REVIEW – If you’ve ever wanted to customize your crafts or belongings with artwork or even just your initials, you might have looked into buying an engraver. Today I want to show you the Dewallie Mini Portable Laser Engraving Machine that is portable enough to carry in your backpack.
What is it?
The Dewallie Mini Portable Laser Engraving Machine is a portable machine that can laser engrave graphics and images on materials like wood, paper, leather, cork, and more.
Hardware specs
Engraving size: 100*100mm
Working distance: -20cm
Laser Type: 405nm Seml-Conductor Laser
Laser Power: 500mW
Operating Input: 5V, 2A
Interface: USB Type-C
Supported Materials: Wood, Paper, Bamboo, Plastic, Leather, Cloth, Peel, etc
Unsupported materials: Glass, Metal, Reflective materials, Transparent materials.
What’s in the box?
- Laser engraver stand
- Laser engraver
- USB-C power cable
- USB power adapter
- Protective glasses
- Ruler
- User manual
Also included are a variety of materials to engrave like cardboard, cork, and wood.
Design and features
The engraver is basically two pieces. There’s the base that can fold up for transport/storage, and there’s the cube-shaped engraver.
The base is nicely weighted so that it sits securely on a flat surface.
The engraver easily snaps into the holder that unfolds from the base.
The engraver has a USB-C connector on the top for the USB-C power cord. There’s also a status LED next to the connector. There’s also a button on top of the engraver. You would guess that this would be a power button, but it’s just a stop button. The engraver does not have a power button. To remove power, you will need to unplug the USB-C cable.
The engraver holder extends from the base so that the engraver is 20cm above the work surface. Included with the Dewallie Mini Portable Laser Engraving Machine is a ruler so that you can make sure that you set the height accordingly.
With the engraver powered on, there will be a point of light shining down on the work surface/material that makes it easy to see the center of the engraving.
The App
Engraving is done through the app which you can install on your iPhone or Android phone. The app will allow you to use images from your camera roll, the built-in library of graphics, or you can even draw something and engrave it.
The app is easy to use. Just select the artwork that you want to engrave, choose if you want it to be an outline, grayscale, etc. Then you specify the material that you’ll be engraving on, the power strength, depth, and the number of passes to engrave the material.
You can preview the size of the engraving by pressing the preview button (check out the video below which shows this process).
My first attempt was a compass.
Ummmm… where is it?
Hmmmm, I guess I didn’t pay attention to the size setting! Let’s bump it up from 10mm to 100mm!
Ok, that’s MUCH better!
Nice!…. and smelly. Whew… one thing to keep in mind is that this is a laser engraver which means it’s going to burn the material to create the engraving. So make sure you’re in a well ventilated area when you’re using this device.
Let’s try something more custom…
Like the Gadgeteer logo! I used the logo that you see at the top left of the webpage that you’re reading right now and the app’s software converted it to a black and white graphic. NICE.
I decided to use the circular cork material to make myself a coaster.
It turned out great! Check out the video below that shows the Dewallie Mini Portable Laser Engraving Machine in action.
See it in action
What I like
- Easy to use
- Portable
- Sharp detailed engravings
What I’d change
- Add a power button!
Final thoughts
The Dewallie Mini Portable Laser Engraving Machine won’t win any awards for speed or print size, and as long as you realize that this isn’t going to engrave metal, glass, or stone, it is a great little engraving machine that is perfect for crafts and simple small projects. It is also fun and easy to use.
Price: $249.99
Where to buy: Madethebest (Save $10 with coupon code: EDMDEWM expires 12/8/21) and Dewallie (Save $10 with coupon code: DW10 does not expire)
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Madethebest.
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Go here to see lists of materials that are OK to be laser cut and materials that are not OK: https://makerfreedom.com/laser-cutting-materials-guide/
John, Dewallie even mentions engraving fruit! I didn’t try that though.
That’s creative!
That look like a lot of fun!
David, it is. I have a MUCH bigger and more powerful engraver that I reviewed. The Beamo. But that one is a monster. I like this one for the sheer convenience.
https://the-gadgeteer.com/2019/11/06/flux-beamo-co2-laser-cutter-engraver-review/
Can you put filigree on toast? 🙂
Keerthi, even if that would work, the toast would be cold by the time it was done. This engraver is slow.
Good evening I have the dewallie portable laser engraver. I want to engrave a stainless flask for a friend’s birthday. The company said I can do that with a thermal transfer layer. What is that?
It’s a layer of black material. This might help:
https://www.instructables.com/Laser-Engrave-Metal/
I have a of questions.
I’m using a tablet but doesn’t have the best processor. Will a better processor speed up the laser engraving?
Daniel, The tablet or the phone’s speed will not have any effect on the speed of the engraver. The only job of the phone/tablet is for the app to send the artwork to the engraver.