This is very general so if needs to be moved to another category, please do so.
I am awaiting delivery of a Vortex and JTech laser (7W for now) to use with my Altmill so I am preemptively looking for knowledge, suggestions, and ideas.
I frequently turn pens and other items out of wood, resin/aluminite, as well as combos on a lathe so I know for sure that I want to be able to laser engrave on those; Names, logos, maybe even pictures one day. Oh and definitely want to make clocks - both lasered and carved.
Iād also like to try turning some pens on the Vortex to see if I can come up with more unique patterns that I am otherwise unable to accomplish on the lathe right now.
I have not acquired any Laser-specific software yet although I figure Iāll end up with either the Laser Module for Vectric and/or LightBurn. (already have VCarve Pro)
With the above information - what suggestions, ideas, learning materials or anything else does the group recommend? Specifically anything that serves as a walk-through/how-to.
Iām happy to experiment but also want to āaccomplishā as quickly as possible to see a return on my investment
@whitewolf In my former life, I started lathe turning with pens. I started with kits, then went onto designing and making them from scratch. When I got the Vortex, it seemed like a natural progression. It was a progression, but maybe not ānaturalā. Iāve done maybe a dozen now. Some are only carved, some are laser etched.
For the lasered ones, I have a 10w Endurance diode laser model. I design in VCarvePro and use the free jtech post processor to create the toolpaths. I have LB, but Iām more comfortable in VCarve. I tried the trial version of the laser module from Vectric , but I didnāt see anything that I was getting for my money that I canāt do with the jtech post.
I am attaching 2 .pdf files that I used to get started on rotary pen turning. I hope that they help.
Thank you so much! This is exactly the kind of āsupportā and knowledge I was hoping for.
I have no plans on stopping my lathe turning as it is cathartic to some extent but I enjoy learning new things and maximizing capabilities of tools/hardware I own.
Congrats on the upgrades. I myself have bounced around many experiments with my Sienci 7W laserbeam and know it to be indeed very time consuming to start from naught.
Though I have no vortex, I can at least direct you to some easy projects to be done with a laser that are both easy and give impressive results.
. Clean surface
. Spraycoat black paint
. Engrave inverted image
. Due to ultra thin medium (only applied coating will react), speeds can be high, power lowish (30%) no risk of burning, flaming or bleeding.
. Clean surface with spirit.
. Apply clear coating to preserve slate look or black coating for extra contrast.
. Use for tekst or simple vector graphics. Too detailed pictures will not pan out due to lack of contrast, even with black coating.
. Due to slate reacting with laser and becomming lighterish slate color, speeds need to be reduced and power in the high spectrum (80%ish) for best results.
. Due to the etchings becomming lighter, graphics need te be inverted.
Laser etching in dark wood that would otherwise give bad results due to low contrast between etch and medium.
. Paint the wood with a white acrylic paint. Donāt worry about visible brush strokes, they will give your etch the apearance of a painting rather than a laser job.
. Speeds and feeds is more tricky. All depends on how thick you apply your paint. Some experimenting is needed. The trick is to not burn the wood, just the paint, so speeds tend to be medium and power no higher than 50%. If anything needs adjusting lower the speeds rather than upping power. The exposed wood in the darkest parts of your picture will make the etch come to life.
. I like to carve an outline of the picture and etch inside of that but it isnāt needed to get awesome results.
The last one needs some learning curve, but when you gained a feeling for it, it will be a fully repeatable proces on various wood species with wildly variating properties when exposed to a laser naked. Itās a bit of a cheat, but a neat cheat.
Anyhoo, just to get you on track with just the laser.
After a bunch of issues and a few hours of my life - I was able to use LB (trial) to make a box with text in it on an old piece of 2x4 pine.
Might be my ignorance but did not like how I had to use gSender to set the home positions and reset faults then close it down and open LightBurn to do the jobā¦
I know that supposedly I can export the gcode into gSender as which I guess would solve my issue though but seems like a waste of LB to do that.
Iāll be traveling for about the next week but hopefully once I return I can try out Vectricās Laser Module as well - at least there I am used to creating in one and using gSender to act.
@whitewolf Iām not sure what you mean about setting home positions in gSender, then resetting in LB. I know some use LB and gSender on the same project. Iāve never seen the advantage to that. If I design in VCarve, I run the gcode in gSender. If I design in LB, I run the gcode in LB. I donāt argue with those who create in LB, export the gcode, then run it in gSender. I just donāt see any reason to do that when LB is perfectly capable of running the Long Mill.
I was able to create and run from LB however I had to open gSender to set the origin/home/starting position. Also, I think i solved the why I was getting errors after jogging but when the SLB would stop/error out, I would have to exit LB (to release the SLB), start gSender to clear the error, then exit and restart LB.
@whitewolf As I have neither an AltMill nor limit switches, your process is alien to me. One question: how are you connected between the slb-ext and the AltMill - usb or ethernet?
@whitewolf Tks. It was just one issue to eliminate. With ethernet, there should be no connection issue. You have set LB to connect via ethernet, I assume, since you can burn.
Iāll leave this to others. As I said, I donāt have limit switches, so I donāt go through all the steps that you do. In fact, I donāt go through any of them. For projects that I create in LB, I simply put the material where I want it, tell LB to start from current position and run the job. Simple.
Iām sorry that I canāt help more.
I have a 30x30 longmill with vortex (when i ordered the vortex i ordered the 48" which gave me a short track for my vortex and i modified that to laser the glass mug.
