ANKZONE 40w Laser Engraver (8' X 12'),Cutting Wood,Acrylic,Decor& More. Desktop CO2 Laser Engraver & Cutter for Beginners with DIY Design,Air-Assisted, Honeycomb Panel

The instructions for checking/aligning the mirrors were clear as mud. I had to find a YouTube video to understand how to do it. It had lots of problems homing itself and seemed to lose track of where it was until I discovered the limit switch for the Y-axis had no stop to actuate the switch. I made my own with a small 3D printed part an a screw/nut. I had to loosen some of the tension on the X-axis because it would occasionally get hung up and cause the motor to make a grinding noise which also made it lose track of where it was actually at requiring it to be homed again. Did not come with the advertised aluminum board, aluminum foil, or double-sided tape as shown in the description. It did come with a 10x10cm "elevator" with absolutely no instructions as to what it is used for. The laser seems to cause electromagnetic interference to the USB connection when it is in operation so it frequently disconnects from the computer. I ended up using a slightly shorter USB cable with several snap-on ferrite chokes on it.

I ordered this Friday for $518 delivered (with the coupon), and honestly I didn't expect that it would either show up Saturday (it did) or show up in one piece (it did). But about 6PM yesterday, a likely grump Amazon delivery driver (it's an awkwardly large and heavy-ish box) plunked it down at my doorstep!I have years of experience with C02 lasers and this is both the smallest and newest I've tried out. At the time I'm writing this (and when I purchased it) there were zero reviews for this item which I think sometimes makes buyers wary. I had a specific need for some smallish laser-cut acrylic parts, have lots of other recent times when I've wished I had a small CO2 at my disposal, so it was the perfect storm to try this out!I opened the box about 4 hours ago and just a few minutes ago finished cutting the parts I wanted to make! So, jotting down some preliminary thoughts but I will come back to this review occasionally to update as time passes and I learn more (or have issues, or don't!).WHY IS IT SO CHEAP?I suspect this is made in the same place (or much of it is) as the more popular OMTech K40. Why do I suspect it? The item description and much of the documentation that comes with it references K40 and the specs are basically identical.For this and the K40, the lack of any kind of Z-axis adjustment takes out a fair bit of mechanical complexity, so I think that's how they get these sub-$1000 units out the door. Not having any experience with the K40, it's obvious on this unit that another area of cost savings is the (hex) table. The table itself is a pretty nice piece, but there's literally a couple flimsy pieces of sheet metal supporting it (vertically) and literally nothing locating it laterally in either direction. It's also comically got 0-200/300mm axes labeled on it, but they don't align with the units coordinate system so are of essentially no use.I'm pleased to report that's about it for obvious cost-reduction stuff. I will eventually figure out a way to get the table laterally located - having it float free is tough if you touch anything and want to run another pass - the alignment will be off.IS IT COMPLETEYES! The unit has an onboard air assist blower (smallish and noisy-ish but still functional) and has an active exhaust fan at the rear. It also comes with a submersible pump that can plug into one of the 110VAC outlets on the back of the unit (so that it powers on and off with the unit). It also arrives with silicone hoses and clamps that work just fine to get the water working - the only thing missing is a bucket (I'll get a 2-ish gallon one with a lid).It also comes with some software, but I've learned not to trust random unmarked USB keys unless I absolutely have to, and in this case you do not. I got it working best with the software MeerK40T (pronounced meerkat) and the LIBUSB driver package that installs with that. Without LIBUSB, I could not get it to recognize as a USB at all (and adding LIBUSB will break some other programs access to it).MeerK40T works okay, but I will also be running a larger CO2 and a galvo in the next couple years and want one software to rule them all. Lightburn is it, so I've already ordered a Monport upgrade board to replace the M3 controller in this unit and make it Lightburn compatible. There are other paths, but that's the lowest-effort from my perspective.It also comes with a few tools (though not the M3 hex key you need to remove the panel lock-downs on the front and rear access) and some sick laser-proof(ish) shades! Again - for the price, a very nicely put-together kit that surpassed my expectations.MINOR ISSUESThese aren't things that stopped me from getting it running, but they're just things to be aware of:- The included exhaust vent hose is kinda 4-inches (more like 4" OD) but the outlet on the rear is about 3.5 inches - so the (included) hose clamp has to crush the hose end down to kind of seal (poorly) the hose to the outlet. I'll be 3D printing a part to make that adaptation smoother and switching to "normal" 4" duct hose- There is a power adjustment knob on the control panel - dial this up to maximum before you start. I could see that even though the software was set to 100% power, I was only seeing 9mA of current and finally realized that knob was dialed down to about 1/3 of full. Turned it up and now seeing 24/25mA which is about what I'd expect- There's a water hose internal to the unit that is coming up through a hole in a piece of sheetmetal and is kinked pretty bad right at the pass-through point. I'll be tearing it down at some point and freeing this kink up a bit.- It's a little odd to me there are no control buttons whatsoever on the device itself - no home, no jog, no start/stop/pause, nothing. Not the end of the world, but it would be nice to have something there.- The red-dot indicator is mounted on a pretty.... Errrr.... "Non-precision" mount and was off by about 1/2" when I started. No worries, I adjusted it and got it close, but even the laser itself is not a great quality "dot" - more like a little rectangle. I might look into retrofitting a much more accurate and stable through-lens green dot (which would require a beam splitter) but really allows you to position things super accurately- The instruction manual, while very high quality as far as images and decent text, is laid out oddly. Mine has lots of stapled-in pages that make it basically impossible to actually follow any kind of sequence of operations. Unfortunate because the overall quality of the instruction manual is good, seems like they made some post-printing edits that make it feel less useful than it otherwise would be.- The edge quality on the acrylic I cut is not great - pretty rough and choppy. I'm not sure why that is, might have to do with the fact the first pass on it was slow and low-power (before I realized the power knob was turned down) - I'll be doing some more work on this later. But, net shape came out quite close so I think it can be improvedAll in all, very happy with this purchase! That ANKZONE can deliver this quality and feature content at this price point is shocking to me. Time will tell if quality holds up, but as of right now I have no fears or concerns based on what I've seen thus far.

I really like all of the features out-of-the-box. Much better solution than buying a K40 and upgrading the laser head and adding air assist. These features are integrated already, making this a great value.

Excelente producto, ya probé cortar acrilico de 6mm con excelente resultado.