In 2010, Christian Waber and Jiskar Schmitz developed their first laser cutter, the SPOTmini. This was Snijlab's first machine and the beginning of the service you know today. Snijlab now has four second-generation SPOTminis, in addition to the seven other laser cutters in our machinery. We would like to tell you how and why the SPOTmini was developed.
Why build a laser cutter yourself?
Christian Waber and Jiskar Schmitz, the founders of Snijlab
Christian and Jiskar lacked an accessible laser service after completing their studies at TU Delft. The companies providing this service worked slowly with handmade quotes, waiting lists, and only for large quantities. Meanwhile, laser cutting is an innovative technique that should also be accessible to small inventors.
Snijlab became a laser cutter where you can upload your drawing yourself via an online order system, so you get an instant quote and can order faster. A good production service is reliable and delivers high quality.
The market was divided into machines that delivered high quality, but were only maintained with a service contract, or machines that delivered substandard quality. Performing maintenance yourself is important to limit machine downtime and is also cost-efficient. The only way to get the ideal laser cutter was to build it yourself, and so the SPOTmini was developed.
Second generation
Operator working on the SPOTmini 2.0 at Snijlab
One version of the first generation SPOTmini was built, which was improved and further developed into the SPOTmini 2.0. Snijlab now has 4 of these units, and they are used for the bulk of the production.
SPOTmini 2.0 has a working area of 1250 x 650 mm, which fits a quarter furniture board. The laser source is 90W CO2, cutting plywood up to 15 mm, foam up to 20 mm, and acrylic up to 8 mm. The repeatability is <0.1 mm. A distinguishing feature of the SPOTmini is its Live AutoFocus, which autonomously adjusts the laser's focal distance during cutting. We explain the advantage of this below.
Technical specifications SPOTmini 2.0
| type | gantry laser (flying optics) |
| working area | 1250 x 650 mm |
| repeatability | <0.1mm |
| laser source | 90W CO2 |
| drive | AC servomotors |
| feature | Live AutoFocus |
These are the technical specifications of the second-generation SPOTminis. Read on to discover the context for these details.
Interested in the rest of our machines? Then go directly to machinery.
Why the name ‘mini’?
Operator operating large-format laser SPOTmaxi at Snijlab
The name SPOTmini refers to the focus in a laser beam, the ‘spot’, and the size. ‘Mini’ is appended because we immediately had plans from the start to build a large-format laser: one that could cut an entire furniture board. After the SPOTmini, other business developments came first, all building blocks for a good service.
The SPOTmaxi was realized 15 years later, in 2025. We could not have developed this machine without our experience with the SPOTmini, even though this machine was not built in-house.
Innovative machine feature: Live AutoFocus
The focal distance (between material and laser head) is automatically adjusted with Live AutoFocus
For good cutting and engraving quality, it is essential that the laser head is at precisely the correct distance from the material. A deviation of 0.2 mm already yields visibly poorer results. But sheet materials are not always equally thick everywhere and rarely lie perfectly flat. For example, cast acrylic has a high thickness tolerance, and plywood can warp or bow. A deviation of more than 0.2 mm quickly occurs in practice.
Virtually all laser cutters on the market (with the exception of steel lasers) must be set at the beginning of the production run, after which the focal distance is fixed for the entire cut. Because material is simply not perfect, this results in mediocre quality in practice. If the laser goes 'out of focus', the cut becomes wider, you lose detail, and a lot of soot builds up.
High-quality precision parts cut with Live AutoFocus on the SPOTmini at Snijlab
To solve the focus problem, we developed Live AutoFocus. This is a dynamic system that automatically adjusts the focal distance during cutting. During the production run, a sensor measures the distance and the machine continuously corrects it. This makes it possible to always cut with the thinnest cut line; engravings also become sharper, and there is less soot residue on parts. Through Live AutoFocus, we can deliver quality that we stand behind.
Building ourselves is in Snijlab's DNA
Machine maintenance in Snijlab's workshop
SPOTmini is Snijlab's starting point, and a good case study to characterize our company. From the beginning, we have built what we need ourselves. From online to physical. For instance, we also developed the online order system ourselves, where you can upload your drawing to get an instant quote. We also made later machines and handy tools in our workshop.
We build ourselves because you learn a lot in this process. The knowledge and experience we gained during the construction of the SPOTmini were used to create the innovative fully automatic autoSPOT.
