Laser Engraving For Front Panels

[[silent:arts]]

For anodized Aluminium you don't need the 50W. My Laser setting is at 15% for this.
The work arrear and the better features of the machine / software were the main reason I went with the 50W machine.

 

[Lee_M]

Yeah, it does look very similar to that model.

Looks like a cheaper version of this:

50W CO2 Laser Engraver Cutting Machine with 300x500mm Working Area Ruida Control

Cheers

Ian

I found one which looks identical to that (but without the Omtech logo) for over £400 less, and it apparently includes a license for the Lightburn software, which is £119.99 extra when buying from the Omtech website.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294717304987

 

[Lee_M]

For anodized Aluminium you don't need the 50W. My Laser setting is at 15% for this.
The work arrear and the better features of the machine / software were the main reason I went with the 50W machine.

That's good to know, I was looking at life expectancy of the Co2 laser tubes and they don't last too long at higher output settings.

What's your process for making those 500 series panels? Do you buy the panels pre-cut, pre-drilled, and pre-anodised, and then do the engraving yourself?

 

[sr1200]

Stupid question, perhaps, but--

Can these laser engravers do curved surfaces (like a mic body)?

themachine i got has a rotation attachment you can get which does this.

 

[sr1200]

I finally got a day to play w the new toy. I wound up getting the atomstack s10 pro. Its a diode laser, not co2. Its been a process to get it tuned correctly, but i think im in a good spot now where i can try to run a faceplate.

Interestingly, depending on the material, this unit will either very lightly engrave or CUT the metal.

I first used a piece of steel i had which had a very light grey powder coat. The steel was very thin (maybe 1mm thick). At the highest power setting it simply cut a groove into the metal. Had i repeated the cut 4-5 times it may have very well cut through the sheet. Was very surprised at this. The quality was kind of poor which i attributed to me not tightening everything correctly on assembly.

Next i grabbed a piece of black powder coated steel (case lid).
I imported a graphic file (yeah… a friend of mine just wanted to see if it could do it and i didnt think it would work but i wound up with dickbutt on the panel)

Then i tried some vector filled text. Took a bit of playing with speed/power settings as well as fill options. But was able to get 2mm text to print legibly.

Next tried to make a scale using lines and dots… first few tests were ‘meh’.

I removed the gantry, tightened the belts and raised the cutting laser higher up to where the carriage sits to hopefully remove some of the wobble at the stop points. And this seemed to work.

After adjusting the print was way better and more crisp.

My last test was a piece of black anodized aluminum. By now i had the machine pretty well dialed in. However, the aluminum would not cut at all. Im guessing that once the outer black coat was burned away the laser was just reflecting and not able to do its job properly. Not a problem as i dont plan on cutting metal with it, just putting graphics and marking cuts. For a sub $1000usd machine im quite happy with the results. The software (lightburn) is very easy to use. Now i just need to make a jig for different panels (1u, 2,u, 3u and 500).

 

[[silent:arts]]

What's your process for making those 500 series panels? Do you buy the panels pre-cut, pre-drilled, and pre-anodised, and then do the engraving yourself?

Yes, exactly.

 

[alphasnk]

SR1200 thank you for your feedback, i'm gonna buy the same model. It's atrocious to find proper information on these things.

 

[sr1200]

SR1200 thank you for your feedback, i'm gonna buy the same model. It's atrocious to find proper information on these things.

The link i provided earlier was instrumental in my decision to go with the machine i wound up with. But, yeah, if you think perfomance info is hard to find, wait till you actually try to get it running with some software... It's about as clear as tar paper.

 

[alphasnk]

The link i provided earlier was instrumental in my decision to go with the machine i wound up with. But, yeah, if you think perfomance info is hard to find, wait till you actually try to get it running with some software... It's about as clear as tar paper.

I'm less bothered by the learning curve than by having to know what to get.

 

[zamproject]

@sr1200
Seem like your short video show open frame machine, I deeply encourage you to buy proper protection glasses (correct ray wavelength) according to the laser used. I don't know how focalisation and convergence/divergence beam behave in this kind of machine but we talk tens of W energy, is far way enough to destruct an eye within no time to blink or turn the head elsewhere (IIRC the safe zone for laser is under 1mW !!!). You never know what can happens, like being in the direct path of early reflection after unpredictable fault...
Read a little about safety to be sure, but I suspect at 5 or 10w even the light diffusion is an issue, especially with wavelength close to the limit for human (UV/IR) where glare is not perceived.

Sorry to be the boring safety man...

Cheers
Zam

 

[sr1200]

@zamproject im ahead of you on that. I do have safety goggles and right now i have the machine setup on the floor of the shop (my new work table hasnt come in yet). I tend not to stay in the room while its doing its thing since it does give off quite an odor depending on what is getting cut/engraved. The laser is 445 +/-5nm if anyone was wondering.

 

[zamproject]

im ahead of you on that

at least my warning will aware others around

The laser is 445 +/-5nm if anyone was wondering

That's a deep blue, close to the UV limit.
What was you visual brightness sensations compared to the completely saturated CCD in your video ?

Cheers
Zam

 

[sr1200]

its really not "bright", the part where the laser actually makes contact is pretty well behind a protective housing and theres a thick piece of tinted glass in the front where the air assist connects. I do notice an increase in intensity when i up the power though, either way, i dont plan on hanging around and watching it while it does its thing... ventilation in my shop isnt the greatest to begin with, so i leave the fans on and keep the door open and go do something else while its doing its thing. If i have the nerd urge to watch a machine monotonously go round and round, ill watch my 3d printer lol.

 

[zamproject]

its really not "bright"

that's exactly my point, perception is biased at this wavelength, and the camera show how it saturate.

Cheers
Zam

 

[sr1200]

My first panel done with the laser.
Just have to punch and drill the marks.

 

[ccaudle]

My first panel done with the laser.
Just have to punch and drill the marks.

Did you work out what the break even point is for you vs. having someone like Front Panel Express or ProtoCase make the front panels for you?

 

[13engrsapper]

Hi, it can be done, it's what we do.

We've been quiet and working for decades, it time to share a little.

You need to be careful what you are engraving - and if you are using a CNC to cut PCB's and Aluminum, make sure it is enclosed. The dust will, in time, literally kill you; a mask is not sufficient as the dust settles in your shop then gets kicked up later.

I caught some comments on learning to machine aluminum - and yes, it has quite the learning curve. I mean you can cut it on day one; but it takes time to build confidence that you are not going to break something and that the cuts will come out right. Also, We ended spending about 7 times what we paid for the machine on tooling and hold-downs etc.

On the engraving side look at what your powder coating is made of and make sure its safe to engrave. This is our standard "amp-has red" We used to silk screen everything, we are liking the results better. We machine our own faces out of oversized 6061 or ATP-5 aluminum. The ATP-5 is really nice stuff to work with if you can get it near you. A number of effects can be made while engraving, you can burn through, or not, use defocus techniques etc.... We liked the end result, as both of use here are former techs/backline guys; we like things a bit subtle. At some angles the engraving stands right out, others you can barely notice it, which makes people look even closer. We built 3 racks for 10 RCA BA-1, 2 and 11's for Stone Point Studio in the Charleston South Carolina area. Stone Point Studio is Mark Bryans (Hootie) new private studio in the area. Two racks are pictured here, and as you can see we were arguing about the color of the light bezel thingy and how we wanted it to be in our standard production stuff.

I need to find some pics of the internals we machined for these. We use non-marring mounts for the modules, and we machined our own tube power supply turret boards out of blue 1/4 or 3/8" thick garolite.

Still working on refining the laser technique - it get expensive burning through panels, lol - and as mentioned different color coating behave differently. Which is making me want to try two layers of powder coating next time. If I put a white or silver underneath, I may be able to just burn through the red, then when it hits the lighter colored layer, the laser will be less effective bouncing most of its light revealing the layer underneath better. Well we hope.

-Tony

 

[13engrsapper]

Also, as mentioned or asked, you can use a laser to quickly mark holes to spot drill, then drill. We often do that for one-off stuff that I do not want to take time to program for the CNC.

 

[13engrsapper]

The look I’m after is a hammertone or very dark textured green with the raw aluminum showing through.

They have that in powder coat - They have a dizzying array of colors/textures/looks.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

I need to find some pics of the internals we machined for these.

How do you make these rectangular boxes? Glued?

I see you have two bottles on the CNC. I suspect one is for coolant/lubricant; what's the other?
And I suspect you have a bigger one for spindle cooling...