OMG! First time on your channel and everything you shared for helpful tips with the M1 was soooooo good. Yeah, absolutely worth the watch all the way to the end. Thank you so much. I subscribed!!!!
It is comments such as yours that brings us such joy and inspures us to make more contenr. Thank you so very much for watching our video and for your kind words.
I got to be honest... that has turned out to be the best work around I have ever used. I use it all the time. Thank you for watching our video. I seriously thank you!
Another PURRfect video on the M-1. Great tips, especially the Lego jig and the toothpick idea. It's nice that y'all share what you have learned so others can avoid frustration in their Laser journey.
You are so very welcome! We are truly pleased that you enjoyed the tips. We would also like to thank you for taking the time to watch our video and for leaving a kind comment.
Your tips are always the best! I just received my m1 10w w/honeycomb, rotary, air assist, and smoke purifier and I find that your experience and tips will benefit the set up process. Both of you are so talented! God bless you both!
We sincerely appreciate your short but very meaningful comment. It makes us want to continue making more content if people are watching and thanking us for you. And for that... thank you, back at you! :-)
Could you maybe do a video of how you set your M1 up to Lightburn? I need step by step instructions and it seems like a lot of people are clueless on how to get your M1 to connect to lightburn.
I did the research and found that xTools has some instructions for using Lightburn to actually control your M1 but it was a little complex. At this time, I use Lightburn to trace images and it works much better than XCS for me. If I get a chance to create a how to video, I will let you know. Thank you so much for watching our video and for taking the time to leave a comment.
A great bunch of tips both. I especially love the Lego Board. A friend of mine is 3D Printing a Peg Board to be used in the same way but the Lego looks perfect. Great video and take care both. Cheers, Huw
Between us... it takes me forever to set the board the way i like it. Ran out of a certain color blocks of a specific shape so i had to develop different set ups to make things symmetrical and mathing colors. Other than that. The blocks are perfect. 🤣
loving your videos - I just bought the m1 and I have a question. I also bought the honeycomb riser set and I would like to know if i need to remove the honeycomb and put back the other metal piece to do the vinyl or can you put the sticky sheet on top of the honeycomb? looking forward to your answer.
Ms Ida, that is actually a brilliant question, which I had not thought about before. Prior to the M1, I used a Cricut to cut vinyl a lot and the concepts are the same. In theory, I imagine you could place the matt on the honeycomb but the way the cutter works is by applying pressure of the blade through the cutting material. every time the blade passes over a blank area of the honeycomb, it might not have the right amount of pressure needed to cut through the material. On the flip side, I believe the sticky matt provided with your M1 is firm enough that it will not be a problem. In conclusion, Personally would not place it on the honeycomb. As you start cutting wood, the honeycomb starts building up a residue, which will in turn transfer some to the back of your sticky pad. remember, the sticky pad is sticky on both sides to prevent movement. It might not stick well to the honeycomb. Here is a work around. I used small blocks of wood to raise my M1 high enough for the honeycomb to slide under and leave little gap. when I need to use the metal plate of the M1, I simply put it in place and it takes seconds. It does not touch the honeycomb. I also, do not screw down the metal plate. It fits firmly in place and is heavy enough that I do not feel the need to screw the plate down. Now I can remove the plate and access the honeycomb and easily add back the plate to use as needed. I hope this makes sense but if you have any questions requiring clarification, do not hesitate to ask.
Totally a newbie! But thinking about the x1tool laser. About this laser for a new crafter? I do a lot of woodwork, but have not done anything on lasers before just curious. Thank you so much. .
If you were to check out our other videos, you will find that numerous companies have given us products and asked for us to review their products. We only agree to this under one condition and that is... we provide an honest opinion, be it positive or negative. So, we only work with companies that want such feedback so they can make improvements if needed. That being said, we too are primarily woodworkers but we were provided an opportunity to review the XTool M1. This has proven to be the best tool I have. We have been avle to make countless custom gifts for friends and family and it paid for itself in a short time. Not from selling things but from saving money for purchasing gifts. Maybe XTool is not for you but a laser cutter will make a huge difference in what you can accomplish in your shop. Keep in mind lasers burn wood to cut and creates smoke. Enclosed cutters like the M1 help control smoke and allow you to blow it outside or into a purifier. Be sure to research all laser companies and decide for yourself. If you have questions, feel free to ask
I'm having trouble figuring out setting for my own materials. I've got major scorching going on and it's still not cutting all the way through. I haven't yet installed the AirAssist but that's just for helping to avoid scorching? Do you have some advice on the Power-Speed-Passes settings?
Great question. Usually when there is scorching it is because of to high power or too slow speed. It might also be with an improper setting of the laser head distance to the wood. use the following link to obtain what is called a test cut file. What will happen is your M1 will cut different squares at different level of power and different speeds. when finished, you will be able to determine the perfect power and speed settings you need. You can also manually adjust the height settings. run the auto-detect and add 0.1" inches as a manual distance and run a test cut. if it does not cut through, add another .lf it does not get better, subtract 0.1 and test cut a small piece. you will eventual figure out the perfect settings. Once you do, store the settings on a spreadsheet so you dont have to rely on memory. The air assist can help prevent scorching. It blows away minute particles that can deflect the light from the laser and spread the beam a bit. if the beam spreads, it may cause scorching. I hope this helps but if you have more questions, feel free to reach out to us.
Wow! That is extremely generous of you. Please let your friend know they are welcome to ask us questions. We read and respond to all questions and try to provide a proper resolution.
Have you actually ran your M1 from Lightburn? The link you posted seems to refer to using it with the Xtool D1 Using Lightburn to create files and save in a format the Creative Space can read is a good option. But actually controlling the M1 from Lightburn does not seem possible right now. But I would certainly like to hear how it could be done.
Great question. I went through all the steps that I found and ultimately, the instructions are for using Lightburn to control the M1. I am new to laser cutting and Lightburn was a little overwhelming and I found it much easier to use it to create SVG file and then use XCS to open the SVG file and cut it. I hope this helps.
@@Poor_Mans_DIY interesting. Do you have to a link to those steps. I just see it for the D1. I find the creative space to work ok. I like the feature it has to find similar shapes and automatically engrave the same thing on them.
I like the idea of transfer tape but every tape I have tested, pulls small parts of the wood off. But seriously.... thank you for taking the time to provide such a good suggestion.
Fantastic question. I never thought about the need to address this. The answer is Yes. You need more power to cut through the tape first. Thank you for the wonderful question.
If you find a thin enough honeycomb, you could place it directly in the M1 but I had no such luck. I have removed the bottom plate of my M1, raised the legs and placed the honeycomb under the M1. Note this caused a problem for me. By using the included riser blocks, it works fine but creates a large gap between the honeycomb and the bottom of the M1. This allowed all the smoke to escape and not be drawn into the air vent (fan), which i connect to a smoke purifier. To fix this. I use risers I made myself from scrap wood. And there is virtuall no gap but some smoke still escapes so I place some long, thin scrap wood around the base and it does the trick for me. Thank you for watching our video and for your wonderful question
So, everything I see on the Xtool website seems to imply that Lightburn is not supported on the M1 (it only references the D2 laser) . Is there a special version of Lightburn or something for the M1?
From what I pieced together, you are able to generate something called a Gcode and utilize that to cut but you cannot use any version of Lightburn to directly control the M1. I use Lightburn with its features to create an SVG file and then open the SVG file in XCS and get great results. Kind of tedious but I love Lightburn and I definitely love my M1 so it is a way to take advantage of both, in a round about way.
Although I do not have experience with this, I am confident that it can cut without burn marks. It is all about the laser settings. You should run a test on some card stock to determine the best speed and power to use. I suspect the laser power will have to be low to prevent burn marks. This will be true with any laser. Always run tests first and then annotate the best settings for use with each color cardstock.
I know this must seem like a silly question since all the buttons are right there in the xcs software: How do you engrave and cut the same file with the M1? I have ready-made svg files with engraved designs which then need to be cut out and I can’t seem to get both operations to go in one shot . . . I’ve searched all over for instructions for this to no avail.
if your SVG file consists of individual lines, you click on each line and identify if it should be engraved or cut. If you are unable to do this, feel free to send your file SVG to me and I will see if I can make adjustments for you and send it back. If I am able to make changes, I will explain what I did, so you can do it for yourself in the future. If you choose to do this, send email to poormansdiy@hotmail.com.
Hi guys, do you have any videos on cutting with the xtool M1as I've contacted xtool and they are talking about(vector ?) as bitmap will not work for cutting ?
I am ashamed to admit, I initially tested the cutter blade but have not fully tested because I have a Cricut and I am very comfortable with it, so I have not taken the time to use the cutter, fully.
No problem. I definitely can give you some information. I run into similar problems. I use photo shop software and change images to SVG, JPG, BMP, etc just to try and get a good cut image. The most recent version of xTool Creative Space does a better job creating all the cut lines but not always. I tested Lightburn software, which is the most popular for laser cutting and I liked the software very much so I paid for it. I now take images and use Lightburn to make cut files, save it as svg and then load SVG into XCS. You can also use free internet sites to convert images to SVG and then load them into XCS and it works better. One other option I use is to go to Etsy and search for "Laser Cut Files" and I pay for them. They are often very inexpensive and many people make very creative things to cut. I hope this helps.
How do you get to align your engraving in the middle of each circle perfectly? I find that unless I engrave and cut on the same project, engraving alone rarely comes out centered. Even when the engraving is done...you look at the Xtool Creative Space and you see that the file isn't entirely aligned over what was actually engraved/cut. Any tips you can offer? I'm probably not the only one who is having this issue.
I am so sorry. I just realized I never explained that. I cut some scrap pieces of wood at the same size. I used Score and made a circle on the scrap wood. I adjusted the image a bit on XCS until I centered it just right. Thank you for watching our video and for taking the time to leave an excellent question!
I added my air assist and it did find on engraving and now i'm trying to cut and there's no fire only a light, I can' figure out why its not making any marks on the wood
I understand how you feel. I actually experienced the exact same problem just two days ago. I actually rebooted my laptop and powered my M1 off and turned it back on. Everything was fine after that. I hope this helps you.
We don't use the term "stolen", we prefer "borrowed", "confiscated" or "appropriated" LOL! Actually, we are thrilled to know you appreciate our ideas enough to consider using them. Thank you for watching our video and for leaving a comment.
I wish we figured these tips out earlier but we are thrilled we learned on our own and from others!
OMG! First time on your channel and everything you shared for helpful tips with the M1 was soooooo good. Yeah, absolutely worth the watch all the way to the end. Thank you so much. I subscribed!!!!
It is comments such as yours that brings us such joy and inspures us to make more contenr. Thank you so very much for watching our video and for your kind words.
I loved the toothpicks idea at the end, thank you!
I got to be honest... that has turned out to be the best work around I have ever used. I use it all the time. Thank you for watching our video. I seriously thank you!
Thank you so much. Just got my M1 and it’s still in the box. Subscribing for more tips!
Thank you so very much. That means a lot to us. We hope we are able to help you in your M1 journey.
Nice job
Enjoyed your introduction to M1
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed our video. It is comments like your that makes this so much fun to do
Another PURRfect video on the M-1. Great tips, especially the Lego jig and the toothpick idea. It's nice that y'all share what you have learned so others can avoid frustration in their Laser journey.
I have PURFECTED the letter jigs. Lol
Fabulous! Thank you!
You are so very welcome! We are truly pleased that you enjoyed the tips. We would also like to thank you for taking the time to watch our video and for leaving a kind comment.
Thanks for the video!!
It is our pleasure. Thank you so very much for watching!
Your tips are always the best! I just received my m1 10w w/honeycomb, rotary, air assist, and smoke purifier and I find that your experience and tips will benefit the set up process. Both of you are so talented! God bless you both!
That is fantastic! We would love to see what creative ideas you come up with.
Brilliant! Thanks for the tips!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you!!!!
We sincerely appreciate your short but very meaningful comment. It makes us want to continue making more content if people are watching and thanking us for you. And for that... thank you, back at you! :-)
Thank you so much
You're most welcome
Could you maybe do a video of how you set your M1 up to Lightburn? I need step by step instructions and it seems like a lot of people are clueless on how to get your M1 to connect to lightburn.
I did the research and found that xTools has some instructions for using Lightburn to actually control your M1 but it was a little complex. At this time, I use Lightburn to trace images and it works much better than XCS for me. If I get a chance to create a how to video, I will let you know. Thank you so much for watching our video and for taking the time to leave a comment.
A great bunch of tips both. I especially love the Lego Board. A friend of mine is 3D Printing a Peg Board to be used in the same way but the Lego looks perfect.
Great video and take care both.
Cheers, Huw
Between us... it takes me forever to set the board the way i like it. Ran out of a certain color blocks of a specific shape so i had to develop different set ups to make things symmetrical and mathing colors. Other than that. The blocks are perfect. 🤣
Great video and tips! 🙂🤙
Thank you so much
loving your videos - I just bought the m1 and I have a question. I also bought the honeycomb riser set and I would like to know if i need to remove the honeycomb and put back the other metal piece to do the vinyl or can you put the sticky sheet on top of the honeycomb? looking forward to your answer.
Ms Ida, that is actually a brilliant question, which I had not thought about before. Prior to the M1, I used a Cricut to cut vinyl a lot and the concepts are the same. In theory, I imagine you could place the matt on the honeycomb but the way the cutter works is by applying pressure of the blade through the cutting material. every time the blade passes over a blank area of the honeycomb, it might not have the right amount of pressure needed to cut through the material. On the flip side, I believe the sticky matt provided with your M1 is firm enough that it will not be a problem. In conclusion, Personally would not place it on the honeycomb. As you start cutting wood, the honeycomb starts building up a residue, which will in turn transfer some to the back of your sticky pad. remember, the sticky pad is sticky on both sides to prevent movement. It might not stick well to the honeycomb. Here is a work around. I used small blocks of wood to raise my M1 high enough for the honeycomb to slide under and leave little gap. when I need to use the metal plate of the M1, I simply put it in place and it takes seconds. It does not touch the honeycomb. I also, do not screw down the metal plate. It fits firmly in place and is heavy enough that I do not feel the need to screw the plate down. Now I can remove the plate and access the honeycomb and easily add back the plate to use as needed. I hope this makes sense but if you have any questions requiring clarification, do not hesitate to ask.
Totally a newbie! But thinking about the x1tool laser. About this laser for a new crafter? I do a lot of woodwork, but have not done anything on lasers before just curious. Thank you so much. .
If you were to check out our other videos, you will find that numerous companies have given us products and asked for us to review their products. We only agree to this under one condition and that is... we provide an honest opinion, be it positive or negative. So, we only work with companies that want such feedback so they can make improvements if needed. That being said, we too are primarily woodworkers but we were provided an opportunity to review the XTool M1. This has proven to be the best tool I have. We have been avle to make countless custom gifts for friends and family and it paid for itself in a short time. Not from selling things but from saving money for purchasing gifts. Maybe XTool is not for you but a laser cutter will make a huge difference in what you can accomplish in your shop. Keep in mind lasers burn wood to cut and creates smoke. Enclosed cutters like the M1 help control smoke and allow you to blow it outside or into a purifier. Be sure to research all laser companies and decide for yourself. If you have questions, feel free to ask
@@Poor_Mans_DIY thank you 😊
I'm having trouble figuring out setting for my own materials. I've got major scorching going on and it's still not cutting all the way through. I haven't yet installed the AirAssist but that's just for helping to avoid scorching? Do you have some advice on the Power-Speed-Passes settings?
Great question. Usually when there is scorching it is because of to high power or too slow speed. It might also be with an improper setting of the laser head distance to the wood. use the following link to obtain what is called a test cut file. What will happen is your M1 will cut different squares at different level of power and different speeds. when finished, you will be able to determine the perfect power and speed settings you need. You can also manually adjust the height settings. run the auto-detect and add 0.1" inches as a manual distance and run a test cut. if it does not cut through, add another .lf it does not get better, subtract 0.1 and test cut a small piece. you will eventual figure out the perfect settings. Once you do, store the settings on a spreadsheet so you dont have to rely on memory. The air assist can help prevent scorching. It blows away minute particles that can deflect the light from the laser and spread the beam a bit. if the beam spreads, it may cause scorching. I hope this helps but if you have more questions, feel free to reach out to us.
Very nice video and info. Im going to buy one for a friend and I will send them to your TH-cam page to learn from you.
Wow! That is extremely generous of you. Please let your friend know they are welcome to ask us questions. We read and respond to all questions and try to provide a proper resolution.
Have you actually ran your M1 from Lightburn? The link you posted seems to refer to using it with the Xtool D1
Using Lightburn to create files and save in a format the Creative Space can read is a good option. But actually controlling the M1 from Lightburn does not seem possible right now.
But I would certainly like to hear how it could be done.
Great question. I went through all the steps that I found and ultimately, the instructions are for using Lightburn to control the M1. I am new to laser cutting and Lightburn was a little overwhelming and I found it much easier to use it to create SVG file and then use XCS to open the SVG file and cut it. I hope this helps.
@@Poor_Mans_DIY interesting. Do you have to a link to those steps. I just see it for the D1.
I find the creative space to work ok. I like the feature it has to find similar shapes and automatically engrave the same thing on them.
For your lettering, have you ever considered using transfer tape?
I like the idea of transfer tape but every tape I have tested, pulls small parts of the wood off. But seriously.... thank you for taking the time to provide such a good suggestion.
Awsome tips! I’m just starting with M1. So any tips are appreciated! Thank you.
We are very pleased that you enjoyed the tips. We thank you for taking the time to watch our video and for your kind comment
@@Poor_Mans_DIY I'm waiting for new videos.
Do you need to adjust settings when you add masking tape?
Fantastic question. I never thought about the need to address this. The answer is Yes. You need more power to cut through the tape first. Thank you for the wonderful question.
I play this video every time i have troubles, but do you place the honeycomb and elevate the xtool?
If you find a thin enough honeycomb, you could place it directly in the M1 but I had no such luck. I have removed the bottom plate of my M1, raised the legs and placed the honeycomb under the M1. Note this caused a problem for me. By using the included riser blocks, it works fine but creates a large gap between the honeycomb and the bottom of the M1. This allowed all the smoke to escape and not be drawn into the air vent (fan), which i connect to a smoke purifier. To fix this. I use risers I made myself from scrap wood. And there is virtuall no gap but some smoke still escapes so I place some long, thin scrap wood around the base and it does the trick for me. Thank you for watching our video and for your wonderful question
So, everything I see on the Xtool website seems to imply that Lightburn is not supported on the M1 (it only references the D2 laser) . Is there a special version of Lightburn or something for the M1?
From what I pieced together, you are able to generate something called a Gcode and utilize that to cut but you cannot use any version of Lightburn to directly control the M1. I use Lightburn with its features to create an SVG file and then open the SVG file in XCS and get great results. Kind of tedious but I love Lightburn and I definitely love my M1 so it is a way to take advantage of both, in a round about way.
@@Poor_Mans_DIY Thank you, that makes sense.
Do you think M1 will cut white and light colors cardstock - 220 gms without burn marks?
Although I do not have experience with this, I am confident that it can cut without burn marks. It is all about the laser settings. You should run a test on some card stock to determine the best speed and power to use. I suspect the laser power will have to be low to prevent burn marks. This will be true with any laser. Always run tests first and then annotate the best settings for use with each color cardstock.
@Poor_Mans_DIY Thank you@ I am considering buying M1 5 or 10W to work on paper project, basically to replace the use of cricut maker.
I know this must seem like a silly question since all the buttons are right there in the xcs software: How do you engrave and cut the same file with the M1?
I have ready-made svg files with engraved designs which then need to be cut out and I can’t seem to get both operations to go in one shot . . . I’ve searched all over for instructions for this to no avail.
if your SVG file consists of individual lines, you click on each line and identify if it should be engraved or cut. If you are unable to do this, feel free to send your file SVG to me and I will see if I can make adjustments for you and send it back. If I am able to make changes, I will explain what I did, so you can do it for yourself in the future. If you choose to do this, send email to poormansdiy@hotmail.com.
can i ask what size of honeycomb i need to buy for M1 xtools? 300x300? or 400x400?
I originally bought a 300x300 but it was far too small. I then purchased a 400 x 400 and it is perfect for me.
@@Poor_Mans_DIY you got new sub !!
@@Poor_Mans_DIY i want to see more xtooll m1 wood project👍
Hi guys, do you have any videos on cutting with the xtool M1as I've contacted xtool and they are talking about(vector ?)
as bitmap will not work for cutting ?
I am ashamed to admit, I initially tested the cutter blade but have not fully tested because I have a Cricut and I am very comfortable with it, so I have not taken the time to use the cutter, fully.
@@Poor_Mans_DIY sorry my bad, l meant the laser cutter as l can only cut out the mane shape but l can't
cut out any detail inside the the mane line ?
No problem. I definitely can give you some information. I run into similar problems. I use photo shop software and change images to SVG, JPG, BMP, etc just to try and get a good cut image. The most recent version of xTool Creative Space does a better job creating all the cut lines but not always. I tested Lightburn software, which is the most popular for laser cutting and I liked the software very much so I paid for it. I now take images and use Lightburn to make cut files, save it as svg and then load SVG into XCS. You can also use free internet sites to convert images to SVG and then load them into XCS and it works better. One other option I use is to go to Etsy and search for "Laser Cut Files" and I pay for them. They are often very inexpensive and many people make very creative things to cut. I hope this helps.
Where do you find the info to set up lightburn for the m1?
support.xtool.com/hc/en-us/articles/4415992587159-LightBurn-Software-for-experienced-laser-users
That should help.
How do you get to align your engraving in the middle of each circle perfectly? I find that unless I engrave and cut on the same project, engraving alone rarely comes out centered. Even when the engraving is done...you look at the Xtool Creative Space and you see that the file isn't entirely aligned over what was actually engraved/cut. Any tips you can offer? I'm probably not the only one who is having this issue.
I am so sorry. I just realized I never explained that. I cut some scrap pieces of wood at the same size. I used Score and made a circle on the scrap wood. I adjusted the image a bit on XCS until I centered it just right. Thank you for watching our video and for taking the time to leave an excellent question!
I bet the last stencil one was a real _doh_ moment after manually placing so many 😅
You are 100% correct, but you didn't have to point it out. LOL
I added my air assist and it did find on engraving and now i'm trying to cut and there's no fire only a light, I can' figure out why its not making any marks on the wood
I understand how you feel. I actually experienced the exact same problem just two days ago. I actually rebooted my laptop and powered my M1 off and turned it back on. Everything was fine after that. I hope this helps you.
@@Poor_Mans_DIY I did try reboot the program and the machine but still nothing. I'll try the whole computer thanks!
Thanks for your hints, I have stolen your ideas as directed. 🙂
We don't use the term "stolen", we prefer "borrowed", "confiscated" or "appropriated" LOL! Actually, we are thrilled to know you appreciate our ideas enough to consider using them. Thank you for watching our video and for leaving a comment.