Finally a fiber :-)

[bart vandegoor]

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Hi, my name is Bart and live in Belgium, this is my first post.
After reading almost every post about fiber machines i placed the order previous week.
Yesterday received my 20w Raycus fiber
The setup is a 20w raycus with EZcad control board(genuine) and sino galvo head, with F-theta 254 lens.
I tried to mark some various materials, for marking anodized/painted aluminium it is perfect and very fast.

I also own a 9060 80w co2 laser from OMNI-cnc .
For marking stainless i always used Cermark but it is expensive.
Now i have to find the perfect settings for black or dark grey marking on stainless.

[Mike Null]

Bart

Glad to have you join us. I like your machine. Good luck with it. I was in the market for one last year but couldn't find one that would give me the black mark I needed on brass.

If you have some success with engraving brass and copper I would be interested in seeing the results.

[Kev Williams]

Congrats on the new machine!

Just want to comment about Cermark, 'but it's expensive' ... when you look at what your money bought, it does seem expensive- I buy 500gm bottles at $250 a pop- I'm averaging a jar every 2-3 months. However, my Delvies bills for Rowmark and badge magnets are averaging $300 a WEEK. The stainless I buy runs me about $200 a month average. My plastics income is about 50% higher than my stainless income but my monthly plastics outgo is 340% higher...

My last $250 bottle of Cermark I got in the middle of February- so far it's generated about $7000 in stainless marking income, and the bottle is only 2/3 gone -
that works out to roughly 2.4 cents cost per dollar earned...

in contrast, a 1x3" Rowmark plate costs about 20 cents, charging $5 works out to 4 cents cost per dollar earned...

Cermark only SEEMS expensive

Good luck with the new machine, mine does something to amaze me every day!

[Tim Bateson]

Congrats on the new Fiber. Great tool to have. However, don't expect your Fiber to replace CerMark/CO2. Yes, I use my fiber lasers for a lot of Black marking, but it doesn't come close to the productivity I get with CerMark & my CO2. Some jobs need a Fiber Marking, problem is few customer want to pay that price. Fiber marking is a beautiful product, but very time consuming. I can clean/spray/laser/clean half dozen Yeti mugs with CO2/CerMark in the time it take to Fiber mark one.
I frequently get jobs with 100 Stainless Steel plates. I can either brush on CerMark & have the job done in a few hours, or go with the Fiber that'll take me days to complete. Simple economics.

[Rodne Gold]

The only issue with cermark is the schlep using it .. costs you a lot more in time coating drying cleaning... sometimes staining... or flaking or missing a spot if its not even.. just sayin'...

[Tim Bateson]

The only issue with cermark is the schlep using it .. costs you a lot more in time coating drying cleaning... sometimes staining... or flaking or missing a spot if its not even.. just sayin'...

Respectfully disagree 100%.

[Gary Hair]

Respectfully disagree 100%.

With about 10 minutes of training anyone with a modicum of intelligence can be trained to apply Cermark - after all, I figured it out...

[Kev Williams]

I always seem to miss one little 1/8" spot on the bigger stuff I do, gets frustrating at times but I'm getting better, I've learned that slathering on an extra 50c worth of Cermark costs less than the $4 worth of my time spent fixing a blank spot

[Mike Null]

It's actually pretty easy to do if you're careful. There have been a couple of times when I was glad I could run a second pass on my cone type rotary after i discovered I hadn't covered quite enough of the image with my first coat.

[Vasileios Antoniadis]

I also have a 20W Fiber with MAX light source...I dont have a problem with most materials like plastic, aluminum but I havent managed to mark on copper. At most I get a shaddow on the surface but nothing more...I am starting to think 20W is too low for copper, although videos on Youtube show otherwise...

[Kev Williams]

it's not the power so much as finding a good laser frequency/speed factor... you need to run tests, say 1000 speed, and change the frequency number ONE digit at a time- if memory serves, copper likes higher frequency-- keep after it and you'll eventually find a combination that works.

However, copper isn't ideal with fibers, what marking you do get will likely be iffy at best, and may not be repeatable with the next piece of copper...

[Vasileios Antoniadis]

I wish there was a guide to explain the correlation between power/speed/frequency. I got the basic knowledge from reading posts on forums and watching videos on youtube, but its a hit and miss most of the times.
Speed and Power is easy to understand, but when frequency comes to the equation, it gets dirty. From what I have read so far, I though that increasing the frequency the laser stays less in one place, kind of like speed, so it marking is weeker.
If for copper a frequency of 20 doesnt do a thing, how could a higher frequency work?

I will try it though since your answers worked for me everytime. So there must be something I have misunderstood.

[Kev Williams]

The other day when doing a 'black test' on this scrap brass badge, I got these results with a .01 hatch, 200 speed 100% power, and frequency set to 47... now, 46 worked, and 48 worked, but not as well- 45 and lower, and 48 and higher produced different results, wouldn't go black. I've also found that there is a correlation between speed and frequency and what actually happens, which explains the little frequency/speed 'loop' button below the speed/power settings: press that button and you get a visual of the beam spot pattern relative to speed and frequency-- note the beam spots overlap, how much depends on speed and frequency. You can move the sliders or manually enter new numbers to see what happens visually; higher freq's/lower speeds result in lots of overlap, lower freq's/higher speeds = less or no overlap. (Note that if you enter numbers and hit "ok", those numbers will transfer to your actual settings.) --the beam overlap has everything to do with the results you get on whatever material you're engraving. Lots of overlap creates more heat and less material removal, 30 to 50% overlap is typically good for deep engraving, etc... Beyond this simplistic explanation, I don't understand all the 'why's', I just know that the relationship between speed and frequency IS important! Case in point: when I was testing copper on my machine some time back, when I hit on my 'sweet spot', I checked the 'loop' button for a visual of the beam overlap- for fun I doubled the speed, and doubled the frequency, which resulted in the exact same amount of beam overlap, and guess what, those settings also worked to mark the copper! But because the copper was so finicky, power setting changes had very little effect. But on easily engraved materials like aluminum and steel, power changes make a substantial difference, and the effects of speed and frequency ratios are much less pronounced. Figuring it all out is part of the challenge with these machines
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[Bill George]

A fiber laser is like a box of chocolates.

[Jeff Watkins]

@Kev, when you do the black on brass have you by chance tried washing it off? I got a black on mine awhile back and when I took a wet wipe to it to remove the brass dust the black came off. I forgot to post back then and see if anyone else had the same results. Have you played with the pink/red tint settings yet? It's pretty fascinating what brass can do.