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GADGETS AND GEAR FOR MAKERS
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Reviewed and written by Caleb Kraft
Lasers are awesome, and this is doubly true
when it comes to fiber lasers that can actually
engrave metal. Where your typical CO₂ or
diode laser can only leave a surface mark with
the help of an additional coating, a fiber laser
actually ablates the surface of most metals.
You can engrave copper, aluminum, steel, gold,
nickel, and much more. This really opens up the
possibilities when it comes to making products
for resale or art that will last a long time.
Fiber lasers have typically been in the financial
realm of serious industrial equipment: tens of
thousands of dollars. In the past few years the
price of a desktop unit has dropped considerably
to be cheaper than many of the popular CO₂
lasers we see on the market!
This unit has few bells and whistles, but
gets the job done admirably. Your Z-focus is
done manually, and there just isn’t much else
to operating the machine physically. The build
quality on this is superbly solid. I feel like I could
knock it off my workbench and it would still
function. I won’t do that though. I’ll just keep
engraving brass with friggin’ light.
—Caleb Kraft
Monport Fiber Laser $2,945 monportlaser.com
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