So I only purchased the laser because I already have a CNC machine that I designed myself. After having given the laser a look while trying to figure out how it’s going to be integrated, I found myself feeling a bit disappointed.
#1: The laser housing/ heatsink was basically designed to integrate with their CNC machine only. Virtually no options for someone to mount it to their own machine. This XTOOL 20W laser is going to replace my 10W AtomStack Laser, which has it’s own CNC machine you can purchase, but was designed in such a way that it’s easily integrated with a plethora of other machines.
#2: The laser housing/ heatsink was poorly made/ machined as the v-groove portion of the housing, used to mount to their machine, doesn’t have it’s full v-groove profile on the one side. Basically, the v-groove on the one side is very shallow. The other side is fine.
#3: The whole housing/ heatsink design and how everything is mounted inside is just sloppy/ rushed. There’s even a last minute change in there that’s driving me nuts. They added some small heatsinks to the back of the control board that doesn’t allow the board to slide into the grooves that were meant for the board originally. It’s very obvious. They placed the board on top of the grooves and just wrenched down the board with some screws. There are other things like holes drilled right up against the edge of the housing where there’s no meat left on the one side of the holes.
#4:The air assist nozzle is nice, but the inner diameter of the fitting that screw into the nozzle is crazy small! I bought and upgraded air pump very similar the XTOOL pump, which is more than 3 times the pump I have now, but I won’t see the difference because of that tiny hole!!! This is just bonkers.
The housing is a lot wider than the 10W laser I have now. It’s a more powerful laser, OK, but I don’t really think that it need to be this big. The laser module comes out really easily, and it’s pretty small. I’m not sure if I even want to use the flame sensor because I stay with my machines when I’m using them anyways. I ordered a large heatsink and I think I’m just going to do my own thing. I’m just disappointed because I was hoping to just plug and play. Things like this I just can’t let go.
