests to kind
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of show the performance of the machine
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overall on the laser side of things it's
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going to work just as well as a normal
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10 watt or 20 WT laser again the autof
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focus takes a lot of the difficulty out
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of lasering or before you might have to
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manually focus that and that could have
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a pretty big impact on your overall
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quality if you like you are out of focus
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so having all that automated is great
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and then the printing does a good job
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too cuz we're talking about a print
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surface that is no wider than this guy
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right here it will have to take several
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passes to go through an entire
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image but it's still going to be way
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faster than the number of passes that a
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diode laser would take now there's
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starting to be a lot of these diode
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desktop machines and the end result in
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terms of what they can produce are
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pretty much going to be about the same
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so a lot of the differences and
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comparisons has to do with how you
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actually interact with the machine
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itself and for that the touchcreen makes
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it really nice but you also are going to
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use flux's software the beam studio and
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they have a web version of their
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software as well so you don't have to
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have that downloaded Direct ly to your
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machine unlike glow Forge it isn't just
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web where you have to use Wi-Fi that's
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just like another added plus which is
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great and the software itself does a
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good job i' say it's a little bit more
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polished than something you might see
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from the we create Vision but not quite
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at the level as what we're seeing from
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xtool creative space but it is in pretty
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active development so they're adding in
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more features as they go but one thing I
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like to look for is if the machine will
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support lightburn especially if it's a
00:11:57
laser lightburn is my favorite piece of
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software I run on pretty much all the
00:12:00
machines that I can from open Gantry
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diode machines that can cost as little
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as like 200 bucks to Big Pro machines
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that cost well over $10,000 lightburn
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can pretty much span that entire Gap now
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flux does say you can use the Ador with
00:12:14
lightburn you have to buy a specific
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lightburn cable uh which is like 50
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bucks and I'm sure there's some internal
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logic circuitry stuff going on uh to get
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all the conversions right but no if you
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pick up this machine you can't just plug
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it directly into your computer like
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pretty much all the other machines can
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and use it directly you have to use a
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custom cable to do it so for the most
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part you probably are just going to be
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using their software right so let's talk
00:12:37
about how it compares to the competition
00:12:39
now I actually have a full grid of all
00:12:41
of the different machines in this like
00:12:42
diode desktop category if you guys want
00:12:45
to check out and look at all the specs
00:12:46
side by side and I would say if you're
00:12:49
wanting to get a machine that is just a
00:12:51
laser I would probably steer clear of
00:12:54
the like multi module ones like this and
00:12:57
the M1 Ultra like the ex S1 or the
00:13:00
Raleigh laser mtic 2 uh do a great job
00:13:03
and the feature set is going to be a
00:13:04
little more tailored to the diode side
00:13:06
but if you want to print then you really
00:13:08
only have two options this one and the
00:13:10
M1 Ultra both companies provide a 10
00:13:13
watt a 20 wat and an IR laser module and
00:13:16
then both have a printing module again
00:13:19
that big difference being that Adora has
00:13:21
black but they are single color modules
00:13:23
versus X tool not having black but the
00:13:25
three-color module is all combined
00:13:27
together on the speed side of things
00:13:29
they are exactly the same at 400 mm/
00:13:31
second uh but then on the work area side
00:13:33
of things this one's actually a little
00:13:35
bit larger the M1 Ultra is 300x300 and
00:13:37
again this one is 430x 300 in terms of
00:13:40
overall build quality I would give the
00:13:42
advantage to the adore again because
00:13:44
it's a full metal frame uh one thing I
00:13:47
do like on the M1 Ultra this cover also
00:13:49
comes down so it's a little bit easier
00:13:51
to kind of see inside and see what's
00:13:53
going on but it also is lower so you
00:13:55
don't have quite the z-axis height that
00:13:57
this one does have they both have
00:13:59
autofocus but another Pro to the Ador is
00:14:01
this one has a camera versus X tool
00:14:03
where you do a weird workaround where
00:14:05
you use your phone camera with their app
00:14:07
to like take a picture and import it and
00:14:09
all that kind of stuff um this is nice
00:14:10
having this directly in and then
00:14:12
probably the most noticeable difference
00:14:13
right off the bat is they have this
00:14:15
great full color touchcreen where you
00:14:17
can fully control the Machine versus the
00:14:19
M1 Ultra not having that whatsoever now
00:14:21
in terms of price that's where it gets a
00:14:23
little bit interesting the M1 Ultra
00:14:25
currently is 1,800 that's going to come
00:14:27
with a laser module a printer module and
00:14:29
a cutting module so they are also going
00:14:32
at the Cricut vinyl cutting Market that
00:14:34
is not something this machine has so if
00:14:37
you want a physical blade to cut fabric
00:14:39
or paper or stuff like that that you
00:14:41
don't want to use a laser for this
00:14:43
doesn't have it so and this one the 20
00:14:44
wat version is
00:14:46
$1,400 but that doesn't include the ink
00:14:49
module so really the prices are going to
00:14:50
be pretty close to each other and I
00:14:52
imagine both the companies will kind of
00:14:53
adjust the prices in the same direction
00:14:55
so they'll probably stay pretty
00:14:57
comparable to each other so for my
00:14:59
recommendation if you're looking for a
00:15:01
laser where you want to like color print
00:15:03
on wood and then actually cut it out if
00:15:05
you don't need a vinyl Raisor blade
00:15:07
Cricut style module as well I love they
00:15:10
give you a black printing cartridge
00:15:12
that's something you definitely miss
00:15:14
with the M1 Ultra and then in terms of
00:15:16
usability this guy right here is really
00:15:18
hard now since this machine is pretty
00:15:20
new to the US if you guys have questions
00:15:23
that I did not cover in this video let
00:15:24
me know down in the comments below I'll
00:15:26
do my best to answer those or get the
00:15:28
answers from flux if I don't know right
00:15:29
off the bat all right until next time go
00:15:31
make or break something in your shop see
00:15:33
you guys
00:15:37
[Music]
