laser engraving machine Laser Engraver Printer 3000mW Mini desktop laser engraver machine DIY Logo laser engraver (Gold)

I’ll start by saying that I have only used this machine for one week. But in that week I have been pleasantly surprised. I have etched 20-25 designs so far. What this machine is capable of, and for the price it sells, I am thoroughly impressed.You have to keep in mind that this machine was made in China and made with Chinese parts. You can’t expect too much from it because after all, most engraving machines sell for thousands of dollars. I have read reviews of people etching designs that have taken up to four hours. I personally do not believe that is what this machine was intended for. It is no surprise to me why they get upset when their machine breaks down. Know this machines limits. I have started out small - etching designs the size of a stamp. I then worked my way up to designs the size of a quarter and half dollar. That’s about as large as I’ve done in my first week. Most of those designs take anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes. I plan on working my way up to credit card sized design and then Maybe coaster sized images. Anything beyond that I think would tax the machine beyond its limits. Understand that the more detail an image has, the longer it takes. Don’t plan on making elaborate works of art with this machine.Setup was actually pretty easy. Go on YouTube and search for mini etching machines. There will be a few videos that will help you. They are not the same brand as this one but they are basically the same machine with the same software. The videos I watched greatly helped me set up my software and machine in less than five minutes.TIPS.... Outlined images turn out better and faster than shaded in images. Sometimes you’ll have to etch the image twice to get a good etching. So don’t take it out and look at it right away. I use a flashlight to see how it came out. When it first starts etching, make sure you are watching the progress. That way you can catch if the image isn’t turning out properly. You can always pause the etching and adjust the power and depth., or just terminate the image. Make sure your material is level. Focus the laser. Clockwise for taller objects, Counterclockwise for flatter objects (very helpful). Give the machine brakes. Don’t etch for hours and hours. If I’m using it for longer than an hour I give the machine a break. The fan constantly runs so unplug the power when you’re not using it. (Remember, it’s made of cheap chinese parts). A button to shut off the fan would be helpful but oh well. Using in a large area is best. Preferably ventilated. Burning wood will produce smoke but my room never got hazy. Burning plastic and leather releases some nasty fumes I doubt we should be breathing in.I will update my post should anything change!

After 1 year the software expires and there us no way if updating the driver its pretty much useless and you be to buy a new one there us no way if contacting the seller too

UPDATE: 3.25.2019So after doing some research on this unit and reading a lot of reviews, I found out the unit was not dead after all. So I am boosting my rating one star, as it does work.The problem with the unit seems to be that the installed driver for the software can become corrupt , requiring you to power down the etcher, unplug the USB cord, exit the software and sometimes even reboot the PC/Laptop. It also seems to be very picky about how you plug it in and power it up.Here is how I power up the unit.1. Plug the USB cord that is attached to the PC in to the etcher.2. Plug the power cord in to the etcher3. Launch the etcher software on the PC4. Press the Activate button5. Load the image you want to engraveReverse the above steps when shutting down to make sure the etch driver software on the PC does not become corrupt.ORIGINAL: 2.2.2019I'm giving this two stars because if you are like me, I throw out all 5 star and 1 star reviews. Had it worked for another 5 months, it would get 4 stars because that is all I expected to get out of this cheap unit.Used this to engrave a very basic logo on soft wood, mostly text and only about 10 characters. Total dimensions of the project was about 75mm x 35mm. Printed about 8 pieces running at 80% power at a depth of 30 and another 6 or so testing different power levels and depths. Pieces were printed in about 25 minutes each and only printing one per day. Bought this product on Dec 27, 2018 and today (2/2/2019) it is dead. So I really got about 10 days of use out of it.Product attempts to etch for only 1 second and then the laser shuts down. When it worked it was awesome, but these pieces cost me about $23 each to print, given the unit no longer works. I cant ship back to Amazon because I've had it too long so I guess I'll try to find the board or the laser and fix it.

I'm so excited to start using this laser engraver. This is one of my first real splurges of this year but only because I needed to have a few things etched onto wood. It works well albeit it's not that fast. I don't expect laser printer speed so I really don't mind setting it and forgetting it for this to complete. It's not like I'm doing large scale productions. Still, waiting in anticipation is agonizing. The software is relatively straight forward to use. It takes a picture file like a gif or jpg and converts it to greyscale. The print quality is what I expected from the examples shown in the listing. The quality has more to do with the image you're printing compared to this actual engraver. More contrast in the pictures like a true black and white photo will yield better results.The unit itself is also not too bulky. I'm very eager to try different substrates. I tried metal but unfortunately it didn't work. I wasn't expecting it to as the description already said it wouldn't but wishful thinking perhaps? Otherwise, thick cardboard and wood seems to be ideal materials. I'd like to try printing on leather but I don't have any ideas of what to print yet. With the holiday season coming up I'll be making some Christmas cards with this. The kids are having a blast using Microsoft Paint to generate an image to print onto wood. It's a great tool to get them introduced into designing and creating their own products. Next step would be 3D printing but creating STL files seems a lot more advanced compared to MS Paint.