Xtool F1 Ultra: Laser Type, Bed Size, Real Cost & an Acrylic Cutting Checklist

I'm an office administrator at a 40-person product design firm. I handle purchasing for our prototyping shop—everything from filament to fasteners to laser equipment. When management approved bringing laser cutting in-house, I spent six weeks researching before we landed on the Xtool F1 Ultra.

This is the checklist I wish someone had handed me. It covers the spec questions everyone asks (laser type, bed size), the cost question nobody answers straight (total spend, not just the unit price), and how to cut acrylic sheets without wrecking them. Six steps, roughly twenty minutes to read.

Step 1: Know what the laser type actually means for your materials

The F1 Ultra is a dual-laser machine: a 20W fiber laser and a 20W diode laser in one enclosure. That's the "xtool f1 ultra laser type" answer in one sentence. But what matters isn't the marketing description—it's what each laser can and cannot do.

Fiber laser: good for marking and engraving metals. It can also do deep engraving on some metals. What it cannot do is cut acrylic. The wavelength is wrong for organic materials. Honestly, I'm not sure of the precise physics explanation—my best guess is something about absorption rates—but I tested it. No parameter combination gets the fiber side to cut acrylic.

Diode laser: this is the workhorse for cutting. Wood, plywood, acrylic up to a few millimeters, leather, cardboard, some plastics. It can also engrave anodized aluminum and coated metals.

So when a product listing says "laser engraver for all materials," read that as "all types of materials across the combined lasers"—not every material with every laser. That distinction cost me a weekend of confusion when I first tested it.

Checkpoint: Before you buy, write down your top three materials. Then check which of the two lasers actually handles them. If your work is mostly wood and acrylic, the diode side carries your load. If you're marking serial numbers on steel, it's the fiber side.

Step 2: Measure your actual parts against the bed size

The F1 Ultra's work area is compact—around 115 × 115 mm (about 4.5 × 4.5 inches). The optional rotary attachment handles cylinders, and there are extension accessories that handle longer pieces. But the standard bed is small. Not small for a desktop unit. Small.

Here's where I made my first mistake: I ordered the machine before checking whether our typical parts would fit. One of our standard pieces is a 150 × 60 mm acrylic panel. It doesn't fit on the standard bed. We had to either split it into two engraving passes or rework the part to a smaller variant—which wasted roughly a week of engineering time.

Checkpoint: Pull the dimensions of your most common parts before ordering. If any exceed roughly 115 mm in either direction, plan on an accessory, a different machine, or a design change. Don't assume "desktop laser" means half-sheet format. It does not.

Step 3: Calculate the real laser cutting machine cost

As of January 2025, the F1 Ultra itself ranges roughly from $2,200 to $3,500 depending on the bundle and current promotions. I'd recommend verifying pricing on the official Xtool site because they run sales constantly—the price genuinely changed twice during my six-week research window.

But the machine isn't the full cost. Here's what ours came to:

• Machine: roughly $2,800 (we caught a promotion, maybe $300 off—I'd have to check the invoice)
• Rotary attachment: around $300
• Extension kit: around $150
• Air assist: included in our bundle, but it's about $100 separately
• Consumables (lens wipes, alignment tools, replacement lenses): about $150 over the first six months

Total: roughly $3,500—no, let me be honest, about $3,600 after shipping and tax. The accessories and consumables added about 30% to the sticker price. That's the real "laser cutting machine cost" equation.

Compared to a full-size CO2 laser or a standalone fiber unit, the F1 Ultra looks cheap. But that comparison only works if you include the CO2's chiller, exhaust, and installation costs. For a small shop, the desktop dual-laser is the realistic entry point. For a high-volume production floor, the small bed will be a bottleneck no matter how capable the lasers are.

Checkpoint: Get the full bundle price, not the base unit. List every accessory your jobs require and add 15% for consumables. If the total still makes sense, move on.

Step 4: Cut acrylic sheets the right way

This is the "how to cut acrylic plastic sheets" part—and it's where most first-timers fail. Acrylic (PMMA) is unforgiving. Here's what worked for us:

1. Use cast acrylic, not extruded. Extruded acrylic melts and chips more easily under a diode laser. Cast material cuts cleaner. We learned this after ruining a batch of 12 parts in my first week—the edges came out cloudy and slightly bubbled. Classic rookie mistake.
2. Keep the protective film on. The blue or white film prevents smoke residue and micro-scorch on the cut edge. Remove it after cutting. If the film is loose, tape the edges down so it doesn't lift mid-job.
3. Set your focus correctly. For the diode side, roughly zero focus from the flat sheet surface works for most material. If you're cutting thicker acrylic, run a focus test at slightly deeper settings to compare edge quality.
4. Start at moderate speed and power. For 3 mm cast acrylic, we start around 55% power at 50 mm/s, then adjust. The ideal settings vary by material batch—humidity affects results. Build your own baseline and iterate.
5. Let the air assist run. Without airflow, the acrylic edge overheats and turns frosted or golden. Air assist keeps the edge clear and reduces flash-point risk.
6. Expect multiple passes. A CO2 laser might cut 3 mm acrylic in one pass. The F1 Ultra's diode generally needs two or three. Set the job to repeat and inspect between passes—don't assume the first pass finishes the cut.

Checkpoint: Before cutting real parts, run a test grid: three speeds × three power levels on scraps. Write down which setting produces a clean edge with no discoloration and no un-cut corners.

Step 5: Test on scraps before you commit—every time

Small doesn't mean unimportant. The vendors who treated my $200 orders seriously when I was starting out are the ones I still use for $20,000 orders. It works the same way with materials: the small test cut prevents the expensive failure.

Set up a settings log—ours is a spreadsheet with columns for material, thickness, speed, power, passes, and a photo of the result. After maybe 20 entries, you can predict a starting point for almost anything in the machine's range. We've logged wood, leather, anodized aluminum, glass, ceramic tiles, and acrylic in 1.5, 3, and 6 mm.

The surprise wasn't the cutting ability. It was the color engraving on metal—something the F1 Ultra does with controlled heat. We don't use it often, but when a client asked for colored logos on stainless steel tags, we actually delivered. I wasn't expecting that to be the differentiator. It was.

Checkpoint: Never start a production job with unproven settings. Scrap material is cheaper than redoing a batch.

Common mistakes and final precautions

Three things I'd flag from our own operation:

Don't cut PVC or vinyl without a serious filtration setup. The chlorine gas is toxic and corrodes the machine internals. The F1 Ultra's enclosure and included filter handle normal cutting, but PVC is a hard line for us. There's no laser setting that makes PVC safe.

Don't leave the machine unattended mid-job. We had a strip of birch plywood catch a micro-flash on the second pass. Someone was in the room, so we caught it early—but it only takes one unattended moment. The flame doesn't need to be big to cause damage.

Clean the lens regularly. Acrylic residue and smoke buildup reduce cutting power and cause inconsistent results. We clean ours with a soft, dry lint-free cloth and compressed air after every session. It's a five-minute habit that prevents a $100 lens replacement later.

Per FTC advertising guidelines (ftc.gov), product claims need to be substantiated—so when a listing says "cuts everything," ask for the test data and then verify on your own materials. Buyers should verify, not just believe. My experience with the F1 Ultra has been mostly positive, but it's based on our materials, our settings, and our tolerance for tinkering. If you're running a high-volume shop, the compact bed will frustrate you. If you're like us—variety of small jobs, need for flexibility—it's a solid workhorse.

One last thing: the F1 Ultra is a tool, not a toy. It can burn your shop down if you skip the safety basics. Test, log, clean, repeat. That's the entire checklist.