NEJE MASTER 2S PLUS A40640 40W Laser Engraver Cuts Wood Like Butter! - Review And Test
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What is the Neje Master 2S Plus A40640 40W?
Neje is also one of the popular laser engraver brands on the market. We have tested their mid-range product – the Neje Laser Master 2S Plus which has a bit simpler mechanical construction, but comes with their strongest laser module – the A40640. This is a double-beam laser module with 10W+ power output, which is twice the power of the previous machines we have tested. In this Article we will put it through a series of tests which will show what this machine is capable of.
The Neje Laser Master 2S Plus has a rectangular engraving area of 420*255mm due to a simpler x-axis gantry.
The machine comes pre-assembled, and you only need to install the laser module.
Specifications
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
Engraving Size |
420*255mm |
Engraving Materials |
wood, paper, cardboard, plastic, white, PCB board, aluminum oxide, black-painted metal/ceramic |
Laser Output Optical Power |
Probably 10W, but claimed to be 15W |
Laser Wavelength |
445±5nm |
Focusing Method |
Adjustable focus laser |
Operating Software |
LaserGRBL, LightBurn, Benbox, GrblController, LiteFire, Support Windows system, Support OSMAC system. Supported file formats NC, BMP, JPG, PNG, DXF and other image formats. |
Input voltage |
AC100-240V, 50/60Hz |
Weight |
3kg |
Warranty |
One Year |
Laser Diode
The Neje Laser Master 2S Plus laser engraver comes with A40640 laser module which is a double beam module, combining the light output of two laser diodes which sets its optical output power above 10W. The thing that’s different is that this laser module is not a fixed focus. You can focus the laser beam freely if you want to achieve different focal lengths.
The machine has a 32-bit controller board which supports all control software plus it can work with an Android/iOS app. But you need to opt for a Bluetooth version of the machine.
I would also recommend getting more quality protection googles with OD6+ protection. You only have one pair of eyes. Protect them! These lasers work in visible light spectrum and even reflections can be very harmful for your eyes!
Focusing procedure
Here the things got a bit more different. The Neje Laser Master 2S Plus does not come with a focusing block or a acrylic sheet like most of the machines do. This is because the laser module is not a fixed focus one, but it has an adjustable focus. For the tests we have done we left the focus adjustment untouched, and we focused the laser by measuring the optimal distance between the laser module and the engraving surface. With the default setting, the upper point of the optimal focus was just at the 20mm distance between the engraving surface and the heatsink of the laser module. Once you have this distance measured, the focusing procedure can be done with a focusing block and this way, the focusing is much more consistent. Otherwise, you need to look at what position the focus point is the smallest which is very difficult and inaccurate thing to do every time.
Special Features
Neje Master 2S Plus also has some special features worth mentioning:
Limit Switches
This is probably one of the best features which I hope that all lasers would have someday. Limit switches enable you to home the machine automatically so that it always starts from the same spot. This way, if you stop the engraving or add another layer of work (or if the machine has crashed mid-work), you can be sure that the machine will start working at exactly the same spot that you want. They decided to use the cheap tactile switches instead of proper limit switches, but they work alright.
Cutting and Engraving Different Materials
Engrave: wood, leather, cotton (clothing), rubber, paper, fruit, foam, acrylic, black anodized aluminium, blackened metal, stone, ceramic , stainless steel…
The Neje Master 2S Plus is a capable cutter.
Cut: wood, paper, tape, cloth, acrylic, cardboard…
With the machine you can cut paper and tape in one pass, but also cardboard or 3mm wood if you set the speed slow enough. For stuff thicker than 3mm, multiple passes are needed. You can cut more than 10mm thick stuff with this laser engraver. The machine can cut wood, especially Poplar plywood which is soft and it is the preferred wood for all laser cutters.
We have tested the machine with engraving and cutting different materials. You will find the results of our tests few chapters lower.
Software and Supported Formats
You can use the Neje Master 2S Plus laser engraver with free LaserGRBL software which works OK, but it is a little bit clumsy to use. It is great for some tests, but I chose Lightburn instead which is much more capable software, and it is very intuitive to use. It is not free though, but the license costs 60$. But, the software offers 1 month fully functional free trial which will help you decide if it is worth it to you. For me it was definitely worth it because it saves so much time (which is not free).
With LaserGRBL you can import vector files (NC, BMP, JPG, PNG, DXF…) and bitmap image files (bmp, jpg, png and gif),
Lightburn supports more formats: AI, SVG, DXF, PDF, HPGL, PLT, and RD for vector formats and PNG, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, TGA, and GIF for image formats.
Vector format is preferred format for these machines because it contains the paths around the shape edges on which the laser head tracks. Engraving vector files is faster because the laser directly cuts on the path versus scanning like a printer and making dots when engraving bitmap images (photos).
You can get millions of free vector designs on the internet, or you can use free vector drawing programs like Inkscape or QCAD (for more technical drawings)
You can also import tons of vector designs and images from free vector sites or you can buy great laser designs on websites like Etsy. This really expands your capabilities.
The Neje Laser Master 2S Plus can also be controlled via their proprietary software for Windows and Mac and the app for Android and iOS, but you need to opt-in for a Bluetooth version of the machine.
Our Test Results
In the video at the top of this article, we have tested the performance of the Neje Master 2S Plus and have compared some of the results with our current best machine – the Sculpfun S9 (5W laser). You will find the results of the Neje Master 2S Plus in this post. For the results of the Sculpfun S9, check our other post here!
We have performed the more or less standardized test which we perform on all the laser engravers and cutters. This way, it is easy to compare results between machines. Here you have the video showing how the tests were done and below you will find detailed images of the test results together with explanation.
Wood Engraving
Our standard engrave pattern is designed to showcase the engraving capabilities at different settings, so you can see the effectiveness of the laser beam. Lets see the result in more detail in the below chapters.
If you want to test your own laser, you can get the below test file HERE.
Power Scale
The power scale test pattern shows how the machine engraves with different power levels at different speeds.
Since this laser is twice as powerful, we have modified the pattern a little bit to better suit it to this much more powerful machine. We have omitted the 600mm/min speed in Power Scale since the machine has burned through the material with higher power. Instead, we have added a faster speed of 3000mm/min.
Power is varied from 10% to 100% in 10% increments and the speeds are 1200, 1800, 2400 and 3000mm/min. We have omitted the slow speed/high power shapes, because the beam burns too much at slow speeds. This leaves a big charred blob that gives no practical information.
Interval Scale
The interval scale test is here to show if the laser focus spot shape is square or rectangular. The scanning interval is progressively increased from 0.1mm to 0.5mm.
For this test the power levels were also reduced to accommodate higher output power of the Neje A40640 laser module.
In this test, the Neje Master 2S Plus shows the properties of an square-ish beam shape as the engravings in vertical and horizontal direction look quite balanced but still not perfect.
We will be able to estimate the exact spot shape later when we test the engraving on anodized aluminium.
Photo Engraving
Here is a test of engraving a small photo, 20mm in size while changing the maximum laser power.
Photos are quite slow to engrave because the laser head must scan line by line like an inkjet printer. If you want to engrave a very large photo, prepare to wait a couple of hours :)
As we can see below, the Neje Master 2S Plus did an average job and the photo looks less detailed than with Sculpfun S9, which had more contrast and detail with its engraving.
This was expected. Because of the higher output power, there is less resolution for controlling the laser power. Combined with a slightly larger laser spot size, you get less detailed photo engravings.
Vector Image Engraving
Vector images are much faster to engrave as the laser head directly follows the lines. You can not make a greyscale image though with this technique.
Our test includes this cute photo of a Tit bird in the top right corner of the test piece. The bird engraving took only a few minutes to engrave. In the software you can set to fill the closed shapes with pattern, on this one, the shape is filled by scanning with 0.1mm step. For big engravings you could increase the step to 1mm or more, to make engraving faster. This way it would make a raster or a grid on the black areas. But more on this at some other time.
We have also noticed a lot of smoke marks with this laser which is possibly due to the air management not being as good as with the lasers which have lower hanging light shields (Like Sculpfun S9 and Atomstack)
Anodized Aluminium Engraving
Next, we have tested the Neje Master 2S Plus on a scrap piece of black anodized aluminium.
Below is the engraved test pattern which is setup to evaluate the focus dot size in both directions as well to see the effects of speed. Next we will further examine the separate parts of the test pattern.
The most important part is again the interval scale. By scanning vertically and horizontally with different interval steps we can approximate the laser dot size. From the results we can see that the laser dot of the Neje Master 2S Plus is rectangular, as the engraved pattern looks different when scanning in horizontal (X Axis) and vertical (Y Axis) direction.
The text engraving is done at 600 mm/s which is quite fast for such small movements, and therefore some shaking of the laser head is visible in the corners. This can be easily avoided by reducing the acceleration and speed in the settings. The Neje Master 2S Plus did show quite a lot of wobble on the axis, probably due to a simpler mechanical construction (like the Ortur Aufero Laser 1)
Let’s do some further testing with the digital microscope. Here are the pictures taken with an Andonstar AD407 digital microscope.
First thing that we see is that the Neje Master 2S Plus has a dot shape, sized approximately 0.1 times 0.25 millimetres.
Next was testing with different text sizes. We can see that with this machine – the 1mm text conditionally readable. We need to take in the effect that the speed is also quite high for this test (600mm/min). With lower speed the accuracy increases as we will see later. The poor performance for small text is probably due to the simpler mechanical construction.
Below is the engraving of two sets of squares on the right side, one inside the other. The inner square is engraved with 1000mm/min and the inner square is at 100mm/min.
We can see that at higher speed there is more wobbling present (mechanical) but the speed shows to have no effect on brightness of the engraved pattern. There is a lot of shaking present in diagonal lines.
Laser Focus Distance Test
In this test we will see how the laser dot size increases further down into the material. The further down in the material the dot stays focused, the thicker material you will be able to cut.
We achieve this by progressively lowering the board by 3mm for each square, without refocusing the laser head.
0mm means that the focus is perfectly set (with aluminium block). The 3mm square is engraved by lowering the test piece 3mm lower than the optimal focus. The result shows how big the dot is 3mm down into the material that is being cut. The same principle goes for larger distances.
We can see that the Neje Master 2S Plus performed a bit worse than the Sculpfun S9, but still quite well. With greater distance the Neje Master 2S Plus spot size is getting bigger than with Sculpfun S9.
We also did a test at -3mm which is 3mm above the optimal focus, just to check if our laser was properly focused. Which it was, since the lines were thicker at that distance.
But farther away we go, the dot starts to increase significantly. At 6mm and 9mm the dot becomes quite thick compared to Sculpfun S9. But this laser has double the power and should still cut well.
You can use the thickening effect to your advantage in cases when you want to engrave bigger stuff with low detail. You set up the laser in this out of focus position. The beam will be larger and the engraving will be done faster this way as the distance between engraved lines can be bigger.
Acrylic Engraving And Cutting
Did a short test on 3mm thick black acrylic (plexi glass) at 600mm/min. The engraving and cutting came out great with a clean cut edge. Neje Master 2S Plus was able to cut through 3mm thick black acrylic in 5 passes which is very good.
We also tried to cut the 10mm thick black acrylic two times. Once with the laser normally focused and the second try with the laser head lowered by 3mm to help it cut in the bottom half. Both times the Neje Master 2S Plus took around 50 passes to cut through at the speed of 600mm/min. We could say that this thickness of acrylic is not practical for cutting.
Plywood Cutting Test
Test was made at three different speeds with 3mm, 6mm and 10mm thick Poplar plywood being cut.
The test was performed in both scanning directions – horizontal X axis (left-right) and vertical Y axis (back to front) as the cutting performance is different in each direction because the dot has rectangular shape.
Here is a comparison table between the Neje Master 2S Plus and Sculpfun S9.
The Neje Master 2S Plus is a capable cutter with a quite balanced cutting performance.
Hardwood Cutting Test
This test shows how well the Neje Master 2S Plus cuts harder woods at 600mm/min.
First we tried to cut 4mm pine wood which is still quite soft.
Neje has cut it in 5 passes.
Then we tried harder and denser 3mm and 5mm thick Beech wood. The Neje Master 2S Plus had no problems cutting it and did it in 3 passes for 3mm thick ans 8 passes for 5mm thick beech wood.
We also tried cutting 5mm thick Oak wood and Neje did it in 7 passes.
Engraving Stainless Steel
Tried to engrave text on blackened stainless steel (sprayed with cheap acrylic spray paint) with full power and 100mm/min. The engraving came out brownish in color. Compared to the “Mrs. Bark” engraving I did with Sculpfun S9 using the same settings, we can clearly see that the Neje Master 2S Plus can definitely engrave stainless steel, but due to the larger spot size, the engraved lines are a bit thicker.
Laser engraver with simple mechanics and powerful laser which can cut thick stuff
Conclusion
The Neje Laser Master 2S Plus has a bit simpler mechanical construction which may cause some extra wobbling at higher speeds, but it has a strong 10W laser module which has a pretty long focus range which makes it a good laser cutter also for thicker stuff.
You can also buy the A40640 laser module separately HERE.
You can also buy the machine at Banggood.
Buy Neje Master 2S PlusBuy Sculpfun S9Be sure to also check out my reviews of newer laser engravers HERE!
This post was written by JT Makes It.
JT Makes It is an engineer, hobbyist, and DIY-er armed with a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and over a decade of professional experience in the industry. From an early age, JT Makes It was pushed by an insatiable curiosity, spending countless hours disassembling, understanding, improving, and creating various gadgets and products. This lifelong passion led to a broad spectrum of technical expertise ranging from electronics, woodworking, metalworking, and CNC machinery, with a particular focus on laser engravers.
For the past 9 years, he has shared his expertise through engaging videos on his YouTube channel. With the last three years dedicated to scrutinizing and testing laser engravers, he also created this website and emerged as a recognized authority in the field. His expertise extends across the spectrum of laser technologies, ranging from diode lasers, CO2 lasers, and fiber lasers, paying attention to details and providing practical insights.
With JT Makes It, expect a blend of technical expertise, backed with hands-on experience, and a genuine passion for innovation and creation, making him a trusted source in the realm of DIY and laser engraving enthusiasts alike.
Wonder what’s the best cutter module for wood, Neje A40640, Sculpfun S9 or Atomstack M50, any thoughts?
I will test the Atomstack m50 soon, so I will have all three tested and we will see which one is the best.
If I were wanting to cut wood door hangers (1/4”-1/2”) which of these (this or the Scultfun s9) would be the better machine?
Both should be OK.
Intresting, that NEJE finaly describe this modul as 10W. When i bought it, it was described as 15w output, but now i see that they changad description of ther moduls(a40640, a40630..) on neje official shop…
Good catch. When I got the machine it was advertised as 15W and somewhere as 10W.
The interesting thing About thus module is the focusing ring which can be set to cut and engrave. Would like to see a rectangular frame set up test of the neje and the focusing explored too. But a very good review thanks.
Thanks! We might review another one in the future.
Very nice website.
You omitted to clarify the spot size in this review. Your pics showing the test for such is nice, but resolution is to low to see anything.