xTool S1 Review: 7 Questions to Ask Before Buying One for Your Business

Full disclosure up front: I'm not a laser engineer. I'm the office administrator who buys equipment for a 15-person product design company and has the budget spreadsheets to prove it. After five years of managing vendor relationships and purchase orders, my rule is simple: ask the questions that matter before the invoice is sent. When we decided to bring laser cutting in-house, I read every xTool S1 review I could find. Most were written by hobbyists, not by people trying to justify the purchase to an operations manager and a finance team. Here are the questions I actually searched for, answered from my own notes.

Is the xTool S1 worth it, or is it overhyped?

Worth it—if you have recurring work for it. Before I submitted the purchase request, I pulled our vendor data: 60–80 small engraving and fabrication jobs a year, ranging from $60 to $150 each. That's roughly $6,000 a year in outsourced work. We bought the S1 with the 40W module, air assist, and honeycomb workbed for about $1,800. It paid for itself in under four months.

I went back and forth between the 20W and 40W module for two weeks. The 20W was cheaper; the 40W cut acrylic in fewer passes and handled a wider range of materials. We chose the 40W because cutting acrylic was our primary use case.

The trigger event? In March 2024, our usual vendor produced 40 acrylic nameplates with our CEO's name misspelled—all 40 pieces, same typo. They gave us 15% off, but we still lost three days and looked unprofessional to a client. That's when I started calculating whether owning a laser made sense. It's a desktop machine, not industrial equipment, but for a small business with consistent volume, the S1 does the job.

Can the xTool S1 cut acrylic without melting it?

Yes—with two conditions: use cast acrylic and don't skip the air assist. We cut 5mm cast acrylic regularly with the 40W module, and 6mm works at a slower speed. If I remember correctly, our acrylic settings are around 90% power at 7mm/s for a single pass, but I'd have to check our saved files for the exact values. Extruded acrylic melts more easily and leaves cloudy edges; cast acrylic is the safer choice.

Air assist is a must. It keeps the lens clean and improves the cut edge so much that I'd argue it's mandatory equipment. And we only run the machine with the enclosure fan and ventilation on—cutting acrylic produces fumes you don't want in your breathing space.

We used to outsource custom-shaped acrylic parts to an online print shop. They were great for standard rectangles and volume runs, but every odd-shaped prototype meant a 5-day wait. Now we cut a prototype in 20 minutes. For a design shop, that speed is the real value.

What can you actually do with a laser cutter?

More than the marketing suggests. In our first six months with the S1, we've made:

• Acrylic nameplates and directional signage
• Stencils for spray-painting metal parts
• Engraved oak presentation boxes
• Client gifts: leather keychains, cork coasters, wooden bottle openers
• Workshop jigs, templates, and packaging mockups

We originally bought it for acrylic signage. The side benefits—like cutting custom jigs for our prototype team—weren't in the business case, but they've saved us both time and money. There's something satisfying about a batch of 30 engraved keychains on the desk when a client asked three days earlier if we could do custom gifts. We said yes without scrambling.

One thing that surprised me: shipping. Engraved items are small, but they often aren't letter-flat. The USPS letter thickness limit is 0.25 inches—most rigid engraved gifts exceed that, so they ship at the large-envelope or parcel rate. And rates keep moving:

According to USPS pricing effective January 2025, First-Class Mail letter (1 oz) is $0.73; a large envelope (1 oz) is $1.50, plus $0.28 per additional ounce.
Source: usps.com/stamps

That shipping cost comes straight out of your margin, which is why we factor it into every quote.

Can the xTool S1 engrave gold?

Some types, yes. We've engraved gold-plated lapel pins for a company event and they came out sharp. Brass nameplates also engrave well without any coating. But bare polished gold is difficult for a diode laser because it reflects infrared and conducts heat away quickly. For those pieces, we use xTool's marking spray. If you're shopping for a gold laser engraver to handle solid gold or silver jewelry every day, a fiber laser will serve you better.

There's also an honesty angle. If you sell engraved items, your product descriptions have to be accurate. Per FTC guidelines at ftc.gov, marketing claims must be truthful and substantiated—so a gold-plated pin shouldn't be described as solid gold. We specify the exact material and finish on everything we make. It keeps us accountable and sets the right expectations.

Is a laser cutter the same as a plasma cutting machine?

No—and I nearly made an expensive mistake treating them like similar tools. A plasma cutter uses ionized gas to melt and blow through conductive metal: steel plate, structural iron, stainless. A desktop diode laser like the S1 is for precision engraving and cutting thinner, less thermally conductive materials. They solve completely different problems.

I didn't fully appreciate this until our workshop foreman asked for a "laser to cut steel brackets." I started comparing plasma cutting machine prices, then stopped and asked what the job actually was: engraving serial numbers on brass tags. That's a laser job. The plasma unit would have been a $3,000 machine sitting idle. The S1 handled the tags that afternoon.

So if your question is whether a $1,800 diode laser can cut quarter-inch steel—no. Use a plasma cutter or a fiber laser for that. They serve different roles, and knowing which is which has saved our budget more than once.

Which accessories are actually worth buying?

Air assist and the honeycomb workbed are essential in my book. Air assist keeps the lens clean and makes cuts cleaner. The honeycomb workbed keeps the material flat and improves airflow underneath. (Should mention: we also added the enclosure riser—it helps with ventilation and gives more room to work.)

The rotary attachment is a classic 'it depends.' I went back and forth on it for weeks because it's not a small purchase and I didn't want a gadget that would gather dust. Then a client asked for 50 engraved tumblers, and that settled the argument. If cylindrical engraving isn't in your workflow, skip it. xTool sells it separately, and I respect that. Small businesses shouldn't be forced into a bundle of extras they'll never use.

Where should you set it up?

We put ours in the workshop, not the main office. Even with the enclosure, laser cutting creates fumes and fine particulates, and the machine runs loud enough to be annoying in a shared space. We have a window exhaust adapter and keep the enclosure fan running during every job. If you're in a tight office, plan for that before you buy.

Clearance matters too. Our first spot was too cramped—a sheet of plywood kept hitting the wall. That was my installation error, not the machine's. Since we moved it to the center of the workbench, everything's been fine.

Setup itself was simple: unbox, attach the air assist, connect the exhaust adapter, and turn it on. We were test-cutting within two hours. xTool's software includes material presets that get you close, and the learning curve is gentle if you start with wood. But keep an eye on it while it runs—a laser deserves supervision, no matter how foolproof it looks.