00:00:00
so is the X tool F1 Ultra worth over 2
00:00:02
and 1/2 times more than the original X
00:00:05
tool F1 and the answer is yes and no it
00:00:09
really depends on your situation and
00:00:11
from all of my testing I found there are
00:00:13
four big differences between these
00:00:14
machines that you really should consider
00:00:16
before you decide to purchase all right
00:00:18
now before we talk about the comparison
00:00:20
let's talk about what this machine isn't
00:00:22
it's not a machine like the X tool S1
00:00:26
that's built for the most part to cut
00:00:28
wood and there's a big reason for that
00:00:30
that this guy actually has air assist
00:00:32
and this guy does not now xtool does
00:00:35
provide this tray that you can put on
00:00:37
the bottom and that lets like all the
00:00:38
little pieces that you cut out fall
00:00:40
through so you have good air flow
00:00:41
underneath but not having air assist is
00:00:44
really the main issue if we're going to
00:00:45
do like thicker stuff like this this is
00:00:47
3mm birch plywood this is pretty much
00:00:49
the stock that I use when I test out in
00:00:51
a machine whether it is a CO2 machine or
00:00:53
a d machine especially when you're
00:00:55
cutting and you can see in the test
00:00:56
right now uh obviously I could cut it
00:00:59
out but you're just getting to the limit
00:01:02
to where there's going to be a flame and
00:01:04
normally with air assist that's what's
00:01:06
helping put that flame out and keeping
00:01:07
your cut really clean now that's not to
00:01:09
say you can't cut with this obviously if
00:01:11
you're using thinner material especially
00:01:14
some really thin metal but just know if
00:01:16
you want to do stuff like this steer
00:01:17
away from this type of machine look at
00:01:19
the X tool S1 or look at the xtool P2 or
00:01:22
all of the other machines that I've
00:01:23
talked about in the past that may not
00:01:24
even be exol all right with that out of
00:01:27
the
00:01:27
way let's talk about what this is
00:01:31
excellent at that is primarily engraving
00:01:34
just like with the original F1 this is
00:01:36
an awesome engraving machine and one of
00:01:38
my favorite things to engrave to test
00:01:40
out are always these black aluminum
00:01:42
cards uh they do a really good job when
00:01:44
you do like a reverse image and this DPI
00:01:46
I cranked up to 800 you could go even
00:01:49
higher with machines like this um but
00:01:51
it's doing an incredible job now both
00:01:53
these machines will give you an awesome
00:01:54
engraving result but this one's going to
00:01:56
do it much much quicker especially in
00:01:59
the business business context of
00:02:00
throughput AKA like how much batch stuff
00:02:03
can I do quickly so that I can sell
00:02:04
because as we talk about these four key
00:02:06
differences that's what I want you to
00:02:08
keep in mind because this is set up for
00:02:09
a business use case and those four
00:02:11
factors all play into it and the first
00:02:14
one of those four factors has to do with
00:02:15
what is coming out like right there on
00:02:17
the F1 and right there on the ultra and
00:02:20
that is the power of the laser itself
00:02:23
and a pretty unique feature to X tool in
00:02:24
their F line is the fact that you
00:02:26
actually have two different power
00:02:27
sources so you have a more traditional
00:02:29
diode laser that you would find in
00:02:30
something like the X tool S1 that's
00:02:32
going to be 10 watts on the F1 I don't
00:02:34
know why I keep putting this down 10
00:02:35
watts on the F1 and then 20 WTS on the
00:02:38
F1 Ultra but then you also have a fiber
00:02:41
laser and that's what opens you up to do
00:02:43
a lot of metal stuff in this case it's
00:02:45
going to be 2 wats on this guy but it's
00:02:47
going to be 20 watts on this guy now
00:02:49
because it's more powerful that means
00:02:51
you can run it faster but because it's
00:02:53
more powerful that also means you can go
00:02:54
deeper into materials I don't have this
00:02:57
completely dialed in uh but there have
00:02:59
been a a lot of images online I'm doing
00:03:01
like emboss Engravings on metal
00:03:03
specifically these are brass coins uh
00:03:06
and you can see a few time-lapses of me
00:03:07
doing these now these take a while
00:03:10
software basically takes a grayscale
00:03:11
image converts it to a depth map then
00:03:13
turns that into
00:03:15
256 layers so unlike a 3D printer which
00:03:18
slowly builds up the layers by putting
00:03:20
in material this is doing the same thing
00:03:22
just taking those slowly away now each
00:03:24
layer only takes a few seconds but they
00:03:26
definitely add up so some of the ones
00:03:28
you're seeing now would rrange any where
00:03:30
from 30 minutes all the way up to an
00:03:32
hour and a half but having increased
00:03:33
power definitely opens you up to doing
00:03:35
stuff like this that you just couldn't
00:03:37
do before especially on the lower
00:03:39
powered F1 now in addition to Brass I
00:03:42
also did a good bit of aluminum testing
00:03:45
and this is actually pretty hard to show
00:03:46
on camera just because it is so
00:03:48
reflective and one big thing about
00:03:50
aluminum and having higher power means
00:03:52
you can get different types of color
00:03:54
inside of aluminum so in my test I could
00:03:57
get a little bit of a bluish color a
00:03:59
white as well as a black what was fun to
00:04:01
test out is so instead of just doing
00:04:03
like a picture engrave like I did over
00:04:05
here of Spider-Man that is just white
00:04:07
you could actually do a two- layer
00:04:09
engrave you could do a White Pass then
00:04:11
invert the image and then do a black
00:04:13
pass and this is actually the first time
00:04:15
I've played around doing it but you can
00:04:16
see the result is really cool because
00:04:18
you can look at it from two different
00:04:20
angles and you're kind of getting two
00:04:21
different shades um or if you're just
00:04:22
looking at it straight on the whites pop
00:04:24
a little bit more and then you have the
00:04:25
darks in there as well and then again
00:04:27
with the two wat laser you really
00:04:29
couldn't get get the darker engraves
00:04:31
unless you rent it at a super super slow
00:04:33
speed so it's really nice you can do
00:04:34
that with the 20 W fiber and one last
00:04:36
really nice example of what you can do
00:04:37
with a more powerful laser is when we
00:04:39
start talking about these like slate
00:04:41
coasters and just like we were doing
00:04:43
with the coin if we do those emboss
00:04:45
engraved you actually get a really
00:04:47
really deep engrave you can see this
00:04:49
Eagle especially goes down a good bit
00:04:52
and I plan to do some follow-up videos
00:04:53
on embossment in general because that's
00:04:55
just a whole other topic but just know
00:04:58
again increased power op up to doing
00:05:00
different types of stuff versus just
00:05:01
straight marking on material all right
00:05:03
the second key difference between these
00:05:05
two machines is the overall speed they
00:05:08
can run so with this one we're talking
00:05:10
about 4,000 mm/ second which is much
00:05:14
faster than what a traditional diode or
00:05:16
CO2 machine can do but this guy is
00:05:19
10,000 mm/ second and this is an actual
00:05:22
working speed and I did run some tests
00:05:24
to see if I could get some marking and I
00:05:26
got just a little bit at full power at
00:05:29
10,000 but having that top end
00:05:30
definitely opens you up in terms of just
00:05:32
what you can do with the machine and
00:05:34
especially if you're comparing this to a
00:05:36
CO2 or a diode machine which sometimes
00:05:38
will max out around the th000 mm/ second
00:05:41
range um they just work entirely
00:05:43
different so the diet is actually moving
00:05:45
physically around the work bed so your
00:05:46
speed is often limited by just like how
00:05:48
fast you can move that thing around
00:05:50
versus this which is using a
00:05:51
galvanometer which is just a mirror
00:05:53
inside the lens that is on like a little
00:05:55
gimbal that moves around super quick
00:05:57
that allows it to redirect the beam and
00:05:59
always the best example of this other
00:06:01
than just showing you like real time
00:06:03
Engravings which you have been seeing is
00:06:05
on the preview side so a lot of times
00:06:07
you'll get a red dot preview to where it
00:06:09
will do a quick outline around whatever
00:06:11
your artwork or whatever is going to be
00:06:13
in this case it can do that so I can do
00:06:15
a framing operation which I am running
00:06:18
right now trying to see how well this is
00:06:20
going to show up on camera let's do that
00:06:22
that's even easier for a to see
00:06:23
hopefully so I have that rectangle going
00:06:25
quickly around my text but a nice thing
00:06:28
you can do as well is you can actually
00:06:30
set it to outline I'm going to frame it
00:06:32
again but the top end on just the square
00:06:35
framing for this machine is 24,000 mm/
00:06:38
second this it's going to be 16,000 on
00:06:40
the outline of whatever your artwork is
00:06:42
and that's an excellent way to do
00:06:43
alignment with your machine to the
00:06:46
material that you want to use and then
00:06:48
as always with any type of laser power
00:06:50
and speed uh is pretty linked so even if
00:06:52
you could crank up the F1 to 10,000
00:06:55
millimeters per second especially if
00:06:57
we're using the fiber two watt laser uh
00:06:59
it's really not going to do much because
00:07:01
you just don't have enough power to do
00:07:02
it but when you pair it with the 20
00:07:04
watts you can actually get some usable
00:07:05
results with it all right the third key
00:07:07
difference between these two machines
00:07:09
that might help justify the over 2 and
00:07:11
1/ half times cost difference is the
00:07:14
overall sides between these machines I
00:07:17
am going to erase this up uh with this
00:07:19
nice included touchpad right here
00:07:21
because other than just putting them
00:07:23
side by side this is probably the most
00:07:25
dramatic way to show how much different
00:07:28
they are in terms of your overall size
00:07:32
so the original F1 fits completely
00:07:34
inside the F1 Ultra in terms of numbers
00:07:36
this is5 x 115 mm while this is 220x 220
00:07:41
mm on the usable work surface but the
00:07:44
overall height on this machine is much
00:07:46
higher so you can get thicker material
00:07:47
in there and there is one key accessory
00:07:49
we're going to talk about here in a
00:07:51
minute that also opens you up to be able
00:07:52
to use it which would be pretty
00:07:54
impossible to do on something like this
00:07:56
and then the size really plays into the
00:07:58
throughput because you can just fit a
00:08:00
lot more stuff inside the work bed
00:08:02
itself whether you're doing like a bunch
00:08:03
of business cards or jewelry or just
00:08:05
small items you can put all of this in
00:08:07
here and then run all of that at once
00:08:09
and then especially when you combine it
00:08:10
with the speed and the power the price
00:08:13
difference might make sense for your
00:08:15
situation just because you could turn
00:08:17
out more products and you can make more
00:08:19
money now the fourth key difference
00:08:20
between these two is this one has
00:08:23
something that only the X2 P2 has and
00:08:26
that is an integrated camera so this guy
00:08:29
does not have a camera you focus it by
00:08:31
lining up two dots um you can do the
00:08:33
same thing with this one as well but
00:08:35
inside of the X tool software you can
00:08:36
use the camera to help Focus the machine
00:08:39
which I believe is more or less the same
00:08:40
process they're doing with the xtool P2
00:08:42
and then the camera definitely can help
00:08:43
you out with positioning because you can
00:08:45
get a image of your work bed and I found
00:08:47
this actually pretty accurate so it's
00:08:49
able to do those brass coins right up to
00:08:51
the edge and it's pretty much right on
00:08:53
what I wanted it to be but in terms of
00:08:55
the business aspect and the price
00:08:56
difference between these two having a
00:08:59
camera there's one key feature that I
00:09:01
need an accessory to show you the real
00:09:03
benefit of and that is this guy which I
00:09:07
have never seen a laser before I'm not
00:09:10
going to completely attach it but this
00:09:12
is a conveyor belt so you can put
00:09:15
material on here it can process it move
00:09:18
more material over process it and keep
00:09:20
on going but if you didn't have a camera
00:09:23
there's no like easy way to do alignment
00:09:25
on this itself whereas on the work bed
00:09:27
you have this like Corner bracket so you
00:09:29
can lock in your material into different
00:09:31
places but as soon as this conveyor belt
00:09:33
moves you would be out of luck and that
00:09:36
is where the integration into the
00:09:37
software that xtool has come a long way
00:09:40
over the past few years comes into play
00:09:42
because they're pulling over a feature
00:09:43
from the P2 where you can put in a bunch
00:09:45
of material that was the exact same size
00:09:47
so in my case I was doing those black
00:09:49
business cards again using the camera
00:09:51
you can put your artwork on one of those
00:09:53
and then it can process where all of the
00:09:54
other business cards are and then
00:09:56
basically copy and paste the artwork
00:09:58
onto those what's cool about it is it
00:10:00
also takes into account the positionings
00:10:02
so even if things aren't perfectly
00:10:03
oriented it will actually spin around
00:10:05
the artwork I need to do a lot more
00:10:07
testing to see like how dialed in it is
00:10:09
I've seen some examples of folks where
00:10:11
it's pretty off in my case it was
00:10:13
actually pretty close for the most part
00:10:15
now you can do that without the conveyor
00:10:17
belt itself the camera lets you do that
00:10:19
but with the conveyor belt it basically
00:10:20
can do that indefinitely so you'll set
00:10:22
up the process once then it will engrave
00:10:24
every business card it can reach and
00:10:26
then it will move the compar belt over
00:10:27
scan it do all the positioning and run
00:10:29
it again but in terms of the user side
00:10:31
of things you only have to hit this
00:10:32
button once and then it can run more or
00:10:34
less inde definitely and you can
00:10:35
actually see in this test video I was
00:10:37
putting on cars while it was running
00:10:40
probably wouldn't recommend that on the
00:10:41
safety side cuz you can see my hand gets
00:10:43
pretty close to the laser a few times so
00:10:44
it would be good if I actually kept this
00:10:46
down further but it's going to pretty
00:10:47
much keep going as long as it's
00:10:48
detecting material so I can totally see
00:10:50
someone putting a box on one side to
00:10:52
catch all your material and then you're
00:10:53
just dropping on more pieces and letting
00:10:55
it run that is pretty awesome in terms
00:10:57
of production and normally when people
00:10:59
ask me about cameras I'll say they're
00:11:01
nice but they're not like required
00:11:03
because you can still do all the
00:11:05
positioning with like the Red Dot
00:11:06
rectangle or outline on a fiber laser or
00:11:08
CO2 laser but when you tie it into the
00:11:10
software and the software can do
00:11:12
positioning based off the visuals it
00:11:14
sees that's pretty crazy so even if you
00:11:17
don't use the conveyor belt which is an
00:11:19
accessory that costs I think like 500
00:11:21
bucks so not cheap whatsoever you still
00:11:23
get the camera with this machine that
00:11:25
you don't get with this it gives you all
00:11:26
the focusing and positioning that this
00:11:28
one does not and then a few other things
00:11:30
that really don't fit into those four
00:11:31
big differences categories just the
00:11:33
overall build the packaging just how
00:11:36
well this was thought out I was super
00:11:38
impressed by when I pulled this out of
00:11:40
the box especially compared to where
00:11:42
they have come from from the original
00:11:44
xtool D1 next tool has come leaps and
00:11:47
bounds in terms of how much thought is
00:11:49
put into a machine like this even having
00:11:51
this like color touchpad where you can
00:11:53
run files directly from the machine
00:11:54
itself we can raise where you can lower
00:11:57
you can run the uh framing operat ation
00:11:59
which I have something in there right
00:12:00
now and then you can pull up recent
00:12:01
things that you've run or files on a USB
00:12:03
stick that you already have connected to
00:12:05
the machine I found the exhaust on this
00:12:07
works very well um so you can see some
00:12:10
of my brass dust is already back here
00:12:12
but even when I didn't have this
00:12:13
connected to like an external extractor
00:12:16
in my case I actually am using xtools
00:12:17
extractor which does a great job but
00:12:20
just the fan right here was enough to
00:12:22
get the fumes out and then you could
00:12:23
duct it out a window or a door if you
00:12:25
needed to on the safety side this is
00:12:26
probably the biggest thing especially
00:12:28
with the D
00:12:29
laser when this is closed this is going
00:12:31
to protect your eyes from the light but
00:12:33
as you saw earlier when I probably got a
00:12:35
little too close with my hands when I
00:12:36
was running the fiber operation you can
00:12:38
also drop this down to make sure people
00:12:39
aren't getting too close to the machine
00:12:41
itself from the best that I can tell
00:12:42
this does not have a switch meaning that
00:12:45
you can have this open or shut and the
00:12:47
Machine is going to run regardless that
00:12:49
would be a nice option to have in the
00:12:51
future and maybe you could toggle it on
00:12:52
and off because when you have like
00:12:53
bigger material or even like the
00:12:55
conveyor belt you obviously can't push
00:12:56
it down the entire way you've got the
00:12:58
emergency top on the side that does a
00:13:00
good job now the one area that this guy
00:13:03
does beat this guy is the size in terms
00:13:06
of portability I've seen a lot of people
00:13:09
will take these especially to craft
00:13:10
shows and they'll do custom engraving
00:13:12
like on site and this is a great machine
00:13:14
for that cuz more than likely you're
00:13:16
going to be doing smaller stuff and
00:13:18
you're doing like one-offs so the speed
00:13:20
difference is not going to be as big of
00:13:21
a deal and this also opens you up to
00:13:24
being able to drop this directly onto
00:13:26
the material itself because this plate
00:13:28
is is removable versus this guy which is
00:13:31
not a removable plate now you can also
00:13:34
work with material that is bigger than
00:13:35
the machine Itself by using the conveyor
00:13:37
belt so not doing like a batch engrave
00:13:40
but it can take the material through the
00:13:42
machine and do the engraving as it goes
00:13:44
that's something they kind of have with
00:13:45
the P2 with their conveyor belt system
00:13:47
but I like how this one is because it's
00:13:49
way easier to do the alignment and get
00:13:51
everything set up to go now for my
00:13:53
overall recommendation for this machine
00:13:55
this is very very well thought out
00:13:57
especially how they have in ated into
00:14:00
their software whether it's worth buying
00:14:02
over this that's why I encourage you
00:14:03
guys to run some like sample numbers in
00:14:06
terms of how much the power the speed
00:14:08
the size even like the conveyor belt can
00:14:10
save you in terms of time where it could
00:14:13
make sense in your business and if you
00:14:15
decide that it does a lot of times I'll
00:14:17
have some type of discount with xtool
00:14:19
and there'll be a link down below for
00:14:21
you to check out all right until next
00:14:23
time go make or break something in your
00:14:25
shop see you guys
00:14:30
[Music]
