The Maker’s Toolbox: ComMarker Omni X UV Laser Machine Review

UV laser technology is really exciting and has interesting advantages over more conventional laser types, but it has traditionally been a relegated to specialized industrial machines. That changed with ComMarker’s release of the Omni 1, which made UV laser tech accessible. Now they’re back with the even better ComMarker Omni X and I got to try it out.

Why UV?

“UV” is short for “ultraviolet” and that refers to the portion of the light spectrum in which these lasers operate (355nm for the Omni 1 and Omni X). In comparison, diode lasers emit visible blue light (around 455nm), CO2 lasers emit light deep into the infrared range (10,600nm), and fiber lasers emit light in the near infrared range (usually around 1,064nm).

Those wavelengths matter, because they directly affect absorption, reflection, and transparency in different materials. Diode lasers, for example, often can’t even mark transparent acrylic. But CO2 lasers can easily cut that same transparent acrylic — though they struggle with the reflectivity of most metals.

In addition to wavelength, the methods for producing and focusing the laser beam vary, resulting in different beam properties. Compared to other laser types, UV lasers tend to have a very small “spot” at the focal point and a very short focal range. Those properties yield really interesting possibilities, as you’ll see later.

UV lasers are sometimes called “cold lasers,” because they can engrave material without transferring an excessive amount of energy that would cause the material to heat up — something that can cause melting, warping, and discoloration with other laser types.

That “cold marking,” very fine detail, wide material compatibility, and high-contrast engraving are what make UV lasers desirable. On top of that, they can do some cool things in 3D in glass.

Omni X specs

The Omni 1 was ComMarker’s first UV laser machine and it was (and still is) useful. But the Omni X has a ton of improvements that make it much more usable, in my opinion.

The most obvious is the enclosure, which is a big deal to me. I don’t review machines without enclosures anymore, because I consider them to be a safety risk. So, it is great that the Omni X has one.

The Omni X also has an autofocus system, which the Omni 1 lacks. That is certainly a really important convenience feature.

And the Omni X has an available slide extension accessory, which dramatically extends the working area in the X axis to accommodate much larger materials.

Before I list the rest of the interesting specs, I want to explain that the Omni X, like the Omni 1, has two available lenses. They must be swapped manually. One lens has a closer focal point, shorter focal range, and can cover an area of 70×70mm. The other has a wider “field of view” and can cover 150×150mm.

For most use cases, the 150mm lens is ideal. But the 70mm lens is necessary for the 3D glass engraving and, at least in theory, should have better fine resolution (though I didn’t notice a difference).

Specs:

• Laser type: UV
• Laser motion: Mirror galvanometer
• Laser wavelength: 355nm
• Laser power: 5W or 10W
• Laser spot size: 0.0019mm
• XY positioning accuracy: 0.001mm
• Working area: 70×70mm to 150×400mm (with 150mm lens and slide extension)
• Max working speed: 10,000mm/s
• Max processing height: 235mm

Laser power

The Omni X is available with a 5W or a 10W laser module, and my test unit came equipped with the 5W module. This is the first UV laser I’ve tested, so I immediately compared that to a diode laser and thought “well, that’s pretty weak.”

I was wrong about that and failed to take into account how much more efficient UV lasers are than diode lasers (or CO2, or fiber).

In this case, 5W is more than enough to leave deep engravings in metal that you can feel with a finger, even moving at very fast speeds of 2,000mm/s. It is genuinely surprising to see, because you wouldn’t expect so little power to do so much.

In less than 10 seconds, I can engrave text or a logo the size of a US quarter in, say, aluminum. And that will be very visible and deep enough that I can easily feel it.

It is also powerful enough to perform 3D relief engraving in stone, wood, metal, and more. That’s particularly useful in wood because, unlike with other laser types, you won’t burn the material.

Unboxing and assembly

I’ll admit that when the ComMarker Omni X first arrived on my doorstep, I was confused. The box was much larger and much heavier than I was expecting. For some reason, I thought the Omni X was going to be a relatively small machine and I was very wrong about that.

This is a hefty boy. The machine itself weighs in at 71 pounds and is 26.5 inches tall with the enclosure all the way closed. Aside from that enclosure shield, which is some kind of laser-resistant plastic, everything is sturdy steel.

Working alone, the assembly process took me approximately 45 minutes to complete. That was mostly a matter of bolting the Z axis motion system to the base, bolting the laser module to that, connecting the cables between the base and the laser module, mounting the enclosure, and attaching the shield to the enclosure.

I did have an issue with the bolt holes on the enclosure and base not lining up very well, but with some muscle I was able to push them together and get the screws in to hold everything together.

Flat engraving

I was really excited to get started, so I jumped right in with engraving some of the aluminum business cards that ComMarker supplied with my machine. They’re coated and the machine easily engraved them at high speed.

I then switched to uncoated materials, including aluminum, steel, brass, wood, and stone. Interestingly, the Omni X seemed to perform best when marking and engraving metal. It did that quickly and easily. Wood required a bit slower speeds and higher power, which I found to be counterintuitive based on my experience with other laser types. Stone was even slower, but was still entirely possible to engrave.

My impressions at that point were very good and I was surprised by how well the Omni X engraved metal, considering the relatively low power. I’ve used 20W fiber lasers that couldn’t mark metal as easily as this 5W UV laser can.

I found that it could also cut through thin (under 0.5mm) aluminum in a reasonable amount of time. It still took many, many passes. But those were quick passes, so it would be feasible to do in a pinch.

But then…

Laser module failure 1

During that initial testing, I ran into a serious problem: the laser suddenly became very weak. I could no longer see the “preview” laser at all (it is the main laser running at very low power) and if I tried engraving, the marks were much, much lighter than they had been.

After talking to ComMarker support, we came to the conclusion that the laser module had failed. They sent me a new laser module and I sent back the original, so they could tear into it and find out what went wrong.

I installed the new laser module and resumed testing.

Relief engraving

Flat engraving worked well, so I moved onto testing the relief engraving functionality. That burns away layers of material, almost like a reverse DLP resin 3D printer, leaving behind a carving in relief.

I first tried that in brass and though it did work, it isn’t something I would want to do regularly. The UV laser beam is tiny and isn’t burning away much material with each pass, so it takes a very long time to do a relief in tough material. Possible? Yes. Practical? Probably not.

Next, I tried to do the same thing in wood. That worked well and was speedy enough to be practical — fast enough that I didn’t realize I had cut all the way through the wood when I stepped away for a few minutes.

That also highlights one of the benefits of the “cold laser” technology: it didn’t burn or scorch the surrounding wood, which would happen with other laser types.

I even tried relief engravings in natural stone and brick. Both worked, but were taking so long that I ended up stopping the jobs part of the way through. Like with brass, it seemed too slow to be practical.

3D “inner engraving” in crystal

This is the ComMarker’s coolest party trick. Put a block of glass under the laser and you can create a 3D etching inside the glass, like a suspended hologram.

That is really, really neat and isn’t something you can do with most lasers.

It is really only possible because of the unique geometry of the UV laser beam. The beam only carries enough energy to create a microfracture in the glass when it is in focus and it is only in focus for a very short distance. By directing the beam in X and Y, then moving that focal point in Z, the machine can produce microfractures at any point within the 3D volume of the glass block. Add enough microfractures and you get a visible “ghost” 3D model in the glass.

This doesn’t work with all kinds of glass. ComMarker told me that it is best-suited to “K9 glass” (sometimes called “K9 crystal”), which is a type of borosilicate crown glass with 9% lead oxide content.

Luckily, that is easy to find in a variety of shapes and sizes.

It takes a couple of hours to do a 3D engraving in a 50×50×100mm K9 glass block, but the process is really neat to watch. Just load an STL file, adjust the size and position, and you’re ready to go. The default power and speed settings worked well for me.

I found the that the finished glass blocks look especially good when resting on LED lights (Amazon sells a bunch of different types). I made one with Yoshi and Baby Mario as a gift for my dad (he loved Yoshi’s Island) and it was a big hit.

Laser module failure 2

I was back to being impressed with the Omni X, but then the laser module failed again. The symptoms were exactly the same as with the first failure.

Upon speaking with ComMarker support, I learned that some other users of these pre-production machines were having similar issues. Apparently, the crystal element used to produce the UV laser is quite fragile. Heat might also play a factor — though I only used the Omni X in my air-conditioned office.

ComMarker said they were working on improving reliability and would send me a new laser module as soon as their revisions were done. About a month later, that showed up on my doorstep.

Once again, I swapped out the laser module and got back to testing.

Slide extension engraving

The available slide extension accessory gives you a lot more room to work with in the X axis on the Omni X, so you can engrave very long objects (up to 15.7” / 400mm long).

The slide extension bolts onto the machine’s base and connects via a port on the back. Using it is as simple as switching the mode in the ComMarker Studio software. If you’re using the large 150mm lens, you switch that in the “other” settings.

The password for those settings is: 123456 (I didn’t see that mentioned anywhere in the manual and simply guessed it)

The slide extension works well, moving the work in the X axis while the laser galvo moves the beam in the Y axis.

You can’t completely close the enclosure shield while the slide extension is in place, which does pose a small safety concern. But I was able to lower it to just above the top of the material, which felt safe enough for me.

Rotary engraving

There is also a rotary accessory available for the Omni X. Like many such accessories these days, it can be reconfigured for a multitude of different jobs. There are rollers for large things and various chucks/supports to accommodate oddly shaped objects.

Like the slide extension, you can connect it to a port on the back of the machine.

I just sat the rotary accessory on the base, so I could easily reposition it. As you can see, I accidentally placed it backwards and so the engraving on this ring, which was supposed to say “Hackster Pro,” ended up mirrored.

Software

Though I’ve covered all of the engraving modes above, I do want to talk a little bit about the software: ComMarker Studio.

It is basic, but functional. I didn’t find it to be particularly user-friendly or intuitive, but it isn’t archaic or cryptic, either. The important stuff is all there for loading images, entering text, and adjusting job parameters.

There is also a material library to store settings for your jobs, but you’ll need to fill it in yourself. So, once you find good settings for, say, 6061 aluminum engraving, you can save those for the future. But don’t expect to find settings ready to go — you have to experiment and determine the best settings through trial and error.

Conclusion

I’m really impressed with the capability of the ComMarker Omni X — at least when it is working. For only being 5W, it packs a serious punch and can easily engrave metal. And it can do so very quickly, which is awesome.

The slide extension and rotary extension accessories worked well, too. Overall, the build quality is great and everything is super sturdy.

And, of course, the 3D crystal engraving is really neat. It isn’t something you can do with any other laser type, so the Omni X is perfect if you want to make that kind of thing.

However, the fact that I had two laser modules fail is a big deal. That makes it really difficult for me to recommend the Omni X, because with a price starting at $4,599, the risk is quite high for buyers.

ComMarker tells me that the Omni X comes with a one-year warranty and that they’ve worked on improving the reliability. But as is always the case, I can only report on my own experiences.

So, for now, I would recommend waiting to purchase an Omni X until more long-term evaluations come in. Hopefully the laser module reliability issues will be resolved on the production machines and buyers can feel more confident purchasing.