Vasek Matyska
03-24-2019, 3:44 PM
Hello yall!
Im new here, this is my first post here, so Id like to introduce myself a bit.
Im from Czech republic, Im 30 and I like music :) In high shool I got some basic knowledge and skills in vector drawing CAD-like apps and physics/math. Then I didnt use none of those for almost a decade while I had a job as a casino croupieur and later took care of my doughter.
Now Im employee in a gun shop.
My boss has a plan of building custom rifles with custom marking and emblem-engraving, so he rolled the dice and bought a fibre laser on aliexpress. Kinda like Kev Williams being the guinea pig, right? :p
Its a Raycuss Fibre Laser 30w 150mm workpalce desktop version working with EZCad, have no idea who the seller was, I think it came from China directly, but probably not the manufacturer, price was like 3000-4000 USD, Im not sure exactly, can confirm later.
Since then I have acces to this machine, but only in my free-time, no business hours could be spent with this thing because its not primary at the time. But my free time is being split between family and sleep :) I mean I have really little time to play with the laser.
Nevertheless, I got some minor results and findings. Number one: EZCad is pain in the dark-hole. Am I right?
I was playing with speed, power and hatch line distance and I thought I know what I was doing. But when I tried to mark something more difficult, it was not ok. Like it was marked twice with a little shift, like shadow efect. Then I found the start and end values, sweet. Every material reacts not with slight, but huge difference, awsome. Frequency? What the heck is frequency? Ah, dont need that. BEEP! Wrong...
After some time I realised there are at least 6 or more variables, that must fit together perfectly to be sure the job is done perfectly. I thing its really hard to manage that and it consumes a lot of time.
To my acomplishments - tried to mark and engrave metals (aluminium, steel, brass, copper) with variable results, aluminium seems to be the easiest. I can mark on plastic (cheapest poker chips, Magpul magazines, ABS). I can cut thin aluminium from beer can, paper, cardboard. I can mark and engrave kydex.
I was searching for some comunity that discuss laser marking/engraving and didnt fint any for long time. Im happy I found sawmillcreek, coz I hope I find some answers here and may be give some later.
First thing I would like to ask you is how do you approach to new material? I used to try change speed and power for contour, when contour had a good colour I tried hatching with different hatch line distances, but few days ago I learned here on the web that frequency IS important, so I figured everything I learned about using power/speed I can throw to the trash.
Thanks for any response and have a nice day :)
VM
Im new here, this is my first post here, so Id like to introduce myself a bit.
Im from Czech republic, Im 30 and I like music :) In high shool I got some basic knowledge and skills in vector drawing CAD-like apps and physics/math. Then I didnt use none of those for almost a decade while I had a job as a casino croupieur and later took care of my doughter.
Now Im employee in a gun shop.
My boss has a plan of building custom rifles with custom marking and emblem-engraving, so he rolled the dice and bought a fibre laser on aliexpress. Kinda like Kev Williams being the guinea pig, right? :p
Its a Raycuss Fibre Laser 30w 150mm workpalce desktop version working with EZCad, have no idea who the seller was, I think it came from China directly, but probably not the manufacturer, price was like 3000-4000 USD, Im not sure exactly, can confirm later.
Since then I have acces to this machine, but only in my free-time, no business hours could be spent with this thing because its not primary at the time. But my free time is being split between family and sleep :) I mean I have really little time to play with the laser.
Nevertheless, I got some minor results and findings. Number one: EZCad is pain in the dark-hole. Am I right?
I was playing with speed, power and hatch line distance and I thought I know what I was doing. But when I tried to mark something more difficult, it was not ok. Like it was marked twice with a little shift, like shadow efect. Then I found the start and end values, sweet. Every material reacts not with slight, but huge difference, awsome. Frequency? What the heck is frequency? Ah, dont need that. BEEP! Wrong...
After some time I realised there are at least 6 or more variables, that must fit together perfectly to be sure the job is done perfectly. I thing its really hard to manage that and it consumes a lot of time.
To my acomplishments - tried to mark and engrave metals (aluminium, steel, brass, copper) with variable results, aluminium seems to be the easiest. I can mark on plastic (cheapest poker chips, Magpul magazines, ABS). I can cut thin aluminium from beer can, paper, cardboard. I can mark and engrave kydex.
I was searching for some comunity that discuss laser marking/engraving and didnt fint any for long time. Im happy I found sawmillcreek, coz I hope I find some answers here and may be give some later.
First thing I would like to ask you is how do you approach to new material? I used to try change speed and power for contour, when contour had a good colour I tried hatching with different hatch line distances, but few days ago I learned here on the web that frequency IS important, so I figured everything I learned about using power/speed I can throw to the trash.
Thanks for any response and have a nice day :)
VM