# Laser engravers



## Leo G

Anyone have one of the lesser expensive ones? What do you have and what do you think of it.

I saw Tom had what looked like a laser etched logo on one of his drawer sides and it got me hunting around looking at the different lesser expensive options. Looks like it could be a fun and helpful tool with a lot of different uses.

Some of them have a pretty limited area that it will engrave, 4" x 4" and others have much larger areas of about 14" to 16" square. Primary use would be for logo etching but I'm sure I could find lots of other uses for it.


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## tjbnwi

Leo,

I got a branding iron to do my logo.

I’m learning Fusion 360, when I get the program figured out I may get laser engraver/3D printer.

Tom


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## tjbnwi

On a FB group I’m a member of this unit was posted. Owner really likes it.









Buy Ortur Laser Master 2 S2 #Best Laser engraver | 3DPrintersBay






www.3dprintersbay.com





Tom


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## Leo G

That was one of them I was looking at. It had a pretty good sized surface that it can etch.


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## Leo G




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## Robie

IMO....you not only need one...you have to have one.

Very cool and I didn't realize they would be that inexpensive.


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## Leo G

They can engrave leather. You need one too.


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## Leo G

By the time you're done it should be less than $500.

The laser engraver itself, the software package is about $40 (Lightburn) and building an enclosure with a fan, laser safe acrylic, lights and ducting so you can get rid of any smoke generated and have a safe system.


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## Robie

Leo G said:


> They can engrave leather. You need one too.


That's why I thought you should get one...for my leather work.


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## pinwheel

So, for someone who's not real tech savvy, how hard are they to operate?

I build picture frames for our disabled organization to send out to sponsors, volunteers & landowners with laser engraving thanking them for their support. Right now, I send them out for engraving. If its not real complicated, I would imagine we'd purchase one to complete the whole process in house.


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## Leo G

You can figure it out. Watch the video I put in the thread and then search YT or Bit Chute or Rumble for Ortur Laser Master 2 and there's quite a few unboxing, building and setting up of the laser. 

Of course you'll have to learn how to use it with the materials you engrave, so there will be a trial and error period.


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## Pounder

Leo G said:


> By the time you're done it should be less than $500.
> 
> The laser engraver itself, the software package is about $40 (Lightburn) and building an enclosure with a fan, laser safe acrylic, lights and ducting so you can get rid of any smoke generated and have a safe system.


This is exactly right. Few seem to understand how dangerous these things are. If that laser passes over your eyes your blind. If it reflects off of something you might be very lucky and have some vision remaining.
Depending on what you're engraving, the fumes can be toxic.


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## Leo G

tjbnwi said:


> On a FB group I’m a member of this unit was posted. Owner really likes it.
> 
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> 
> Buy Ortur Laser Master 2 S2 #Best Laser engraver | 3DPrintersBay
> 
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> 
> www.3dprintersbay.com
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> Tom


 Ordered the 20 watt


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## pinwheel

Anxious to see how you make this all work. I would imagine I'll be buying one.


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## tjbnwi

pinwheel said:


> So, for someone who's not real tech savvy, how hard are they to operate?
> 
> I build picture frames for our disabled organization to send out to sponsors, volunteers & landowners with laser engraving thanking them for their support. Right now, I send them out for engraving. If its not real complicated, I would imagine we'd purchase one to complete the whole process in house.


Again, FB friend (actually know him in real life also) upgraded from the one Leo ordered to a 60 watt fully contained unit. It was about 6K (he does a lot of engraving for others). I asked him about the software, he said Lightburn is very simple to learn.

Tom


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## Leo G

And at $40 pretty inexpensive.


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## Leo G

pinwheel said:


> Anxious to see how you make this all work. I would imagine I'll be buying one.


 Me too. From the reviews it looks like it takes a full week to be delivered. Especially ordering it on a Saturday.


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## Leo G

You can do some pretty neat stuff


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## Leo G

Little bummed right now. Downloaded LightBurn so I could learn some basics on how to use it and it won't even start up until you have an engraver plugged into the computer. So now I have to wait until the unit arrives until I can even play with the software. Really hope I don't have to have it plugged in the engraver after it detects what machine it has to export G code too. That would be really inconvenient.


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## Tinstaafl

I feel your pain, especially since I'm looking forward to vicariously experiencing your new toy experience.

I'd say that's well worth an email to the developer, explaining that a demo mode would not only get you a head start on using the app; it would also help you evaluate its usability prior to purchase of the hardware it's meant to be used with (little white lie there).


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## Tinstaafl

Man, you are seriously inflaming my toy-itis.


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## hdavis

A little trick with write speeds, depending on how you software and hardware work. Split you file into 2 files, one for the fine work, and one for the bigger stuff. You may be able to write faster on the big stuff that way. Downside is loading up 2 files instead if one.

Might help, might not. If the spot size and power is part of the file, you should be able to write the bug stuff much faster. Can't say for sure, but it's food for thought.


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## Leo G

The program allows for layers so I can control individual lines and segments for power and speed and distance from laser strike to laser strike.


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## tgeb

Pretty cool Leo.


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## hdavis

Leo G said:


> The program allows for layers so I can control individual lines and segments for power and speed and distance from laser strike to laser strike.


If it had programmable beam size (programmable focus, perhaps) you could double the beam size, run maybe 89% power and get 4 times the throughput on the big stuff.

Something like that...


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## Leo G

The laser is fixed focus. So no-go there.


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## Leo G

Leo G said:


> My brother is getting a standard poodle without the haircut normally associated with it. I'm making him a burning of a poodle that I modified the haircut. His name is Elroy so we also included a picture the the Jetson's Elroy with a jet pack on.
> 
> View attachment 510981
> 
> 
> Still working on it now It'll be my longest burn at about 2 3/4 hours. Making a guy in a boat catching a fish for my Dad next. That burn will be a bit longer.


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## Robie

Wow. Nice stuff.


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## hdavis

Poodle was a smuggler's dog.


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## Leo G

Where's the Kaboom!? There's suppose to be and Earth shattering Kaboom!


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## hdavis

Leo's inner artist is coming out....


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## Leo G

More like artistic property theft :whistling


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## hdavis

Leo G said:


> More like artistic property theft :whistling


The sincerest form of flattery.


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## Leo G

Next one up is for my other son the teacher.. Just a computer drawing so far.


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## Leo G

And this one should be interesting. I'm going to try to etch this on glass. My laser can't etch glass directly, wrong color to do transparents. But there is a cheat. Spray it with a black tempera paint (water base kids paint). Place it on a white tile with the paint down against the tile. With the laser focused on the paint, shooting through the glass the black paint creates enough heat that is trapped between the tile and the glass it etches the glass. Hoping this comes out, I think I'll put a royal blue or purple felt behind it in an 8x10 frame.


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## hdavis

Good luck!


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## rblakes1

That looks like a fun toy to play with

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk


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## pinwheel

Welp, I gotta say, you've peeked my interest & got me to doing a lot of reading & watching videos to see if this laser would fit the needs I envision. The more I read, the more I realize, if I'm getting in, I'm getting all the way in.

Looks like this is the machine I'm leaning towards









80W CO2 Laser Engraver Cutting Machine with 20” x 28” Working Area


Engrave your dream creations with our 80W CO2 Laser Engraving Machine. This laser engraving machine has an LCD display, red dot laser, and air assist.




omtechlaser.com





We've got quite a few antique etched windows in our own home & built into our cabinets. I can see adding laser etched glass to some of our custom cabinets as a good selling point.

Another thing, with the disabled group we work, one of the things we do in our shop, is make picture frames for all the landowners who open their farms to us, as well major financial contributors. Currently, I have to send them out for laser engraving, having a laser in house, will allow us to more easily personalize our appreciation frames & plaques. I'll likely add rotary so we can engrave personalized tumblers & such. With our business logo, as well as our disabled organization logo. Lots of possibilities.


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## Leo G

Yep, that'll be the next step for me if I go there. But right now it's a toy to play with and more than good enough to put my logo on my work.


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## pinwheel

Leo G said:


> Yep, that'll be the next step for me if I go there. But right now it's a toy to play with and more than good enough to put my logo on my work.
> 
> View attachment 511325



Without a doubt, it's good enough for that application.

Part of what weighed my decision, was reading all the time I would have to spend building an enclosure, finding laser safe acrylic fan, camera, air assist ventilation ect, ect, & gave that time an hourly shop rate & realized by the time I got it up to speed, I'd be at least 1/3rd the cost of the one I listed. Well, that's how I justified it when justifying it to Jenny. 

I'm going to speak with the rest of the Board of Directors for Missouri Disabled Sportsmen about covering a portion of the cost, since my primary reason for purchasing it, is for the appreciation frames & promotional items we can run with it. I'm pretty confident we can assign a $ amount towards each frame & commit to producing a certain amount for their investment in the machine.


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## Leo G

Well the trick worked for etching glass. This one is done like a picture, where the laser goes back and forth like an inkjet printer, it's called Fill+Line. Right now I have another of the same going where it's called 'Offset Fill' where it draws in each letter individually. This puts a lot more power into the area because the laser is on constantly on the letter.

Probably should have cleaned it before I took the picture.










At least I cleaned it before I framed it. Cheap $3 from from the dollar store . Just looking for something that had real glass. And it's thin, less than 1/16" thick


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## Leo G

Well the Offset Fill is significantly better. The image version seems to be directional. If you look at it from one direction it's bold but fades when you look at it from a different direction. The Offset Fill version is bold from all directions.


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## hdavis

There was a French technique using hot sand to darken wood in an artistic pattern on furniture. I forget the name if it, but obviously this could do that.


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## hdavis

Leo G said:


> Well the Offset Fill is significantly better. The image version seems to be directional. If you look at it from one direction it's bold but fades when you look at it from a different direction. The Offset Fill version is bold from all directions.
> 
> View attachment 511352
> 
> 
> View attachment 511353


Maybe do one pattern with it oriented one way, and rotate it for a second pattern.


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## Leo G

Looking through family pictures I found one of my sister and her husband in Sept '12

Figured since I was on a glass etching wave I'd do something for that. I started out with "Lived happily ever after" when my wife saw what I was doing and she said they had a saying that was on their invitations or something. Got a hold of her hubby and he took a picture of it. I started to just use fonts that I had and then decided to use the actual picture. Used the trace function in LightBurn and played with it for about an hour straightening lined out from jpg jaggies.

1st one I did was smaller and it made it hard to see, plus the lines started to blur together because of the limitations of the line thickness. I'm using a 5x7 frame so things are small to begin with.


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## Tinstaafl

I'm jealous; I wanna play.

About how long to burn that?

How long to do the whole thing start to finish, assuming a good high-rez pic and knowing what you're doing?


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## Leo G

Well tuning up the picture of the writing took the longest. I'm learning and I learned quite a bit screwing around with this about nodes and how they work in the program. I deleted a node accidentally and the line straightened out. I had been moving them around and straightening each one out. By deleting them it saves tons of time and does the same thing.

I probably spent 2 hours playing with the letters. No rush, it's Sunday and I'm futzing around while learning. Then I have to paint the glass black with tempera paint and force dry it with a heat gun. Then pop it onto the laser and it takes about 11 minutes.

If I could just copy paste the letters in, trace them without having to do the big tune up I could do the whole thing in under an hour.

Still a lot of this is photoshop skills which I'm pretty good at. Lightburn I'm still learning to play with.


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## Leo G

$300 and you can have your own.


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## Tinstaafl

Realistically, at this late date I don't see myself making any money with one. Though I've always had a weakness for techno-toys, that's a bit over my budget and available workspace.

Ironically, I was doing vector drawings for years before getting into construction. Never got all that good at manipulating bitmaps, but pretty decent at nodes/curves etc. It also doesn't help that I'm about as artistically creative as a rock.

I'll just come along for the vicarious ride.


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## Leo G

So $300 and 4 sq ft is over the limit. OK.... ☹

I really don't plan on making any money with it. Like I said, it was bought to put my logo on my work. I just started watching youtube vids and saw all the things that can be done with it.


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## Tinstaafl

$300, no problem. 4 sq ft, I could come up with, but there's ventilation, staging and whatnot to consider.

The wrath of SWMBO... insurmountable.


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## Leo G

Glass and the metal cards hardly need ventilation. Wood, MDF absolutely or some sort of exhaust system. I still need to build mine.


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## Leo G

Burned my wife a Mothers Day card. Made it from some 1/8" bending Poplar. I used clear packing tape as the binder and it worked surprisingly well.

Front of the Card









Inside of the card


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## Leo G

For Mothers Day









And for my son who just became a teacher the beginning of last years school year


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## Leo G

Sno's Dog


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## pinwheel

I'm real close to pulling the trigger on an 80 w co2 unit.


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## Leo G

Trout jumping and splashing. 13 3/8" square


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## Leo G

pinwheel said:


> I'm real close to pulling the trigger on an 80 w co2 unit.


Those can do 3D relief "carvings"


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## Leo G

Burned a nice rod









Scenic wildlife


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## Leo G

So about 2 weeks ago I got some ducting and a fan and hooked them up so that I could connect it to a box for the laser that I hadn't made yet. Got busy and it took 3 1/2 weeks before I built the box. Made it out of 9 mm Baltic Birch










Little primitive with the cardboard top but without it the vent fan doesn't do squat. The 1" opening on the bottom is for air flow into the box.

So next thing for me to do is to make a plexiglass bender. I got myself a roll of 20 and 24 gauge nichrome wire, a spring, an aluminum "U" channel and a power supply. I needed to make the bending jig for at least 24" wide. Slapped everything together and came up with this. ;Ended up using the 24 gauge wire, took full output of the power supply to heat the 20 gauge and I didn't want to always run it at full tilt. You can see the nichrome wire glowing, 210 watts of power to get it there.



















I did a test with some clear I had in the shop. Worked well. About 45 seconds heating time.









So I had ordered 2 sheets each of some green and orange plexiglass 24"x48" Wasn't sure if the orange would block the laser good enough, I know the green would but light transmission is poor compared to the orange.

So I cut the plexiglass to 23 15/16"x38 1/2" on the tablesaw. Placed it on the bender, clamped it down and flipped it on. About 1 minute later I lifted the table and set it at 90º and let it cool down. It sprung back a bit and I warmed it back up 2x and got it to 90º.
Nice crisp bend and exactly where it needed to be.


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## pinwheel

Leo G said:


> Come on Pin, you can do better than that....


Not in the 5 minutes I spent doing it. The trace image is going to need quite a bit of node editing to clean it up better.


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## Leo G

I brought it into my photo editor and selectively removed colors and then did the trace.

Didn't do it in 5 minutes.


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## Leo G

Although it looks nice in the picture when you stand back the sawblade stands out too much compared to the lettering and I had to make the letters darker to match better.










Sort of screwed up with the program. Just meant to redo the lettering and after I started the burn I noticed it was going to do the whole thing over again. Certainly didn't want that. So I had to wait for the top run of letters to finish being burnt so I could stop the program and tell it to only do the bottom row of lettering.

Here it is with the top done and the bottom in progress.


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## Mordekyle

Looks great!


I am a little jealous. Having a hard time finding a couple hours to do fun stuff for myself or for others.

Trying to get “caught up.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Leo G

You do realize I went into the shop at 10pm to see how it came out. And then to reprogram to do the letters again. And then at 11 because of the screw up I did with the program. Ya, time - I hate that it's linear. Of course I could have waited for morning... LOL Always excited to see what it came out like.

The other thing is when you press play, you just walk away and it does its thing. So you can spend some time dealing with the programming and then making the blank. After you press play it's all machine time.

I think it's coming on nice.


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## Mordekyle

IOU


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## pinwheel

Leo G said:


> You do realize I went into the shop at 10pm to see how it came out. And then to reprogram to do the letters again. And then at 11 because of the screw up I did with the program. Ya, time - I hate that it's linear. Of course I could have waited for morning... LOL Always excited to see what it came out like.
> 
> The other thing is when you press play, you just walk away and it does its thing. So you can spend some time dealing with the programming and then making the blank. After you press play it's all machine time.
> 
> I think it's coming on nice.


You really need to find space in your garage for a co2 machine. The versatility is so much better. That sawblade sign would have looked awesome with embossed acrylic letters & the whole sign would have taken about 30 minutes to burn, including cutting out the embossed acrylic letters.


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## Leo G

That would work if I had a garage.


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## pinwheel

Leo G said:


> That would work if I had a garage.


Spare bedroom? small addition? 

We got our 55 watt last week. It's got a fairly small footprint, but will do most of the things our 80 watt will do. Just not as much power for cutting, but will easily do all the engraving tasks the bigger machine will do. Just need the spray foam guy to get us worked in so I can get them both setup down at the shop.


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## Leo G

I'm thinking about it for the future. When pushing wood gets harder - pushing buttons will be the way to go.


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## Leo G

Came out nice. I got the letters balanced with the sawblade I think.


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## Robie

I dont like it.


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## Leo G

Then you won't have to pay me for it.


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## rrk

Have any scrap wood laying around?


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## Leo G

Define scrap.

As soon as it becomes useful it's no longer scrap.

My favorite is when someone asks for a pc of scrap plywood. You know, 26" x 48" pc of scrap.


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## Leo G

Scrap. 5 5/8" square. Scrap.










This is some left over orange plexiglass I used for the protective light shield on my laser box.


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## hdavis

Leo G said:


> Came out nice. I got the letters balanced with the sawblade I think.
> 
> View attachment 516259
> 
> 
> View attachment 516260


Is there a floor there somewhere?


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## hdavis

Just saw on TV today, some company takes one of your family recipes and burns it on the back of a maple cutting board. In the person's handwriting


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## Leo G

Easy enough to do.


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## hdavis

Leo G said:


> Easy enough to do.


That's what I thought when I saw it.


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## Leo G

Gonna put two holes in the top and you stick a couple of pens in there. Used for a wedding to sign the book.


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## Leo G

Had a guy make some tools for working leather. I put he logo on top of the tools and the center of the stick. Made a box out of Baltic Birch along with a top that had a polycarbonate clear panel that I etched his logo into also.

Found a pc of foam and cut it to size and laser cut it out to fit the two tools and then covered it in crushed velvet using some repositionable spray glue. Came out really nice and the guy receiving it was blown away.


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## Snobnd

That looks awesome Leo I’d hit the like button but I know how much you hate that! Lol


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## Leo G

Made a few small boxes to sit on someone's desk.
































































Both are about 4 1/4" cubed


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## Leo G

And a faux cutting board with a recipe. 1/4" Maple plywood.


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## Leo G

And a gift for my DIL. It's a recipe my wife uses for unstuffed peppers. Just the stuffing without the peppers. I made her write it out, she wanted to type it out.


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## tjbnwi

Thanks for the recipes.

Tom


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## Leo G

The Unstuffed peppers are cooked in an Instapot. And the spaghetti recipe takes all day long for the most part. And leaving it overnight (covered) is part of the recipe that's not mentioned.


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## Leo G

6x9" sign for my front door.


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## VinylHanger

So... a signpost to tell thieves exactly where your packages are. Neat.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk


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## Leo G

Ya, much better to leave them on the front stoop where they can see them from the street and walk 15' to just grab them.


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## pinwheel

VinylHanger said:


> So... a signpost to tell thieves exactly where your packages are. Neat.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk



Pretty common in the area's I work to have a sign on the front door, saying place packages inside the front door so the dogs won't tear them up.


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## Leo G

Plus it's small enough where you really can't read it from the street, but can easily read it while walking up to the house.


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## Robie

I've signed up with FedEx and UPS and they allow you to give delivery instructions, etc.
Mine, except for USPS are delivered to the back door automatically.


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## Leo G

Ya, sometimes they do sometimes they don't. Last delivery said right on the delivery it was put on the back porch. They left it by the front door.


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## Robie

The only time it's been left elsewhere is when Cleo is on her lead-line.
Then it goes on the front porch.


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## pinwheel

Fed ex called me one day because they were scared to leave our new 60" TV on the front porch. I told him leave it, it will be OK, he was still hesitant, so I told him, if it bothers you that much, just open the front door & slide it inside. It was on the porch when I got home. Keep in mind, my house, is at the end of a half mile dead end gravel road, miles from the nearest paved road. Porch pirates don't just happen to drive by our shack.


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## Leo G

Well the sign worked sorta.

Got two packages from UPS. Said they left it at the front door (grrrr) and I went home to get them. Not there. Pulled in back, not there. Crap.

It was in the front porch. They haven't opened that door in 2 years. So I'm thinking the sign did that.


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## Leo G

Works on Formica


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## Calidecks

Leo does your cheap one work on stainless steel Yeti cups?


Mike.
*___*


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## Leo G

She's been asking for a 15" circle to put under a plant to protect a table. Had some stray laminate and I yellow glued it to a pc of Baltic Birch. Put a circular frame pattern of flowers on it with the laser.


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## Leo G

It's my grandson's birthday today, he's 5. Kid loves dinosaurs. So I made him some dinosaur dice and a box to keep them in. No idea what he'll do with them. I'm sure we can make up some games similar to Yahtzee.


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## Leo G

I can't believe how much my grandson likes the dino dice. As soon as he ripped off the paper he wanted to play with them. He had to be told to finish opening his other gifts.

We are currently playing now.


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## KAP

Leo G said:


> I can't believe how much my grandson likes the dino dice. As soon as he ripped off the paper he wanted to play with them. He had to be told to finish opening his other gifts.
> 
> We are currently playing now.


That's awesome... Some of the best gifts come from our own hands and hearts... one of our grandkids I made a bed for... loves it.... but when at our house for a sleepover, the bed we have is not "my bed"...


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## Leo G

Making a wine bar for a client. I found an image and put the word wine bar into it and etched it onto a stretcher that will go above the wine refer. My plan was to paint it white and then use a product called Amazing glaze to fill in the laser etch and then clear coat it. It's laser etched and then painted and now I have the glaze in it. Came out better than I expected. I just have to put some clear on it to finish it off.


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## tjbnwi

Leo G said:


> I can't believe how much my grandson likes the dino dice. As soon as he ripped off the paper he wanted to play with them. He had to be told to finish opening his other gifts.
> 
> We are currently playing now.


Very cool Leo.

Tom


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## Leo G

I'll do Pokemon next round.


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## pinwheel

Spent some time in the laser room yesterday. Made 100 faux leather koozies & 100 keyrings for a fundraiser next weekend.

Made a dozen for our own business. Need to make more.


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## Leo G

Those came out nice.


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## tjbnwi

Nice job Pin.

Tom


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## Leo G

My son is having an engagement party with his wife to be. Wife said make this and said put Our Love is as Big as the Sky on it. So I did. The space is for a picture. Not sure if my wife is picking one out or it's for them to find one to put in there.

Solid Hard Maple. Carved the corners square with a simple chisel, same with the rear. I'll put a pc of plexiglass in there along with something to back it up to hold the picture in place.


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## Leo G

Took a picture and ran it through a script in Paint Shop Pro. And it turns it into a drawing of sorts. Used the color change pen and did some shading here and there. Picture from my sons engagement party. My oldest son, Finley the dog, my youngest fiance' and my youngest son.


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## tgeb

@pinwheel 

As I recall your machines Omtech? How do you like them after about 18 months? 

I have some ideas about incorporating a laser into my winter slow times and I am considering a 50 watt that they sell. 

What are your opinions at this point?

I've seen your end results and they look great. 

Thanks.


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## pinwheel

tgeb said:


> @pinwheel
> 
> As I recall your machines Omtech? How do you like them after about 18 months?
> 
> I have some ideas about incorporating a laser into my winter slow times and I am considering a 50 watt that they sell.
> 
> What are your opinions at this point?
> 
> I've seen your end results and they look great.
> 
> Thanks.



One of my machines is a 50 watt omtech. No complaints at all. Don't expect a lot of support from the company itself on how to operate your machine. I'll provide a link to a FB group to learn how to. Order directly from OMtech instead of from amazon or Ebay & Join this Fb group for support & read, read, read. OMTech Official Laser Group: Help, Advice, and More! | Facebook

If you get it, reach out to me & I'll direct you to video's on how to align mirrors & upgrade air assist & exhaust. You'll also need an industrial chiller to cool the water that keeps the tube cool. CW 5000 or 5200 if you plan to ever buy a second laser.


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## nickko

what is a decent entry level laser engraver? I am starting to have an interest in one. I don't need anything fancy just for doing small engraving on some wood projects. I was looking and see them anywhere from 200 dollars to 4000 dollars.
Can you buy a decent one for about 400 dollars?

thanks..............nicko


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## pinwheel

nickko said:


> what is a decent entry level laser engraver? I am starting to have an interest in one. I don't need anything fancy just for doing small engraving on some wood projects. I was looking and see them anywhere from 200 dollars to 4000 dollars.
> Can you buy a decent one for about 400 dollars?
> 
> thanks..............nicko



Leo will be able to answer that better than I can. He does some impressive stuff with his diode laser.


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## Leo G

nickko said:


> what is a decent entry level laser engraver? I am starting to have an interest in one. I don't need anything fancy just for doing small engraving on some wood projects. I was looking and see them anywhere from 200 dollars to 4000 dollars.
> Can you buy a decent one for about 400 dollars?
> 
> thanks..............nicko


Mine was about $300. But it's a diode laser. 5.5 watts optical power.


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## KAP

Leo G said:


> Mine was about $300. But it's a diode laser.  5.5 watts optical power.


Have you made your $300 back yet?... 

I'm actually afraid to start down that path as I can see it quickly escalating to the more expensive time and becoming a time-suck... but tempting to say the least, especially this time of year...


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## Leo G

Took 2 projects that I sold. I bought it for me. I wanted it to put logos on stuff I make. I'm always surprised that people are proud to have that logo on projects I made for them. Today a guy was disappointed that I didn't put it on a 2nd drawer in his kitchen.


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## nickko

Leo G said:


> Mine was about $300. But it's a diode laser. 5.5 watts optical power.


What brand is it? What’s a diode laser?


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## Leo G

Ortur Laser. Pumped laser diode in the violet spectrum.


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## Leo G

Not speedy at all. But good results.

5 hours 10 minutes. I'm sure Pin's could do this in a much quicker time. But push a button and walk away from it while I work on other stuff.












Perspective corrected.









I got 2 more to do that are different. The owners of the brewery and some brew making stuff. The one I'm running now is 6:30 hours. I always worry about something happening in that time period and having to start over. I hung a wire in my enclosure and put a few loops to hold the wire bundle up and out of the way to make sure it doesn't get tangled. It's only done it once. But on this time table I don't need to take a chance.


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## Leo G

Crap. So I checked in on it at about 11pm last night and it seemed just fine. I got in this morning and it looked like it did another 45 minutes of burning and then just stopped. The program doesn't have a way to pick a starting point that I'm aware of so I started from the top and I'm working my way down. Well 3 times it stopped in the same spot for whatever reason. No codes showing. The computer is still counting down like it's sending out instructions.

I could hear something in the X stepper motor about the area which it stopped. It happened on each left to right pass but not the other way. After 20 or so passes (.1mm per pass) that's when it quit.

I blew out the motor and the geared straps and moved things around quite a bit to see if there was any jamming or sticking and I couldn't find anything. I reset to zero and it took off and started about 1" lower than it should. Dammit. I repositioned everything and started at the top again. I have a dark burn at the top because it's been engraved 4 times but it seems to be holding now. Made it for 30 minutes so far and I think I have another 25 minutes to go before I have to manually end the engraving when it reaches the other completed section.

Hope it lines up better than this


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## Leo G

Worked out OK. I was out of alignment by .2mm over the width. So I ended up with a line that was a bit darker on one side of the picture. No one is going to notice.


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## pinwheel

Pumped out a couple Christmas presents this week. Cedar arrowhead display case for a buddy's wife. Need to fine tune the wrinkles in the velvet before he picks it up. I forgot I had the wrong lens in for the focal length I setup. No one will notice, but I notice the lack of detail. His wife loved the pics he showed her this morning.














Cut a stencil & used flex seal type spray on this rug for my ma. She loved it.

First one I've done, so I had a little overspray, but not bad. Home depot stocks these for $10 each.


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## nickko

Nice!


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## Half-fast Eddie

Leo G said:


> Worked out OK. I was out of alignment by .2mm over the width. So I ended up with a line that was a bit darker on one side of the picture. No one is going to notice.


Did you figure out why it kept hanging up?


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## Leo G

I think there was some smutz in the track. If that wasn't it then I don't know what it was. Got it to work and then I did another burn and had no issues. It wasn't an image burn though, it was a line and fill burn. Not sure if they would make any difference at the laser level, but it makes a difference at the computer level.


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