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The Laser Thread

Do you have it set up so the blade face being engraved is parallel so the focus is at the correct depth or does it not effect the laser that it's at a slight angle to the laser beam?

Mine will be on a CNC router machine, so I will see how long mine takes! First order of business is making an adapter plate if needed so I can put it onto my linear table for my CNC. I may get a dedicated laser gantry at some point.
 
I set it up parallelish. I find the best way is to use a piece of play-doh under the blade and then just press it into place. Keeps the knife in place too, no risk of unwanted movement messing up the logo
 
Taz said:
Do you have it set up so the blade face being engraved is parallel so the focus is at the correct depth or does it not effect the laser that it's at a slight angle to the laser beam?

Mine will be on a CNC router machine, so I will see how long mine takes! First order of business is making an adapter plate if needed so I can put it onto my linear table for my CNC. I may get a dedicated laser gantry at some point.
Click to expand...
My G2 fiber will work on with a 1mm depth of field for engraving just fine.... push to 2mm maybe?

On your CNC do you use the AutoLevel program to run the Gcode thru so it will handle the different depths on the bevel? AutoLevel was developed for milling PCBs, but also works good for bevels. What software do you use for the CNC machine? I've just got a desktop type CNC and use LinuxCNC.
 
I haven't really leveled anything on the Anolex. I'm doing basic programs to router out guard blanks and that type of thing. No different depth relief carving yet. I use easel to make the g code and run it through the Anolex program to have the CNC make the piece.

I got the infrared laser in this afternoon, but I don't know how the original wire on the laser is set up, so I'm waiting to hear back from Sculpfun. Anolex is pwm on left, ground in middle and 24v power on the right. The Sculpfun has its own 24v adapter, but no cord from outlet to the brick.

The mounting plates that came with only had the laser side and not the machine side, so I remove the rail off the back of my other laser and I can use that to mount it to the CNC with the same mounting plate I made before.

I may pick up the cheapest Sculpfun laser Gantry setup and put the laser on that instead of trying to rewire everything to use the CNC.
 
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Ok, found I can screw the rail and adapter from my diode to the back of the IR laser! Got the longer wiring cord made up and playing with the laser on utility knife blades.

I get good depth, but gold color. Tried a few speeds, 200, 300, 500, 1000mm/min, 100% power and 4-5 passes. 200mm/min and 100% for 4 passes seems to be the best so far, trying 150mm/min, 5 passes at 100% now.
 
150mm, 100%, 4 passes is the dark middle one
PXL_20250806_012926553.jpg

some other attempts:
PXL_20250806_012951153.jpg
 
Linus Knives Linus Knives , what are your settings? You seem to be getting a dark color, mine only look dark at certain angles and goldish the rest of the time?

I am getting plenty of depth, but not the color. I even did one at 30mm/min, 100% power and it took 23 minutes to do the 3/16" logo!
 
S Scaniaman what are your settings? I am going to try more passes tomorrow. I get nice depth, but not the darker color I was looking for. I may just embrace the gold color! lol
 
I was going to say I like the gold color - gives a nice classy look. Does the light have to hit at a certain angle to get the gold? OR gold at most any angle?
 
I had razor blades lying flat to the laser and they were all gold and then I had some nice bevels that were at a partial slight angle and they were gold as well. The angle doesn't seem to matter?
 
Taz said:
Linus Knives Linus Knives , what are your settings? You seem to be getting a dark color, mine only look dark at certain angles and goldish the rest of the time?

I am getting plenty of depth, but not the color. I even did one at 30mm/min, 100% power and it took 23 minutes to do the 3/16" logo!
Click to expand...
T Taz
I’m usually doing 100% power with 20% speed and about 5 passes.
I haven’t done a bunch of tests or anything- I just found something that works for me and keep doing it.
Also my IR laser is only 2 watts so 100% power is kind of a must.
 
Taz, try running your laser in the 15-20% range for an annealed mark
 
PXL_20250806_144458719.jpg

100mm/min, 100% power, .01mm interval, 1 pass. It's slow, 23 minutes, but deep and dark! The smaller interval to have more overlap seems to work well for my laser. It's also a 2w IR.

Multiple faster passes at 100% didn't seem to do much?
 
Taz said:
Ok, found I can screw the rail and adapter from my diode to the back of the IR laser! Got the longer wiring cord made up and playing with the laser on utility knife blades.

I get good depth, but gold color. Tried a few speeds, 200, 300, 500, 1000mm/min, 100% power and 4-5 passes. 200mm/min and 100% for 4 passes seems to be the best so far, trying 150mm/min, 5 passes at 100% now.
Click to expand...
As a customer, I will say that the I like the gold. Is it durable?
 
Taz said:
S Scaniaman what are your settings? I am going to try more passes tomorrow. I get nice depth, but not the darker color I was looking for. I may just embrace the gold color! lol
Click to expand...
100% power. I think speed 1200 mm/s and 450 lines per cm. But I will have to check. This weekend when I'll have things up and running
 
100mm/min on the single side
PXL_20250806_173041736.jpg

200 and 300 on the other side. The 200 one is the one at the top and 300 is at the bottom. This is 64 HRC magnacut.

PXL_20250806_173048096.jpg
 
here is the same, not zoomed in like crazy! I cropped the pic, didn't realize it would zoom so much?

PXL_20250806_221426165.jpg
 
I need to make a new adapter plate. The MDF one kinda works, but it squishes down as I tighten the screws, so I need to make one out of Micarta or G10 that will stay flat. The piece is torquing in a bit on the right side, so all of the laser etchings are at a slight angle.

I did some nickel silver keys, too. They etched nicely, so I should be able to etch Mokume coins! Anodized Aluminum bottle openers did well, too, better than the diode and actually removed metal, not just the anodizing.
 
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