Laser Engraver

[Bope]

I was looking at the Ender 3 3D printer for my son for Christmas. They have a laser engraver attachment for the printer that I thought I could use for pens and other wood working projects. Sellers on Amazon call it a 1.6W laser. The link here is from the manufacturer and they list it as a 500mW laser. From what I have read in the past this seems too low powered to really do much. Is that true? Would this work on engraving wood or plastic pen blanks?

 

[SteveJ]

It is probably okay for the price, but it is at the bottom end of power for the diode lasers available. The 8.5 inch burn area is nice but to burn something that large with that laser head is likely to take hours and may need to be burned multiple times. Still for the price it will give you the opportunity to try out laser engraving.