Much easier to focus. Very tight beam! I can run it at much lower power at higher speeds. Cut project time by 2/3. Very impressed.

I actually got this with the prover xl. It took a minute to figure it out but not too complicated. The members of the FB page were of great help in getting me going. Thank you Everyone for the support!

Works very well was able to focus down to a pin point

Ryan from customer service made my issue a pleasant experience and solved my issues with ease. Thanks to the great support of the Sainsmart staff I am back up and running.

It took me a couple of hours to figure out how to set up and run my first job. The software is not intuitive and the instructions were not very clear. Also, the power supply connection to the laser is not great, so I had to push hard to make sure the connection was good. A bad connection kept the laser from working, but I didn’t get any feedback as to what the problem was. Through trial and error, I figured out the connection issue and his the software worked and ran my first job. I was etching a design on to a black ash board and was surprised by the amount of smoke it produced. I’m guessing that is normal, but it surprised me. In the end, the laser job was precise and fairly quick. I was impressed with the final result.

Mounted this laser to my CNC4N machine, works very well and is a fraction of the cost of other comparable lasers, works great.

I have a 3018PROver with the extension kit. This laser was very easy to install, and the laser is vgery powerful, but I did have some issues - 1) the incoming power line socket on the supplied power "brick" (transformer) is poorly made. The connection is so loose that on my first kit, the laser wouldn't turn on and it took me ages to figure out you needed to hold the brick at just the right angle to make the power flow. The connection is "better" on my second power brick (more on that later), but not much - Sainsmart need to kick their supplier's butt for poor QC 2) The design is flawed as follows - the cables supplied will only allow for a very close placement of the laser control module to the 3018 machine's control board - the left side of the laser board needs to be very close to the right side of the machine control board because of this and also the fact the laser module itself has very short cables. The problem is some brainiac designed the laser control module to have the power input on that same left hand edge as the location for the takeoff to the main machine control board (the black and white cables in the photo). If you place the laser module far enough away from the machine control board to conveniently put the laser power input in and out (which has a large moulded plug that gets in the way) you will stress the connection from the laser module to the laser control board when it moves to full travel left and right - the connection then will fall off the laser board and you are dead in the water. If Sainsmart specified to their manufacturer to add 50mm to the cable which goes from the laser control module to the main board and the same from the laser module, all these problems would go away. 3) the instructions for use as supplied conflict with the instructions Sainsmart will send you when you are frustrated beyond belief and things aren't working right (tip - follow the Sainsmart instructions) My first unit, between wonky power supply, erroneous instructions, and short cables gave me so much grief {and eventually broke) that Hiong in Sainsmart customer service sent me a whole new kit. I rate the unit 3 stars for all the problems, and add one becuase Hong was very helpful. If Sainsmart fixed these issues, I'd give the unit 5 stars - it is very powerful (even a 3% power "frame" of your project can leave a burn mark!) and every thing you need is in the kit - just be careful of the issues I have cited.

got the laser going and it was working great. highly recommended for a beginner especially due to the fixed focus. i ha a problem with it stopping once in a while in the middle of a engraving project and contacted them and they helped me out and sent me a replacement part right away. will but more from them

I wanted this laser due to its fixed-focus lens and finer, rounder spot. After writing Sain Smart twice and receiving no reply, I decided to gamble and ordered it anyway. The accompanying instructions (quite good, by the way) included a fairly detailed description of the various inputs, including the two-pin PWM connector. I was concerned that the 3018's power brick might not have enough capacity (tho it does power the original 5.5W laser), but since it has its own power brick, I was only concerned about the compatibility of the PWM interface. I put my oscilloscope on the PWN pin from the controller and discovered that it emits a 12VDC pulse string which is exactly what the new laser wants...good to go! I clipped off the three-pin connector that the original laser uses as well as one end of the two-pin connector cable included with the new laser. It was a matter of five minutes to connect the black and white wires from each cable together, solder them and shrink a bit of heat-shrink tubing over each. The red wire on the original cable (+12VDC) was taped off to protect it from shorting to ground. Praying to the gods that the magic smoke wouldn't escape from either the laser or the controller, I powered both up and told Lightburn to trigger a 25% burst...success! After a couple of days of engraving, I can say that the laser does, indeed work with the 3018, and it works extremely well. Very crisp lines and very powerful. Focus is dead easy using the nice steel cylinder which quickly allows positioning the Z axis to the required 20mm above the work surface. I highly recommend the laser kit.

Very easy to install. The laser makes very detailed engravings, if set up correctly