xTool P2

55W isn’t a lot more power than 45W. It did serve to show me that they aren’t overselling it the way some other brands are. GweikeCloud (aka OMTech Polar) advertises 50 watts but can’t cut most 1/4" MDF, which the 40W GF can. The fact that the P2 is a few inches wider than the GF also supports actually having a 50+ watt tube I think.

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As am I. Definitely not my experience with CO2 lasers of the sub-100W class. 3/4" of black walnut is a lot of hard material to laser through in one pass. It must be either very special walnut or some magic in the laser.

Really want to see what your results are with your Universal. My Redsail is long gone so I only have the GF available to test with so I can’t check for myself (although I have some nice walnut I could resaw to 3/4" thickness).

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Here’s a link to where they show the wood and measure it with calipers:

And where they show the cut:

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Just saw this in my feed. Will watch later but thought I would share… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=trIq0kLuRo8

Very interested in how this goes.

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I bought mine today. I’m most impressed with the precision. Engraving on a toothpick is insane. You will get my review once I receive mine.

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@Jules did a grain of rice(was it a prerelease unit?) early on.

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Very impressive. Can you repeat it on a YouTube video?

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Exciting! Can’t wait to see your review!!

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Very wise comment. Too bad GlowForge as a company has no interest to monitor this forum to keep a pulse on the community. Sure would be a great way to inspire innovation and development putting GlowForge at the leading edge.

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fwiw, just because they don’t respond here and officially say they don’t monitor the forums, don’t be fooled into thinking they don’t read any threads. i know they do read at least some, but they don’t generally respond here.

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Excellent point! I do know they do read at some level, just my way of saying “hey guys, let’s up the bar and add these features to GlowForge”. :smirk: I think all of us would appreciate access to the capabilities, features and attachments shown on the xTool P2.

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i’m guessing as users (because pretty much everyone who works there is also a user), they’d want them too. you can always email support if you want to make sure your voice is heard.

this is one of the downsides of GF. on some levels, they can be reasonably transparent, and others they are a 100%, tight-lipped, black box. and pretty much anything about the future is a black box.

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More information…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9SGXoqy9N0

Looks like the software is not completely developed or released yet. But, it seems really compelling.

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I have found quite a range with Walnut, some can be a half-inch cut with barely a scorch, but I have had some that burned horribly also. I think it has a lot to do with the age and growing conditions of the tree.

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FedEx delivered her today. At 127 pounds shipped, I broke a sweat getting it upstairs and onto the table on my own. Glowforge’s box weighs 70 pounds for comparison.

First thing I did was print a blast gate for the P2 using the Glowforge. I modified this free design to shrink the inner diameter of one side of the rings to match the P2’s smaller exhaust port. Then I got it hooked up to the ventilation run and ran my first test cut.

Super first impressions:

  • I missed the simplicity of GF’s webapp compared to the XCS desktop software
  • The camera positioning system is not as good as Glowforge’s, and there’s no calibration possible unless you contact customer service and have them send you tools
  • If there’s a built-in material library, I haven’t found it, so my first print was a test grid
  • Optical path calibration was perfect out of the box, just like GF
  • They ship it without coolant in the tank and have you add it yourself before powering it on the first time to avoid spills inside the laser during shipping
  • It’s loud as a vacuum cleaner when running, like my GF was with its built-in exhaust fan, but there’s no way to turn off the fan in this one that I saw
  • The slats are removable for lots of depth, and I might replace them with the spare GF honeycomb tray I have sitting unused
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Glowforge wont even tell us what is in the coolant, let alone let us interact with it. That was the beginning of why @deleted left, really. He fought them for ages to get coolant. I just don’t get GF’s model sometimes.

interesting feedback though, I’ll be curious what else you think as you get used to it. The software simplicity thing caught my eye. You think it’s overly complex, or will it still make for a pretty smooth workflow?

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Doesn’t it also support Lightburn? Did you ever use a laser before the GF? I wonder if the app awkwardness is unique to this one or if it’s just the difference between it & GF’s. If you had used an alternate laser’s software I’d be interested in your opinion of easier/harder vs another laser’s software. I noticed when moving to the GF that I found it limiting because I couldn’t control some parameters I was used to with my other machines. After awhile I found the GF better/easier for some things but worse/harder for others.

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It’s only partially supported by Lightburn at the moment. Supposedly they’re working on improving that together (xTool and Lightburn both made posts about it on their respective social media). You can do the basics but can’t use the cameras, autofocus that follows curved objects, use the automatic passthrough feeder and other P2 specific features.

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Ran the same SVG file through both machines, using their preset settings (found how to get those in the xTool software), on the same material (Thick Draftboard). This was the cut time for each machine.

Glowforge made clean cuts that dropped right out, while the P2 needed to be pushed out of the wood, so I’m going to slow it down a tiny bit, but it’s still going to reduce the cut times by about half. Big difference for only 10 watts more power.

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That is really interesting, thanks for sharing!

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