Our Creality Falcon 2 (22w) Review (Part 1)

This is our review of the Creality Falcon 2, (22 WATT) laser engraving and cutting machine. We were very fortunate in having been sent one of these machines by Creality and I’d like to thank them for giving us this opportunity to review their laser.

We’re going to be putting it through its paces to see how easy it is to put together and how well it performs.

You can click here for PART 2

Watch the video below or scroll down to read more

Buying Link

• Creality Falcon 2 (22w)
• Note: Please use coupon code FALCON to receive a discount of $50.00 off your purchase.

Quick Summary

Pros

• Comes pre-built – easy to set up
• 3 positions available for the feet – for those with limited workspace
• Excellent documentation on the TF card
• Manual is well written and easy to understand
• Well built solid machine
• Integrated Air Assist included
• Includes protective plate for your workspace
• Triple monitoring system – monitors air assist, lens and checks for flames
• Integrates with Lightburn and LaserGRBL
• Large work area 400mm x 410mm
• Automatic stop button
• Key locking
• Automatic stop when machine is tilted
• Offline creating

Cons

• Can be a little difficult to position projects from the side angle
• Would have preferred the stop button to be in a different position – I pressed it a couple of times in error.

UNBOXING

So lets take a quick look at what comes in the box.

There is an Operation Guide, and on the back is a handy little step-by-step flow chart.

Then we have some stickers and of course a manual which is quite good as manuals go. There are nice clear images with step-by-step instructions on how to setup the machine. It was pretty easy to follow.

Bear in mind, that there is more detailed information on the TF card that is included with the machine, and I’ll have more on that later.

In this packet, we have some risers, a USB cable, a brush and a few pieces of wood to practice with.

Then we have the power cord and a pair of safety glasses.

And of course we also have the laser module.

This is a 22 watt laser but Creality also have a 10 watt or 40 watt version available for purchase, and you can swap out the laser modules to suit your requirements.

The machine comes with an air assist pump, and it’s great to see this as a standard inclusion. I will talk more about the air assist pump later.

There is also a box filled with lots of bits and pieces including:

• Some Allen wrenches
• An open-end wrench
• A TF card and TF card reader
• A type-A to Type-C adapter
• Two keys
• A laser lens
• A dust-free cloth
• Some cable straps
• And a pair of tweezers

And finally we have the other half of the power cord and the feet for the machine.

In the same box, is the machine itself and this is pretty awesome, since the machine comes pretty much pre-built. We only had to add a few things to get it up and running.

This is not something we have seen before in this type of frame style laser. Most come in a long thin box (I guess to save on shipping costs) with all the pieces ready to assemble.

And it can take up to an hour or more to put some of these machines together.

So having parts of the machine pre-built not only reduces the amount of time it takes to set it up but also the amount of issues that can potentially occur when you are building a machine like this yourself.

Now you may notice this piece of foam here opens up to reveal a protective plate. I did watch a few older Creality unboxing videos and in this space there was also a honeycomb bed so it appears that they don’t include this as standard anymore.

However, I think I know why and you will see that in a moment.

This protective plate is quite sturdy. It’s much better in comparison to some of the ones we have received for our other machines in the past. You can see the difference in thickness here between an Atezr plate and the Creality plate.

SETUP

So the machine is out of the box and it looks like a quality machine and it feels strong and sturdy. I do like the finish on the machine, the aluminium alloy gives it a nice sleek look and the cables are nice and tidy.

This is a big machine and has a working area of 400mm by 410mm and it comes with a set of risers which allows you to raise the machine for when you are cutting thicker materials.

This is by far the fastest and easiest setup we have had for this type of frame style laser.

Since it was prebuilt all we needed to do was attach the air assist pump, the laser module and of course the feet.

This is a huge plus for this machine. This makes it an awesome machine for a beginner who just wants to get in and start creating. No one wants to spend time trying to build a machine.

Now, the air assist helps to dissipate the smoke, reduce the heat and remove any small bits of debris.

This also helps to protect the laser lens and it gives your projects a nice clean result. You can see the difference here.

This was super simple to connect. It was just a matter of inserting the tubing into the air assist pump. Just make sure you remove the rubber plug first. And then plug the air assist cable in to the side of the laser machine.

Attaching the Laser Module

Next we attached the laser module by sliding it into the bracket and turning the thumb screws to hold it in place.

Then we detached the tubing from the clips and plugged it into the top of the laser module.

And finally we just needed to plug the module cable into the adapter board.

We did have a bit of trouble with this for some reason, and we fiddled about a bit, but when we held it in just the right way suddenly it worked.

OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES

Now, we did receive a couple of optional accessories that we weren’t actually expecting so I’d like to say a big thank you to Creality for that.

Honeycomb bed

As I mentioned previously, we didn’t receive one in the box with the laser but received this one instead, in it’s own separate box.

I think the reason they may have removed the original honeycomb bed from the box is that it was just too small for the size of this machine. This larger one fits the machine beautifully.

However, you do have to purchase it as an optional accessory along with the Enclosure, which is the second accessory we received but we will go into that a little further on.

Protective Plate

With the honeycomb bed came a protective plate and this one was larger than the first. So we peeled off the protective coating and placed it onto our workspace beneath the laser and then we put the honeycomb bed on top.

And finally, we just needed to plug it in to the power and turn it on.

So all in all, the assembly was super fast so a big thumbs up to Creality for making it so easy for the user to get the laser up and running.

UPDATE THE FIRMWARE

Now we needed to update the Firmware and if you are English speaking ignore the URL they want to send you to in the manual as it goes to a Chinese translation and you will have a hell of a time trying to figure out what to click on.

Instead just go to crealitycloud.com and hold your mouse over the DOWNLOADS option from the top menu and select FIRMWARE.

The firmware needs to be loaded onto the TF card which came in the box along with a TF reader and a USB C to USB A adapter.

Now on that card is a ton of information and I have to say it’s probably the best information I have seen from all of the lasers we have received so far. It includes installation videos, sample files, recommended parameters, FAQS, error codes and more.

I don’t know why more companies don’t do this. It would save on a ton of support queries going through to their help desk.

So well done to Creality for providing this amount of information.

NOTE: Before you rush off and update the TF card you need to be aware that in order to update the firmware you have to delete everything on that TF card. This means you have to backup all that information somewhere and at over 1gb of data that could be an issue for those low on space.

I just saved it all to my Mac and I intend to put it all back on the card once I update the firmware.

Or you could just use a spare TF or MicroSD card if you have one and save all the hassle.

NOTE: There are two firmware files you have to load onto the machine and they have to be done separately.

So you have to turn off your machine, insert the card with the first firmware file into the side of the machine and then turn on the machine and it will automatically update the firmware.

Then you have to come back to your computer, format the card, load up the second file and then upload it in the same way at the top of the laser module.

You can see this being done in the video.

So with all of that done we are now ready to test out the machine.

LIGHTBURN

Our software of choice is Lightburn so we open that up and connect the machine to the software.

We have already connected the USB cable that was included, to the computer, so now when we open Lightburn we can select DEVICES and then click on IMPORT.

Creality have included a configuration file on the TF card so you just need to load that up to Lightburn.

MATERIAL TESTS

We started by engraving a test pattern using the Material Test option in Lightburn. This is a great way of testing out different speed and power settings to get the right settings for the type of material you will be cutting or engraving on.

You can see the results in the image below. We created a test pattern for both engraving and cutting.

We also tested the settings that Creality recommends on their website and they ended up being the best settings so that is what we went with for our first project.

We chose an American eagle SVG which we have used on a number of occasions now and we wanted to test both engraving and cutting so we played around with the SVG image to enable it to engrave the eagle and then cut around it.

I can’t find the actual file that we used but here is a that has a similar image to this one, and it is a cleaner looking file.

You can see two layers here, one for the engraving part and one for the cutting part.

Test Settings

Engraving

• Speed – 6000
• Power – 25% power
• Air Assist turned off for the engraving part.

Cutting

• Speed – 1000
• Power – 100% power
• Air Assist turned on.

We used one of the pieces of 2mm wood that came in the box with the machine for our test.

So I placed it on the honeycomb bed and used the focus block to get the right distance between the laser and the wood.

This focus block is quite neat and not one we have seen before. It includes three levels for different material thicknesses.

We clicked on the FRAME button in Lightburn to better place the material and once we had it in the right spot we clicked START to begin the engraving.

And you can see how beautifully this is engraved the design.

And just a tip here while we watch the laser do it’s thing – it’s generally always better to engrave first and then cut. If you cut first, then the wood could fall out of place and affect the placement of the engraving.

So once the engraving is done, you can see how it now cuts around the edge of the eagle.

It took about 12 minutes to both engrave and cut and I’m really impressed with the result.

Enclosure – Optional Extra

At this point, we thought we might try out the enclosure which helps to reduce the fumes and vent the smoke.

This was pretty easy to put together – just connect the pipes as shown on the enclosed piece of paper, and then slide the cover over the top of the frame.

Then we just had to screw in the exhaust fan and attach the exhaust pipe.

Now it was just a matter of plugging it into our computer with the USB cable. This immediately turns the exhaust fan on so there is no on/off switch for it.

To turn it off you have to unplug the USB cable.

Now this thing is big and unfortunately we don’t have the space for it so it hangs over the edge of the table.

I do love it though – it does a great job of containing the smoke and exhausting it out.

We cut a piece of 5mm wood which generally generates a lot of smoke. It’s a bit hard to see the smoke being drawn out through the exhaust fan in the photo and you can see it much better in the video.

I would love to have the space to keep this as a permanent fixture but it is what it is.

We did open the flap to more easily see the framing function and then closed it when we were ready to cut.

Conclusion

So far, we are loving this machine and there is so much more we haven’t covered in this video. However we will go into much more detail in Part 2 including testing various materials.