I want to add a bit of information. From the video I got the feeling that it's implied that a small power laser is used because the big expensive laser is used for heavy lifting and cannot be bothered to do the engraving. The laser they are using for engraving is a special engraving type of fiber laser , not a CO2 laser like the bigger one. It is made especially for engraving, it only has one moving mirror. It's not used because it's cheap, actually is more expensive than the other one but it's very efficient for engraving . It's extremely fast and precise, it allows a large working distance which also minimizes the "gassing" of the piece you are working on. It also works on an almost 10 times smaller wavelength that allows it to engrave extremely precise more types of materials then the CO2 and do it better. So , what i want to say is that they are maximizing performance, quality and then cost and all the rest. *For people that don't know, gassing refers to the vaporized plastic that sets back on the piece around the engraving generating a hazy look.
@@bisti1900 This is great! Thank you for sharing your precise knowledge. I hope our community will grow to the point where experts from all over feel happy to chime in. Solid, precise info is seldom found in one place on youtube. Do you have a website or other to share?
You mentioned peeling off the mask when engraving using the CO2 laser. For more complex pieces, we peel the paper off of the top side, coat the surface using a thin layer of dawn dish soap and dry using a hair drier. Then after we engrave, we just peel the paper off of the bottom and wash the finished piece.
@@DienhartDotCom You probably know but I'm writing this to remain for others:: For not so critical work but still good quality, on a CO2 laser you would normally engrave without the protection foil, stop the flow of air to the nozzle to a minimum (jost to be positive flow and not get vapour on the lens) and then use the back exaust and slight(15mm-half inch) opening of the door to create a high volume of air moving at slower speed than the air from the compressor would move. You should also try to position the engraved area as close as possible to the back so that the vapour won't have time to set on the wolrkpiece. Don't rely on the slits on the door, the flow difference is huge.
@ good point. I actually keep the pass through open on the front of my laser to facilitate airflow and upgraded my exhaust to pull the smoke away more quickly. You’re spot on, on reducing air assist airflow as well. For my laser, I have a manual adjustment which I also use to reduce airflow. Great tricks of the trade. Thanks for the reminder.
@@ShapeShifters-TV No, I don't have a website, and I'm not really an expert in this topic but for a few years I did operate some lasers for arhitectural model making and other high quality and sensitive objects. I also like to understand well how things work and why they work this way. In that workshop we also did some limited casting but I was not involved much in this. I do enjoy understanding how it's made and why and I'm very grateful that you share this with everyone. I especially appreciate the efficiency part of your exeperience because this is much harder to come by and principles could easily be applied to other domains too.
Eric stronel excellent
I want to add a bit of information. From the video I got the feeling that it's implied that a small power laser is used because the big expensive laser is used for heavy lifting and cannot be bothered to do the engraving.
The laser they are using for engraving is a special engraving type of fiber laser , not a CO2 laser like the bigger one. It is made especially for engraving, it only has one moving mirror. It's not used because it's cheap, actually is more expensive than the other one but it's very efficient for engraving . It's extremely fast and precise, it allows a large working distance which also minimizes the "gassing" of the piece you are working on. It also works on an almost 10 times smaller wavelength that allows it to engrave extremely precise more types of materials then the CO2 and do it better.
So , what i want to say is that they are maximizing performance, quality and then cost and all the rest.
*For people that don't know, gassing refers to the vaporized plastic that sets back on the piece around the engraving generating a hazy look.
@@bisti1900 This is great! Thank you for sharing your precise knowledge. I hope our community will grow to the point where experts from all over feel happy to chime in. Solid, precise info is seldom found in one place on youtube. Do you have a website or other to share?
You mentioned peeling off the mask when engraving using the CO2 laser. For more complex pieces, we peel the paper off of the top side, coat the surface using a thin layer of dawn dish soap and dry using a hair drier. Then after we engrave, we just peel the paper off of the bottom and wash the finished piece.
@@DienhartDotCom You probably know but I'm writing this to remain for others::
For not so critical work but still good quality, on a CO2 laser you would normally engrave without the protection foil, stop the flow of air to the nozzle to a minimum (jost to be positive flow and not get vapour on the lens) and then use the back exaust and slight(15mm-half inch) opening of the door to create a high volume of air moving at slower speed than the air from the compressor would move. You should also try to position the engraved area as close as possible to the back so that the vapour won't have time to set on the wolrkpiece. Don't rely on the slits on the door, the flow difference is huge.
@ good point. I actually keep the pass through open on the front of my laser to facilitate airflow and upgraded my exhaust to pull the smoke away more quickly. You’re spot on, on reducing air assist airflow as well. For my laser, I have a manual adjustment which I also use to reduce airflow. Great tricks of the trade. Thanks for the reminder.
@@ShapeShifters-TV No, I don't have a website, and I'm not really an expert in this topic but for a few years I did operate some lasers for arhitectural model making and other high quality and sensitive objects. I also like to understand well how things work and why they work this way.
In that workshop we also did some limited casting but I was not involved much in this. I do enjoy understanding how it's made and why and I'm very grateful that you share this with everyone. I especially appreciate the efficiency part of your exeperience because this is much harder to come by and principles could easily be applied to other domains too.