Some points that could be added: Did they take different amounts of time between them? How do they look in detail? (with the combination of light glare and video quality, we can't see fine details, such as are some more "dotty" than others)
I find that the real truth - diode or CO2 - is focus. On ALL my lasers, the factory focus is close but not the sharpest dot for my machines, as each machine is like a fingerprint. There are some great focus tests out there. I found that my 6mm factory focus is the smallest dot at 4.95mm by serious testing and using a reticule to measure. My 2mm focus is 1.35mm for the crispiest dot i can get. All my photos improved. Immediately. All my engraving work edges looked crispier too. I also learned from this on one of my diode machines that it is a rectangle! It was always causing triple engraved lines in one direction causing dark striations ruining every photo. Also, i bought a high-rez lens (1" is common name) and my 130w CO2 now tests like 900+ LPI for great photos on any material i have tested such as slate, acrylic, stone, wood, glass or tumblers... Also surprising - due to some dumb mistakes in focusing badly, some images were slightly better looking. Seems to depend on the material. One particular surprise was at 96 lpi and out of focus! On some materials people liked it better from the typical viewing distances. To me though, nothing looks good under my microscope. Revisit the factory focus and perhaps y'all will be as surprised as i was. And possibly enjoy your photo results more. Like i do now.
You cover some great points there. Only recently, I have found out some lasers focus and beam size will highly affect the engraving capabilities of a laser. And I think there needs to be more info out there to explain this topic as too many people blame the image or just the machine in general os they’re not aware of such info. Thanks for the detailed info 👍🏻
Great detail with the 5 watt laser. Would not be as clear with a 10 watt or greater laser. A Fiber laser would give greater detail with the right graphic. But the cost of said Fiber laser is a bit much. Sell and save.
You’re spot in there! You can easily make some amazing stuff with a 5w diode that with the right marketing could easily make you enough to save for a bigger and better machine! I’lol be looking at getting a galvo next! I love how quick and accurate they can be!
I've heard people talk about CO2 lasers not doing well with photos but man my 40w CO2 came out pretty bad... I don't think I'll be spending more time engraving any photo's on them.
I have personally found the more power a laser has the worse off the photo engraving has been. From my understanding, it all comes down to beam size and the cheaper 5w diodes tend to have a tiny beam
@@MARCAM you're absolutely right... mine is dim and just the photo looks bad.... Sure I can up the power but.... There's no winning with this laser so time to change direction.
@97JoMiller I was trying the same to get one of my mates lasers to get a half decent results but with no luck. It’s a 100w co2 laser and, even though it cuts great, the photo engraving again, wasn’t very good.
@@MARCAM sucky part about it all is I have my setup in my basement... I'd have to get some sort of enclosure and make some weird Y models in order to use a lower powered diode engraver and I'm not sure I really want to mess with that. Honestly Engravers are super cool but being in a basement leaves a lot to the want.
When you convert a photo to be engrave it becomes an image shaded from white to black. It’s the same process with the image used as it only contains whites, greys and blacks. Hope that’s clears that up for you 👍🏻
When using greyscale, you need to set both max and min power. Otherwise it is all done at max and you wind up with a mess.
Some points that could be added:
Did they take different amounts of time between them?
How do they look in detail? (with the combination of light glare and video quality, we can't see fine details, such as are some more "dotty" than others)
Very good point!! I’ll have to double check on the timings for each. I need to do a follow up on this for sure 👌🏻
I find that the real truth - diode or CO2 - is focus. On ALL my lasers, the factory focus is close but not the sharpest dot for my machines, as each machine is like a fingerprint.
There are some great focus tests out there. I found that my 6mm factory focus is the smallest dot at 4.95mm by serious testing and using a reticule to measure. My 2mm focus is 1.35mm for the crispiest dot i can get.
All my photos improved. Immediately. All my engraving work edges looked crispier too.
I also learned from this on one of my diode machines that it is a rectangle! It was always causing triple engraved lines in one direction causing dark striations ruining every photo.
Also, i bought a high-rez lens (1" is common name) and my 130w CO2 now tests like 900+ LPI for great photos on any material i have tested such as slate, acrylic, stone, wood, glass or tumblers...
Also surprising - due to some dumb mistakes in focusing badly, some images were slightly better looking. Seems to depend on the material.
One particular surprise was at 96 lpi and out of focus! On some materials people liked it better from the typical viewing distances. To me though, nothing looks good under my microscope.
Revisit the factory focus and perhaps y'all will be as surprised as i was. And possibly enjoy your photo results more. Like i do now.
You cover some great points there. Only recently, I have found out some lasers focus and beam size will highly affect the engraving capabilities of a laser.
And I think there needs to be more info out there to explain this topic as too many people blame the image or just the machine in general os they’re not aware of such info.
Thanks for the detailed info 👍🏻
Where did you get light burn from.
Can get it directly from lightburn or I got mine from acmerlaser.com/?ref=rquh9d8p
They give you discount off for new customers too
Great detail with the 5 watt laser. Would not be as clear with a 10 watt or greater laser. A Fiber laser would give greater detail with the right graphic. But the cost of said Fiber laser is a bit much. Sell and save.
You’re spot in there! You can easily make some amazing stuff with a 5w diode that with the right marketing could easily make you enough to save for a bigger and better machine!
I’lol be looking at getting a galvo next! I love how quick and accurate they can be!
I've heard people talk about CO2 lasers not doing well with photos but man my 40w CO2 came out pretty bad... I don't think I'll be spending more time engraving any photo's on them.
I have personally found the more power a laser has the worse off the photo engraving has been. From my understanding, it all comes down to beam size and the cheaper 5w diodes tend to have a tiny beam
@@MARCAM you're absolutely right... mine is dim and just the photo looks bad.... Sure I can up the power but.... There's no winning with this laser so time to change direction.
@97JoMiller I was trying the same to get one of my mates lasers to get a half decent results but with no luck. It’s a 100w co2 laser and, even though it cuts great, the photo engraving again, wasn’t very good.
@@MARCAM sucky part about it all is I have my setup in my basement... I'd have to get some sort of enclosure and make some weird Y models in order to use a lower powered diode engraver and I'm not sure I really want to mess with that. Honestly Engravers are super cool but being in a basement leaves a lot to the want.
There is a big difference between photos and images though, looks like you have images not photos.
When you convert a photo to be engrave it becomes an image shaded from white to black. It’s the same process with the image used as it only contains whites, greys and blacks. Hope that’s clears that up for you 👍🏻
I agree. That is not a photograph. I understand his response that it becomes an image but still not a photograph to begin with