TLDR version: Laser is good, works great, good price, big time investment and learning curve however, and if you invest the time it's a great product. The company however censors/edits its forums and does everything it can, including bribery, to avoid negative reviews/talk of it's products.

Full, way too long version:

Later in this post I'll explain how I found this awesome website/forum, but wanted to start by posting my review of this machine and the company.

First, the machine.

The 40w Hobby Laser (Full Spectrum Engineering) is a pretty awesome machine. It's extremely reasonably priced from what I've seen in the research I've done before purchasing one. One of the biggest benefits of the machine is the large table size. Most other lasers in the price category have tables less than half the size of this thing. The flipside to it is the laser is pretty big. Much larger than I expected it to be.

Construction on it is good, it feels sturdy. Some of the inner pieces seem, to my untrained/uneducated/unprofessional eye seem to be cheaply machined aluminum, but I'm sure thats how they keep costs down. And really, if the lens holder is mediocre aluminum instead of finely milled steel, who gives a crap.

The machine is absolutely a hobby laser. It requires a lot of tweaking and a LOT of time investment to get it going right. The focus is completely manual, and you need to make your own wheel for turning the Z-table screw (otherwise, unless you have small hands, you're gonna tear your hand up reaching under the machine to do it, like I did for the first 2 weeks of ownership. FSE provides a file to cut your own wheel, which I used, and it works great). There's a big learning curve. FSE states the machine is focused and aligned at the factory, but it can become misaligned in shipment. Mine, when it arrived, was SO badly aligned it took me about 3 hours to get it all lined up. Most of that time was spent learning how, however, and I'm confident I could take a misaligned machine and get it going great in less than 20 minutes at this point.


It has a few issues you need to tweak, such as belt tightness, possibly leveling the Z-table (mine was off), manually installing the beam combiner (and aligning it) if you go for that option. Like they advertise, it's a hobby laser, and you pay for a hobby laser... the money you save on it is the price paid for having to really learn the machine and invest time in tweaking it to get it to work how you want it to.

And speaking of that, quality control on the machine is somewhat lacking. Mine, as well as many others as reported on the FSE forums, arrived with the lens installed upside-down. Without reading the forums, I'd have never known the lens was installed wrong. The gounding was not performed on mine, I had to manually run a grounding wire outside the machine into the back of it. Some have reported kinks in the air line. Mine was badly misaligned when I received it. Others have reported shorts in the boards. None of it is big, all easily fixable, but those are quality issues to deal with.

So, thats the overview of the machine.

What can it do?

I've done some pretty great cuts with it (I bought it mostly for cutting). I've only recently started to engrave. The current version of the software, 3.52 does not support power settings for engraving which causes some small issues. The current beta, 3.6 does support power settings for engraving, but it's buggy. Hey, it's a beta. Once 3.6 is released it'll be real nice.

I've never been disappointed in what the laser can do. It works great. The software is slightly buggy and annoying in some ways. For example, you need to plug the USB in, then wait 5 seconds, then start the software. Otherwise it just won't work. Put your PC into sleep mode, fire it up, and the software is running but the USB is disconnected? Gotta shut down the software, wait 5 seconds, plug in USB, wait 5, start software. Not a big deal, just annoying. The software will occasionally lock up on me... I do a cut, unlock the head, manually move it to a new position, hit the lock button to lock it down again, and software is frozen. Cant close it. Task manager, kill, wait, unplus USB, wait, plug it in, wait, start software.

Not a deal killer, but an annoyance I believe people should be aware of.

Which brings me to my review of the company as a whole. A review, which I am pretty sure will get my forum account on FSE's website closed. Here's a link to my forum profile - you need to be registered and logged into their website to see it. If you click this link, and I'm not there anymore, it's because FSE did not approve of this post and shut me down. Something I'd almost be willing to bet money on. InfernusDoleo on FSE's forums: www.fullspectrumengineering.com • Login

First, delivery. I paid $300 extra for the expedited delivery, because I'm a gotta-have-it-now kinda person. The laser was delivered on time and I was happy with the packaging and time it took to receive. However, the $300 beam combiner upgrade was not included. I was not informed it wwas on back order and it took me calling them to get any info. When I called to ask where it was (on Tuesday), I was told it was on backorder, and it was being overnighted to them by Thursday, they'd have it Friday, and it'd go out to me.

The Monday of the week after NEXT (6 days post when it was supposed to ship to me) I called again - where's my beam combiner? They were being sent out to them that week (not overnighted) and when they got it I'd receive it. I finally got it, about 3.5 weeks after I received my laser, and after 3 phone calls that I had to initiate to follow up and find out where it was.

So, on to customer service...

If you notice on these forums, a few posts down, someone posted that FSE heavily moderates their forums. That one fact is what caused me to google for laser engraver forums, and find these pages. I cannot stand censorship, and the crafting of information to make onesself look better.

FSE disallows any post on their forums which they do not find flattering. They claim they do it to keep their forums more of a knowledge base. I get that. I understand disallowing dupe posts of the same thing 20 times... but this goes WAY beyond that. I've attempted to make posts list big problems and express frustration. Most of them are denied, or edited to remove anything that doesnt make them shine. If a potential customer reads FSE's forums to decide if their laser is right for them, they will find nothing but glowing reviews, happy customers, and customers with issues - but minor issues which are quickly addressed and solved (Look how responsive we are! We love our customers!). Bigger issues, fundamental flaws with the laser - you won't find these issues on their website.

I got frustrated at not being able to have a discussion with the other FSE owners out there. I was getting annoyed at having questions edited, or flat out disallowed. (One post, I dont even remember the content, was disallowed because it "contained links to pirated software" - something absolutely not true. When I emailed and asked, WTF? I was told it was a mistake. But, my post was lost and not posted anyway. Funny, that.)

So I posted a truthful review on google checkout. (I just did a search and cant find a public way to see that review anywhere - google says the only way to see reviews is through your 'I accept google checkout!' button - which they don't have, and through a google product search, and they don't have their items listed there). I gave it three stars, said the product was good, but the company was frustrating with their censorship. Basically what I've said here, in condensed form.

Later, after posting some questions on the forums, I received an email from them stating that my 60 day warranty was up, and if I changed my review on google checkout from 3 to 5 stars they'd extend me some free warranty time.

I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like bribery/buying good reviews. Makes you wonder how many of their 5 star reviews on google checkout used to be 3 star reviews, and were changed because they were paid off to do so.

So, I ignored that, because my review stands. The whole point of my review was to warn others that they lock down their forums with an iron fist and only allow what they want seen on there. No negativity, no criticism, only praise and great success stories. If I changed my review, I'd be doing exactly what I hate about how they run their business.

So just yesterday I had a problem with my laser. Was having issues focusing it. For one, I misplaced the focusing ruler they enclosed. Manual states the ruler is 2.77" long, but when focusing using calipers at 2.77" it was not focused correctly (on a side note on the quality control - when I found the ruler under my desk, my calipers read it at 2.74"). I got frustrated not being able to get a good focus and posted on the forums asking if anyone had any tips on getting a good focus WITHOUT relying on a ruler which may or may not work well (it's completely dependent on the distance between the lens and the cutting surface. If my lens is off, if its not screwed in enough, if the holder has too many threads, it may not BE the right distance according to the enclosed 2.77" but really 2.74" ruler).

My post was denied, and I was told to call them to discuss my support options, as my warranty was over and I did not purchase an extended warranty.

I replied to this email and said I was not looking for support, I was asking the community for advice. Is forum access considered 'support' and I cannot use it without being under warranty (or good graces with a 5 star review)?

I received a reply stating to call them to discuss support options.

So, if you receive poor service, and leave an honest review, you're bribed into changing that review. If you do not, you fall out of the service period it seems, one of the benefits of which is accessing the community on their website. A community which is only halfway useful, as any true issues with the laser you're not allowed to discuss with other FSE users, as someone might see that the machine isnt perfect.

FSE highly moderates and censors their boards. They've told me if I change an honest review (and lie) they'd extend my warranty. When I did not, my ability to ask questions of other users on the forums begins to disappear.

I've never in my life dealt with a company so focused on image and appearance, and customer service becoming so secondary to that. I understand, I'm out of my support timeline. I'd never call them for support without having a credit card ready, and if posting on the forums I'd never expect a response from them.

But now I'm not even allowed to ask others for help. Like I said further up - I'd be shocked if my FSE forum account were not disabled after them reading this here. Likely it'll stay up, however, with every post I make being denied with the reason of "Call us at XXX-XXX-XXXX to discuss your support options."

So, I googled, and found these forums. I'll likely be posting a lot over the next few days, and it's good to be here.

Just wanted to leave my honest, uncensored review. Thanks for having me.