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Post by dadealeus on Apr 3, 2022 2:48:16 GMT -5
A couple of friends recently had a child and I wanted to make them a gift to celebrate. Decided on some drink coasters. They are walnut/maple end-grain with an aluminum insert and a leather backing (to prevent slipping and eliminate scratches on whatever surface they are placed. The image in the aluminum was laser-etched with a 50w fiber laser. It's a franken-image - basically pulled several images from online and combined them together. Added the wording which, depending on which online translator you use, says something along the lines of "time and tide wait for no one" (in Latin) to remind them to enjoy their time with their child; before they know it that child will be grown and have children of its own. I like the way they turned out. I made a holder for them, but it was an afterthought and was made in less than 12 hours and I wasn't pleased with it, so I decided on just the coasters. I made 2 in total. Attachments:
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Post by grossmsj on Apr 3, 2022 14:18:03 GMT -5
That's beautiful!
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loren
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Post by loren on Apr 3, 2022 20:50:40 GMT -5
Really nice.
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Post by grossmsj on Apr 4, 2022 8:19:15 GMT -5
Do you have a sense of whether that is possible with the Axiom Laser unit? A lot less stated power with the JTech, but it seems you could just slow down the tool speed.
I'm on the fence whether to get the laser. I think I understand it's major downside, but I don't have a good feel of what it's capable of in everyday use. I saw SouthernGinger etching some marble with it. I never would have thought of that.
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Post by mrnewman on Apr 4, 2022 21:11:24 GMT -5
Beautiful work. I love the contrast between wood and aluminum.
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Post by dadealeus on Apr 4, 2022 23:28:20 GMT -5
Do you have a sense of whether that is possible with the Axiom Laser unit? A lot less stated power with the JTech, but it seems you could just slow down the tool speed. I'm on the fence whether to get the laser. I think I understand it's major downside, but I don't have a good feel of what it's capable of in everyday use. I saw SouthernGinger etching some marble with it. I never would have thought of that. Honestly, I'm not sure. I'm fairly new to lasers, but - from what I understand - the lasers that go onto CNC machines are CO2 lasers. CO2 lasers are much better at marking and cutting organic surfaces (like cloth, wood, etc.). Fiber lasers are much better at marking metals and often use a galvo setup - making them mark incredibly quickly. One of the downsides to a galvo setup is a smaller working area than you can achieve with a CO2 laser on a moving gantry. As far as what can be marked, I get pretty poor results with most woods using my fiber laser. The laser is incredibly sensitive and even changes in the tone of the wood make a huge difference. A light colored spot might not mark at all (because it reflects the laser), but a dark colored spot may burn super black (because it absorbs the laser). So, dark-colored materials will always mark/cut more easily. My laser can eat through black foam without any issues, but it can't even touch light colored foam. I have been able to mark on concrete with mixed results and aluminum works well. Here are some examples (including a pic of the same coaster image on some Quickrete that I poured into a cookie sheet to make a tablet out of):
Black EVA Foam:
Chipboard:
Metal marking (my Axiom collet wrenches):
-and one of the coolest things I've found it can do - rust removal:
You can see some burn marks on the wood, but that's not from burning the wood - I was cutting chipboard and that's just the carbon from the flame. You can see the same laser that's cleaning the tool hitting the wood and doing absolutely nothing to it.
The CO2 lasers are quite different, however, and may be a lot better at maintaining more consistent marks and cuts - but I do know that they have more difficulty marking/cutting metals.
One final note is focal points. I had a pretty janky setup in that video (as you can see), but you need to try to keep the item you are marking at the perfect height, or the laser will behave differently, or not even mark the material at all. Think of a magnifying glass under the sun - if you don't get the spot at the perfect distance from the material, the light is not focused enough to burn the material.
I have since added the use of an old motorcycle jack - which gives me a large working area and I can adjust the height to focus the beam. It works really well.
All-in-all, my opinion of all the lasers is that it's a really specialized tool and (while fun and cool), unless you have a specific need for it, it's probably not worth the time or effort to purchase one. I have only used mine for like 2 projects in 6 months (aside from cleaning the rust off some old tools).
Not sure if that helps, but that's just my opinion!
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Post by grossmsj on Apr 5, 2022 4:14:58 GMT -5
That IS freakin' awesome! Thanks for the video demos. I need to learn more. Sadly, sometimes the more you learn the more you know you don't know enough.
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Post by joeblow on Apr 6, 2022 6:18:39 GMT -5
That is very, very nice! I need to stop reading your posts….got me thinking about other software from a different thread and now lasers and aluminum!
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Post by dustypilot on Apr 26, 2022 21:34:57 GMT -5
Do you have a sense of whether that is possible with the Axiom Laser unit? A lot less stated power with the JTech, but it seems you could just slow down the tool speed. I'm on the fence whether to get the laser. I think I understand it's major downside, but I don't have a good feel of what it's capable of in everyday use. I saw SouthernGinger etching some marble with it. I never would have thought of that. Nope. I have the AXIOM JTech and it's cool to engrave wood and cut paper, but it won't do metals - not near enough power. I watched Southern Ginger as well, but it takes FOREVER to carve the tile - as in hours at something like 5 ipm. |
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Post by grossmsj on Apr 28, 2022 10:44:56 GMT -5
Ok. Thanks very much!
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raven
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Post by raven on Oct 9, 2023 17:56:26 GMT -5
I know what you mean. A good friend of ours also had a baby boy, so I made this simple Time Machine. When he gets older he can learn how to tell time. 
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Post by dustypilot on Nov 6, 2023 0:27:30 GMT -5
Do you have a sense of whether that is possible with the Axiom Laser unit? A lot less stated power with the JTech, but it seems you could just slow down the tool speed. I'm on the fence whether to get the laser. I think I understand it's major downside, but I don't have a good feel of what it's capable of in everyday use. I saw SouthernGinger etching some marble with it. I never would have thought of that. Never had any luck with the laser on metals. However, a diamond drag is VERY cool for everything from plastic to steel. Works a treat! |
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