Laser engravers

[joel]

Hi all,

Anyone have a laser engraver? If anyone has a laser engraver and has some tips and tricks - I'm all ears!

I recently bought a 5W one and I plan to use it to laser engrave my headstock logo (amongst other cool lasery things). Currently playing around in Inkscape to create a vector version of a design my daughters drew up for me. Then I need to figure out how to actually get the laser to cut down 1mm-ish into my headstock veneer. I read somewhere on this forum that nail polish makes for a good fill.

[TallDad71]

I bought one, an X1Pro 10W, last year . It's a game changer with caveats.

My main use case is in cutting 3mm Basswood into accurate templates that I can then transfer to real wood and cut around. Great for brace layouts, inlay designs, bridges, sound hole decorations and logos. The accuracy makes it a joy to use.

I could even use it to 'draw' the outlines of braces and plates on the back of a soundboard, but I haven't yet.

Last year I made a wooden cogged clock, I tried cutting 6mm hardwoods, with the laser and had no success at all. Instead I had wooden teeth of varying shapes as the laser had burnt them away.

Would I cut a headstock with it. Probably not!
Instead I would cut a headstock template out of 3mm basswood, and the logo in the correct place out of that. The two templates would then be taped to their respective materials ready for scoring with a scalpel. The beauty of the headstock template is that the scalpel would be less likely to damage the surface than scoring around the logo itself should you slip with the knife.

[Allen]

I've had a 40W Epilog for 12 years.

First up, don't bother with trying to engrave or cut any Ebony. Simply won't happen especially with just 5W. At that power output you will only have success at engraving in lighter color softwood in a single pass. It will take multiple passes to do any cutting at all. I can't imagine that you'll ever be able to cut dark hardwood without going a lot of passes, and then you are going to have some bad charring on edges.

To engrave to a depth of 1mm you are going to need to do multiple passes as well. If the stock has any tendency to move about with the action of the laser head you should secure it or the design is going to get distorted.

For infill of my logo I use BoteCote epoxy that i add powdered dry pigment to. You have to make sure that any pores are filled before you do the engraving, or when you spread the fill it gets into the pores and you are left trying to dig it out.

And NEVER walk away from the machine when it's cutting / engraving. Fires are a very real possibility.

[joel]

Thanks for the tips gents.

Here's a pic of my initial trial engraves. East Indian Rosewood.

Lowest left hand pic used 75% constant power, max speed (6000mm/min), and 20 lines per mm. Got pretty deep, but there is some scorch marks surrounding the logo.

Right hand pic used 50% constant power, all other settings the same. Pretty good depth, certainly enough for my needs. Less smoke/scorch marks around the cuts. A bit of sanding might remove that.

Top left hand pic was a low dynamic power setting. Looks the best but no depth at all.

[joel]

Patience pays off.

Max 33% dynamic power, 6 passes. Then use a fine tip tool to clean the engraved area out a bit. No heat/burn damage to the surface of the wood and ~0.5mm deep.

[joel]

Ready for filling, sanding, and finishing. Thought a small version on the heel cap would be cool.