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The Atomstack P9 M50 – A great 10W laser engraver in a small package

By March 13, 2022July 23rd, 2022CNC, DIY, How-To, Laser

Atomstack contacted again me to see if I was interested in reviewing their new Atomstack P9 M50 10w portable desktop laser engraver. I was interested to see what pros and cons there were with the new cantilevered design so I said yes.  It’s also interesting for a 10w machine to be this small in overall size, hence its portable nature.

Packaging

The unit arrived extremely well packed but the package was slightly dented in on one corner.  Because the unit was double boxed (one shipping box with a more retail box inside) and extremely well pack inside foam, there was no damage to the contents.

Assembly

Assembly was easy with all the needed tools being included.  The manual had all the instructions I needed to assemble without me having to look it up on the Internet which was nice. It took me about 10 minutes to assembled the unit. The stands that are included help setup this machine.  That was a nice touch as well as the fact that you can also use the assembly stands to raise the machine so you can engrave or cut taller objects or us the rotary attachment that Atomstack also offers. You simply slide the X axis onto the Y and install the endplates with 4 bolts.  Then you add the controller to one of the endplates and connect the wires.  The most involved part was installing the belt on the Y axis.  You have to install a small belt pulley that consist of a couple of bearing, a spacer and a bolt.  Super easy.  Next you need to loosen the stepper motor bracket on the Y axis and install the belt.  The belt has crimped ends on it to prevent it from sliding out of the attachment slots on the bottom of the assembly where the Y axis and X axis meet. Once you’ve routed the belt from the attachment point around the idler pulley, stepper motor and back to the attachment point then all you have left to do is tension the belt and retighten the two screws on the stepper motor bracket.  Lastly install the laser head and attach its wires.

Features of the Atomstack P9 M50

The P9 has some high end features not found on many other machines.  The most notable is the powerful 10w laser head.  It’s actually two 5.5w heads that are optically combined to give toy a total output of 10w.  This allows you to engrave and especially cut faster in most usable materials.  Focusing this fixed focus laser is very simple.  You place the included focusing spacer card on top of the material your working with and lower the laser head onto it.  Then you tighten the laser head adjustment knob and remove the focus card.  Now the laser head is set to the proper distance. The controller and touchscreen is also another great feature.  You have all the interfaces and controls front and center so you can access them with ease.  The controller has a nice E-stop, power and reset switch as well as the micro SD card slot, USB interface and power connector.  The magnetic backed touchscreen connects to the controller via a short, coiled HDMI cable.  The SD card allows you to run jobs on the P9 without needing to be connected to a computer because jobs can be saved to the SD card and run from it using the touchscreen to setup and run those saved jobs.  The P9 comes with a steel sheet to use under the items you’re engraving or cutting.  Atomstack is one of the only companies that that includes this and it’s a nice touch.  The P9 comes with everything you need to get started.  They also include a micro SD card reader with 4Gb micro SD card.  y to go.  The P9 has a work area of 220×250 and a laser spot size of 0.08×0.08mm which is currently the smallest out there with is good.  It’ worth mentioning that the P9 also has home switches.  This means the machine has a way to know when each axis has reached its home position.  This is not only a great feature in general but it’s also great if you need to do repeatable jobs as you can setup fixtures for those jobs and dial in the jobs to go to those fixtures consistently.

Safety

The manual also covers the very important aspects of safety and they can’t be repeated enough.  Though small, this is a laser that can cause serious damage.  Read and follow all the safety warnings.  As a basic rule, don’t look at the laser light at all, make sure what you’re cutting won’t give off toxic fumes (like PVC, ABS, Epoxies, etc.), Use only in an extremely well ventilated space and don’t stare at the beam.  Safety is your responsibility.

Fume Extraction

I setup a basic fume extraction system with an 6″ inline fan, some 6″ ducting and a 6″ blast gate.  I created a simple enclosure with some 24×36 inch sheets of corrugated plastic.  I was pleased with how well it works.  The fan pulls from the enclosure and vents to the outside.  the blast gate is used to allow fresh air in from the outside (well away from the exhaust) so that the fan has the ability to pull freely.

Software

I used Lightburn ($40 version) for all these test jobs.  It’s feature rich compared to LaserGRBL but both will work.  I like Lightburn because I can create pretty much anything inside it.  It’s great for cutting or on the fly creation as it allows you to draw, type, scale, etc right in the program.

Summary

This machine was very easy to assemble and use.  Atomstack continues to put out great quality, well thought-out machines.  The P9 is a great addition to their impressive portfolio.  It’s 10w head combined with the smaller physical size make using this on the go a no brainer if you need the portability. If you’re looking to get into a desktop LED based laser engraver, I highly recommend getting one with a 10w laser as this will allow you to work faster and cut deeper. Be sure to view the pictures below and watch the YouTube video if you haven’t already. As always links are below.

Atomstack P9 M50 10w Laser Engraver HERE: https://bit.ly/3INrHXa
Atomstack Website: https://bit.ly/3hHsqgm
HAYEAR 26MP HDMI Digital Microscope  https://bit.ly/3G20Owk
TWO TREES® Totem S Engraving Machine Honeycomb Working Table https://bit.ly/3ACK2D1

Software:
LaserGRBL Software (free) https://lasergrbl.com/download/
LightBurn Software (free trial/$40 to buy) https://lightburnsoftware.com/

Download the Neo7CNC Squareness Test LightBurn File HERE

Addition items used in the video:
Stainless steel tumbler – https://amzn.to/3gwJoO4
Stainless steel military style dog tags (qty 100) – https://amzn.to/3B7fVDY
Slate drink coaster set – https://amzn.to/3GQr3GF
Kydex 8×8 Sheet (x2) – https://amzn.to/35SAMzC
Anodized aluminum cards (qty 120) – https://amzn.to/3uAcu7x
Wood squares – https://amzn.to/33RUNBW
Wood 3inch circles – https://amzn.to/3Ic1vnM
Kraft paper tags – https://amzn.to/3foiLK9
Painted aluminum business card blanks – https://amzn.to/3yj6q2E
Stainless steel business card blanks – https://amzn.to/3bAn0RL
Anodized aluminum blank dog tags – 10 pack – https://amzn.to/33h8HAg

To create you own fume extraction system
6″ inline blower – https://amzn.to/3ftxCmu
6″ duct kit – https://amzn.to/3eWjVh0
6″ flange – https://amzn.to/33UlbuG
6″ blast gate – https://amzn.to/3hyPNKs

Like my Cobra Chicken T-shirt? Find it and many more here – https://bit.ly/3HHEb25

Support the channel: – PayPal https://www.paypal.me/neo7cnc

David Burrell

David Burrell - A lifelong inventor, designer and creator. Besides being a CNC enthusiast and maker, he also invented the LoopAlien and patented QuickIT cord attachment devices that were successfully launched on Kickstarter.