Finally got a chance to etch some wood today. For everyone’s reference, here are three (yes, three) separate prints.
Note that above the “1/4” speed image is the Default 1200mm/min speed.
So, as was discussed in detail on the other thread, 1200mm/min is useless on wood.
Later this evening, I decided to mess around, and tried a few more substances.
Sugar, it turns out, is very difficult to caramelize with this laser. It’s very hard to get a flat build surface and then the right focus.
A flat chocolate bar, however, works. I ran it at 600mm/min (0.1mm laser), which melted the chocolate in the desired pattern and changed the color / texture slightly. It’s a subtle effect, but could look very classy on a good chocolate bar. (This was a plain old Hershey’s.)
I think what I might try next is powdered sugar dusted on the chocolate, and then lazed in a pattern. I used plain old granulated sugar in the first test, and I think even the crystal size is far too large to get enough focus. It was really difficult even setting the z zero point. With powdered sugar, I think the crystal height would be small enough that you could back the z zero up 0.1 mm or so and be in focus.
Two laser questions:
- What’s the use of the “beam size” setting? Does it do anything to the resultant gcode? My assumption is that it tells how much X/Y offset to use between passes, but that’s it. Also, how does this setting relate to the actual size of the laser dot? It seems the final size of the dot won’t be set until you zero it.
- Has anyone successfully upgraded to a larger laser yet? I know there was a lot of talk of putting in the 1.6W or another one - has anyone actually pulled off that surgery successfully?