I have reviewed some laser engravers, I like a lot of them.
Especially the Laserpecker 2, they even come with a roller booster that enables you to
engrave on almost any curved surface that’s impossible for others.
In general, all those engravers they can engrave on many things and have really good performance,
but none of them have particularly good performance on metal due to the blue light laser that
has less powerful energy for engraving.
So when Mr. Carve reached out to me to see if I’m interested in their M1 machine, which
they claim they can carve on all types of metals.
I said why not.
So here it is, this is Mr.Carve M1’s prototype.
I’ve been with it for several days and I tried all kinds of metals, is it any good?
Here is my review.
Alright, first let's check out the design.
It's very simple, on the base of the engraver, you get an up and down key for focusing, and
a power button.
On the left side, there is a start button to let you start engraving when you press
it.
On the back there is a power port, a pedal socket，which they said will remove on the
official version, and a data line socket.
Moving up is the brain of the M1, which houses the field mirror, infrared focusing, and a
giant galvanometer.
We also see the ventilation there.
The design, I would say is “industrial”, which means it looks solid and practical but
feels less polished.
Good thing is, you can always put some stickers on it like I did.
But compared to the design, maybe the most important part is its performance, how on
earth is it?
To use it, just connect the machine to your power source and computer via the cables that
come with the box.
Press the power button to turn on the M1.
At this time, you will see two red dots on the surface of the project you want to engrave,
press the “Up” or “Down” keys to move the red dot until the two dots overlap, and
then you are almost ready to go.
Yes, welcome to M1’s App.
Here is the interface.
I know it may look a bit intimidating the first time of use, but once you get familiar
with it, you will love it, because you can control everything through the settings.
Here I’m not going to illustrate every detail, I will just show you the basics to get us
started.
If you want to engrave text, then click the “T” icon from the draw toolbar area, and
input whatever you want to engrave.
You can change the font, filling, and then click “Application”.
Of course, you have to make sure your content is within the square box [2:43], that’s
the printing area.
As for the parameters on the right side, normally you just need to adjust the speed and power,
normally you set the speed to 500 and power to 100, and that’s it.
All others just use the default settings.
From my tests, it doesn’t impact the results that much anyway.
Next, click the “Red light(F1)” button to preview the printing area.
You can always adjust your object’s position to make sure it’s on the right spot.
After that, click the button “Mark (F2)”, and you are now ready to engrave.
There is another interesting previewing mode which enables you to preview the whole text
like as shown in the video (The camera can’t record the whole text previewing due to frequency
flickering, naked eye viewing would be no problem.).
You just check the “Red light outline” box then you will see that.
As for picture printing, you click the picture icon from the draw toolbar area to import
the picture you want to print and adjust the size.
As for parameter settings, it’s a bit more complicated than the text, but still not very
much.
Make sure to check boxes of Reverse, Grayscale, Fixed DPI, and Outlets.
BTW, adjust the fixed DPI value to 500 and 500, the higher number means the more refined
results, but don’t set too high because it would take forever to engrave, 500 is enough
for normal usage.
Also check the boxes of "Two-way scanning" and "Adjustment power".
And make sure to click the “Application” button to save.
As for the speed, power, or frequency on the right side, you can keep the same as you would
for engraving text, but you can also adjust a bit, it basically has zero effect on the
printing.
And of course don’t forget to click to save.
And let it start printing.
That’s all you need to know if you just want to do basic engraving.
The software looks complicated but within a few minutes of learning you will get familiar
with it in no time.
But of course, in order to have the best results to engrave different materials on different
metal surfaces, you still need to read the manual and give it a few trials, once you
get it right, then you don’t need to spend more time to learn.
And now about the engraving quality.
I would say the results are out of this world, they are incredible!
As you can see whether for pictures or texts, they all look crystal clear and precise, the
edges look smooth, and many details are being kept.
It even has an outstanding performance on stainless steel, this is almost impossible
with many other laser engravers that I tried previously.
In addition to metal, the M1 has a good performance on plastics and leathers, but due to the infrared
pulse laser attribute on the M1, it doesn’t work on wood, paper, or feather materials
etc.
One sentence to conclude, it has the best results on metal.
As always, like reviewing all products, here is my pros and cons part.
First good stuff.
It’s fast, super fast.
With this speed, I don’t even need to compare with other laser engravers, it is the fastest
I’ve had so far.
Like this video shows, it prints my name in seconds.
Second is it’s powerful and safe.
Unlike blue light laser engravers, the M1 uses an infrared pulse laser with a wavelength
of up to 1064nm, which is penetrating.
As you can see the steel surface has been oxidized by the laser and left a pile of black
ash there.
So with this powerful laser you can always get the clearest pictures even on stainless
steel!
And with this power, you might think it’s dangerous, actually not.
Because of the infrared pulse laser it won’t generate blue light and hurt your eyes and
it won’t hurt your hands if you accidently touch it.
Of course, I’m not using my hands, but he said it is fine, nothing happened.
But for sure, I suggest you always wear protection gear when engraving.
Third I think is the portability and usability.
I know 6kg weight doesn’t sound that portable, but if you compare it to those industrial
grade metal engraving machines, they normally weigh 50kg!
That’s crazy heavy, so portability definitely is one of the advantages on the M1.
As far as I know, for these 1064nm wavelength infrared pulse laser engraving machines, the
M1 is the smallest industrial-grade and home-use engraving machine on the market.
It’s very easy to set up as well, basically you just put up the pole and line the engraving
head, screw tight, and you are ready to go.
No cables here and there.
Now the less good stuff.
I think for me the major thing I don’t like is the App.
Unlike Laserpecker has an intuitive phone app that lets you engrave things in seconds
even if you are newbies and offers many beautiful pictures and texts for you to engrave.
For the M1 you have to connect to a computer and learn to tweak this and that parameter.
For sure, it’s not that difficult but still a learning curve and might look intimidating
for new users.
But this also comes with a good side, for those geeks or pros they can control every
parameter for engraving, that’s actually a big bonus.
So, it varies for different people.
For others it has less good performance on curved surfaces, because the pulse laser has
a high precision for focusing, so to engrave curved surfaces it might have uneven engraving
results.
The M1 feels a bit noisy too when engraving due to its powerful laser performance.
But beyond all those minor imperfections, the M1 is a solid and awesome metal engraver,
especially considering the price, which you can find in the link.
It’s a no-brainer for anyone who wants to have a portable, consumer level engraver where
the majority of your work is with metal.
This is the one.
If you are interested in this Mr.Carve M1, definitely give it a checkout, link is in
the description.
I’m Sami and I will see you in the next one.