Join us as we unbox and set up the AEON NOVA 14 Professional CO2 Laser Cutter & Engraving Machine. In this video, we'll walk through the process, from unboxing to its first operation. Discover the essentials of alignment, setup, and how to run our first job with ease.
FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. We have just enough woodworking skill to make some basic furniture. Safety first!
FTC Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored video. All opinions are genuinely our own. This post may contain affiliate links and we earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. It doesn't cost you any extra. Thank you for your continued support to keep Making It!
[Music]
what is up welcome back do you like to
do it build it or make it so do we and
we have new videos each week we are
excited to announce that we partnered
with and become part of the Aon family
if you've been using your desktop laser
for a while now and are ready to take
your business to the next level then you
might be ready for more more power more
features a larger bed size but you want
to keep the ease of use of a desktop
laser well the Aon Nova 14 has all of
that and then so let's unbox it and tell
you all about it our Nova 14 was
delivered with a truck that had a
liftgate he just used a pallet jack to
wheel it off the truck and right inside
the warehouse door so it was up to us to
actually put it in place I kind of
rigged the uh pallet stacker to hold the
front of it it was long yeah well he did
this you can see by himself no one was
there he just was like let me see if I
can move this thing I got a little board
into decided to uh try to get it while
you were
busy yeah and I kept saying we'll have
to move this bench in order to get it
into place I moved the bench I killed
two birds with one stone I used the
laser to move the
bench but then I got
stuck I couldn't get the pallet stacker
out once I moved it by myself
yeah uncrating this big machine was
actually pretty easy uh once I cut the
straps I just unscrewed all the screws
around the top ours came with screws I
seen some that come with nails and then
everything just kind of fell
apart yeah and then you can see here
again he's by himself so I must have
been in the other room I know I was in
the building and he just went out there
and said you know what I've got five
minutes I'm going to go take the sides
off of this thing by himself you look
busy I went and got you before it was
time to remove the plastic yeah yeah
that it sat like that for about 24
hours Aon packaged a bunch of goodies on
the inside for us the Box on the left is
a bunch of items that we can engrave as
part of the affiliate program the foam
on the right is a deal that we got for
the holiday season they were giving a
free fiber laser with purchase of a
laser so that is a fiber laser we're
going to do a video on that in the
future and it was pretty heavy we needed
Tanner and Garrett to get it up out of
there each laser comes with a toolbox
full of supplies
this one includes keys for unlocking the
side panels I'm not sure what that tool
is extra springs for belts and this is
the key for starting laser that's the
power cable that was a t-shirt in our
box these are uh laser glasses so you
can watch your cut nice little case for
those I think this thing is my favorite
the little remote it's magnetic yeah it
it sticks to the side of the machine
just like that it doesn't doesn't really
move and it's nice that it's uh I can
Wireless
yeah these are extra lenses for
different lengths I think it was a two
two and 1/2 and three is that what it
was I think the other one was four two
two and 1/2 and four these are little
guides for where to set the Z ACC on
your laser manual
focus it comes with autofocus that's
just that you need manual focus oh these
are great these are little targets for
helping you line up your
mirrors that we haven't seen before and
they were a great help they were they
were invaluable in aligning those lasers
extra
mirrors and this is your little uh check
say in the QA it's past QC quality check
yep it's your network
cable oh some Allen
wrenches USB for connecting directly to
your laptop oh there's a spare air hose
in case you have a fire inside and those
are little exhaust clamps oh extra
stepper belts and those are the yeah
those are the bolts for the feet yeah
and packing list oh that is the laser
head removal tool or lens removal tool
and that is a great little tool and a
little little brush for cleaning out I'm
not sure hoses tiny hoses here we're
removing the side panels you're going to
need to have those off when you align
the mirrors and we're hoping it's going
to save a little weight when trying to
remove it from the crate we Ed the keys
to take off the large side panels and
then we removed three screws two on the
side and one on the back to remove those
Corner panels we use the Crowbar to
remove the two stop blocks in the back
so that we'd be able to push the laser
off the back of the crate this dowel
trick is part of Emily from that Mom
with the lasers unting video on the Aon
website this worked great we were able
to get the dowels under the L laser
which allowed us to roll it off the back
to attach the wheels we used a 1-in
dowel which barely fit up underneath
there we had to actually hammer it in
place before we could push it up with it
pushed off the crate like this we were
able to add the rear two casters these
are really nice with this little orange
lever here it makes it easy to level the
laser bed we push the crate again to
reveal yet another foot pad and then we
attached that Caster to the front left
of the machine the last Caster is the
scariest Caster you had to try to push
it off but still get to that foot pad
before we got it all the way off the
crate I decided to try to use a 2x4 and
part of the crate and then kind of catch
it as I push it
off it worked and now we can put the
foot on so once the foot is on I then
use that lever to lower it
down now let's delve into the details of
this machine the Aon Nova 14 is not just
a looker it's packed with features this
is a professional level laser that is an
all-in-one system with a built-in 5200
btu water chiller exhaust fan and an air
pump the NOA is like a giant desktop
laser engraving
machine previously we've had to purchase
the chiller the exhaust fan and the air
pump
separately the built-in air assist blows
away smoke and debris from The Cutting
area while the built-in exhaust system
helps by removing the fumes a series of
tiny little fans force feed air into the
laser cabin creating an air flow that
improves how quickly the smoke is
evacuated from the system the more air
you have moving across your workt the
cleaner results you'll
have the laser tube is down below the
bed which is nice that's different from
our other lasers we opted for the 130 W
CO2 laser tube this is where the magic
happens with this power it can cut
through materials like acrylic wood and
leather with ease it will cut faster and
have the power to cut through thicker
materials I really like where this y
stepper motor is in the back in its own
little compartment I also like where
that laser tube is I like that it's
separate and it's down below I think
it'll stay cleaner longer this
way I'm going to remove the two safet
pins from the Gantry these were there
for shipping and let's talk about speed
and precision the Aon Nova 14 is
equipped with a lightweight laser head
design and high quality linear guide
rails and wider belts this means
smoother movement and more precise cuts
and Engraving I mean look at how fat
those belts are I am impressed with the
size of those
belts the USB dongle and the power key
are attached to that lightweight laser
head I really like that Sleek design I
really like the squareness of that laser
head there there's Bar Key in the USB
for the integrated cooling system we'll
need to add two gallons of distilled
water and we're also going to include
some algae control to prevent algae from
growing in the water system and flowing
through the laser
tube and there's an easy indicator here
on the right that red green and yellow
lets you know in the green area that's
normal we're going to fill it just above
normal into
full super
simple we're going to turn the breakers
off on the back of the machine and plug
in the power cable even with the
integrated Chiller blower and air assist
this machine still uses a 110 volt
Outlet in our previous machines we had
to have a 220 volt Outlet installed by
an electrician so this was great another
safety feature of this machine is the
emergency stop button here on the back
it also comes with a water protection
system which will display on the
controller what the water temperature is
oh that's neat now with the power on I'm
going to turn the breakers on the back
back on flip them up and everything
should power on including the water and
you can see the water flowing through
the tube you don't get to see that often
it's like a onetime deal right once it's
full and there's no bubbles you can't
really tell if there's water in the tube
or not now you want to get all of the
bubbles out of the tube you don't want
to have any bubbles running through your
tube when you're operating it it's just
best
practices but that is looking
cool let's talk about the build quality
the chassis is robust ensuring stability
during operation which is vital for a
Precision work and the whole thing is
modular which means you can replace
parts of the machine or this thing can
be broken down into two parts so it'll
fit through a tight hallway or even a
standard doorway and I really like the
weather stripping and the wide belts I
also like how the mirrors are actually
hidden outside of the cutting
area there's a lot of thought that went
into the placement of these these parts
I like that let's spin this thing around
and get a good look at it it's easy to
move on these casters I mean it's easy
to move now
yeah now now it's easy to move and there
it is the Aon Nova 14 itself I really
like the modern Sleek look of this thing
I like the black the flat Blackness I'd
eras this thing the working area is 35x
55 which offers ample space for large
projects it also has the front and rear
pass through and that will fit materials
1 in tall by 57 in wide so whether
you're working on an intricate design or
a large piece this machine will be able
to handle it and there are a bunch of
cool features that add to the ease of
use like its wireless remote integrated
autofocusing Red Dot positioning being
on the laser head and the auto sensing
rotary Port located inside the machine
and it doesn't stop there the machine
features a motorized Z access this
allows for automatic height adjustment
this is crucial for working with
different material thicknesses it fits
up to 17 in of material thickness the
motorized worktable includes both a
blade and honeycomb table and the
autofocus can be used with either
option next we're going to check the
alignment we're going to check the
mirrors and the lens alignment to make
sure everything is perfect it's highly
recommended that you go to the Aon
website and follow their video I do have
to say this is probably one of the
easiest initial alignments that I did
because of that continuous Red Dot
pointer that comes from the tube and it
bounces off all of the mirrors and those
little acrylic targets and the remote U
this was probably one of the easiest
initial alignments I've ever had to do
it did take about an hour but again
those key those three key things really
made this a breeze and adjustments were
simple small tweaks of the lever you
could watch the red dot pointer move up
down side so you knew exactly where
Center was it was really simple to do
and the remote means I didn't have to
walk back around to the front of the
machine to hit the pulse every time I
could move it and hit pulse right there
from the remote which was which was
great saved me a lot of steps lastly
let's set up the laser
software for connectivity you have
options like USB which is direct connect
to your laptop and Wi-Fi which will make
it super flexible for any Workshop setup
it comes with Rd Works laser software
but you can easily upgrade to lightburn
you can also import artwork directly
from Corell draw AutoCAD and illustrator
with a
plugin the setup for this was super easy
I plugged in that USB that was attached
to the top of the laser head I went into
add a device in lightburn I selected the
USB drive and then I just imported the
light burn files that I needed to to run
this was pretty cool because for the
Wi-Fi I actually connect to the Wi-Fi
coming from the machine it doesn't
actually run on my Network's Wi-Fi it's
got its own Wi-Fi I can also put it on
my network but right now I'm just going
to keep it to running off of its Wi-Fi I
think that's super cool
[Music]
yeah the last thing we're going to do is
a test cut card this will make sure our
machine is set up properly it will also
give us our optimal speed and power
parameters for this
material and that was our in-depth look
at the Aon Nova 14 we're thrilled to
start using this machine and exploring
its capabilities