Please help with rotary settings.

[Nicole Weiss]

Hi. I am new to engraving and purchased a Red and Black Chinese Ruida 644XG. Not sure of the wattage, I don't know how to check but I think it's 50W. (I know I should know but I got it on Craigslist and can't remember what they guy said it was, lol) I have reached the end of the internet trying to find some answers. Some have been very helpful, some not so much. I guess the problem is that every machine and product is different. So, with that said, I'm hoping to narrow it down and get some guidance on what I'm doing wrong (or right :))


I am having trouble finding the right speed and power settings for engraving PC tumblers. I have watched numerous videos and read several posts and it seems like they are engraved really fast and really easily. My best product that I turned out took 38 minutes to engrave! It was on a RTIC Orange 30oz Tumbler with the speed at 35, power at 100 and line interval was at .05. I wasn't able to clean it off to a shiny silver but it looked kinda cool with a little orange left over so it was ok. But, still frustrated, I continued to research and discovered that my mirrors were not aligned. I realigned them and WOW, now I can't engrave anything at 100% power which I guess is a good thing. However, since realigning my mirrors, I can't seem to find a happy medium. I can't afford to engrave one mug an hour and I have ruined about 10 cups so far. I have tried so many different speed/power settings and I am at a loss. I have tried Simple Green, Goof Off, Goo Gone, Alcohol, Magic Erasers, Soap and Water, Orange hand cleaner, Acetone....what else...haven't tried ZEP 505 yet, that's next, lol.

I would really appreciate any guidance on the proper settings for YETI, RTIC type tumblers.

Thank you so much and thank you all for this forum...I have learned a lot in the past 2 months :) and I'm still learning

[Paula Curtis]

When we started up Tempercraft, I had to find a happy medium between all colors. They all laser differently, some better some worse. We ended up staying at 100 % power and 60 % speed. Average logo is 4 minutes. Don't have a clue on your laser as I use all ULS lasers. Wattage is from 40 to 60. Also, some of the issues you will come across is thick/thin paint from the manufacturer. This you will never be able to tell until you laser it and see that it doesn't clean all the way or burns to much off. We do about 17,000 pcs a month and I probably have to throw out 20 - 30 because of these issues. Sometimes I can get a good clean up on a 2nd pass, sometimes not. It will take a bit to get the settings down right for all the colors and especially if you are using 2 different suppliers, as you probably have 2 different types of paint to figure out.

As for cleaning, I use Jacks Manufacturing all purpose wipes for the easy clean jobs and their paint remover ones for the tougher ones.
Hope this helps a bit!

Paula

[John Lifer]

A couple of things. First, be very careful about running the laser at 100%. If it doesn't have a millliamp meter on it, then work to get one put on the machine. Isn't hard, but it will keep you from destroying your tube. Most of these chinese lasers don't have a calibrated power supply and you have a maximum power that you should run at or below. (mA for my 80 watt is roughly 28 mA, I never go over that) and that is roughly 80 percent of my power supply output.
I use 180mm/s and 60 to 65% power with a 0.08 interval. It would probably run a bit faster, but this gets ALL of the PC burnt so Simple green, zep or any other relatively safe biodegradable cleaner will remove residue..
a 3x3 inch image is about 3 to 4 minutes depending on the image.
Oh, you WILL collect a bunch of junk cups. Just take the first you screwed up and run and run and run to get your settings right.

[Kev Williams]

I have 3 Lasers with metal tubes and rotaries that I laser powdercoated cups with. Not one of them will cleanly remove all of the powdercoating, regardless of how many trips thru the laser, it simply won't completely vaporize. I had a blue Hydroflask I ran in the GCC like 10 times just to see if it would eventually laser off all the blue from the stainless beneath... Nope. None of my other machines will either. I always plan on 2 passes, and I get better results when the first pass just barely gets to the metal, a second pass at the same power & speed will usually end up near perfect, with very little goo left behind. I've found 2 'power passes' to be counter-productive, leaving a more sticky residue than 2 lite passes...

For most cleanup I use denatured alcohol, but it can be a bit weak-ish on some coatings.
Pure acetone will definitely get the residue off, problem is, it'll also attack the un-engraved powdercoat. The best results I've gotten is to buy some 'strengthening' nail polish remover, it works better than DNA, and the added oil weakens and buffers the acetone so it'll get more residue off before it starts attacking the coating.

When cutting Rowmark stuff, the goo left behind needs to be cleaned off the edges, and when the goo gets onto the top surface, DNA will remove it, but wiping too hard will gloss-up the surface of Ultra-matte Rowmark. What I've found that works GREAT is turpentine (or 'turpatine' as KleenStrip calls theirs)... It removes the goo, but doesn't gloss up the top surface. I've been going to try it on flasks but I really haven't needed more than DNA lately (slow sales thanks to covid)... It works good on Rowmark, it might work good on powdercoat residue (if you can hack the smell! ;) )

[Steve Utick]

One of the best things that I've ever found for cleaning up after lasering tumblers is LA's Totally Awesome cleaner from the Dollar store and a magic eraser. You won't want to use the Magic Eraser if it's a glass finish tumbler though, as the abrasive will dull the finish. But on Yeti's and stuff, it works great.

As to finding the wattage, you can measure the diameter and length of the tube and with a little research figure it out. The power of the laser tube is based on the diameter and length.