Tomc938
Ultra Member
I was just looking at some of the possibilities. Do you have a favourite site for files?
And how do you make your own?
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DavidR8's shop shenanigans
- Thread starter DavidR8
- Start date
And how do you make your own?
@David_R8 you are just plain evil. Now I'm trying to find a horizontal surface to put that on. It's not like it's a huge amount of money. Of course then I'd have to figure out what I want to cut. Evil I say. Really evil.Actually mine is 10W optical output.
Ortur LM2 Pro S2 Laser Engraving & Cutting Machine 15,000mm/min (10W/5W)
Buy the best laser engraver for wood on Ortur! Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro S2 is a Diode CNC and ideal for wood engraving. Choose a 5W or 10W laser engraver for your engraving needs now!ortur.net
Tomc938
Ultra Member
We can both get one!
I've never used it for crafts so I'm not familiar with the site that have the arty cut file. I made my wife this coaster using open source graphic files.
Made a set for her parents too.
That’s about the limit of my arts and crafts stuff.
I do have grand ambitions to make
powder coated garden markers hence the experiment I posted earlier. That logo is one of my wife’s projects and I knew she’d be thrilled. It’s going on her office door.
140mower
Don
He's really turning into quite the enabler isn't he?
It’s a tool, and it's so light you can hang it on the wall.
Now if you plan to engrave anything that gives off fumes you absolutely need an enclosure and outside venting.
One wood engraving job without venting and my garage was completely hazy inside from the smoke.
Can I interest you in a laser engraver?He's really turning into quite the enabler isn't he?
Tomc938
Ultra Member
You'll need Lightburn software too.Yes!
Thanks for all the information. Going to order my newest tool/toy.
140mower
Don
Undoubtedly!Can I run it off a lineshaft if I had to?
140mower
Don
Bahahaha I'm not nearly that clever!Does this come from Wrate Industries by chance?... Hmmm?
140mower
Don
........so you say
.........Lol
More fun with lasers and powder coating.
This time I covered the aluminum with Kapton tape then lasered the letter outline to make a stencil. Applied the powder coat, cured it and removed the tape.
Not perfect as I was unsure of speed and power settings to cut through the tape so I ran two passes. One would have done it.
But definitely a very viable method.
Also wanted to see if the powder could be melted with my heat gun.
Ran two passes on maple at 500mm/min and 80% power which gave me about an 1/8 doc.
Filled it with powder and melted it with the heat gun on low volume, max heat. Sanded off the excess.
Worked great.
This time I covered the aluminum with Kapton tape then lasered the letter outline to make a stencil. Applied the powder coat, cured it and removed the tape.
Not perfect as I was unsure of speed and power settings to cut through the tape so I ran two passes. One would have done it.
But definitely a very viable method.
Also wanted to see if the powder could be melted with my heat gun.
Ran two passes on maple at 500mm/min and 80% power which gave me about an 1/8 doc.
Filled it with powder and melted it with the heat gun on low volume, max heat. Sanded off the excess.
Worked great.
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I’ll have to try that. I’m doing infill with fingernail polish, but your idea is probably easier and more robust. My work is almost exclusively aluminum panels, so I could probably just pop them onto a hot plate to cook the powder.
I'm also thinking about routing them on the CNC router with a V-carve bit and filling the grooves.
6061 aluminum panel for my CNC controller 2.0.
Manual engraving using my rotary engraver. 0.020” vee-bit. Maybe 0.010” doc. Filled with what I had on hand, a couple of the wax sticks my finish carpenter son uses to fix nicks and small flaws in hardwood floors. (He’s even more of a fussbudget than I am, he must have 100 colours and uses a pallet knife and a torch to mix colours to match the exact tone of the floor.)
Annoyed that I messed up the P in Speed, but not so bad that I feel like spending 6 hours making a new panel.
Used a small butane torch to heat the aluminum until the wax melted into the grooves, let it cool, scraped off the excess, ran over it with an orbital sander, then mildly heated the panel to get the wax to even out. Once it cooled, a coat of real auto wax, us old guys probably all have a yellow tin of Johnson's carnauba wax hidden somewhere in the garage.
And if it doesn't hold up in use, a bit of heat and it all comes off.
Manual engraving using my rotary engraver. 0.020” vee-bit. Maybe 0.010” doc. Filled with what I had on hand, a couple of the wax sticks my finish carpenter son uses to fix nicks and small flaws in hardwood floors. (He’s even more of a fussbudget than I am, he must have 100 colours and uses a pallet knife and a torch to mix colours to match the exact tone of the floor.)
Annoyed that I messed up the P in Speed, but not so bad that I feel like spending 6 hours making a new panel.
Used a small butane torch to heat the aluminum until the wax melted into the grooves, let it cool, scraped off the excess, ran over it with an orbital sander, then mildly heated the panel to get the wax to even out. Once it cooled, a coat of real auto wax, us old guys probably all have a yellow tin of Johnson's carnauba wax hidden somewhere in the garage.
And if it doesn't hold up in use, a bit of heat and it all comes off.
