xTool M2 Review: How it Performs with Common Craft Materials

When xTool announced the M2, I was very curious to see how it would fit into their growing lineup of craft machines.

After spending the past few years using the M1 Ultra for everything from laser engraving and vinyl cutting to custom printing, I was excited to see what the M2 could do. Rather than trying to cram as many features as possible into one machine, the M2 focuses on two core capabilities: laser cutting and engraving, and full color printing.

What most crafters want to know is how it will perform with the materials they actually use, so over the past month I’ve tested the M2 on wood, acrylic, leather, felt, slate, metal, sticker paper and pencils.

In this review I’ll cover the setup process, software, laser performance, print quality and my overall experience putting the machine to the test with a variety of materials.

xTool provided me with the M2 for this review but all opinions are 100% my own.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will make a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thanks for the support!

Materials I tested

My goal for this review was to test the M2’s capability and quality with the materials that I use for crafting most often. Throughout this review you’ll see example projects that I created using:

• Sticker paper
• Basswood
• Black Acrylic
• Leather
• Metal
• Felt
• Slate
• Pencils

What is the xTool M2?

The xTool M2 is a desktop laser cutter, laser engraver and direct-to-surface printer designed for crafting and small businesses.

Having the ability to print, engrave and cut within one machine opens up a huge range of possibilities for craft projects and personalized gifts.

The M2 uses a diode laser for cutting and engraving along with an integrated inkjet printing module that can print on a variety of flat materials. Some of the materials compatible with the M2 include:

• Wood
• Acrylic (certain colors)
• Leather
• Paper
• Cardstock
• Felt
• Fabric
• Slate
• Cork
• Coated metals for marking
• Canvas

Two of the biggest improvements over the M1 Ultra are the larger working area and dual camera system which makes positioning materials and aligning projects much easier.

Make sure to check the bottom of the box before you put it away. I was about to take mine into the basement and decided to lift up the foam on the bottom to discover a lovely surprise box of material samples. I’m not sure that every bundle is packed this way but it’s worth checking.

Setup and Calibration

One thing that I’ve always appreciated about xTool is that they design their products and software with beginners in mind.

The packaging is well organized, each component is clearly labeled and they have a video that walks you through exactly how to set it up and calibrate the machine.

Assembly

Assembling the machine was very easy. You pretty much just pull it out of the box, remove the components and packaging from the inside of the machine, plug it in and you’re good to go!

Below you can see how well the different accessories and materials are packed within the machine itself. It does make it heavier having all of this inside of the machine but it wasn’t too heavy for me to lift up on my desktop.

Attaching the laser and print modules is very easy as well. They have strong magnets that align them perfectly and then you just have to attach a small cord.

Connecting to xTool Creative Space

You’ll need a physical cable the first time that you connect the machine to xTool Creative Space (XCS) which is the xTool software required to operate their machines. There is a cord that comes with the machine but it’s pretty short so if you’re working with a desktop computer like me you may need to move the machine closer to your computer for the initial setup. After you connect it, you can set it up for Wi-Fi connection which allows you to locate your machine further from your computer if desired.

Camera and Print Calibration

The setup video will walk you through exactly how to calibrate the laser and the print head. It is very easy but with these two required steps the overall setup time took me about an hour.

The cameras allow the software to see your work area which makes it very easy to position designs accurately on your material. More on this later!

Software Experience

The M2 uses xTool Studio and xTool Creative Space for designing and controlling the machine.

If you’ve used another xTool machine before, the interface will feel very familiar since it is used for all of their machines.

Personally, I still prefer creating most of my designs with Canva or Affinity and then importing them. However, the software has become more capable over the years and includes enough built in tools that allow you to design within the software itself.

xTool Studio

Design Tools

The software has tools for:

• Basic vector drawing
• Text editing & 5000+ font options
• Elements
• Image tracing
• Layer management
• AI generated artwork and project ideas
• Ready made templates (great for beginners!)

Material Settings

One feature that I have a love and hate relationship with is the material library within XCS.

Instead of manually entering laser speed and power for every project, XCS includes recommended settings for a wide range of materials. Sometimes these settings are perfect and other times I find myself frustrated that they aren’t accurate.

It’s always recommended to run a small test cut whenever you are using a new material but I don’t always have the patience or extra material for that.

Camera Alignment

The dual camera system is probably my favorite feature on the M2. It allows you to take a live image of your work area to perfectly align your design on your material. This is something that I often struggled with using the M1 Ultra since it does not have cameras.

Print Module Performance

Printing on Paper

One of the things I was most excited to test on the M2 is the print quality on paper and I must say, it’s quite a bit better than the M1 Ultra!

I printed some vibrant sticker designs on a matte sticker paper and I was pleased with the quality. It would be equivalent to the quality of a standard CMYK printer so I wasn’t expecting them to look professional.

The sticker sheet was 8.5″ x 11″. I printed at 100% saturation and the total time to print took 6 minutes and 13 seconds so it isn’t fast.

Printing on Wood

To test printing on wood I went with a family picture of me, my husband and our dog Abby. For testing purposes I printed directly on the wood without a primer or fixative spray.

I don’t think that I would recommend printing photos on wood without using some sort of primer first. I’ll have to order some and test that out. I used 100% saturation for the example below.

The print time took just under 6 minutes for the example below. I first tried printing using the supplied magnets but the material shifted so I had to tape it down to keep it in place.

From a distance it didn’t look too bad but up close you can see how the ink bled.

Printing on Felt

I had some white felt so I figured why not test out the print quality on felt too? At 100% saturation the design comes out a little muted but the quality is still pretty good!

Printing Quality Summary

The M2 gives you the ability to print on so many different materials that you would never be able to use in a standard printer. While that is super cool, just keep in mind that it still only uses a CMYK ink cartridge so the print quality will be no better than a typical desktop printer.

Also, the ink is not permanent so if you are printing on fabric for example you won’t be able to wash it.

Laser Performance

Cutting and Engraving Wood

To test out cutting and engraving wood with the 10W diode laser I pulled a simple design template off of xTool Studio for a little FIFA keychain.

Aligning the design on the wood was very easy with the dual camera system. This was consistent across all of the materials tested.

The 10W laser did a great job of cutting and engraving the 1/8″ basswood material. I used the default settings for 3mm basswood in XCS which are listed below.

• Engrave: 80% power at 200 mm/s
• Cut: 100% power at 4 mm/s

It took 4:42 seconds to engrave and cut the keychain.

I added a penny for scale. You can see below how intricate of detail you can get with the laser engraving. There is very minimal scorching around the engraving. I did not attempt to clean up the scorching so this is an example of how it looks coming out of the machine.

As with any laser, you’re going to get scorched sides where you cut the wood so the sides will be much darker than the top and bottom of your piece.

I also tried to turn my family photo that I printed on wood into a puzzle. xTool Studio has a great puzzle generator feature that helps you to create puzzle shapes over your image.

With the prominent cut lines it didn’t work as well as I had hoped though. Do I have a working puzzle? Yes, however the thick lines cut through much of the detail on the image. I don’t think I would do this with wood again.

Cutting and Engraving Acrylic

One of the first projects that I made using acrylic was a little keychain to give to my neighbor so that she could let my dog out when we were away for an afternoon.

I used the default material settings for black acrylic and it had recommended 2 passes at 100% power. That seemed off to me since my M1 Ultra 10W could cut black acrylic in 1 pass but I went with it. Turns out my instinct was right.

The material dropped down to the base after the first cut and then the second cut damaged some of the acrylic.

I don’t particularly like the magnet system on the M2 because there isn’t a surface for the material to lie on after it is cut and can cause some shifting and issues. Because of this, I’ve been using the slats from my M1 Ultra for any laser cuts on the M2.

The cut looks clean but you can see on the bottom of the “y” where the second pass cut the acrylic after it fell down to the base.

For my second acrylic test, I cut and engraved black acrylic to make a little star. I was able to do this in one pass.

• Cut: 100% power at 4 mm/s
• Engrave: 70% power at 150 mm/s

Total time to cut and engrave was 1 minute 29 seconds.

As with any diode laser, you’re going to be limited in colors that you can cut and engrave. If you’re wanting to work with black and other dark colors you’ll be good but lighter colors and transparent materials will not work.

Engraving Leather

To test out leather I used a deep brown PU leather keychain blank that I had. For the design I just selected a few different flower shapes from xTool Studio and arranged them on the material.

The default setting for deep brown PU leather worked perfectly.

Deep Brown PU Leather (engraving) – 30% power and 250 mm/s

I will say that the smell from engraving the PU leather was pretty bad. It might actually be worse than cutting acrylic. You’ll need to make sure that you have good ventilation.

Aligning the design was very easy with the dual camera system and the engraving quality was great.

The M2 has great lighting inside the machine so the coloring will look a bit different when it isn’t under the bright machine lights.

Engraving the three flowers took just under a minute.

Marking Slate

The 10W laser did a fantastic job marking a slate coaster with the default material settings. The contrast is really nice.

Slate: Engraving – 50% power at 120 mm/s

It took 5 minutes and 27 seconds to engrave.

Marking Metal

I added my logo to a metal blank. While you would use the engraving setting, similar to slate, the diode laser will not be able to engrave metal but rather lightly mark it.

It took me a few tries to figure out a setting as the default settings for metal were 1% power. I ultimately ended up with 100% power and 75 mm/s speed.

I used the 10W laser module to mark this metal but there is a 3W IR laser upgrade that will improve metal marking (I don’t have this). With the infrared laser you’ll get a darker and cleaner mark on metal so if you’re planning to use metal often you may want to invest in it.

Cutting Paper

Unlike the M1 Ultra (discontinued), the M2 does not have a blade setting so all cutting is done with the laser. While that can allow for more intricate cuts, it also limits the materials that you can use since lasers cannot be used to cut materials with PVC. That means that you’ll need to be extra careful to check that your sticker paper, vinyl etc. does not contain PVC.

One amazing thing about the M2 is that you can print on material and then cut it without having to move the material. That means that you’ll have perfectly aligned cuts every time!

That said, I did not enjoy cutting sticker paper with the M2 laser. I used the default settings of 65% power and 10 mm/s speed. What I found is that since it’s almost impossible to tape the paper down so that it is laying completely flat on the base, there are spots where the laser doesn’t fully cut through.

Additionally, when cutting paper, it creates a lot of smoke in the machine and smells like burning paper. To top it off, the edges of the stickers that I cut all have a darker burn mark around them. I’ve seen other makers have success with cutting stickers all the way through so I know that it is possible. I personally just didn’t feel great about the smoke and smell so I’ll stick to using my blade cutting machines for stickers.

Below you can see the black lines that the laser creates and the spots where the laser didn’t cut all the way through. I ended up getting my scissors out to remove the stickers.

Cutting Felt

The 10W laser cut felt easily and without any smoke or smell. I was very impressed with how much detail you could get and the material didn’t pull or drag at all since there is no blade moving. I’m looking forward to doing more felt projects with the M2! I don’t think that I’ll ever go back to using my silhouette to cut felt again. The laser is much easier and better quality.

Getting the felt cutting settings right wasn’t the easiest since what worked for one color didn’t necessarily work for the next color. It took a bit of trial and error but for the colors I tested, the following settings worked.

• Yellow and orange felt: 35% power at 15 mm/s
• Pink felt: 55% power at 15 mm/s
• Blue felt: 75% power at 15 mm/s
• White felt: I wasn’t able to fully cut through even at 100% power.

Cutting the full flower required 4 different layers and processing time in total was about 3 minutes.

Again, penny for scale. Look at that detail! and the cuts are so clean!

Engraving Pencils

To really test out the camera accuracy I taped down a pencil and added some tiny text to it.

You’ll definitely want to use the close up camera feature to make sure that your alignment is good but with that, it was a breeze getting the small text centered on the pencil.

I had to manually enter the settings for this at 60% power and 200 mm/s. It wasn’t quite dark enough the first time so I did a second pass to make it deeper.

Support & Resources

One thing that I’ve always appreciated about xTool is that they are always there to help if you need them.

There is also an amazing community on facebook that will answer any questions, share projects and more! If you purchase an M2 I would highly recommend that you join the xTool M2 Laser Official Group. As of today there are over 5000 members and you’ll get some great project inspiration daily.

What I like about the M2

Dual Camera System

This is hands down my favorite feature.

Being able to see a live image of the work area makes positioning materials incredibly easy. The previous M series machines lacked cameras and getting your design aligned perfectly sometimes felt like an impossible task.

Larger Working Area

The 16″ x 12.5″ working area provides plenty of room for most crafting projects. In my testing I didn’t come across a situation where I would have needed a larger working area.

Print & Laser Workflow

Being able to print and cut within the same workflow is very convenient and makes getting your cuts aligned effortless.

Compact Machine

Some cool features integrated within the M2 are that it has an air assist meaning that you don’t need an external air assist taking up desk space.

Also, while I haven’t tested it out, the laser module can be rotated sideways removing the need for a riser to raise the height of the machine. This allows you to do full engraving wraps on things like tumblers using the RA3 Lite attachment. I’ll update this post when I get a chance to test that feature out!

What I don’t like about the M2

Laser Cutting Paper

While the laser is capable of cutting paper and sticker sheets, I personally wasn’t thrilled with the results.

Between the smell, smoke, occasional incomplete cuts and slightly burned edges, I’d still reach for my blade cutter when working with paper.

The Magnet System

I wasn’t a huge fan of the magnet system for elevating materials when laser cutting. There isn’t support under the material that you are cutting which increases the chance of pieces shifting and potentially being damaged on later passes.

I ended up using the slats from my M1 Ultra for my laser projects, which worked better for me.

Laser Material Limitations

While the M2 can handle a wide variety of materials, it still has some limitations.

The diode laser will not be able to work with light colored materials such as white acrylic, any transparent acrylic and even struggled to cut white felt. If you’re wanting to work with a variety of acrylic colors you’ll likely want to invest in a CO2 laser.

Additionally, because the M2 relies on the laser for all of the cutting you’re limited to materials that do not contain PVC. That means that your vinyl needs to be laser safe and you can’t work with all sticker papers. I’m unsure of the composition of many of the materials that I own so I won’t be risking cutting them on the M2 unless I’m 100% sure that they do not contain PVC.

Who Should Buy the xTool M2?

After spending a month crafting with the M2 and testing out a variety of materials, I think it’s a great fit for:

• Hobby crafters (like me!)
• Etsy sellers
• Small businesses creating personalized gifts
• Anyone looking for a compact laser with built in printing

Conclusion

I’ve had so much fun testing the M2 on basswood, acrylic, leather, felt, slate, metal, sticker paper and pencils over the past month. I’m very impressed with hoe with hit is to use and how versatile it can be for a wide variety of creative projects.

My favorite feature is easily the dual camera system. It makes positioning designs on materials effortless and cuts down the overall time to complete a project significantly.

Like any machine, it has limitations. The material presets aren’t always perfect, diode lasers have restrictions when it comes to certain acrylic colors and I personally prefer blade cutters for paper projects. None of these were deal breakers for me but they are worth considering depending on the types of projects you plan to make.

Overall, I think the M2 is an excellent machine for crafters that want the ability to engrave, cut and print on a variety of materials without taking up an entire workshop.

I can’t wait to make more projects with the M2 so be on the lookout for more project tutorials!

I’ll also come back and update this post when I test materials that I didn’t cover already.

Do you have any questions about the M2? Just ask in the comments and I’ll get back to you!