Full Spectrum Hobby Laser 5th Gen review

[Mike Null]

How many red flags do you need?

[Matt McCoy]

Can any one of you with RF tube experience verify whether this Full Spectrum glass tube claim is true or not? An excerpt of their this last email. I then asked them who makes their glass tubes and they won't reply. Contemplating whether to go glass or RF. I'm doing about 90% cutting with soft woods and extruded acrylic.

"Currently Full Spectrum is the only major US company to offer a glass tube system. All other glass tube based lasers on the market are going to be Chinese systems with Chinese control software being sold directly from China via ebay or alibaba or by a middleman company....RetinaEngrave makes our lasers as easy or even easier to use than the more expensive metal tube machines and also produces excellent raster and vector results of the quality level previously attained only by metal tube lasers.

To the best of my knowledge, the first part of this is kind of correct. The Gen 5 (now H-Series) is designed and assembled in Las Vegas out of imported parts (including the Chinese tube). The RetinaEngrave controller and software is what is really being touted here, which is a true print driver that can engrave or cut directly from all popular programs. The tube is only referred to differentiate the type of machine.

The second part is debatable and stretching expectations, in my opinion. There are so many variables that it is not possible to make a statement like that. For instance, raster engraving and vector cutting are so different that each operation should be considered separately when assessing the abilities of a machine and how it will suit one's needs.

[Dan Hintz]

"Currently Full Spectrum is the only major US company to offer a glass tube system.

False.

All other glass tube based lasers on the market are going to be Chinese systems with Chinese control software being sold directly from China via ebay or alibaba or by a middleman company....

False, if for no other reason than the claim of "all other" was shown as false in the first statement. You can't predicate a truth upon a falsehood.

RetinaEngrave makes our lasers as easy or even easier to use than the more expensive metal tube machines

False... and laughable. It may be better than the run-of-the-mill Chinese software, but to claim it's easier than machines like ULS, Epilog, Trotec, etc. That's just absurd.

and also produces excellent raster and vector results of the quality level previously attained only by metal tube lasers.

The owner of FSL posted his "quality" output samples on her a couple of years back. They were bad... and I mean, bad. I've seen new users create better quality samples, and he has supposedly been doing this for "years". I'm sure his systems could do better, but if what he posted was considered "quality", that says a lot about his view of what he expects out of his own systems.



It's all fun and games (or not) until you need serious help. After warning people away, I don't spend any time helping them when they go ahead and buy one of his systems anyway... "you've been warned" seems like such an understatement.

[Bert Kemp]

Henry must be getting lessons on how to write ad's from that Glowforge guy hahahahah

False.

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False, if for no other reason than the claim of "all other" was shown as false in the first statement. You can't predicate a truth upon a falsehood.
[I]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=HelveticaNeue]
False... and laughable. It may be better than the run-of-the-mill Chinese software, but to claim it's easier than machines like ULS, Epilog, Trotec, etc. That's just absurd.

[I][COLOR=#000000][FONT=HelveticaNeue][I][COLOR=#000000][FONT=HelveticaNeue]
The owner of FSL posted his "quality" output samples on her a couple of years back. They were bad... and I mean, bad. I've seen new users create better quality samples, and he has supposedly been doing this for "years". I'm sure his systems could do better, but if what he posted was considered "quality", that says a lot about his view of what he expects out of his own systems.


It's all fun and games (or not) until you need serious help. After warning people away, I don't spend any time helping them when they go ahead and buy one of his systems anyway... "you've been warned" seems like such an understatement.

[Ron Philman]

False.

[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=HelveticaNeue]
False, if for no other reason than the claim of "all other" was shown as false in the first statement. You can't predicate a truth upon a falsehood.
[I]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=HelveticaNeue]
False... and laughable. It may be better than the run-of-the-mill Chinese software, but to claim it's easier than machines like ULS, Epilog, Trotec, etc. That's just absurd.

[I][COLOR=#000000][FONT=HelveticaNeue][I][COLOR=#000000][FONT=HelveticaNeue]
The owner of FSL posted his "quality" output samples on her a couple of years back. They were bad... and I mean, bad. I've seen new users create better quality samples, and he has supposedly been doing this for "years". I'm sure his systems could do better, but if what he posted was considered "quality", that says a lot about his view of what he expects out of his own systems.



It's all fun and games (or not) until you need serious help. After warning people away, I don't spend any time helping them when they go ahead and buy one of his systems anyway... "you've been warned" seems like such an understatement.

Yeah, I thought it sounded a bit over the top. The fact I got no response when I questioned the 'canned email response' casted some doubts - now this confirms it. Thanks for the input.

[Matt McCoy]

Originally Posted by*Ron Philman*

All other glass tube based lasers on the market are going to be Chinese systems with Chinese control software being sold directly from China via ebay or alibaba or by a middleman company....

False, if for no other reason than the claim of "all other" was shown as false in the first statement. You can't predicate a truth upon a falsehood.

Hey Dan: I'm curious. What are the U.S. companies that sell lasers that are not "Chinese systems with Chinese control software being sold directly from China via ebay or alibaba or by a middleman company..."?