LaserPecker LP3 - High Precision Metal & Plastic Laser Engraver

You don't need the box to mark knives, in fact it just gets in the way.

You can do metal in one pass.

It's not deep but it looks fine.

I really like laserpecker3. It is easy to set up and beginner friendly. The app is a little confusing though. It works great for smaller projects. Also, the power cord is short, so you��ll need to be close to a power source. Otherwise this is a great compact laser engraver for beginners.

Using this to engrave business merch, price tags, business cards, etc. Pretty impressive performance and power. Optics need to be cleaned more frequently than expected as laser has been bouncing after particle build up. Must also be perfectly level for best results. Wish there was more accessible literature for maintenance and support.

The machine was fairly intuitive to learn to use even for a novice. It worked well on the blanks provided. I was able to upload images and engrave them with the laser. Overall the machine has a high quality look and feel. The one con was it indicates you can use it to engrave silver but machine had no setting for this only aluminum and copper. I was able to engrave something silver on highest setting but it was not very deep even after multiple runs. While it was easy to figure it out, more walk through instructions and instructions for how to use on various materials would be useful. There is some information online but only the basics.

I love that I don��t have to run this through my computer. It did need immediate updates when it arrived. Works well overall but it does have glitches where it simply doesn't work to engrave at times. Then I can turn it on again and it will work great.

First impressions: Super basic to set up- a manual for both the enclosure and the laser itself are included. The laser assembly is basically two screws to put the two halves of the base together, and then a knob to attach the laser head. The enclosure is four pieces that slot together and then you pop in some locking pins. Doesn't get much simpler.

The footprint is TINY compared to anything else I've used- approximately 10" in each direction. By comparison the footprint on my diode laser is more than 4x bigger. It does of course have a very small engraving area compared to other laser types, but being able to keep it on a corner of my desk for easy access is really nice given that most of my work space is taken up by bulky 3d printers and space on any surface is at a premium.

Now some cons: This only works with their app, which is rudimentary at best. I could not get it to connect to my iPad (does not appear as an available bluetooth device), but it connects fine to my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra android phone. You need to register with the app, but it's as simple as requesting a code via email and plugging it in. The app does have a design interface but it is super limited in function and I likely won't use it most of the time. If you're only engraving text and simple stock clipart-type images it's probably fine. Otherwise you'll want to design elsewhere and then import to whatever device you're controlling the laser from. The enclosure is very nice for protecting your eyes, but does nothing to control fumes - so you'll need to address that separately.

The pros: Super easy to scale and line up your projects using the preview feature. It's awesome to be able to clearly see where you're engraving, especially coming from using a diode without a camera and having to guess/eyeball/trial-and-error my alignments most of the time. There are several safety checks you must Ok through on any part of use, many of which are probably less necessary when using with the enclosure (you don't really need the glasses and the laser won't function unless the door is closed). A sample pack of materials and sheet outlining recommended settings are included to get you off and running (which is great because I ordered a bunch of blank charms and such from China that won't be here for a few weeks, and this gave me some starter pieces to fiddle with in the meantime!). Focusing the laser is a snap- you can either use the included ruler or do it visually using the buttons on the stand or even right on your screen in the app (move the laser head up/down by tiny increments until they overlap).

The meh: The letter also says you can get a free bluetooth dongle and cutting plate if you email them. Why not just include them in the package, yall?

I've engraved several of the provided aluminum business cards at different settings- as with any laser you'll want to test different engraving modes and power/depth settings to get the results you want based on your materials and goals. Unfortunately the overly-simple app doesn't seem to have an option for material test patterns (a nice feature on other programs like Lightburn) so you'll have to do these tests manually. I will say that I've had good results so far with the recommended settings provided on the cheat sheet that came with the sample materials, so you can use those as a starting point. Additional resources can be found online and there are a couple of Facebook groups for owners of this laser to compare notes.

Detail on the engravings I've done so far is very good and it's relatively fast. The mandala image I included in the testing pictures was done twice on the same material and scale using the "bin" and "gray" settings to compare results. Bin is much faster and brighter, but gray (the picture setting) gave more accurate detail. For a 1.8" square image the gray setting took just over 11 minutes and the bin setting took just over two- obviously a huge difference for minimal quality gain. I think most projects will be better off with the bin setting (the obvious exception being photographs). I also did some pet tags and found they worked great at 100% power and 5% depth- they were very fast to engrave, about 20 seconds for each side.

If you can get past the limitations of the app this is a really neat machine. I look forward to integrating it into my crafting and jewelry making!