Whilst I appreciate that “Which laser should I buy” requires careful consideration taking various factors into account, I was wondering if there was a consensus of opinion of a brand which consistently delivers quality at a good price point across their range.
There are so many brands the market is saturated and there’s no publication which reviews and rates products as they come to market.
Our industry needs a magazine like ‘PC Pro’ or ‘What Hi-Fi’ but a section in this forum where users carry out a set of specific tests using Lightburn to evaluate their lasers and to give reviews and prices.
If we could establish ourselves as a ‘Go to’ resource we will find ourselves being provided with products to evaluate.
I appreciate that there are a number of ‘influencers’ littering YouTube they are individuals and dont present a unified opinion.
I could start one, but that would be too much like a job. I retired and already paid my dues.
I can only give the Opinion of One. I have 3 different Sculpfun diode lasers and all three were no-hassle setups with no hassle operation. When I have issues, Scuplfun is very responsive. There is also a wiki site dedicated to this brand and often referenced in Forum postings.
If you are talking about CO2 or Fiber machines, those are not so much no-hassle so I do not have Laser Envy for those.
Do you see the problem here having a magazine with product reviews?
Very kind of you to agree to start a Laser Cutting Magazine
Initially it would be an uphill struggle with the amount of product on the market but with input from many users would, I think, help sort the wheat from the chaff and result in the formation of a table which provides best value / performance at a given price point.
A good starting point would be a section on this forum to debate the subject from which we could all benefit.
Only you can determine if they are worth the cost.
Lots of xTool users on the Forum. Use the search magnifying glass and search filter for xTool. You can find both praise and hate for them. It is up to you to decide which you want to bet on.
I will add that xTool has not been super cooperative with Lightburn in providing information about how all their functions work. At least that’s what I’ve heard. That being said, not everything their machine will do is available to Lightburn and you will need to use their software for full functionality.
Thank you Tim for the insight, that’s a valuable contribution to the topic.
I had noticed that their demonstrations, pack shots and available documentation seemed to focus on their own packages avoiding mentioning Lightburn to which other manufacturers tend to reference as a selling feature.
