Hi all,
I'm very new to this and am looking to engrave raw aluminum. I don't need a large area, 70x70mm or so, but I need to engrave into the metal, probably .12mm/0.005"
I've been looking, and I think I need a machine that runs around 1000nm, but I'm not entirely sure. Consistency is more important than speed.
Can anyone make any recommendations for a lower-cost option?
Thanks!
I’m looking for some advanced troubleshooting feedback from people with experience engraving powder coated tumblers on galvo fiber lasers.
Setup:
- ComMarker B6 60W MOPA fiber laser
- R5 rotary attachment
- Direct-drive NEMA 17 chuck rotary
- LightBurn galvo workflow
- 150x150 lens
- White powder coated stainless tumblers
The issue:
I cannot eliminate a very consistent vertical banding artifact during large filled engravings on the tumbler. The artifact is aligned with the axis of rotation and appears independent of scan angle. Under normal lighting it is subtle, but under grazing light it becomes obvious.
What’s strange is:
- The banding does NOT appear when the rotary is disabled.
- The banding largely disappears when rotary slice size is increased above ~1 mm, but then I get visible stitching seams between slices.
- Smaller slice sizes (<1 mm) reduce stitching and produce very clean engraving edges, but introduce the periodic banding again.
- The band spacing appears to be around ~1 mm, suspiciously close to the surface distance corresponding to a full motor step.
What I’ve already tested:
- Large range of laser parameters:
- 750–4000 mm/s
- 60–150 kHz
- 200–450 ns pulse widths
- 60–90% power
- single pass and multi-pass
- unidirectional and bidirectional fill
- crosshatch on/off
- scan angles from 0–90°
- line intervals from 0.02–0.08 mm
- Defocus from 0 mm to +6 mm
- Rotary slice sizes from 0.020 mm to 3 mm
- Slice overlap tuning
- Added 200 ms delay between slice moves
- Reduced rotary acceleration/speeds significantly
- Changed motor driver from 1/64 microstepping (12800 pulses/rev) down to 1/16 microstepping (3200 pulses/rev)
- Full and half holding current enabled on the stepper driver
Important observations:
- The artifact does NOT rotate with hatch angle.
- It stays aligned with the rotary axis.
- I can physically observe the stepper/chuck vibrating during larger slice index moves.
- With large slices, I can visibly see the galvo processing each slice boundary separately, and the resulting seam is visible in the engraving.
- The coating itself is ablating correctly — this does not appear to be incomplete paint removal.
At this point I’m trying to determine whether this is:
Stepper full-step torque ripple / resonance
LightBurn galvo rotary slice implementation
Rotary mechanical backlash/compliance
A limitation of segmented rotary workflows on galvo systems
Something material/coating related that I’m overlooking
Has anyone successfully achieved truly uniform large-area tumbler fills on a galvo fiber + rotary setup without visible banding or stitching?
If so:
- What rotary hardware are you using?
- LightBurn or EZCAD?
- What slice sizes/settings worked for you?
I’m about 10 hours deep into process tuning and feel like I’ve isolated this to the rotary/slicing architecture itself rather than the laser process.
The xTool looks like exactly what we need. The auto focus, MOPA, and ease of use would be great. We are using an old universal laser VL4.60 and largely marking SS tags for identification. I have to cheap it by spraying a thin layer of moly lube on it to coat it black, and then it can mark it but isn't great. Now it's starting to be inconsistent and not burning strong enough.
So, I'm using this as an opportunity to get something more purpose build. Largely I want to be able to mark and engrave on a variety of metals, with flexibility of part geometry. Like marking curved surfaces on parts that can't use a rotary.not planning to really cut metal but that would be nice.
I've been trying to read up on the options and MOPA with auto focus and a large work envelope would be ideal. Ease of use (I will have to train people a lot to use it so it's not always me) and quick setup and reliability are important. And speed of marking metals.
xTool F2 with 60w fiber laser seems like the way to go. BUT looking at people's reviews and postings on Reddit, there is a lot of negative feedback, largely on the support.
I want to pull the trigger when I get back to work Tuesday as we need something pretty quick. What are your thoughts?
About $5k is the budget but is flexible if it makes sense.
Just bought a 30w MOPA from Omtech, came with a thumb drive with the drivers and EZCAD and they were kind enough to add some malware.
I get why it seemed like a great deal now. Ordered directly from their official site.
Sorry for the phone picture, I had to isolate and will be wiping the machine.
If you like to try a cool tool I have four you look et me know what you think and have lots of fun.
If anyone is bored or has questions join me :) Engraving greyscale mode - 10w diode OLM3 - YouTube Im not 100% sure if I am aloud to post my livestream so please delete if I am not aloud.
Sorry for bad title couldn't explain it well.
A friend ask me to make them a sign for their start up business it has a clear 6mm acrylic base with 3mm gold acrylic lettering on top the font is very cursive but thin in places, it is called great vibes and is at size 609.03.
I've cut the letters out no problem and I think I have finally got a handle on the p2s conveyor, however I have trashed 1 1200x600 sheet of clear acrylic already and only have 1 left for the backing.
The problem I have is that when I have set it to scoring the letters it does both edges of the font making it very hard to glue the text on top without the underlying scoring being visible, I remember once seeing the ability to score a centre line instead but can't fire the life of me find it.
I thought about scoring in a slightly smaller font but then the inside of the o and the inner loop in the g and l would show the undersized score line.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
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The name tags are zinc alloy with an electroplated finish.
I would like the machine to be compatible with light burn.
What machines would you reccomend?
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Hello, Recently Bought the 6W version of this Laser on amazon
https://a.co/d/0hDTE3i4
the listed Wavelength is 455nm So I got some good rated ones on amazon for a advertised wavelength of 200nm - 2000nm
https://a.co/d/0fN9D1kG
I was later recommended to get some goggles from https://www.noirinsight.com/
So I Plugged in the 455nm wavelength into the website and it came up these
https://www.noirinsight.com/laser-safety-glasses?wl1=455&od1=
not sure which to get , really wild price changes from like 15$ to 300$
any Advice? the amazon googles alright? if not which of the other 4 from NoirInSight should I get?
I used a 10-watt diode engraving machine, and the result is pretty good, very clear! I can DIY my own card holders now, they look great! 🥰
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