REVIEW – I have always been fascinated by the cool crafting projects I have seen for sale at various farmer’s markets and artists’ shows in the area. I am talking about the kind of crafts where you see flat wooden ornaments with different names inside of them, etched tumblers, etched glass, and etched and cut metal. I did not even realize a DYI’er could do it until I saw some reviews of laser engravers on the Gadgeteer website. So when a review opportunity for the Wizmaker L1 laser engraver came up, I volunteered and was lucky enough to be selected to review it.
What is it?
The Wizmaker L1 Laser Engraver is a 20-watt laser engraver. It comes with a blower included. It allows you to cut 12mm wood, 8mm acrylic, and 0.05mm metal in one pass.
What’s in the box?
Like several 3d printers I have reviewed, the Wizmaker L1 Laser Engraver comes well-packed in sturdy foam molding.
- Tools for assembly
- Sample wood and acrylic pieces
- zip ties and 3m/stick-on cable management
- screws for assembly
- lint cloth
- USB stick with TF card
- protective glasses
- power supply
- blower device
- USB cable
- Laser module
- user manual
- parts to assemble the x and y axis
- four feet
- power cord
- dust brush
- air tubing
- power adapter cable to power both the blower and engraver
Hardware specs
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Brand support is more professional. WIZMAKWER brand has a professional technology and R&D team and has a factory to ensure product quality.
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20W laser output power: you can carve and cut more materials than a 5W or 10W laser engraver and achieve more creative work.
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Strong cutting ability: it can simultaneously cut 12mm wood, 8mm acrylic, and 0.05mm metal.
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Faster engraving speed: 400MM/S, engraving, and cutting speed are 40% – 80% faster than a 10W laser engraving machine, saving time and improving creation efficiency.
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Metal color engraving: L1 20W laser engraver can achieve up to 400+ colors of color pattern engraving through a chemical reaction of metal. Make your artwork colorful.
- 400mm x 400mm working area
Design and features
The specs on the Wizmaker L1 Laser Engraver are rather impressive for what they charge compared to some other engravers on the market. Many engravers are only 10 watts, and this engraver is a full 20 watts. It comes with a dust blower, and many other manufacturers will charge extra for that part. The control panel is at the bottom of the x-axis. It has an industry-standard emergency stop button. A port for the power line, a port for the USB cable, and a port for a TFT card. There is an on/off button and a recessed reset button. One thing this engraver is missing that I wish it had was wireless connectivity.
The biggest part of the learning curve for these engravers is knowing where the laser will start to cut. That means you need to have your computer connected to the engraver and the software for the engraving running. In the software, you tell the laser to outline the area it thinks it will be cutting. Then you can place the object you are cutting under that defined area. Since you are cutting things like wood and metal, it can get very stinky. Heck, you are literally burning wood. I had the engraver set up in my garage, which meant I had to have enough room on my workbench for both my laptop and the engraver to operate it properly. That cable is relatively short, making me glad that I had a rolling workbench to put up next to the engraver to make it work.
The Wizmaker L1 Laser Engraver is mounted to the moving x-axis arm via slots cut into the back of the engraver. It is held in place via a knob that screws from the back of the arm into the laser module. The documentation states it is easy to adjust, but it does take some coordination to loosen the screw just enough to micro-tune the laser focus.
The hole at the top of the laser is where the tubing connects from the blower.
The Wizmaker L1 Laser Engraver will work with both LaserGRBL and Lightburn software. Since I use a Mac, I had to use Lightburn. Luckily they offer a free 30-day trial that I could use for this review.
Setup
Setting up the Wizmaker L1 Laser Engraver took me about 30 minutes in total. That was because I took my time and read the manual. Flipping the pieces the wrong way without looking at the instructions would be very easy. The first thing I did was to build out the main frame. That involved installing 16 screws (four at each corner) in the four corners to attach them together.
Then I installed the floating x-axis bar across the frame. That involved screwing in two screws on each side of the arm into the brackets sitting on the left and right x-axis bars.
Next, I installed the shaft that connects from the left and right axis behind the power control. This shaft allows the belts on the left and right x-axis sides to move the x-axis bar.
Finally, I connected all the power ports to their various slots on the x-axis, y-axis, laser module, and power supply. I connected the blower to the power supply and the controller on the L1 to the power supply.
Performance
It took several attempts to get the first burn on the sample wood piece. My problem was that I had no idea what type of wood this was. I assumed it was basswood, but when the Wizmaker L1 Laser Engraver started to etch the wood, nothing was showing up. I realized it was bamboo and bumped up the power setting. The piece on the left was at a power setting of 50%. I wanted it a bit darker and bumped it up to 60%, and I was happy with the results. Honestly, I am pretty happy at how centered both pieces were. I used the trick of drawing a rectangle the exact size of the piece of wood. I set the triangle not to print. I then had Lightburn tell the laser to trace the outside parameters of the print. It was then a matter of eyeballing where to place the piece of wood and have the laser trace over it multiple times. I had the blower running the whole time during the print. This keeps the dust out of the print and makes for cleaner cuts.
Next, I tried printing the logo on a piece of acrylic. I think it came out quite nicely.
In the future, what I think I will do if I have to cut out business or key chain sized objects, is to get a larger piece of wood that covers the 400×400 print area. I would then have multiple objects on the wood and have the laser cut each piece out of the single piece of wood. Having to reposition the print head and object to be printed on each time would be painful to do.
What I like
- A full 20-watt laser that can cut through thicker pieces of wood, metal, and plastic
- It comes with a blower
- Easy to assemble
What I’d change
- This is not specific to this laser, but I wish it were easier to know where it will start printing within the print area.
- Please add WiFi connectivity.
Final thoughts
I have really enjoyed using the Wizmaker L1 Laser Engraver. It has all of the power I need to cut through various materials, and it comes with a blower to ensure precise wood burning. My only real complaint is that it is not Wifi enabled, and I have to use a cable to connect it to my laptop. I don’t think you will find another 20-watt laser engraver with a blower for under 1K that has a 400 x 400 mm working space. I plan on getting a roller-type device to try etching some double-walled tumblers for my motorcycle club. I will post the results on this review when I do.
Price: $1079.99 – there is a coupon for $120 off this price right now
Where to buy: Wizmaker.com and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Wizmaker.
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I’d like to know where to get spare belts if needed.
Can we cut clear acrylic?