Lasers and Stuff

Well… today was an utter failure. I ordered the NEJE 30w laser with the PWM controller… and I received a NEJE 30w laser with the IAB controller.

My laser engraver is a cheap chinese one and the controller isn’t quite a full-fledged eleksmaker Mana SE board… meaning it only has the 2 pin connector on it and not the 3pin connector.

So I returned the part to Amazon and ordered the NEJE 30w that comes with ‘everything’ including power supply and both boards. Cost more, but there should be no excuses for me to not have what I need to make it work when it comes in now.

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Now with more lasers!

It took forever but the new kit finally arrived. Within a few minutes I had a test setup up and running to validate my controller can power it off of the PWM. It worked great! A few more minutes and I had it mounted to the gantry.

Did a few test fires through CNC.js and threw a quick design at it. I still have some playing to do with the feeds and speeds. The part that cut off cleanly was because I ran that part of the program twice. The first time through I did 2 passes at 100 mm/min and 100% power. I thought that was a bit too slow, so I bumped it up to 2 passes at 200 mm/min and 100%. That looks to be too fast. It looks like I need to shoot somewhere in the middle.

I will need to spend some time to make a final cable for it. The pinouts on the controller are opposite what the cable for the laser is, so I need to cut it and reconnect with the pins swapped. I don’t have the tool to push the pins out and I don’t want to ruin the connector. I also need to finish plumbing in the air assist. I have all the parts, I just need to bend an aluminum tube for the jet to come out of.

Anyways. This was my quick test burn. I need to adjust the design a little for the little hanger too.

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Success. 200mm/min, 100% power, 3 passes.

The faster speed makes a cleaner cut on the top and bottom. More passes helps it with the last little bit to get through. The slower 100mm/min speed made it through in more places on 2 passes, but it left more charing around the edge of the cut.

I also rigged up the air assist. Did do a bit of light sanding with 220 grit just to clean it up a little.

This is just one. I need to cut about 10 more for stocking stuffers for Saturday. We’ll see how consistent this setup gets through the rest of them.

Once I’m done with these, I want to try some of those 3d puzzles you can cut yourself.

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I would love to be able to make wooden puzzles. How do you print a good picture on wood?

Oh. Not sure about that. I was talking about the ones that slide together to make things like dinosaurs and stuff.

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Here were some slip-fit dinosaur puzzles cut with a IIRC 3.5W Banggood laser out of corrugated cardboard from a few years ago. The machine those were cut on is long gone but the laser info is just as good as ever…

– David

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I personally feel that using Lightburn allowed me to step up my game with photo engravings on various materials – chipboard, craft sticks, foam, ceramic tile, glass, etc. – using nothing more than a 2.5W diode laser. I documented my progress with photo prep and various materials, borrowing heavily from the work of @Bulldog on the LB forum, in this thread…

Good looking photos on wood can be tricky, of course, because of the grain pattern on different species. Following @Bulldog’s lead, I played a little with dithered images on painted, white-washed, and plain wood samples and it definitely can be used to good effect IMO.

I want to be able to make something like this (they know how to make puzzles better than websites):

I have no idea how that would be even close to possible.

That would be interesting. You could print the painting onto paper and then use a thinned glue to glue it to 1/16" plywood. That should be thin enough for a fairly fast laser to cut through in a single pass.

If you went too slow, I think it’d burn too much of the paper on the top of the wood.

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Does Masonite (hard board) laser cut well? It seems that would reduce the possibility of splinters.

The thinner plywood doesn’t seem to splinter when cut with the laser. It seems to leave a pretty smooth edge. A light pass against some high grit sand paper would knock it off.

I’m using hardieboard under the part I’m cutting so that I don’t burn my workbench. It hasn’t seemed to burn through just yet. I could try to actually cut it and see how that goes later today.

Cool, but to my knowledge, Hardieboard is a cement-containing material. Hardboard (one brand name = Masonite) is a fibrous material - like what pegboards are commonly made of.

Not to get too crazy, but you could use a dye sublimation transfer to the wood to get the image on. Kinda like an iron-on.

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I was wondering if there was a way to print the pattern to wax paper with an inkjet and then somehow iron it onto the wood and pull off the paper. I have memories of seeing this done when I was a kid, but no idea what it was.

Gluing the paper to the board is probably a good substitute. I wonder if you could reduce the burning issue by cutting from the bottom. Maybe the support structure would matter more at that point./

I guess the air assist wouldn’t reach down as far either.

In my experience (K40), masonite (tempered hardboard) does not cut well. I could get cuts etched into the top but never cut through.

Ah, just curious. It might be due to the resins holding it together, like some have commented on with plywood.

That’s probably it. Lots of layers of what looks like dark brown paper bonded under pressure.

You’re right. I’m sorry. I read one thing and typed something else. Masonite is what I have under my grid.

Right now I’m using a light diffuser (plastic grid) to raise the lite plywood off of the ground and then I have the masonite under that so that it doesn’t burn the table top.

@jeffb

I have seen folks use ModPodge from craft stores to basically transfer photos onto wood. The trick is to print the photo on quality photo stock paper in reverse - most selfies are perfect already! - so when you do the transfer it comes out right.
There’s a gal who did a YouTube video on this - I have forgotten the name of the channel - but you could look that up.
I would cut the wood into the puzzle parts, use a dry-mount or rack-frame to keep the parts together, then apply the ModPodge to the puzzle pieces to apply the photo. This way the puzzle pieces come apart easily after the picture has transferred.

Back in the day… In the middle 80s or early 90s, Xerox sold transfer inks for their printer (rebranded Tektronix) that you ironed on. I had a few of the printers, since I had access to the Tektronix Company Store, and played around with feature.