We've had a Aeon Mira9 for a couple years now and we absolutely love it and Aeon as a company. Their customer service is beyond exceptional. From the inquiry stages to the purchasing process to set up and any troubleshooting needs, they've been there ready to help!
As for the machine itself, here are 5 things I absolutely LOVE about my Mira9!
1. THE CAMERA FEATURE - I hate to admit that it took me over a year to get the camera set up and running. I was in constant grind mode with the store and just never made it a priority! aaaand, unknown things can sometimes scare me and if I don't have an absolute necessity to do something, I may just put it off. Well, this year I decided to try to get over that type of mindset and just tackle all the things - even if big, harry, and scary! Funny enough, getting the camera set up was so simple. The support team walked me through it and had a PDF guide with photos for me to reference. I was up and running with the camera in minutes. Since then, I have used up PILES of scraps that have stacked up all around my workshop! Not only is the camera feature cleaning up my workshop, but its also saving me from using new sheets of material so often, which in turn is saving me money. Therefore, this feature is my numero uno thing I love about my laser right now!
2. THE VERSATILITY - the other day, I worked on a 3' acylic sign, cut birch plywood for stocking tags, cut a bunch of 1/4" mdf for our Grinch project, and cut a bunch of pre-prainted scrap pieces of 1/8" MDF for little Christmas gift tags. I ended up cutting 5 different materials for all these projects and all that was needed was a simple autofocus to get my laser ready to go. Most days I don't change material that often, but having the option to switch gears - and QUICKLY - is amazing. If it was a bigger ordeal and interrupted my workflow, there's no way I would have tackled as much as I did.
3. THE ROTARY TOOL - who doesn't love an engraved tumbler!? My ultimate goal is to get a Mira7 that we could dedicate almost strictly to tumblers so we can offer that service more. Right now, we do tumblers sporadically because our laser is in such high demand stocking the Craft Bar at The Craft House and fulfilling online orders. When we do get the rotary going, the process is rather simple. Here's what it looks like: pull out the crumb tray, vacuum the laser bed, put the rotary tool in place and plug it into the laser, change the machine settings in light burn, upload the artwork, frame out the design on the tumbler and ENGRAVE!
4. THE SPEED - coming from a Glowforge, I can't even begin to tell you how much more I get done in a day! The speed of the engraving and cutting on the Mira9 keeps my workflow moving at a steady pace and allows me to bust out orders way quicker! Check out our social media to see the laser moving in real time!
5. THE EASE OF CLEANING - keeping the machine clean on a weekly basis involves some simple wiping of lenses and mirrors - that's it! The rest of the machine stays pretty clean! My Glowforge had many exposed parts that were bombarded with the laser smoke and collected so much dust and debris. It was a constant struggle to keep that machine clean. For bigger cleans on the Mira, it does take me a couple hours to clean the laser bed and crumb tray. I cut mostly MDF, so it does leave quite a lot of residue. On those big cleaning days, I will pressure wash my crumb tray outside and soak my laser bed with LA's Totally Awesome to pull up the ick. Other than that, I'll clean the glass lid and wipe down a few other surfaces, but that takes about minute.
Want to learn more about Aeon Lasers? Head to https://aeonlaser.us