@JamesBiggar As an engineer and designer, I find your tool reviews very very helpful. Learning about new tools is just as important for my overall design flow. Thanks also for asserting yourself concerning the direction of your channel. Humanity benefits greatly by humans like yourself that show up authentically. Some do not understand the design inspiration that can come from using a great tool.
Thank you for this, I’m having terrible trouble getting the pen inserted, it goes in the holder ok, but I try to put it in the carriage and it just won’t close, did you encounter any problems ?
Not sure what you're referring to. If you mean the light 'streaks' in the dog image, that's caused by the wood grain, specifically the difference in color and density of the springwood (light tree rings) vs summerwood (dark rings). The density of wood varies as much within the same board as it does from tree to tree. This is unavoidable and just something that you need to learn to work with or live with when it comes to using natural materials vs composites. Aside from that, deep engraving (not etching) will almost always produce kerf lines in the direction that the laser head scans in every material. Like the kerf from a saw, or tool marks from a hand chisel. All tools leave a tool mark of some kind when removing material. Sanding and polishing removes these marks when necessary. Tool marks can be mitigated (in this case by using tighter intervals, less power with multiple passes, scanning parallel with wood fibers, etc), but they can't be eliminated. Engraving plywood too deeply can also cause unwanted lines by exposing layers below with fibers that are oriented perpendicular to the scan direction. Marking surfaces does not cause this effect, though.
You mentioned many times that you did "this" at "this" setting or "that" pressure or whatever. How do you arrive at those settings? Is it trial and error or does the software give you recommendations firm numbers or rough recommendations? I'm just wondering how much fiddling around and how high of a failure rate I could expect as someone who's never owned something like this, but considering buying one. Thanks!
Mostly trial and error for everything but the laser. I've got quite a bit of experience with lasers so I knew what range of settings to start with to speed up the learning curve for this machine. I don't think xTool has a parameter sheet for it. Some companies provide one, others don't. When I don't know what settings to use, I usually start by checking out what others makers are trying. In this case there was almost no information, being a new machine, so I just had to start testing with low pressure for the other tools and work my way up incrementally 5-10 points at a time until I found the settings in the video. Do this with small test designs (shapes, text) to save wasting material. It doesn't take much, but you should always expect a learning curve and some level of wasted material finding settings with every new machine. No 2 machines perform exactly the same. That said, my settings may not be the best for you to try if you were to get this machine, but they'll get you pretty darn close.
Thank you so much for the reply! I appreciate the detailed explanation. I also never thought of the fact that no two machines will be exactly the same. That should have occurred to me I suppose. Great to know and I appreciate the help very much! 👍
@JamesBiggar As an engineer and designer, I find your tool reviews very very helpful. Learning about new tools is just as important for my overall design flow. Thanks also for asserting yourself concerning the direction of your channel. Humanity benefits greatly by humans like yourself that show up authentically. Some do not understand the design inspiration that can come from using a great tool.
Thank you for this, I’m having terrible trouble getting the pen inserted, it goes in the holder ok, but I try to put it in the carriage and it just won’t close, did you encounter any problems ?
Thanks for the vlog. The laser etching looked a bit "streaky" - asking as a newb in this space, "is this normal"?
Not sure what you're referring to. If you mean the light 'streaks' in the dog image, that's caused by the wood grain, specifically the difference in color and density of the springwood (light tree rings) vs summerwood (dark rings). The density of wood varies as much within the same board as it does from tree to tree. This is unavoidable and just something that you need to learn to work with or live with when it comes to using natural materials vs composites.
Aside from that, deep engraving (not etching) will almost always produce kerf lines in the direction that the laser head scans in every material. Like the kerf from a saw, or tool marks from a hand chisel. All tools leave a tool mark of some kind when removing material. Sanding and polishing removes these marks when necessary. Tool marks can be mitigated (in this case by using tighter intervals, less power with multiple passes, scanning parallel with wood fibers, etc), but they can't be eliminated. Engraving plywood too deeply can also cause unwanted lines by exposing layers below with fibers that are oriented perpendicular to the scan direction. Marking surfaces does not cause this effect, though.
Yep, it was the streaks on the doggo image. Thanks for explaining it so clearly - that really helps me understand.
You mentioned many times that you did "this" at "this" setting or "that" pressure or whatever. How do you arrive at those settings? Is it trial and error or does the software give you recommendations firm numbers or rough recommendations? I'm just wondering how much fiddling around and how high of a failure rate I could expect as someone who's never owned something like this, but considering buying one. Thanks!
Mostly trial and error for everything but the laser. I've got quite a bit of experience with lasers so I knew what range of settings to start with to speed up the learning curve for this machine. I don't think xTool has a parameter sheet for it. Some companies provide one, others don't. When I don't know what settings to use, I usually start by checking out what others makers are trying. In this case there was almost no information, being a new machine, so I just had to start testing with low pressure for the other tools and work my way up incrementally 5-10 points at a time until I found the settings in the video. Do this with small test designs (shapes, text) to save wasting material. It doesn't take much, but you should always expect a learning curve and some level of wasted material finding settings with every new machine. No 2 machines perform exactly the same. That said, my settings may not be the best for you to try if you were to get this machine, but they'll get you pretty darn close.
Thank you so much for the reply! I appreciate the detailed explanation. I also never thought of the fact that no two machines will be exactly the same. That should have occurred to me I suppose. Great to know and I appreciate the help very much! 👍
it's a amazing machine!
This might be too much to ask but I almost wish that it can cut metal.
Diode lasers are really only good for organic materials, unfortunately. They can mark stainless steel and cut very thin sheets of it (
@@JamesBiggar an interesting idea for a future mod methinks hahah