Anyone heard of the Cubiio?

[Jacob John]

People are freaking out about it on one of the laser facebook pages, calling it revolutionary to the field of engraving. Claims to mark and cut metal?

So it's a diode galvo. Interesting but how practical?



From their faq though:

Can Cubiio engrave metal, anodized aluminum, glass, mirror, concrete, stone, ceramics or pottery?

No. Technically, due to wavelength and laser power, Cubiio cannot work on these materials.

[Ernest Martin]

It looks cool, but it raises questions,
It's obviously not very powerful, but can you imagine if this actually worked, what it would do to people that engrave hobby things for a living how many individual would buy one of these instead of bringing it to a real engraver.
Do you think FDA would approve something like this, just a thought

[Jacob John]

You raised a very interesting question. I would imagine that most countries version of the FDA will not approve of it. I can also imagine that each country's version of Customs will likely not allow it into the country. That's going to end up with a bunch of really ticked off people. And if you look at the backers there several from the UK and the US.

[Bill George]

I had a blue light laser diode setup not long ago, and I can tell you first hand its only good for maybe wood or paper. There is no way its going to engrave or cut any type of metal and its a real danger. I had protective glasses and shields. A waste of time and money.
Power source USB port, come on folks I had a 4 watt laser that required 3 amps at 12 vdc.

[Michael Henriksen]

I doubt it will put anyone out of business. 20 mins to do a small engraving. As a toy/gadget I think it is quite cool but not something I would spend money on.

[Matt McCoy]

Looks cool. It could be fun to goof around with.

[John Lifer]

800mw laser. X on Metal, so they realize it won't mark. Will cut paper supposedly. Simple diode like the others out there. No way would I pay $300 for it.

[Kev Williams]

Talk about your 'keep out of reach of children' products... "Hey sis, look right here, lemme take your picture"...

[Doug Fisher]

That phone case etching they showed was terrible. I can't believe they even included that.

[Jed Lawrie]

$600k after 3 days. Pretty impressive

[John Lifer]

It is interesting. a lot of money. Old adage always applies, a fool and their money are soon parted. Sure only a few hundred, but look at the results...

[Dave Sheldrake]

Sadly very few people in the former facebook groups I was a member of actually understand just how dangerous 445nm really is. The biggest mistake is looking at a comparison between 445nm watts and 10,640nm watts, it quite simply doesn't convert directly.

If the target material has a bandgap energy of under 2.788eV it will be subject to a PhotoChemical process using 445nm, the same material hit with a co2 @ 10,640nm will undergo a PhotoThermal process.The only reasonably accurate conversion is if you use WattSeconds, a CO2 laser has a Photon energy of 11.29 kJ/mol where a 445 has a photon energy of 269.0 kJ/mol so if you convert that to average power you get 1.87E-20 W/s for the CO2 and 4.47E-19 W/s for the 445nm (24x the power in the 445)

This is all wonderful until you realise the 10,640 will hit the lens of the eye and damage that, this can be repaired in some instances, the 445 will go right through and hit the Macula Lutea in front of the optic nerve...that isn't fixable (it's inside the eyeball)

So all in, get ready for these to be seized by customs in pretty much all EU countries and / or to read about blind people playing with matchbox lasers they shouldn't have purchased. (the damage threshold for the human eye is around 10mW)

[Michael Henriksen]

Dave, thanks for the detailed explanation.

One of the problems we face today is that we are so safe and protected that danger awareness is gone. People just don't think anything is capable of hurting them. If this product makes it into production a lot of units shipped directly will make it through to end users and some will end up hurting themselves with it.

I've already seen many people post an interest in starting a business with it!

[Bill George]

Dave, thanks for the detailed explanation.

One of the problems we face today is that we are so safe and protected that danger awareness is gone. People just don't think anything is capable of hurting them. If this product makes it into production a lot of units shipped directly will make it through to end users and some will end up hurting themselves with it.

I've already seen many people post an interest in starting a business with it!

Sad, sad part is I have seen on other Forums people who really need the income planning on using the Glow Forge and now you say this one.... people who say they can only afford the GF who want to start a business. They get hostile when I suggest saving a bit more money and buy something that works.... and it works when you purchase. No dinking around, just make your product and sell.

Its kind of like if you put Billet into a ad for a product made for a Harley it will sell. So if you say Laser, people want one.... no matter what.

[Michael Henriksen]

A Shenhui 350 will out-perform a GF any day and those have been around for years. I had one for a while when I just wanted to have a laser for hobby use. Did the job just fine. I think the people that have ordered a GF just fell for the hype and ordered one without having done any research at all about lasers beforehand. They don't know alternatives exist. Just shows what you can acheive with marketing.