In mid-October, I got the pleasant surprise of winning one of Flux’s new Beamo laser engravers/cutters. At this time, I was actually considering jumping in on the Kickstarter campaign to get one. I have been curious to see what I could do with such a machine.

I am no expert when it comes to laser engraving, but not my first experience with Flux’s products. I had previously backed one of their first campaigns for the original Delta 3D printer. At the time, it was one of my first forays into 3D printing. There was an interesting eco-system promised for the device, including swap out heads. One of those heads being a laser engraver.

I never did get the additional head for the printer, but that was likely for the best. There are definitely drawbacks to such an open-air style of laser engraving. First of all, there can be a lot of smoke involved. This laser is just burning away materials. Add to that, this process will produce a lot of nano-particles of the material being cut/engraved. One would likely not want to be breathing in these particles, so a well ventilated work area is a must.

Don’t let those concerns worry you too much, as this focused design looks to address that issue. So enough with the preposition and let’s talk about the machine.

In the box

The Beamo is compact for what it is. Traditionally these style machines would consume an entire corner of a room. This form factor reduces that to just take up a chunk of a table. It is minimalistic in design with clean lines and a matte black finish on the metal housing. The top just contains a clear plexiglass lid, touch screen, and power button.

When I opened the box, all the needed parts and accessories were neatly packed away inside the machine’s internal cavity. There was nothing dig around inside the box to find. It was all there in front of me.