The laser is 2 watts. This is a different type of laser than the more common CO2 laser machines.  CO2 Lasers tend to be more powerful, but also larger and consume more power.  CO2 lasers need to be fully enclosed because the laser is generated from a large glass laser tube that is fixed on the back of the machine.  The beam is then directed via mirrors to the laser head where it is focused and sent to cut/engrave the material.  The laser tubes on these machines get very hot and require external water cooling.

The STEPCRAFT laser is a solid state design which uses a laser diode (blue beam) that runs through a focusing lens and sent to the work material.  While a 2 Watt laser does not sound as impressive as a 50 or 100 watt CO2, it is still surprisingly functional with the capability to cut through thinner materials (1/8″ or less wood and plastic) as well as a wide variety of engraving tasks.  The STEPCRAFT CNC machine can not use a CO2 laser design because it is an open gantry machine and bouncing a laser beam around would be very dangerous. The Laser attachment will give you a lot of flexibility at a small fraction of the cost.  The laser diode is contained right in the laser head and there are a lot of safety measures that have been designed into the product to ensure that you can have maximum flexibility on a CNC router.