Xtool M1 Laser

[Roxine Denison]

Lookingto buy a laser engraver and cutter for wood, acrylic, or even metal? xTool is theperfect choice for any of your laser cutting and engraving needs. We offer CO2 and diode laser engravers and laser cutting machines with high working speed and mighty cutting power.

@BuiltByBittle absolutely! I have used a lot of different diode lasers and the Xtool is by far my favorite. All of the others you tend to have to buy a lot of other accessories to make it work the way you want. But the only thing with the Xtool you can look at buying is an air assist and a light burn camera mount. Both can be found on Etsy here is my mount

I tried to align the laser using the path test but it didn't seem like the dot was moving much at all. After way more turns that I thought it would take I finally got the dot centered in the first hole but now it's shooting way to the left of the second hole. It's not even hitting inside the hole. I feel like I adjusted the first mirror too much or messed up in some way. Is there a decent guide somewhere? I have no idea how to proceed with this thing and it's making me really regret buying it.

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Engraving with the laser head set higher than the expected focal point, with a flat piece of material under it and a block under one end will allow you to see the effect the laser has while coming into and going back out of focus.

Ok, since you have already sent an email to our support team, I think our support team will try their best to figure out this issue and help you resolve it. Please feel free to contact us if you need further help.

Another possible solution would be to manually adjust the laser height to the correct focal point, measure the distance with calipers, and create a separate focus bar from a wood or metal dowel. Again, this is not an acceptable solution to offer somebody that just purchased a brand new laser module.

Update: Using calipers I have measured the distance of the laser exterior metal housing to the object being engraved. I measured both the distance set with the focal length setting bar vs the distance manually set to correct focus. A 2.5mm discrepancy is causing this problem

I think the main issue is actually wire management. The way the instructions have you run the cables causes it to bunch up behind the right rear. It has nothing to do with Lightburn at all, as all Lightburn can do is tell the machine to home.

Image not mine, but shows the problem with how all the cables come up behind the stepper.

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Any other fix on the issue. Tried changing the coordinates and that did not fix. Rerouted the wire, that fixed the X position but Y-axis still grinding.

When I check message it shows that X limit switch triggered but Y limit switch is not triggering

Also the wiring for the head is probably a bit different, all higher power heads most likely use several pins/wires for GND PWR and PWM in order to reduce wire diameter, so making a new loom is probably required as well.

I think the only connectors I can see (in pictures) going to the xtool is the 9-pin connector as noted on the board. At least what is needed to drive my laser is only the three wires. I was thinking that the 3.3V was the cross laser power? I obviously am showing my ignorence here-- Is the PWM wire from the xtool cable not going to be the same signal as the output from my laser board? The input connector on my laser itself is TTL/PWM. The listed output on the LT driver board is TTL/PWM. And if you had to guess as to which of the 9 wires on the control board above would control the crosshair laser, which would you guess to be the right ones? Here is a closeup and connections I use from my Stepcraft system, as well as the input that Laser Tree showed me to use in a tech support session.

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Does that mean that if I tried to not use the driver board, then the signal to my laser would not be sufficient to use power to control % burn as readily? Or does my laser input mean that anything between 0 and 12 is acceptable? How would the driver board know what the input to it was that it had to modulate? If I tried without the board, would I need to simply see if/how well it worked with a test burn pattern with/without the board, or would it be an all-or-none scenario?

I have to admit, when I first got my xTool M1 I was a little nervous about get the correct laser engraving settings. I started searching online hoping to find a cheat sheet or list that would just tell me what power, speed and number of passes to use for different materials.

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First I went to the xTool website, and they do have a page for material settings, but the list is for just the products that they sell. While I was disappointed, the more I thought about it, it makes sense. Why would they want to tell you the settings to use on a product you are going to buy from someone else.

The suggested settings did not work! I did more research and found out that while I was trying to engrave on a leather patch, just as this other crafter was doing, there could be differences between the different types of patches. For example, the one I was attempting to engrave had a metallic layer under the surface, so it needed different settings.

The short answer is because there is such a huge difference in the materials and machines out there! If you get a leather patch from one retailer, it might not be exactly the same as a patch from another retailer. Even with the xTool M1 there is a 5 watt and a 10 watt version of the machine, so you would need different settings.

Since I have the xTool M1 10w I am going to create the type of list I was looking for! That way you will not have to waste time spinning your wheels like I did. If you purchase the same products I do you will be able to learn from my trial and errors.

Think about ironing clothing, and think of Power as how hot the iron is. If you want a hard crease line on a work shirt or pants, you are going to increase the power, or heat of the iron. You might move the iron slowly and go over the same spot several times.

If you own the xTool M1 10w then you might want to bookmark this page. Each time I test out a new product and discover the best settings I will be adding to this list. I will link directly to the products I used so you can be sure you are purchasing the exact same items.

Reminder: These settings are what worked best for me using the xTool M1 10W machine. If you like the results I was able to get, then the laser engraving settings I provide here are exactly what you need. If you want your designs lighter or darker, you can always adjust the settings.

This was another one of the handmade clay ornaments. Again, I engraved them after they had been fired just to test and see if it was even possible. This version was painted after it was engraved, and I feel like it really made the wording pop!

I am going to be totally honest with you . . . THIS was the part that had me most nervous! What if I could not find anything to even know where to start! Remember when I started off saying I felt like I was spinning my wheels? And when I mentioned a power/speed setting range, how did I figure out that range?

After totally ruining two patchs, I decided to do a material test array and it turned out it was the best thing I could have done! In the photo below I show the material test array I did for the leather patch. I was shocked! Most of those settings are way too much and were just burning and making a mess of things.

I do like the look of the Power 10 / Speed 75 / Pass 1 square and that is probably what I would go with for my personal laser engraving settings, but maybe you want a darker look for your patch. You could go up to the Power 19 / Speed 75 / Pass 1 but anything above that starts to burn the leather and leave soot around the edges of the engraving.

For the Speed side of things, 30 is too slow across the entire material test array. To me, 60 is the slowest I would go. So if I were to do a new material test array for this same patch, I would probably do my settings in a range from 1 to 30 for the power, and 60 to 80 for the speed.

What I learned from this process is that I have my speed pretty dialed in for using the xTool M1 on a leather patch since I have determined that somewhere between 60 and 80 is what I like. That is only a difference of 20 so that range is pretty small.

For the power I might want to play around with things more since anywhere from a range of 1 up to 30 could be good. Also, there is the factor of personal preference to bring into this. The setting I like might not be the setting that you like, but my main goal of this entire article was to help you stop spinning your wheels and at least feel like you had somewhere to start.

I would recommend that you start by making some material test cards. XCS software allows you to make these easy-to-use templates using the grid array function. This is ideal way to determine the optimal settings needed on the materials you plan to use. This will help you avoid wasting materials and save costs.

The xTool P2 riser can be installed to allow for a movable floor, also known as the base plate. This feature is particularly useful when working with taller materials and is perfect for engraving. The front door of the riser base flips down, making it easy to slide the base into any of the nine positions available. This allows you to engrave on larger materials, such as wooden boxes, suitcases, and large wooden bowls, among others.

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