The Laser Thread

OK, here's the blade I engraved this morning - the look blacker in real than the photo.
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From right to left and all at 30kHz:
1000mm/sec; 75% power; 10 passes
500 mm/sec; 75% power, 10 passes
300 mm/sec, 75% power, 20 passes
100mm/sec; 90% power; 10 passes

The deer head/text on bottom was done with the OLM3 10 watt diode laser with blade spray painted black, engraved, then paint washed off with solvent. It seems like the diode laser "burns" the paint into the top layer of the metal for it's not very deep, but I've never had a problem with engraving wearing off. The Fiber laser actually removes some metal for a deeper engrave. Takes a good bit of sanding to remove the engraving.
 
Ken H> said:
For sure $300 is a bit pricey for the rotary chuck, my rotary chuck was $129 off Amazon. Have you checked the scale on your laser yet? I mean when you engrave a 100mm square, is it actually 100mm on all sides? My laser is not. I just watched a couple of calibration videos, this one this morning and I do like this guy's videos:

Here is one from the Lightburn folks that's good but takes a different route to calibration:

I plan to go thru the calibrate steps today. It seems all the fiber lasers are Galvo type, and info for one brand is pretty much valid for other brands, and power from 20 watt to 50 watt is just a matter of how long to engrave.

You mentioned deep engraving - I had NO interest in that at all when I ordered my laser, but after watching a few videos it's something I might like to try - just to try. Us old retired folks need something to fill our days {g}. Those coins can take from 1 to 2 hrs to engrave - boy that's a long time. I'm really amazed how fast this 30 watt laser is to engrave text compared to the 10 watt diode laser I've been using - and the fiber does a MUCH better job of engraving.

For the SS blades I've tried the settings are pretty much the same, something along the order of 500mm/sec at 75% power, 30Khz freq, and 0.1 line interval using "Offset Fill" for the text. I'll do a followup post later today with a couple of images and actual settings. Brass and Aluminum are giving me problems. The other day I did a couple of really good engraves with text (14C28N) on a .020" brass strip. I didn't write the settings used down, and now I can even get brass to mark at all. Not sure what the deal is.

edit to add: this seems to be a pretty good video explaining all those timing settings shown in LightBurn with no real explanation. Not sure it's really needed to be calibrated, but it does a decent job of helping my understanding.
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I do still need to check the scale on my laser. I know it's also recommended to check focal length by sight/sound, though I've just been relying on the factory "dot" alignment, and it seems to be accurate enough. I definitely need to dig into some of this stuff a little more in order to optimize my settings and results. I'll check out the videos you linked. I've also been watching "Laser Everything" on YouTube. He's got a lot of good videos.
 
so, about a month before I bought my laser, I was doing my research and found out about Lightburn. I signed up for the free 30 day trial, but because I didn't have a laser yet I didn't do more than check it out a couple times.
Once my laser showed up, I committed myself to learning how to use the free software that came with it. It was a shitty version of EZCad, and I had all sorts of weird glitches when using it, but I was able to get it to work when I really needed it. The software seemed to get worse and worse, and by that I mean inconsistent. It also stopped communicating well with the laser.
I haven't needed the laser for the past little while so I concentrated on other things and tried to forget the trauma caused by trying to use that terrible software. Now that I've cleared through a bunch of projects, I had time the other day to sit down and figure it out.
My trial version of Lightburn had expired, but luckily you can extend the trial for another 15 days. All that time I spend finding my way around the EZCadesque software got me up to speed pretty quick with Lightburn, and I was able to start nailing down the results I want for my maker's mark.
It was like the heavens opened up and I could see the clear blue sky! And I'm so pleased to find out that Lightburn is a one time purchase, no subscription required. It can be used in 3 different computers and there is a ton of support and information about it everywhere.
 
Lorien said:
so, about a month before I bought my laser, I was doing my research and found out about Lightburn. I signed up for the free 30 day trial, but because I didn't have a laser yet I didn't do more than check it out a couple times.
Once my laser showed up, I committed myself to learning how to use the free software that came with it. It was a shitty version of EZCad, and I had all sorts of weird glitches when using it, but I was able to get it to work when I really needed it. The software seemed to get worse and worse, and by that I mean inconsistent. It also stopped communicating well with the laser.
I haven't needed the laser for the past little while so I concentrated on other things and tried to forget the trauma caused by trying to use that terrible software. Now that I've cleared through a bunch of projects, I had time the other day to sit down and figure it out.
My trial version of Lightburn had expired, but luckily you can extend the trial for another 15 days. All that time I spend finding my way around the EZCadesque software got me up to speed pretty quick with Lightburn, and I was able to start nailing down the results I want for my maker's mark.
It was like the heavens opened up and I could see the clear blue sky! And I'm so pleased to find out that Lightburn is a one time purchase, no subscription required. It can be used in 3 different computers and there is a ton of support and information about it everywhere.
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Yeah, LightBurn is definitely worth the price of admission. There's still a little bit of a learning curve, as with all software, but like you said, there's TONS of support. For anyone getting ready to pull the trigger on a new laser, see if there's a discount offered for the Pro license. I only paid $150 for mine through Monport, IIRC, and that's a one time fee, which I still have a hard time believing, since it seems like nearly everybody has gone to a subscription based platform. And it appears that they're still updating the software from time to time which is also nice.
 
So now that I have my CNC setup, I am looking into a laser for it as well! I was going to go with a 20W (4, 5W lasers) diode optical laser so I could engrave wood, leather and cut acrylic and stuff. I was going to put the CriCut vinyl on the blade, laser off what I want to etch and then use the electro etcher to actually mark the blade.

I was ready to pull the trigger, but then I saw the 2W IR lasers that are supposed to be able to engrave metals; copper, brass, aluminum, stainless, regular steel, etc. Anyone have any experience with the newer IR 2w lasers? They aren't fiber lasers, but the wavelength is supposed to engrave metals better, but don't so well on wood or cutting stuff since they are lower powered. I am not wanting to cut metal, but be able to engrave my mark, steel type, HRC, people's names, designs, etc onto the blades. I saw some that looked like they did a good job on steel knives and much cheaper than the Fiber lasers! Laser Tree has one for like $360, 2W IR laser. Others from Otur and X Tool are like $500-600.
 
Taz said:
So now that I have my CNC setup, I am looking into a laser for it as well! I was going to go with a 20W (4, 5W lasers) diode optical laser so I could engrave wood, leather and cut acrylic and stuff. I was going to put the CriCut vinyl on the blade, laser off what I want to etch and then use the electro etcher to actually mark the blade.

I was ready to pull the trigger, but then I saw the 2W IR lasers that are supposed to be able to engrave metals; copper, brass, aluminum, stainless, regular steel, etc. Anyone have any experience with the newer IR 2w lasers? They aren't fiber lasers, but the wavelength is supposed to engrave metals better, but don't so well on wood or cutting stuff since they are lower powered. I am not wanting to cut metal, but be able to engrave my mark, steel type, HRC, people's names, designs, etc onto the blades. I saw some that looked like they did a good job on steel knives and much cheaper than the Fiber lasers! Laser Tree has one for like $360, 2W IR laser. Others from Otur and X Tool are like $500-600.
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I have the Xtool F1 which has a 2W IR laser and I would totally recommend it. It takes a little bit of time to make a mark but comes out very well and does about every material possible.
 
Linus Knives said:
I have the Xtool F1 which has a 2W IR laser and I would totally recommend it. It takes a little bit of time to make a mark but comes out very well and does about every material possible.
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When you say "takes a little bit of time" - how much are you talking about? How long to make your logo? Could you show your logo?
 
Ken H> said:
When you say "takes a little bit of time" - how much are you talking about? How long to make your logo? Could you show your logo?
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It takes about 1-2 minutes if I want a dark engraving. I usually put the settings so it takes about 1 minute so I guess it's not that long, but my logo is really small.
Here's one I did a while back- I think I did the logo a little bigger than I normally do but it prob took about 2 minutes. I usually put it on 100% power, 20 for speed, and 10 to 20 passes.
The Xtool F1 is a ridiculously fast machine overall though...
IMG_4699.jpegIMG_4700.jpeg
 
I read somewhere that you shouldn't ever use the laser at 100%, might be worth checking into. I've gotten pretty nice results with as low as 10% power
 
Lorien said:
I read somewhere that you shouldn't ever use the laser at 100%, might be worth checking into. I've gotten pretty nice results with as low as 10% power
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Hmmm, I'll have to check it out.
 
I read that also, it wasn't good to run a laser at 100% power. I asked tech department of the G2 Pro Fiber laser I've got about this. They said it was just fine to run it for hours at 100% power - no problem. More research on the 100% power issue seem to indicate it was ok for fiber and diode lasers, but perhaps not for the CO2 laser due to how hot the CO2 tube operates. I ran my OLM3 10 watt diode laser at 100% a good bit, but that's for only 3 to 5 minutes.

It also depends on how long the engrave takes - many projects run continuously for several hrs at a time. Logos on knife blades usually take only a few seconds or minutes.
 
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Ken H> said:
I read that also, it wasn't good to run a laser at 100% power. I asked tech department of the G2 Pro Fiber laser I've got about this. They said it was just fine to run it for hours at 100% power - no problem. More research on the 100% power issue seem to indicate it was ok for fiber and diode lasers, but perhaps not for the CO2 laser due to how hot the CO2 tube operates. I ran my OLM3 10 watt diode laser at 100% a good bit, but that's for only 3 to 5 minutes.

It also depends on how long the engrave takes - many projects run continuously for several hrs at a time. Logos on knife blades usually take only a few seconds or minutes.
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That sounds right. Ive never read anything about not using it at 100% power for my laser (And I've read and watched about everything there is about it online) :)
 
When I’m dialed in on leather sheaths I run 100% all day 10w diode. You do need to stop every couple hours and clean the laser head when using burning materials, I have found.
 
DanF said:
When I’m dialed in on leather sheaths I run 100% all day 10w diode. You do need to stop every couple hours and clean the laser head when using burning materials, I have found.
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I'll bet you're cutting the leather sheaths out? My OLM3 10 watt diode laser does a GREAT job of that. The leather does smoke some when burning. I've got an exhaust fan running pulling the exhaust thru a charcoal filter so I can barely smell the leather when the enclosure is fully enclosed with fan running.
 
I also have the XTool F1 and have been using the 2w IR laser to etch AEB-L. Some of my logos looked a bit brown to me, instead of black, and so last week I ran a test grid to experiment with different settings. To my surprise, I got a range of colors, from copper/tan to black. What I found was that the Speed mattered a lot, much more than power. So, for example, at 49mm/s I could not get black, or even dark brown, even at 100% power and 8 passes. But at 5 mm/s I could get dark engravings with 8 passes at 36% power (though maybe a bit brownish?), and it looks black at 84% or 100% power. So in the future I’m going to set the speed slow, say 5 mm/s, and use 8 passes at over 70% power. (I can’t post photos here so I can’t show my test grid, but if anyone wants it, contact me)
 
Any issues with heat generated with slower speeds/multiple passes?

Really looking hard at the Laser Tree R2, IR 2w laser now for $360!
 
Taz said:
Any issues with heat generated with slower speeds/multiple passes?

Really looking hard at the Laser Tree R2, IR 2w laser now for $360!
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Not with mine. I've done as many as 20 passes at a very slow speed and 100% power. zero heat
 
I haven't noticed any heat at all; the blade is still cool when i pick it up right afterwards.
 
I'd love to get a picture of the grid if you don't mind. I do AEB-L on my F1 but haven't experimented much with settings.

Ricky-O said:
I also have the XTool F1 and have been using the 2w IR laser to etch AEB-L. Some of my logos looked a bit brown to me, instead of black, and so last week I ran a test grid to experiment with different settings. To my surprise, I got a range of colors, from copper/tan to black. What I found was that the Speed mattered a lot, much more than power. So, for example, at 49mm/s I could not get black, or even dark brown, even at 100% power and 8 passes. But at 5 mm/s I could get dark engravings with 8 passes at 36% power (though maybe a bit brownish?), and it looks black at 84% or 100% power. So in the future I’m going to set the speed slow, say 5 mm/s, and use 8 passes at over 70% power. (I can’t post photos here so I can’t show my test grid, but if anyone wants it, contact me
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