Multi Colour Engraving
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- čas přidán 23. 09. 2023
- To most people, engraving is just setting a power, a speed and a line spacing. This simplistic approach to engraving may work on mineral materials like slate or anaodized aluminium but experimenting with JUST these parameters when engraving materials such as wood, leather or acrylic, will ALWAYS result in fume residue on the work.
There are many CZcams videos demonstrating the wonderous effects of masking with various low tack papers. Although this method provides clean edges to engravings it is blind to the fact that those same tar residues are still painting the main engraving areas with sticky browm residue. Is this really a fix???
IF you spend some time to understand how and why the fumes are created, you can mitigate surface residues by reducing the power or by increasing the speed. The side effect of these simple parameter changes is less depth of engraving and less contrasting "colour" on homogeneous surfaces materials such as birch or poplar plywood. However, "normal" wood is rarely a uniform material and the lower the power used, the more you see the different wood textures as different engraving colours..
Focus is a tool that few think to use. Setting the focus a few mm above the work "softens" the cuting action by spreading the beam intensity over a bigger diameter. Less vaporiation and more scorching produces a darker burn BUT at the expense of edge definition. This is only a "maybe" fix for some situations.
In this session I describe and demonstrate how with a bit more effort and thought you can solve both issues at once. - Věda a technologie
Thanks a lot for taking the time to explain your findings. Very convincing. Shows how important testing is.
Another great video and after watching you for over a year i have a arsenal of lenses. I've yet to try the compound from cloudray but it is ready when I need it. Having spare and a assortment of lenses is necessary I think. I dropped the one that was shipped in my machine and was very glad it only took me minutes to get going again. Thank for letting us take a peek at your bordom eraser
I quite liked the effect on the bamboo. It's not a bug ... it's a feature!!!
Fot text , as I said, it is your choice and some people love the banded effect. For images it is a real pain.
Always informative
How do yoj set the laser pulse?
If you have a 6442 controller then press the ZU button to see another menu. Look for Laser Set and then chose MANUAL as opposed to the default CONTINUOUS/ You can then set the pulse length in milliseconds. For other controllers it will press the MENU button and under the FUNCTION section you will again see LASER SET..
I wish you would start exploring diode lasers, 10W - 20W of power for DIY. There are sooo many people (including me) that live in flats and want to use laser for DIY and diode lasers are perfect for that + I think they are even better for engraving than CO2 lasers.
Hi
Just because I dont have a channel about diode lasers does not mean I haven't used or experimented with them . I have explored all types of laser technology from 10640nm wavelength CO2 machines , both constant current (as I use in this video) and RF CO2 lasers. I have also spent much time exploring 1064nm wavelenght fibe laser machines Different wavelengths of light interact with materials in completely different ways. There are a few things that the 450nm diode can do that a CO2 laser cannot do, but they are very few.. The CO2 laser is so much more flexible,and way faster.
I will not go into all the differences between the machine types other than to say that I can fully understand the attractivness of a small footprint machine for people such as yourself. Although I explore and use the most powerful and flexible laser technology for hobbyists and small businesses, much of the science is applicable to all types f laser. For example the dithering technique I demonstrate is equally applicable to a diode laser . In fact diode lasers seem to produce much more tar residues aroud cuts and engravings than CO2 machines. I suspect its the ill conceived air assist sytems used.. .
Living in a flat does have it's problems but don't be fooled by the advertising because that glosses ove one important issue. Burning wood, leather or card produces the same smelly fumes regardless of the laser technology used. . You have to do something with those and that's the REAL problem..You can't just poke an extraction hose out of the window because your neighbours will soon complain and a recirculating fume extractor with activated carbon filters are expensive to buy and expensive to maintain (replacement filters). I speak from experience of owning one.
Diode lasers are not cheap and are VERY slow . They operate with a PWM control system which has it's own drawbacks and some advantages if you understsand how to exploit them. A similar small footprint CO2 laser used to be called a K40 but is now just descibed as a 3050 machine. I took such a machine about 18 months ago and turned it into something very special. You might like to look at this short video to see a small footprint 45 watt machine working 10 times faster than any diode laser. czcams.com/video/zu-hccXJPBg/video.html
As you consider entering this world of laser technology , please put your sceptical hat on and research well. EVERY manufacturer is trying to sell you a dream. You may wish to call in at the "Steve Makes Everthing" CZcams channel as he has lots of sensible stuff on diode lasers.
Best wishes and good luck
@@SarbarMultimedia Thank you for the response.
I started following your channel about 2 years ago when company that I work for bought 140W CO2 laser and it needed beam alignment after about 9000km shipping from China. Since laser was not used that often I took the oportunety to "play" with it and I liked it very much, so I have some experience with smells and fumes :D from cutting and engraving wood, acrylic, cardstock, leather, rubber (making gaskets), polypropylene, I also tried cutting glass, actually engraving it and digging up layer by layer... Laser is gone now, sold recently and that is why I am looking for small DIY machine to buy it for my hobby projects.
My flat is 50m2 so there is no space for CO2 laser neither would I invest that kind of cash for my hobby, CO2 is not mobile, requires laser tube cooling (chiller - separate unit), fume extractor and "larger" air assist "compressor", ist not something I could "hide" when I am not using it :D
I know CO2 is better but, unfortunately it is what it is, I can only go with diode laser.
The reason for my initial comment was enormous offer of different models from our usual supplier -> China and it's very hard to differentiate truth from advertised "dream" that they are all offering for not that small cash either. As it usually is, less know brands can offer same, sometimes even better performances but larger brands, on other hand, have longer "history" so you can find more resources and support about them online, more reviews on YT, you can get a bit better sence what can you expect from the machine (if you can distinguish honest content from "they sent me free machine for a review" content). I was looking Ortur, Xtool, Sculpfun, Neje, Atomstack and there are many other, it becomes art picking good quality for reasonable price, you can easily overpay if you just look at their marketing.
I always consider you to be truly unaligned source of information and therefore most objective in presenting performances of the machine, if its bad you wont hassitate to show that, if it can be made better, you will show it, thats why I think that your opinion on swamped diode lasers market would have high value.
I will now check advised "Steve Makes Everything" YT channel. Wish me luck :D
Hi
It's great that younhave a flying start with laser tecnology so you won't be surprised at ther limited performance in comparison to the CO2 you have already used. Steve is another honest guy that makes mistakes (and admits it) and also gives an honest opinion. He has CO2 experience as well but has turned to the world that I have stayed away from. Fume collectionn will be your biggest issue. I think it is only the X tool thathave looked at this seriously and have a small proper recirculating fume extraction system. But as I mentioned earlier . it's not cheap and look at the filter replacement recommendations
uk.xtool.com/products/xtool-smoke-purifier?gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvL-oBhCxARIsAHkOiu3UHKDEMsCy2LfI04QoeTMH_IvW0GhdtaWqiFBHY3E9WUMxIGWJMcUaAnuMEALw_wcB
Most you tubers show you how they are using their machines to make things or to demonstrate "hacks" for issues they have encountered. As you know, that is not my style. I try to understand the reasons for the problem and find a logical permenant fix.
Ther problem with diode lasers is the specifications. they often clain fantastic "spot" sizes which are based on theroetical lens performance if it was a pure optical system transmitting images with normal light. I have yet to come across any optical software that can model the complex way that the Gaussian laser beam intensity interacts with a lens. We are trying to focus light intensity to do material damage and that is not normal optics. Yes the rays of light follow the usual Snell's law of refraction but that does not account for the different intensities of rays.
The other problem with a diode beam is it starts life as light from a rectangular chip. It has to bo optically manipulated within the head to try to make it a round beam. Some laser are more successful than others but look at most spec sheets and you will find that the beam is oval, Typically 5-% wider than tall If you try to burn this spot size onto any material I can guarantee that it will be 2 to 4 times bigger in reality. Also there will be claimed speeds of maybe 400mm/s. That will be the max speed of an axis and in no way relates to cutting or engraving performance. Somecheaper machines have either fixed PWM freequency or VERY little adjustment. Look for a machine that at least 1 to 20khz more if possible. Thisis not data you find on the spec sheet you will have to ask the manufacturer. This is vitally important if you plan to do photo engraving.
Good luck in your search' Although I am not a diode user I know a great deal about the technology and the marketing tricks used.
@@SarbarMultimedia I agree. Diode laser is not the sellers say. If you have no space and search for something cheap, the better choice would be a 3020 Co2 machine, K40 with a M2 controller. I did a comparision between diode and K40, first one cuts 3mm MDF with 100% power around 4 mm/s speed, the K40 made the same at 35% and 12 mm/s.
@@vladimiralvarezcorrea8547 You are right, but I only have about 600 max 700$ (or €) for this, 3020 CO2 is lets say 2000$ investment, it would take me about 2 years to save that + its hobby, it will not bring any or very little money back. I would love to have a home with back yard and a workshop space just for my pleasure but where I live that is VERY expencive investment. Also If I had all that and a 2000$ to spend I would probably go for a lathe and a milling machine since I like that to :D and there is more work that can turn profit with those 2 machines. Its just market specific situation unfortunately.