The laser engraver market in the last 2 years has grown enormously due to the myriad of things that can be done simply, precisely and with a great visual effect. In a previous review, we tested the Atomstack A5 Pro , an excellent product with an optical power output of the laser of 5 Watts (the maximum for the time) with which I made an Eiffel Tower.
The only drawback of the first laser modules was the timing for making cuts. For example, to make a cut on a 3 mm multilayer board, more passage was required, from 3 to 5 with maximum power.
The engraver that I present to you today is the Sculpfun S10 , an engraver with an optical power output of the laser of 10 Watts (the maximum currently available), which allows cuts in a single pass, to which it is possible to add an air assist (which we will receive soon, and with which we will update this review), with which you can improve the cuts avoiding the classic burn marks.
The novelties of recent years, not only see an improvement in the power of the laser module and the coupling with the air assist, but also cutting plans that further improve the final results, expansion brackets that increase the work surface and modules to engrave cylindrical objects. Without wasting any more time I leave you to the review of the Sculpfun S10 laser engraver with cutting plane also produced by Sculpfun.
INDEX
- 1. Where to buy Sculpfun S10 and its accessories
- 2. Technical Features Sculpfun S10
- 3. Sculpfun S10: Package Contents
- 4. Construction analysis, specifications and assembly
- 4.1. Limit switch
- 5. Security
- 6. Software
- 7. Test laser Sculpfun S10
- 8. Results and Conclusions
Where to buy Sculpfun S10 and its accessories
You can buy the Sculpfun S10 laser engraver at the best price available online directly from the European warehouses (Germany) of the TomTop store , by clicking on the link below, without any customs tax to pay .
- Sculpfun S10 10W from European warehouses –Discounted price: € 424.71, no customs fees, shipping from European warehouses.
- Sculpfun S10 10W from European warehouses with discount code – In case the first link no longer offers the discount, you can buy through this second link by entering the discount code: CCS10 . Discounted price: € 424.89, no customs fees, shipping from European warehouses.
- Honeycomb work table for laser cutting from European warehouses
- Sculpfun Air Assist £0L/Min
- Smoke extraction box 1440x720x360mm SCULPFUN
- Honeycomb work table for laser cutting from European warehouses –Discounted price: € 43.86, no customs fees, shipping from European warehouses.
- Workspace expansion kit
Technical Features Sculpfun S10
| Template | Sculpfun S10 |
| Dimensions of the incision | 410 x 400 mm |
| Materials that can be engraved | All types of wood, bamboo, paper, plastic, leather, PCB boards, aluminum oxide, anti-reflective plating and lacquered metal, ceramic (which should be painted black) |
| Materials that can be cut | Cardboard, fabric, light wood, acrylic material, thin plastic panels |
| Laser power | 36 W |
| Laser output power | 10 W |
| Accuracy of engraving | 0,01 mm |
| Wavelength of the laser | 455 ± 5 nm |
| Focusing method | fixed by means of an aluminum spacer |
| Safety | Protective laser cover to protect your eyes |
| Dimensions of the assembled product | 598 x 565 x 210 mm |
| Dimensions of the box in which it is packaged | 600x345x130 mm |
| Weight | 3.42 kg (5.13 kg including box and packaging) |
| Software that can be used | LaserGRBL (free), LightBurn (30 days trial), supports Win XP / Win 7 / Win 8 / Win 10 / Win 11 operating system |
| Method of data transmission | USB connection |
| Input format | NC, BMP, JPG, PNG, DXF and other image formats files |
| Certification | CE / FCC / RoHS / FDA certification |
| Accessories sold separately | Workspace extension kit, Air Assist, Honeycomb laser cutting table, cylindrical object engraving module |
Sculpfun S10: Package Contents
1 of 4
In the package we find:
- Anodized aluminum frame, consisting of 4 bars
- X axis with support for the laser module
- Modulo Laser
- 3 feet, to lift the structure from the ground
- Control box, which acts as a fourth foot
- A pair of goggles
- A power supply with 12V 5A output power
- A power cord
- A USB cable
- An air tube
- 6 sachets containing bolts, keys, toothed belts, wood samples, hex keys
- An aluminum spacer for fixed focus
- Assembly manual
Constructive analysis, specifications and assembly
The whole structure of the engraver is made of anodized aluminum , well designed and extremely stable, with some parts pre-assembled, as is now the case for most of this type of product.
The adjustment of the distance of the laser module from the cutting plane, which I remind you has a fixed focus, takes place via two screws with knurled head that can be easily locked with your fingers and a cylindrical aluminum spacer that positions it at the ideal distance .
The laser module with which the Sculpfun S10 is equipped has a laser output power of approximately 10.15 W. The diode laser, which operates in the spectrum of 455 nm, has a fixed focus. A red plastic cover is mounted to protect the laser beam, which can be lifted or removed.
The laser module is mounted on a linear guide which offers greater stability and makes a big difference when engraving small text at high speed. Next to the laser nozzle we find the branch to which the air assist is connected via a blue tube (to be purchased separately as it is not included in the package at a cost of about € 60).
The frame of the engraver is raised by means of 3 aluminum feet and a fourth foot / box inside which the controller is contained, on which we find the input for the USB cable and the connection plug of the power supply, as well as a switch. switching on and off.
As for the assembly, everything is well studied, from the manual that guides you step by step in each phase , to the simplicity itself of this operation, for which it takes a maximum of 20 minutes.
The assembly is a very simple operation, as all the steps are guided by the video you find below or through the manual in Italian to assemble the Sculpfun S10 :
All screws and other assembly components are all contained in numbered bags to be opened at each step illustrated in the manual. It is only necessary to assemble the axes consisting of 4 aluminum profiles, insert the belts, and make the very few connections from the controller to the steppers and the laser module.
A few more minutes, it will then be used for fine adjustments, to be made to make the Sculpfun S10 perfectly smooth on the axes without any play. The adjustments only concern the tension to be applied to the two belts (one for each track, for the Y axis) and the play of the three wheels that run for each track (two above and one below for each track).
The adjustment of the sliding carriage of the various axes is carried out using a wrench supplied which will act on the eccentric screw, which by rotating it brings the wheels closer or further away from each other. A perfect adjustment of this component eliminates any play during sliding on the axes and at the same time avoids too hard sliding.
1 of 2
Limit switch
Unfortunately, a small lack, even if not really important, is that of the limit switches, useful for easily setting the 0 position through auto-homing. Not bad though as you can manually move the laser to the correct position and test the engraving area.
Safety
When using a device that allows you to engrave and cut through the beam emitted by a laser diode like this one, it is always a good idea to wear protective goggles (included in the package), even if the laser is surrounded on three sides by a red acrylic cover. of the same material as the glasses. As you can understand, this is not a toy and you should never let your guard down when the laser is in use and you are going to engrave reflective metal surfaces.
When working with this type of product, I always recommend a certified protective eyewear, to further increase your level of safety, like this one below:
LaserPair 315-540nm DIRM LB5 & 900-1070nm DIR LB5 Q-switched tattoo removal laser eyewear …
- Compatibility: 315-540 nm DIRM LB5, 900-1070 nm DIR LB5, VLT 30%; typical wavelength of …
- Usage: protection and safety for alexandrite, diode, ND: YAG and KTP lasers.
- Safety glasses for healthcare professionals, ideal for doctors and laser technicians. With frame …
48,88 €
Buy on Amazon
It is equally important to use laser engravers in a well-ventilated area , as by engraving or cutting different materials, fumes and odors are produced.
Software
Among the most used software to combine with a laser engraver we find Lasergrbl and Lightburn ideal for working with vector files and images.
The first completely free is definitely not the most user-friendly software to use even though it is very popular.
The second is a free trial software for 30 days, but extremely complete and full of features, intuitive and powerful. The 30-day trial allows you to use all the features, which in the long run make this software extremely interesting. Below you will find a screenshot of its interface with the project created for this review uploaded.
Lightburn used to make the reindeer sleigh
Test laser Sculpfun S10
First of all it is mandatory to specify that the results of our tests in this review were obtained without the use of the air assist, which we will receive in the next few days and with which we will update this review at a later time.
I want to specify this as two essential accessories for obtaining perfect results are the honeycomb cutting plane and the air assist. Both allow to obtain cuts and engravings by greatly reducing the burns on the piece, burns that also depend on the chosen settings, in fact if on the one hand to save time, it is possible to set the laser at maximum power and make cuts with a single pass, this involves a slight yellowish halo at the edges of the cut.
Conversely, better results are obtained by making more passes of the laser at a lower power, at the expense of the amount of time required to make a cut. Furthermore, the use of the accessories mentioned above further improves the final result.
Returning to us, included in the sales package we find some two wooden tablets with which to carry out the first tests. In my case, to test this engraver, I bought a 3 mm thick sheet of plywood 1 x 2 meters from a carpentry shop, which I then adapted and cut into various squares suitable for this engraver, which I remind you to have a surface of work of 410 × 400 mm.
Alternatively, you can always buy on Amazon some sheets of 3 mm plywood , perfect thickness as, from the tests carried out, it is possible to make cuts with a single pass, setting the laser power to 100% with a more than excellent speed.
In addition, 3mm plywood sheets are perfect as many free projects that you can find online on various sites, including ThingVerse , use plywood sheets of this thickness, otherwise you need to resize your projects.
For those who have never used a laser engraver, the values on which it is possible to “play” to make incisions or cuts are 3:
- Laser power: 0 to 100%
- Laser movement speed: expressed in mm per minute
- Number of passes to be carried out: usually 1 for the incisions and from 1 to more passes for the cuts depending on the thickness of the sample to be cut.
After testing different settings, the results are as follows. With a single pass, setting 100% of the power with speed values from 370 to 500 mm / minute, I made a 3 mm multilayer cut without any problems. With the previous engraver with 5 watt laser output power, however, 3 passes were required at unfortunately lower speeds.
To obtain better results by reducing the burn marks on the piece, I found the perfect setting on 2 passes at 80% of the power and 500 mm / minute of speed, but at the expense of the production time.
For our test, in view of the arrival of the winter season, I wanted to make a Christmas sleigh with reindeer, found on the 3axis.co website (you can also find many other projects on ThingiVerse like this link used in the previous review).
The final result is what you see below, a spectacular result if you think that it was made in just 30 minutes, (with other engravers for the same project it would have taken about 90/100 minutes). Furthermore, everything was done without air assist and without sanding the scraps obtained.
1 of 2
The precision of the cuts made is exceptional, with a cutting cleanliness never seen before, even the details with the thinnest lines under a millimeter of thickness are perfect, as you can see from the image below. The only limit to what can be achieved with such an engraver is only your imagination, since every project you can download, in addition to being easily editable, can also be customized.
Note both the cleanliness and the perfect perpendicularity of the cut, which allows this subject to stand up despite the surface only 3 mm wide.
Results and Conclusions
Currently all engravers are very similar to each other in appearance, but the final result changes a lot based on some characteristics. Sculpfun S10 excels in the results obtained, thanks to the laser module, among the most powerful currently available, in addition to the native integration for the air assist that we will test in the coming weeks, and that you can see once this review is updated.
The power of the laser allows you to make cuts with a single pass, even on plywood of 6 mm with a speed of about 200 mm / minute or of 3 mm with a speed of 500 mm / minute, or on “soft” wood even of 1 cm, truly incredible result. By making several passes you can also cut plywood up to 15 mm and light wood up to 20 mm.
Sculpfun S10 achieves these results thanks to an incredibly small focus point of only 0.08mm. We also find various accessories that allow
In this regard, I suggest you follow us on our official telegram news channel, where we will update you once this review is updated and our second channel, where we publish all the best offers with exclusive discount codes.
JOIN THE TELEGRAM NEWS CHANNEL OF GIARDINIBLOG
JOIN THE TELEGRAM CHANNEL OF GIARDINIBLOG OFFERS
The construction is also very robust and precise, also thanks to the linear guide on which the laser is mounted which allows perfectly calibrated movements of industrial precision. We are facing one of the best engravers currently on the market .
Among many advantages, we also found two aspects that could be improved, namely the absence of a crawler harness for the cables, as already seen on some engravers, while as regards the honeycomb cutting plane, I do not understand why all producers insist on making a surface with a surface much smaller than the cutting area of the engraver.
There is no lack of a display on the engraver, a feature that I consider quite useless and that is found on some models.
Also not to be forgotten are the large amount of accessories, which can be purchased separately, available for Sculpfun S10, such as:
- Engraving workspace expansion kit that extends the work surface from 410 × 400 mm to 940 × 410.
- Air assist , to make cuts without burning the piece.
- Module to engrave cylindrical objects .
- Smoke suction box
All these accessories make you understand how evolved and conceived this product is to obtain results for different types and areas of use.
Sculpfun S10 is suitable for hobbies and also for professional work as its ability to engrave and cut is among the best currently available. If you are considering purchasing a laser engraver, this is a product that will surely not disappoint you.