Alright, I guess it’s time to fess up. Pretty much all the staff at NAG love breaking things. It’s just in our blood. Not because we like broken things, but because we like to see how said thing works, and then we try to put it back together again in an even better way than the factory ever could.
It just means we love tinkering. And with that comes a love for cool devices and gadgets that help us tinker even further.
These past few months, we’ve been lucky enough to have the Creality Falcon A1 Laser Engraving sitting side-by-side with our 3D printers, and it’s been a pretty cool device to have for, well, for blasting a laser at things.
For any home hobbyist looking to add engraving to their products, or even diversify with a laser-cut thingy-mabob or two, the Falcon A1 is the perfect gadget. Its low-power, 10W laser means you won’t be burning down the house (hopefully) or drawing too much electricity at home while you laser away at your crafts. Creality has also gone through the effort of making this as plug-and-play as possible.
Yes, it is a laser that will cause harm if not operated correctly, but you could have the device set up, plugged in and operational in less than 30 minutes if you needed it to be.
As this was my first actual laser cutter/engraver ever, I was a little nervous about getting the thing started. I made sure I read through the manual a good few times before testing out my first burn. Honestly, I was a lot more nervous than I needed to be. The setup and alignment were pretty straightforward, and something I have memorised now that I’ve done it so many times.
Once, I had everything aligned, I hit go and watched in amazement. Perfection. Mostly.
The Falcon A1 comes with an integrated camera on the lid that helps you position your engraving or cutting on your material, but there is a bit of a fisheye, and even with everything aligned, things can be a little wonky. Especially if someone has moved the engraver. This taught me to always use the Frame button, which shows you exactly where the laser will work, before hitting the Start button.
Throughout our time with the A1, we have successfully engraved and cut wooden materials, a t-shirt, and a good few mousepads. The thickest we cut through was about 4mm, and Creality says the device can cut through 6mm, but I’m sure with a couple more passes, you might be able to push things to a maximum of around 10mm. Because we’re packing a 10W diode laser in the Falcon A1, engraving and cutting metal just won’t happen. Sure, you can engrave on metals that have a coating, like anodised aluminium, but you won’t be able to physically cut into the metal itself.
Safety-wise, the engraver is a fully enclosed system with eye-protection lids on both the top and front of the unit that immediately shut down the laser when opened. There is also a nice, chunky emergency stop button that’s just glorious to hit if you see things going wrong, and there is a key switch, which means you can keep the device safely deactivated from any small, wandering hands in your house.
There is a built-in extractor fan, and the device comes bundled with some tubing, which is great for getting those toxic, burning fumes out of your nostrils, but it only really works if you place the A1 close to a window or door. If you’re going to extend the tubing to reach the outside, I’d recommend picking up a booster fan to help with the fumes on their journey.
The software is also pretty easy to get the hang of. You can drop in a couple of shapes and text from the software itself, resize and fill them in if needed, but you’re not really going to be making any masterpieces here. Ideally, you’ll have your cuts or engravings created in another tool, like Adobe, and then just drag and drop them into the Falcon software. I will say, though, that even though the software isn’t hard to use, it doesn’t really give you much information if something goes wrong. There were a good few times the engraver wouldn’t connect to the software, and I had no idea what to change except everything, until the problem was resolved.
I’m not much of an engraver, so I would take the next bit of information with a pinch of salt, but apparently, a honeycomb bed is something you use quite often to prevent laser damage to the device. This is an accessory that isn’t included with the Falcon A1, so you will need to pick one up if you are more serious about the engraving hobby than I am, but for the most part, I managed to engrave everything I wanted without one.
You can also pick up a rotary for the engraver, which will allow you to engrave round objects, like cups or bottles, which I thought was a pretty neat idea.
Overall, if you’re a hobbyist looking for an engraver to add to your arsenal, the Creality Falcon A1 10W is honestly the perfect device. With a hefty 305x381mm work space, and all its built-in features, like the camera and extraction fan, as well as its exceptionally easy installation, the A1 cuts out all the hassle and gets you straight to cutting materials. For around R10,000, depending on where you pick one up, it can easily be part of your little shop, rather than always outsourcing your engraving and cutting needs.
