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Question about the X Tool F-1 laser
- Thread starter Tom Lewis
- Start date
Your settings will depend on whether your logo or name is in vector form or a bitmap image. For a vector image, I used this on my last knife:
IR
Engrave
90% Power
5mm/s speed
2 pass
200 lines/cm
However, I usually do 4 passes, and have done 8 passes. I've found that the more passes, the darker the engraving. I tried different speeds, and 5 mm/s seemed to give the most black engraving, whereas higher speeds would give me a brownish tint. In my notes I wrote that as long as power was above 50% and I did more than 1 pass, things looked good if I had speed at 5 mm/s. For several knives, I've used 100% power, 50 speed, and 8 pass, which looks fine.
For bitmap images, I've used
IR
Engrave
100% power
1200 dot duration
200 lines/cm
8 pass
Jarvis, bidirectional
I prefer using vector images over bitmap, and use illustrator or inkscape to change bitmap images to vector. If you use the text function in the Xtool software, it will be a vector format.
And I'm sure you must have some small pieces of steel in your shop: try a few different settings for practice. I still haven't figured out the optimal settings, but have found it's fun to play around with.
IR
Engrave
90% Power
5mm/s speed
2 pass
200 lines/cm
However, I usually do 4 passes, and have done 8 passes. I've found that the more passes, the darker the engraving. I tried different speeds, and 5 mm/s seemed to give the most black engraving, whereas higher speeds would give me a brownish tint. In my notes I wrote that as long as power was above 50% and I did more than 1 pass, things looked good if I had speed at 5 mm/s. For several knives, I've used 100% power, 50 speed, and 8 pass, which looks fine.
For bitmap images, I've used
IR
Engrave
100% power
1200 dot duration
200 lines/cm
8 pass
Jarvis, bidirectional
I prefer using vector images over bitmap, and use illustrator or inkscape to change bitmap images to vector. If you use the text function in the Xtool software, it will be a vector format.
And I'm sure you must have some small pieces of steel in your shop: try a few different settings for practice. I still haven't figured out the optimal settings, but have found it's fun to play around with.
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2023
- Messages
- 60
Not disagreeing with Ricky-O, just another pair of settings to try, these are my normal configs:
Vector:
IR
40 % power
8 mm/s
2 pass
300 lines per cm
bitmap:
3000 microsecond dot duration
1-60 % power
600 dpi
5 pass
greyscale
I make the art in Affinity designer, and I've had weird stuff happen with very small type in vector form. Exporting the art as png and using the bitmap gets me basically perfect results. This is with 6 pt serif type faces. My dad was a typographer, I care about fidelity to the letterforms. However my basic maker's marks are all vector and work fine. It is also possible that whatever the issues are/were have been worked out in later versions of the xtool software, so don't assume that this is still the case. Just something to watch out for.
I always(!) test on scrap for a new xcs program.
Vector:
IR
40 % power
8 mm/s
2 pass
300 lines per cm
bitmap:
3000 microsecond dot duration
1-60 % power
600 dpi
5 pass
greyscale
I make the art in Affinity designer, and I've had weird stuff happen with very small type in vector form. Exporting the art as png and using the bitmap gets me basically perfect results. This is with 6 pt serif type faces. My dad was a typographer, I care about fidelity to the letterforms. However my basic maker's marks are all vector and work fine. It is also possible that whatever the issues are/were have been worked out in later versions of the xtool software, so don't assume that this is still the case. Just something to watch out for.
I always(!) test on scrap for a new xcs program.
I appreciate very much AdamSmith's posting his settings--I'm going to try them soon. My impression was that power was less important than a very low speed, and his 8 mm/s is close to my 5 mm/s. I haven't tried over 200 lines/cm, and will also now try 300. I haven't had any problem with small fonts in the xTool software, but maybe I just got lucky or don't have a discerning eye.
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2023
- Messages
- 60
The small type thing could also have been an Affinity artifact. And it could have been fixed in the meantime by them, as well.
I know I encountered it last spring, but I've just been using the high resolution pngs since then for personalizations, so it absolutely could have been fixed in the meantime.