Is the GWeike G2 Fiber Laser Worth the Hype?

today we're taking a look at a new fiber laser I've actually been waiting for this one since May let's see if it was worth [Music] it welcome back to Cloud 42 I'm James this is the gwick G2 fiber laser engraver I've been playing around with it here in the shop for a couple of weeks and today I'm going to share my thoughts GX sent this or to me free of charge in exchange for doing this review they aren't paying me anything additional for the video and they did not get to see it or review it in advance if after hearing what I have to say you decide that you want one there is a link down in the video description and if you use that link I earn a commission so keep that in mind the gwick G2 is a 20 WT fiber laser unlike the ever growing crop of diode laser machines that are marketed as fiber lasers this one really is it uses a 20 wat racus fiber source and delivers the laser power to the head and lens system through a fiber optic cable the head contains a galvo mirror system that scans the beam rapidly across the workpiece to Mark or engrave it the primary engraving beam is in the infrared range at 1064 NM but it also has a coaxial red laser so you can see where the beam is and so it can trace out the shape it's programmed to engrave for alignment purposes there are two versions of the G2 one with a 110 mm Square working area and this one that has a 150 mm Square working area the 150 mm version also has an electric lift to raise and lower the head under power though it's really just a convenience you still have to push the button to raise and lower the head to adjust the focus it doesn't do it on its own it does have a second red laser dot that you can use to judge the focus distance but I find it just as easy to use the included ruler and yes they included a ruler to set the distance to the workpiece I received a few of the optional accessories a plastic Shield that allows you to unmount the laser head and use it handheld and two rotary axes a roller rotary for Engraving cylindrical objects and a Chuck rotary for Engraving irregular objects like coffee mugs that wouldn't roll on the roller axis the unit comes disass assembled and packed in the shipping box you have to put in a few screws to attach the column to the base and the head to the column and the rest is just plugging in a bunch of cables now the head is permanently attached to the Laser Source with the optical fiber so they can't be separated and you do have to be a little bit careful while handling them also pay close attention when plugging in the data cable the connectors have tabs that are supposed to ensure that you plug them in the right way around but I assure you it is possible to plug the connector in backwards it's a little bit deceptive and I had to get my head down so that I could see the entire connector through the panel opening to even see what I was doing wrong and as long as we're talking about things you can screw up that will make your laser not work remember to take off the lens cap the red focusing laser comes out through a separate opening so it's easy to see that red dot and not realize that the cap is still on now I personally didn't make that mistake twice but I've heard stories the Laser Source has two power switches on it the big red mushroom switch controls the power to the galvo Head the red lasers and the control electronics and the small silver button controls the power to the Laser Source you can leave the Laser Source powered off while you're setting up the machine and that reduces the chances that you'll accidentally laser something that you didn't intend to though you won't ever want wonder if you left the Laser Source on the fans are substantial now while I was assembling my unit I noticed that there was a small brass chip on the inside of the lens it was probably just left over from one of the Machin operations during manufacturing I just unscrewed the lens and blew it out with a camera dusting bulb and while I had the lens off I also noticed that there is a fingerprint on one of my galvo mirrors my unit is one of the early production units so I would hope hope that isn't a regular occurrence though it doesn't seem to affect operation I didn't even bother cleaning it when I pulled the machine out of the box and tried to get it running I was seriously underwhelmed by the manual there was some basic information about assembly and very little else it also clearly hadn't been updated for the 150 mm working area version of the laser so the focal distance was even wrong I pointed this out to my contact at gwick and and she gave me the correct focal distance information and said that they would update the manual today and to their credit I checked the website and there is now a new version of the manual out there with the correct information by model and much better instructions for getting started for installing the software off the USB stick and for basic operation of the machine and the software speaking of the software though it's a weak point the G2 does not support lightburn though they say they're working on it and it doesn't even support easycad 2 the machine comes with a copy of what they call G laser which looks to be a customized version of CCAD or maybe seite I'm not really sure of its pedigree it does work and it does operate the laser and they do provide a nearly 200 Page manual for it on their website but the version I got doesn't have a material settings library and none of the free settings libraries like the excellent one from laser everything thing will work that leaves you to use the very limited table that comes in the manual or to create your own based on spreadsheets and Forum posts that you find online and like the customized versions of CCAD that come with lasers from other vendors it's far from easy to use if you just want to load a JPEG and put your dog on a coaster it will work fine but interoperability with other software is a little sketchy I was unable to get it to load and use dxf files exported from Fusion 360 and it would not load any of my Adobe Illustrator files even though it claims support for this on the website now I was able to export a dxf from Fusion import it into Adobe Illustrator save that as an SVG file and import that into G laser for Engraving but it only worked for SVG version one and only if I converted fonts to outlines I also got it into some weird situations where it would burn the image over over and over continuously and I couldn't figure out how to disable that feature in the project I ultimately just had to recreate the project file from scratch to get it to do what I wanted yes it works but it takes some experimentation now if they add support for light bur in the future that will be a GameChanger I originally agreed to review this laser back in May because I'm working on some control panels that need the larger 150 mm working area this control panel was 3D printed on the new prusa XL with integral flexible buttons the main body of the panel is pet G and I'm using the laser to engrave the markings I ran these at 10% power at relatively high speed and they came out great I would like it if they were a little bit lighter but these are crisp and clear and easy to read so I think this is going to work higher power settings leave nice black marks in steel I've done some testing previously with one of the diode galvo lasers and while they can leave a mark in steel this is a completely different animal these marks are dark and they're deep you can feel the surface roughness and the Mark is permanent stainless is a similar story The Mark is crisp and black and it just looks great again the diode lasers can Mark stainless steel but they do it by leaving a dark blue oxide ler on the surface that can be AB braided away this Mark is deep it's permanent and it really does look great aluminum is a material that's really hard to Mark with anything short of a real fiber laser and the G2 does not disappoint the marks are deeply embedded into the surface and they're really clean I wasn't able to get a really dark black mark in aluminum but I didn't spend a lot of time with it and the suggested setting in the manual are pretty limited maybe I'll play with it some more I've heard that it is possible to get a good black mark in aluminum but I haven't figured out how to do it anodized aluminum is a similar story with enough power the laser Burns through the anodized layer and into the aluminum underneath now while a diode laser can bleach the dye in the anodizing turning it white the fiber laser actually cuts through it and into the metal underneath copper is a difficult material because of its thermal conductivity it just carries the heat away and it's something that I've never been able to successfully Mark with a diode laser I can get little marks on the surface but they just rub right off even the 20 W fiber laser has a little bit of trouble with it I ended up running it at 90% 1,000 mm/ second and running two passes and the result is a nice dark mark that looks like it's going to be pretty durable I have some titanium in my scrap drawer and it also o engraves beautifully it glows white hot and throws off Sparks while engraving and it leaves a nice Dark Mark I just engraved over the rough surface of the Ingot it probably would be even nicer if I engraved it on a machine surface brass engraves nicely as well and it does leave a nice dark mark gwick claims that the laser will engrave up to 1 and 1 12 mm deep in brass so I gave it a try this is 80% % power at 1,000 mm/ second and I ran the recommended 50 passes it's definitely removed some material and left a pretty deep Mark it's nowhere near 1 and 1 12 mm but with enough passes it might be able to get there the wave length of the laser doesn't interact very much with wood or paper but I gave a piece of cardboard a shot just to see what would happen at low power levels it kind of just cleaned the surface and at very high levels run nice and slow it it does toast the paper and leave a little bit of char but it's far from a usable result and finally I tried one of the coated aluminum cards that came with the laser these things are easy to engrave and turn out great with every kind of diode or Fiber laser regardless of price the big win on these with the fiber laser is just speed you can run these really fast at relatively low power levels and still get great results so what's the final verdict is the gwick G2 something I would recommend well there's no doubt this is a serious tool it's a real fiber laser and it's a highly capable machine for all kinds of Engraving work 20 wats is a significant amount of power and is not even in the same league as the typical 2 wat pulse diode lasers that are out there the build feels solid it's nice to work with and the fit and finish are excellent the software is weak it will work fine if you want to do basic things and even if you want to do more complex work but it's fiddly sometimes tedious and I personally found it frustrating that isn't really unusual in this market segment but if they add support for light burn and provide a material settings library that will make this an all-around performer that I would not hesitate to recommend now this is definitely a big step up from the atom stack M4 I've been using both because of the power and the larger working area so it'll be sticking around in my shop and I'm sure you will see me using it on future projects now people always get upset if I don't talk about pricing but it's not always that helpful since prices change over time at this moment the 110 mm version of the G2 is on sale for around $1600 and the 150 millim version is 2,000 that's competitive with other machines in this class but if you're watching this video in the Deep future who knows if this is something you're interested in there is a link in the video description and if you use that link I earn a commission so just keep that in mind and take it as you will thank you for [Music] watching

Channel: Clough42

Views: 75,028

Keywords: fiber laser, fiber laser engraver, fiber laser review, laser engraver review, gweike g2 20w fiber laser, gweike g2, laser testing, honest review, laser machine, laser review, laser engraving, laser equipment, laser marking, fiber laser technology, fiber laser engraving, fiber laser machine, gweike, gweike cloud, gweikecloud, is gweike any good, gweike review, laser engraver, laser engraving equipment, laser engraver demonstration

Id: 1YZBMctGwnA

Length: 13min 34sec (814 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023