by TLHarrell » Thu Mar 06, 2014 7:22 pm
I have a 5th Gen from FSL. Happy to help out with any questions you may have about the unit, either here, via email, or even live on Skype.
You will find online a lot of mixed reviews about the company, the lasers, their support, etc. First and foremost, these guys are software engineers. Their software is, from everything I've seen online, unmatched. It is also constantly updated with new features and bug fixes. Where they excel on software, their customer service sometimes is found lacking. The 5th Gen is a hobby level unit. It is basically sold with very little support. If it shows up dead, they help get it fixed or replace it. Beyond the basics, they encourage you to use their forum for support if you have any other problems. Taken for what it is, the 5th Gen is a solid little unit and a great value at the price, with the only caveat that the support for it sometimes can be frustrating once out of the initial warranty period. They do sell a longer term support service as well, which is standard on their professional level machines. Most issues you run into, if you have fairly basic electronic and mechanical aptitude, are easily solved by searching the forums or asking for some help from the user base.
Prior to the 5th Gen, their lasers were all custom refits of Chinese lasers with their Retina Engrave card/software added in. I was considering building my own as well, but settled on these after seeing them at the Maker Faire several years back and doing a lot of additional research on various forums including here, CNCZone, etc. I started with a 4th Gen machine, which I heavily modified. I've been pretty active on FSL's forums, and was contacted last year to become a company representative. With that, I also bought a 5th Gen laser and a rotary attachment for demonstrations. I do get a small commission if you mention in ordering that I sent you to them, so if you decide to get one, please let them know of the referral.
I like the 5th Gen, and mine is still totally stock. Haven't seen the need to do anything to it. It's over a year old and still going strong. I've only had a few minor issues with it:
1. There was an issue with the display/controller board getting confused and stopping in the middle of engraving. Solution was to rewrap the wire connection on the front of the tube. This is something you should learn to do anyway as you'll be doing two of them when you replace a tube.
2. Y-axis shaft has a coupler in the middle. The screws on it sheared, allowing the Y-axis to get out of square with the X-axis. Made for some odd looking circles. I recognized as a mechanical problem and found the gantry racking by pushing by hand. Found the busted screw on the coupler when I tired to tighten it. Took the other screw out and was able to snap it with my fingers. Must have been a bad batch. A quick email to FSL got a new set of couplers headed to me and I was back up in a couple days.
3. Started getting an odd wobble in the Y-axis when cutting at higher speeds after turning a corner from Y to X. Found that the wheels on the gantry carriage had some slop to them. Disassembled the carriage and cleaned everything well, and discovered that the axle for the wheels was slightly too long, allowing some side play. Ground a few thou off the ends of the axles and reassembled. No further issue.
It is a hobby level machine. It's not totally perfect, but for the price it's very reasonable.
40w Full Spectrum Engineering 5th Gen Hobby 20"x12" w/ Rotary Engraver
South San Francisco Bay Area - Sales and Support Representative for Full Spectrum Engineering
408-47-LASER - Skype: whitelightlaser-thomas - Facebook: White Light Laser