AtomStack Discount Codes & Vouchers

AtomStack builds laser engravers and cutters for workshops and home makers, spanning small diode machines through to higher-powered water-cooled and CO2 units.

Diode, fibre and CO2 do different jobs

A diode laser is the usual starting point: it engraves and cuts wood, leather, card, dark acrylic and painted or coated metal, and it is the cheapest way in. A fibre laser marks bare metal, which diode lasers essentially cannot, and is the choice for engraving tools, knives and steel parts. A CO2 laser cuts clear acrylic and a wider range of non-metals faster and cleaner than a diode. Buying the wrong type is the expensive mistake in this category, so decide what material you are actually working with before looking at wattage.

Wattage, speed and what the number means

Higher optical power cuts thicker and faster, but it does not turn a machine into a different class of tool. Pay attention to whether a figure quoted is optical output or electrical input, since those are not the same and only the first tells you anything. In practice most work is a trade-off between power, speed and number of passes, and a material test grid — the same design run at a range of settings — will teach you more in an afternoon than any specification sheet. The machines run from the maker's own software and also work with the common third-party alternatives.

Safety is not optional with a laser

Three things. Eyes: the enclosure or the correct-wavelength goggles are part of the machine, not an accessory, and reflected light is as dangerous as direct. Fumes: laser cutting produces smoke and fine particles that must be ducted outside or through a proper filter, and an open window is not extraction. Fire: never leave a machine running unattended, keep an extinguisher within reach, and clear scrap and dust from the bed, because material glowing after a cut is how workshops burn down.

Materials that must never go in

PVC and vinyl release chlorine gas when lasered, which damages you and corrodes the machine, and they are not worth any project. Polycarbonate burns and yellows rather than cutting, ABS melts and stinks, and anything with an unknown coating or an unidentified plastic should be treated as not laserable until you know what it is. Check a safety data sheet when in doubt. Beyond that, an air assist nozzle, a honeycomb bed and a rotary attachment are the accessories that change results most, and they are worth budgeting for alongside the machine.