This is the Spider M1 Pro Laser Engraver,
it’s compact, portable,
and has an infinite Y-axis laser engraving and cutting ability,
which makes it easily stand out from the flooded market
of frame laser engravers we’ve already seen.
But as a pro laser engraver enthusiast,
I’m skeptical about the Spider M1 and have numerous questions
like its engraving accuracy on different materials;
And stability. Lots of crowdfunding projects have that issue,
and they crash all the time;
How about usability, what software does it use?
And so on and so on…
After testing it heavily for several days, I’ll cover every bit of those points.
BTW, I also got the Spider M1 Max.
The brand said to me that they haven’t sent this model to any other influencers,
I’m the first one to test it out. Wow, that’s going to be fun.
The video is going to be long, but I have marked the timeline for each section,
so you can just jump to the one you want to watch
or watch the whole thing and even give this video a thumbs up.
That would be awesome because I can earn more ads revenue.
All jokes aside, let’s get started.
Starting with the design. We have a leather handle on the top.
That reminds me of my Dad’s old suit case!
There is also a power key and a 2.4-inch color screen beside it, we’ll get to that in a second.
On the two sides are the fan and foam for dealing with smoke while it’s operating.
Now to the front, we have the “Spider M1” logo on the top left corner.
Then the transparent shield to let you see through
where your engravings is at when running.
On the right are the power port and the port for connecting with your computer.
Whilst on the bottom are the four rubber wheels
to let it move freely on flat ground. Then the laser head, the yellow shield is magnetic BTW.
Inside the slot is the X-axis guide rail and two shafts connecting with the wheels.
The M1 Max has the same design but is larger in size. I’ll list the exact dimensions of the two
on the screen, you can check them out.
That’s the design of the Spider M1 Pro and Max.
They also have the basic M1 version, which has the same design as the Pro
but with a 5W laser head. Both the Pro and Max have a 10W laser head.
To use the Spider M1, it’s actually easier and less complicated than a normal frame
laser engraver because it doesn’t require installation as it comes all pre-assembled.
Just place the M1 on a flat surface. Insert an SD card. Connect it to power.
Press the power key on the top and the screen will light up. Speaking of the screen,
let me introduce a bit more of it. There are three main interfaces. The first one is the Control.
You can move the unit by tapping the arrows. Also you can preview the laser status there.
The second one is the Set. You can choose language or connect Wi-Fi there. Third is the “Sculpture”,
in which it shows all the printing files that’s stored on the SD card. You can
click the files there to print immediately, pretty much like a 3D printer, isn’t it?
Now we connect the machine to Wi-Fi. Select the Wi-Fi you want to connect and
input the password. As you probably notice the screen is a bit awkward to operate because it’s
too small. But I’m glad once you connect to your Wi-Fi, you don’t need to interact with
it anymore if you don't want to. Once it’s connected, it will show you the IP address.
Please bear this in mind as you are going to use that to connect to other devices later.
There are three ways to connect with the Spider M1. You can either use a cable or just connect
it to a phone or laptop. For the latter, you have to make sure your devices are connected
to the same Wi-Fi. Download and install the App “MKS Laser” from the Google Play or App Store,
click the chain icon on the top left corner, input the IP address that showed on the M1 and connect.
That’s how to connect with your phone. Still, I will walk you through a little bit more of the App.
You can draw your own works, or take a picture and edit it to the way you want,
remote control to adjust its position etc.
Interestingly though, I found many laser engraver Apps have
many functions in common, I guess they all based on the same open source code or something. Anyway,
this video is not a tutorial video. If you really want to learn how to use it properly,
I suggest you watch some tutorials online. It shouldn’t be difficult, it just takes some time.
If you want to have even more features or use this machine in a professional way
definitely try it with LightBurn, yes, it’s compatible with it. For this software,
it is widely accepted by nearly all laser engraver users. It’s powerful and practical,
basically everything you can think of, it has. Here I wouldn’t even dare to teach you how to use
it as I believe many of you are much better with it than me. Just one thing, for laser cutting,
we choose Work Speed to 250 and 100 to the Laser Power.
If for laser engraving, then 3,000 speed and 30 power settings should handle most materials.
Speaking of that, let’s finally check some of the engravings I’ve tested. First of course,
you might want to know what on earth its engraving ability is for extra long and extra wide pictures,
after all, this is the biggest hype it claims. I used the M1 Pro to engrave one 200 by 700mm picture
and the M1 Max to engrave one 400 by 440mm owl picture.
In order to prove that I was not faking the engravings,
I literally used several cameras to record the whole engraving process
in timelapse mode. Man, this was almost killing me, especially that owl picture, I spent almost
a night because my camera battery couldn’t last that long and I kept switching and charging.
So at least I deserve a subscription?
I am surprised with the engraving quality.
It’s very clear with smooth edges, details are all kept.
Most importantly there is no jagged lines there that
might be caused by track deviation as it’s sliding through. Just check out this 700mm engraving.
As you may think this sliding engraving isn’t something new because we’ve already seen that
on the LaserPecker 2. But one thing this Spider M1 is capable of while the LaserPecker can’t,
is its laser cutting ability while sliding.
Speaking of cutting, for the 10W laser power on the M1 Pro and Max,
I tested that it can cut wood with a max thickness of 10mm in 5 repeats.
That’s quite amazing.
BTW I saw some of you guys are caring about its smoke absorption in the M1
Facebook group. Well, I would say it’s much better than most other laser engravers thanks to its fan
and foam design on two sides, but still I suggest you put a fan beside the machine when cutting.
Overall, from my days of test with the Spider M1 Pro and Max I think they definitely lived
up to the hype regarding its infinite work area engraving.
I also tried normal-sized engravings on the M1 Pro.
When you are using that, you have to use their plates to form a frame and
put the M1 on it. The foot pad is adjustable just in case your surface is not flat. They also offer
a small riser, so when you put your object on it, you can adjust the height of the object to let it
be parallel or a littler lower than the left or right plate. Then you are ready to engrave.
I tried different picture types on the wood, you can achieve this kind of effect by
selecting different options in the LightBurn software.
Crazy details, aren't they?
I also tried different materials. Like paperboard, leather, electroplated aluminum alloy plate,
even one 304 stainless steel plate. The result speaks for itself.
For which material the M1 can or can’t handle,
there is a very detailed list on its crowdfunding page, which you can find in the description.
Oh, just in case if you are wondering if the M1 can engrave cylindrical items. The answer I got
from them is that they are developing it and soon it will be available. Good to know that.
As a tech reviewer, I was lucky enough to see and try those simple early consumer laser engravers
from years ago to what has evolved now. Still, each year I see new manufacturers join in the race
and compete with those big brands with new form factor and innovative ideas.
They are fearless and put lots of effort in.
The first thing for that is I always encourage and support,
even though they are new and probably “scammers”, we need such innovators and pioneers.
I think as the first Laser engraver from this company, I think it did a fairly good job.
It has accurate engravings, especially the size of the engravings which no one else can match.
You can just print such big pictures in one pass, saving you lots of trouble.
It is easy to use, no need to assemble, you don’t even need to adjust laser focusing,
just put the object under the unit and you are good to go.
Though you do need to spend some time to study its software to get the best result.
But that’s the best thing of it, the results for you will be truly unique and memorable.
It’s stable. If it wasn't stable, I wouldn’t be able to test so many
engravings and materials in just three or four days!
I didn’t even experience one single interrupt when I was testing.
As a prototype, that’s quite amazing.
And for me, the best thing is its compact size so I can easily store it on even the smallest shelf
so my wife won’t find it and question me where did I spent all my pocket money.
Oh speaking of the price, that is another highlight,
starts at only $599 on Kickstarter. It is definitely one of the
most budget laser engravers I’ve used compared to those easily costing a few thousand-dollars,
and I think it’s definitely worth every penny.
If you are interested in it, please check out the link in the description
and back the project now.
I’m Sami and I will see you in the next one.