I know, stacking dimes takes years of practice, and admittedly, there's a lot of pride that goes into showing off those perfect dime-shaped beads you've just laid down on that custom gas tank you just made for your sweet custom Harley Panhead bobber (or Evo, whatever) on your $5,000 Miller TIG machine. Believe me, I've laid some pretty crusty beads in my day, I understand.
XLaserLab just put out a Kickstarter for the extremely portable and beginner-friendly X1 Pro laser welder ... that also cuts, cleans, and removes rust ... And it runs off 120/240v!
Having personal experience with old-school torch welding, MIG, and caveman stick welding, the X1 Pro comes off a little insulting, to be honest. It's designed to be so incredibly easy that a beginner can just pick it up and start laying down perfect dimes, even on super thin material down to 8 thousandths of an inch (0.2 mm) without melting through your project – or even deforming it. It can lay beads four times faster than a traditional welder. That's not to say that it's beneath a pro either. The guys that weld for a living are making good use of the X1 Pro as well.
It's like a welding GameShark cheat code.
While you're not going to be able to weld any half-inch armor plating to your 'dozer, the X1 Pro will reliably handle steel to just under an eighth (0.118 in / 3 mm). That means the X1 Pro will work perfectly on all the 18-20 gauge sheet metal on your classic cars in the garage that you've been meaning to restore for the last decade. And since laser welding produces far less heat than your MIG, you're not going to have to worry about warping while you're patching out all those rust spots.
Really, you shouldn't even have to grind it either, as the X1 produces little to no slag at all. But if you like grinding and having to clean up welds, this probably isn't the right product for you.
There's also a smaller, more portable 26.5 lb (12 kg) version called the X1 that can handle welding everything from stainless and carbon steel to galvanized sheets to just over a sixteenth (0.0625 in / 2mm). It doesn't have the same cutting, cleaning, or CNC compatibility features found on its bigger brother, but if you're just looking to weld stuff together, it's got what it takes.
And did I mention you can even use it to weld underwater?
The X1 Pro is a bit heftier of a package at 42 lb (19 kg), but with more heft comes more features. It can handle the same material types as the X1 (a bit thicker, up to about an eighth of an inch) plus aluminum, brass, and copper to just over a sixteenth. Yeah, even copper. You'll even get less zinc burn-off (unless you're trying to burn off zinc with the cleaning feature, that is) when tackling brass with the X1 Pro as the laser is much more focused, precise, and doesn't produce as much heat as a TIG or MIG; so braze no more for those thick brass bits!
Aside from the whole easy-to-weld-stuff aspect of the X1 Pro is the rust removal feature of the welder. 90% of a strong weld is having well-prepped material to work with. The X1 Pro can burn rust right off the surface from about 1/4 inch (0.276 in / 7 mm) to about 2/3 of an inch wide (0.669 in / 17 mm) with a press of a button. No more battling with a wire brush for days.
The X1 Pro also works as a modular laser cutter, easily cutting materials from twenty thousandths (0.5 mm) to just under an eighth (3 mm) in thickness. You can cut hand-held, or you can mount it to your CNC machine and start plotting out perfect cuts.
The X1 has a few dials on the front, making it easy to select the right settings for the material type and thickness. The X1 Pro features a touch screen with 16 different languages to easily punch in your welding, cutting, or cleaning parameters to get that perfect temp and width dialed in.
There are a host of accessories for the X1 Pro as well: A wire feeder, foot pedal switch, specialized nozzles, and more. At the time of writing, you'll even receive a complimentary pair of welding gloves, though all the videos I've watched of the X1 Pro in action are gloveless, really illustrating how easy and safe the laser welder is.
So if you're tired of warping metal, grinding for days, or just want a new fun tool for getting the job done quickly (c'mon, it's a laser!), check out the Kickstarter for the X1 Pro!
More background about the company: XLaserLab
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