The xTool S1 Review (First Look / My settings + Hack!) ✅

[Music] [Music] inside this box is the brand new xtool S1 at the time of filming this intro there are approximately zero videos on YouTube about this laser and outside of this little picture here on the front I don't know much about it so let's do a quick unboxing and assembly I'll run a couple different projects to see how it performs and I'll share my settings and after that I'll let you know what I like about it what I don't like about it and if I suggest picking one of these up if you're in the market I apologize ahead of time for the messy table but hey this is an active work Zone and I've got jobs to ship anyways back to the S1 it will arrive in a pretty normal siiz box and you can pull it out using these Nifty straps that hold everything together it's not too heavy but I wouldn't make a habit of carrying it around like this the entirety of all the components instructions and Bas level accessories are all packed inside of the bed of the laser which makes unboxing a [Music] breeze here's a first look at our completely unpacked laser [Music] bed the S1 is going to be offered with options of 20 watt 40 watt and IR modules and as we see here I have the 40 W this new module design looks really cool and is super easy to install just two little screws up at the top now let's test out the autofocus Framing and run a little engraving I'm using XEX tool creative space for everything today connecting the S1 to creative space was super fast and I'm operating off Wi-Fi which I really enjoy since normally my laser is across the room from where I sit I also got the xtool honeycomb panel and brand new air assist unit I love these new little magnet clips that come with the honeycomb panel okay let's dive into some project first we'll fish out that slate coaster that's in the sample pack that comes with your S1 let's try engraving a straightforward Vector graphic and here is our result look pretty good to me nice and bright light gray which is what you want when doing slate next up let's make a little ornate wooden box out of some 3mm project panels I've lying around this will involve Vector cutting and line scoring this design contain lots of intricate cut lines and I'll be excited to see how the S1 performs with them here's a look at our raw cutouts everything looks good with minimal scorching on the surface I had the air assist maxed out for this job and here's what the finished result looks like after some staining and assembly very happy with how precisely everything fit together after cutting all that wood it's a good time to freshen up the lens I like to use a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol moving on let's try engraving one of those 3D illusion files that are popular right now I'll also be using the 3mm project panel for this project and it will involve cutting and roster Engraving here is a look at our results looks okay it's not the Laser's fault I think I struggled a little bit with the roster engraving settings on this one I'm very comfortable with photo engraving and light bur but creative space was a little bit different than what I'm used to moving on next up let's make a leather card holder I'm making this out of 2 and 1/2 mm thick vegetable tan leather and this project will involve Vector engraving and cutting here's the card holder fresh out of the laser I think I went a little bit too hot on the engraving I keep forgetting this is a 40 WT laser here it is after a little cleanup and hand stitching came out nice with minimal scorching on the top and the bottom again I would lower the power on the engraving a little bit next time next up let's engrave a coated stainless steel flask as you can see this flask has a curved surface so it's a great time to try X Tool's new twinpoint positioning tool the twinpoint positioning allows the software to measure the variations in surface depth to make sure that the laser stays in Focus as it engraves here you can see the laser measuring a grid of different Focus points along the surface after it's finished doing its thing it'll show you a 3D rendering of what the surface looks like with a couple settings you can tweak I don't really know what any of this does at the moment so I just cranked both of them to the top and here is our result the good news is everything on the curved surface stayed in Focus during the process the not so good news is creative space automatically lowers the speed setting I selected by 20 mm a second I assume it's for good reason but I didn't notice it ahead of time so my engraving ran a little hot and our final project for the day will be engraving an acia cutting board I didn't have a design in mind so I bought this SVG file off Etsy for a dollar I guess I'm entering my live laugh love era and here's our result it looks great the lines are smooth and the engraving is nice and even this should be ready for display after finishing coat of oil okay so now let's have a little chitchat about the S1 I guess I'll start at the beginning when I got the laser since I didn't know anything about it I wasn't exactly sure how much assembly I was was in store for I was more than pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to see that everything was basically ready to go minus a couple of attachments like the laser module in the exhaust toes having to assemble dial lasers is easily one of the worst Parts about owning them the assembly process for the S1 is about 5 Steps it might take you like a half hour before you're ready to get started using it so on the topic of unboxing and setup the S1 gets an A+ for me even if you've never touched a laser before you should have no problem following the print instructions that come with it that's let talk about software exol obviously wants you to use their creative space software so for all the testing I've done so far I've been using creative space and it's worked well after running a software update I plugged in the S1 and it was set up in a matter of minutes you can connect via USB or Wi-Fi I highly suggest using Wi-Fi if you can it's great to be able to move your laptop around without being Tethered to the machine the S1 is compatible with lightburn but as of now some of the more advanced features aren't available to use here here's a note on that directly from xtool so keep that in mind if you're going into this thinking about using liper for any of the future videos I do with the S1 I'll most likely be using lightburn to see how it goes but for now I haven't tested it at all so I can't comment let's talk about the enclosure the S1 comes fully assembled inside of a class one certified enclosure so you don't have to go out and buy a separate one like you do with most diode lasers if you've watched any of my other diode videos I always stress how important this is for your physical safety anything that goes on inside of this enclosure from fumes to radiation you don't want on or inside of your body the enclosure is also made from a fire resistant material and has several flame sensors throughout the bed to keep things safe I'll take them for the word on that because I have no plans on starting fires to see how it works so not only do you get the enclosure but it's a really nice one at that a lot of the smaller enclosed lasers only have a small viewing port at the top but the S1 has this wide viewing area from the top as well as some on the front here too if you're new to lasers this might not seem like a big deal but up until now you would buy the diode laser and then either run it out in the open which is insane and I can't believe people do it or buy what is essentially a glorified plastic bag like this to put it in yeah it works but I definitely wouldn't consider it a cohesive system let's talk about the exhaust fan an adequate exhaust fan is another one of those things that's necessary not only for your physical safety but for the operation of the components inside of your laser as well as the quality of your work the S1 comes with a fan installed in the back of the enclosure and an expandable plastic Coe that you need to Route outside of a window or under your garage door like I do I don't know the CFM rating of the fan off hand but I found it to work pretty well when doing engraving work but I would prefer a touch more power when I was cutting wood I would definitely notice a little bit of smoke buildup towards the front right hand side of the laser bed here which would make sense because it's the furthest point away from the exhaust fan fan which is back here the fan will automatically run for 5 to 10 seconds after your job completes but I think they need to increase that time or even better allow us to set that parameter in Creative space I'm big on good air flow in and out of my Works Space and I would prefer to let the exhaust fan run for much longer after the job's been completed a hack I started doing early in the testing period was feeding the end of my exhaust hose into my spare 4in inline fan to give an extra boost not necessary but it really clears the smoke and fumes well it also extends the distance you can place your laser away from the exit to your workroom the expandable hose that comes with the S1 is only about 4T long so keep that in mind when you're deciding where to put your laser autofocus I love the new autofocus another one of the worst things about Dio lasers is having to manually set Focus each time by twisting those stupid little knobs that are usually hard to reach especially inside of an enclosure to use the autofocus on the S1 you just place the red Crosshair over your material and hit the focus button button in Creative space the laser does the rest make sure you line up your material up under the Crosshair instead of the autofocus sensor or you might get it stuck in the honeycomb bed like I may or may not have done the first time I tried it out autofocus is one of those things that save so much time over the course of your laser work and you don't realize how much you appreciate it until you don't have it I guess it's time to mention the 40 W module this is my first time using a 40 W module and it definitely packs a punch I mentioned a few times during the project section of my video that I was overshooting how much power I needed to do certain tasks I easily could have increased the speed or just decreased the power in the settings so yeah this thing is as advertised however as standard with all diode and CO2 lasers the more powerful the module the larger the beam is going to be so the spot size is definitely larger than a 20 watt or 10 watt module meaning you might lose some fine detail during Engravings but make up for that with more raw power it's super easy to install and remove the module in the new xtool module system it's just two screws a plug and the air assist hose connection I don't know what plans they have for additional modules but you can get the 20 wat the 40 WT and the IR module as of now let's touch on some of the extras the full S1 bundle product includes the honeycomb panel and the air assist unit you saw me using both of these in the video the honeycom panel fits inside the laser bed with plenty of space to shift around but you do want to lay a flush against the right side of the enclosure as per the instructions having a come panel whether it's the xtool one or not is essential for laser cutting especially smaller parts you need to have the material lifted off the bottom of the laser so there's proper air flow underneath if you're just doing engraving work though it's not required the S1 does come with a pack of triangular risers you can use for the same purpose if you don't want to go and buy the honeycomb panel right away however this won't be as good if you're cutting a lot of smaller intricate pieces next the new air assist I like it a lot because when you have it on auto mode it only runs when there's a job running it's not loud or anything but having the exhaust fan and the air assist automatically turn off in between use is pretty nice if you have an air assist for your current diod laser like the D1 Pro I'm pretty sure you can just attach it here I don't see why that would be a problem you just wouldn't be able to use the automatic settings bed size the working area for the 40 watt is listed at 498 mm by 319 which roughly comes out to 19 1/2 in x 12 1/2 in and the working area for the 20 watt is listed at 49 8 mm X 330 which translates to about 19 1/2 by 13 smaller module means you gain a little bit more in usable area this orientation is more in line with the majority of other CO2 desktop lasers like the P2 the square format has always been relegated to the non-enclosed diode lasers there are a couple accessories I have not tried out yet but will use in future videos first being the Riser base if the material you want to engrave is thicker than 42 mm or a little over an inch and a half you need to install the Riser base first keep in mind that the honeycomb panel does count towards the height number if you're using it I measured the height of the honeycomb and it came out to about 1 in by itself the other two accessories I haven't tried out yet are the ra2 pro rotary attachment and the automatic conveyor feed so I can't comment on those yet last but not least let's talk about a popular feature that you didn't see in this video and that is a camera attachment there is no camera attachment for the S1 as of now at least that doesn't matter to me because I don't use cameras in any of my lasers but if that's a feature you've grown accustomed to you might want to keep that in mind now let's talk pricing at the time this video is going out the price of the 40 wat S1 with just the base level accessories included is $1 199.99 in Us doll that doesn't include a honeycomb panel air assist and riser base the 40 wat S1 bundle which includes the honeycomb and air assist is 2199 no Riser base included the 20 W S1 Standalone with base level accessories is is $15.99 and the 20 W S1 bundle that includes the honeycomb panel and air assist is $77.99 both of those have no Riser base included all of that is obviously before any discounts or sales that might be offered at the time so as far as diod lasers go these are definitely on the higher end as far as pricing but there also isn't anything else quite like this on the market yet I've noticed some comparisons to the soon to be released rly laser Matic model but even that is pushing you up to around $1,400 for 30 W module and that doesn't have some of the S1 features like the 40 W module autofocus curve surface capability option to swap in an IR module for metals and a class one certified enclosure look I'm not trashing the laser Matic I've never used it my main point is the pricing trend for these new enclosed diode systems are just going to keep going up people like new features and new features mean more money so let's talk two scenarios where you might or might not consider buying this laser first up your brand new to lasers and you're currently shopping for your first in this scenario I think you should consider this machine because it's super easy to get up and running with minimal assembly combined with xtool creative space it's a very beginner friendly environment to get started a lot of people start with xtool products so there is a ton of resources out there to help beginners especially on YouTube and Facebook groups the only real hot take I have here is if price is a big consideration and you don't have any specific use for the 40 WT module I suggest getting the 20 wat bundle I mentioned it in my D1 Pro review video I think the 20 wat is the sweet spot for diode lasers it engraves really nice and still enough power to cut most of the things people want to cut if you need hardcore cutting power you should consider a CO2 laser which will be even more expensive next scenario you already have a DI laser setup you like but are considering an upgrade in the future maybe you currently have something like the 20 wat D1 Pro in this case I might consider saving up a little more and going straight to the P2 even with a 40 W module and all the new features which are great the S1 is still going to have the same limitations all Dio lasers have mainly regarding speed and dealing with certain materials like acrylic I love using my Dio lasers but the logical next step is graduating to the CO2 Arena okay that's a lot of talking so let's wrap things up with my overarching thoughts on the S1 first it's aesthetically the nicest looking dial Laser out there without question it's got a nice Sleek design all the parts and buttons feel substantial the bed lights turn on and off automatically there's no straight cables popping out everywhere everything is placed very intentionally and that kind of stuff matters at the price tag they're looking to sell these at the cutting and Engraving performance was as I expected it to be there were no surprises there I've used many di lasers before so I know what to expect I'm essentially brand new to creative space though and it took me no time at all to incorporate all the new features like the autofocus and the curve service detection into my routine I went from unboxing to running that slate coaster project within an hour this laser is for people who are looking to hit the ground running as soon as their package gets delivered with no BS the only cons for me so far I would prefer a stronger exhaust man especially for doing a lot of cutting which is what the 40 wat module is best at the second con it's kind of stupid but I hate how loud the beep is when the S1 is prompting you to push the button down here you need a mute option for that thing anyways I'm not done using this laser at all I will definitely work S1 project videos and tip videos into my YouTube posting schedule so I'll have more to say after I spend even more time with it and get to try out some of the accessories that didn't make it into this first look review and now for the disclosure portion of this video in full transparency xtool sent me this laser in return for an honest review I'm not employed by xtool they didn't pay me specifically for this video however I do like their products and I like working with them as a company I sincerely think they are the best in this category and this is why you don't see me posting reviews of every random laser that comes on the market if this review helps you in any way on deciding to purchase the S1 or anything from xtool for that matter I would greatly appreciate it if you can use the link in the video description below it doesn't cost you anything but xtool will kick back a couple bucks to me which helps me pay for everything I've got going on here and make more videos as always thank you for watching and if you have any specific questions on the S1 you can add them in the comment section below if I don't know the answer I'll try my best to get it for that's it Go Phillies

Channel: Justin Laser

Views: 36,523

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Id: xRV9GGL0SYk

Length: 20min 36sec (1236 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 19 2023