The AtomStack A70 Max is quite an impressive laser engraver with a massive work area. This machine is mostly for serious hobbyists or small businesses. The A70 Max allows you to cut materials as thick as 28 mm in one pass. This combined with the large work area of 800mm x 850mm allows for some really interesting large projects to be made with the A70 Max.
Main Features of the A70 Max
- Large build volume of 800mm x 850mm
- Can switch between 70W and 35W
- Amazing cutting power (28 mm thick material in one pass)
- One-click auto-focus
- Effective air assist
- Very accurate
See all of the features on AtomStack’s official store right here.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Very accurate
- Fast engraving
- Very strong cutting capabilities
- Very large working area
Cons:
- Open frame laser
- No panel to cut on included (No Honeycomb panel included)
Cutting Capabilities
The cutting capabilities of the A70 Max are quite impressive.
I was able to cut 19 mm thick fir wood in one pass with no issues. It took me two tries until all of the settings were dialed in properly but after that, the cuts were clean and accurate.
The edges of the wood did burn very slightly but nothing to worry about. This was also because I used fir wood which burns easily. I recommend using another type of wood that doesn´t burn as easily or just use MDF.
I also cut some 8 mm thick MDF wood with the A70 and I was really pleasantly surprised just how easily it was able to cut MDF.
Overall, I cut a total of 25 hours with the A70 and I built this entire bench using the machine. During all of this time, I did not have a single failed cut after dialing in the settings. So it is fair to say that the A70 is quite reliable.
Engraving Quality
The output of the A70 can be switched between 35 W and 70 W with the flick of a switch located on the side of the laser head.
It is recommended to switch to 35W when engraving to ensure better engraving quality.
So I switched to 35 W and engraved some MDF panels. I painted my panels with some gold acrylic paint because I wanted to achieve a very specific effect but you can easily engrave plane MDF as well.
It took an average of 25 Minutes to engrave one 160 mm x 160 mm design on the panels.
This is the result after engraving one panel. I did not use a lot of power when engraving these panels which is why the engraved area is so light.
I finally used some acrylic speed paint to darken the engraved area and get the nice effect that I was after. You can alternatively engrave the design with some more power to get a higher contrast through engraving alone.
Overall, the engraving quality and speed are very impressive. You can see that even the finest details were engraved flawlessly.
Open Frame Laser
The A70 is an open frame laser so you have to find some way to deal with the smoke development during use. This is an issue that all open-frame lasers have.
You can either build an enclosure and hook that up to an exhaust to get rid of the smoke or you can use the laser in a very well-ventilated area.
I opted for enclosing the A70 with some MDF wood and a thick transparent foil to trap all of the smoke inside. It wasn´t perfect but good enough to deal with all of the smoke development.
You can buy a smoke purifier from AtomStack right here. And hook that up to your custom enclosure to suck all of the smoke outside and filter it at the same time.
Conclusion
The A70 Max is a really good laser for serious hobbyists and small businesses that need to accurately cut bigger and thicker materials on a daily basis.
The A70 can be used for woodworking, prop making, and more. I especially think that it can allow for very interesting woodworking projects that would otherwise take much more time.
I used the A70 to build this entire bench without using any other tools. And it turned out great.
It was really easy and faster than if I had made it using a saw and a chizzle.
