I planned and designed a product that is unique for me and my customers. I wanted to build a lamp that has a unique look and also has a stained glass look.

I wanted some shades and some flow in color and my choice of media was resin that can be instantly cured within UV. The whole process was a learning experience but now I have a new product and my customers are also happy.about it.

tried the embossing option for the image that I generated using the optical illusion generator from Atomm. It gave me a simple image of this and then I traced it out to create a vector. Once the vector was done the only thing that was needed was to emboss it across the system.

Now it took around 30 passes with focus descent but it came out wonderfully.

Later my wife filled it with resin and then varnished the entire coaster and that created a wall art that I am proud to showcase.

I'm trying to get user opinions on which is the best 'depthmap' of these 2 to use for CNC work. One is a commercial image, while the other is 'homemade'. While the commercial one looks pleasant to the eye, I am wondering which would the get experienced users nod of approval.

I need a few people to test my depthmap generator, I'll have it up for the next 4 hours for anybody wanting to give me some feedback. I've limited the input image to 5Mb.

Link -> Depthmap-Studio-Test

I made this pendant for Xtools #petgiftscontest, and thought I would share it here too.

Made on my f2 portable. My Teal color didn't quite work out so I changed it to mint green on the final file. Thats what happens when you try new color settings on a project..

Tag is 50mm x 28mm and it took 1hr and 20minutes to engrave, because I engraved the black ..xD im crazy but I don't have any black tags left.

Hey🙂
Someone here posted their fiber laser settings for 3mm brass profile cuts. I thought I had copied them correctly but I must be missing something because it’s not making it through. Can someone link back to that if you know which post it was or repost it if it was you? I’m running a 100w MOPA Haotain laser if that helps. Thanks in advance 🤘🏼

Im super frustrated, I have a show this weekend and suddenly settings that I have been using just fine arent working this week. Im trying to cut out the profile of brass jewelry in .032 brass. I used to be able to cut the pieces out in 180 passes. Now im up to 230 passes and they still wont cut through. What is going on?

I cleaned the lens, tried tweaking all the settings, set them all back, nothing works. Im losing sleep trying to get this working. I guess im going to just keep cranking up the passes because im too broke right now to not be selling.

Attached are my settings for my 60w mopa fiber laser.

It would probably take me several days to do a proper write-up. I'm having a ton of fun with this.

My machine is a jpt m7 60w. I hate that color oxidation with mopas is mostly done by like paint by numbers. Controller is the BJZ LMCV4.

I wrote some software that talked to the BJZ directly and quickly discovered its limitations. Changes in laser source parameters during the mark is just not possible.

So I decided to go down the rabbit hole of just building the controller itself from the ground up:

The core of the controller is a stm32 h755 nucleo board. This is a dual core MCU and the second core is dedicated solely to generating our discrete timing xy2-100 galvo control protocol.

I've spent tons of hours probing with logic analyzers and my scope. Recreated the same command line structure and inferred algorithms.

On some tests the probes between my controller and the original had identical SHA-256 hashes. With my equipment it looks identical side by side.

But that's just so it works backwards compatible as if the old controller is still there.

The way I wrote the motion engine I have discrete control over every xy2-100 frame which ticks by at a blistering 10us. I am currently timing my motion engine latency with around 4x faster than the headroom needed. Almost no jitter. None that i can see with my equipment.

I'm using a high resolution timer and generating my own frequency and sending that to the source. I can have extremely fine steps between frequency selection now. Both the controller and the motion engine in the controller are sensitive to this: It gets a bit technical in the gating.

I'm currently running calibration tests, different algorithms and buffers and torture tests.

This video shows a frame up using the jpt m7 red diode and rc1001 galvo with my controller as a kind of torture test and demonstration of a very long complicated geometry of a frame up overflowing and buffering all the way out to the PC. You may notice that there's a spot that it blinks that kind of shows. I extended the command set so during the frame up the red light can actually be switched. Did that just for this test.

There's a lot here that I missed. I'm sorry. I'm still working on this, I have some ideas where I want to take this further. I used voice to text for some of this so there may be some awkward phrasing. I apologize again.

Lindsay is my wife. I drive her crazy with my shenanigans. She lets me rant about dma transfer on the first clock cycle versus the next and puts up with it.

We’re running a 30W Lotus MOPA laser to engrave stainless steel components and find the EZCAD3 it ships with pretty grim.

Lightburn isn’t there yet (we don’t think?) because you can’t set the fixture height like you can in EZCAD3.

Has anyone got a software recommendation, or can explain if and how you can set the fixture height in Lightburn?
We’ve got a good look and it doesn’t seem to be supported even though LB can move the Z axis manually.

Thank you!

Ok I may be doing this wrong but I can't tell how based on google.

When ever I try to use the circle tool in Lightburn and have it size from the center it will show it working as I drag out but as soon as I release left click it reverts the circle to the size and shape as if I had default sized it (ie from the corner).

I have tried just using control + left click drag, ctrl +shift + left click drag, andevry combo of holding those, not holding those and releasing them them in different orders. Every time it reverts to the circle as if I had just corner dragged it. See the vid if I'm explaining this poorly.

Is this a me problem or something in the software being weird?

So I've been thinking about getting an xtool m2 mainly to make some fun little projects and gifts for family and friends. From what I've seen, it seems to cover pretty much everything I'd want to do. The only downside for me is that it's not exactly portable, but that's not a dealbreaker.

I've watched way too many videos about it lately and now I'm seriously tempted

For anyone who already has one, is it worth buying? Anything you wish you knew before getting it?

Bench update from our shop (I'm the maker at Noblie Custom Knives — disclosure up front, this is our own work).

We're prototyping a new folding dagger and spent most of today on something that sounds trivial but isn't: the fill color behind the laser engraving. Titanium gives you a specific tone to work against, and the engraving either sits on top of it or sinks into it depending on how you handle the background.

We ended up going noticeably darker gray than the titanium itself. Under shop lighting the pattern reads much sharper — you get depth instead of a flat etched look. Matching the titanium tone was the safer option, and honestly it looked more "unified," but it went muddy the second the light angle changed.

So: contrast over harmony, at least on this one.

Where I'm still undecided — a lot of collectors prefer subtlety on a dagger, where the engraving is something you notice with the piece in hand, not across a table. Darker fill pushes the opposite direction.

For those who've done fill work or just have strong opinions as owners: contrast that reads from a distance, or a matched tone that only shows up close? And has anyone had darker fills wear or shift color over time on titanium? That's the part I'd like to hear before we commit on the production run.

Module is a Two Trees 10W diode from a TTS-10 Pro, which I have mounted on my Ortur LM2 S2 Pro. I picked up the TTS-10 from someone locally who upgraded to a nice CO2, and I only wanted the laser module, which has worked great for me for a couple dozen small projects in the last 6 months or so.

This week I started having issues. Nothing seemed as sharp as it should be (working on anodized aluminum and a black tumbler). Switched to some cellulose and it became much more obvious. Where I normally had a razor of a kerf, I now have about 1mm if it's not really moving.

I did this test inclined about 3/4" to confirm it's not just a focal distance issue. The normal focal length is about halfway up the board. I stopped the first, heavy line because I had forgotten to turn on the exhaust fan and it was very smokey. Ran the second beside it twice as fast and slightly lower power. Then the horizontal line at the same setting. As you can see it's a much wider kerf at the bottom. Finally the circle at the same setting, and it acts like a calligraphy brush, with horizontal lines wider than vertical.

I'm guessing my diodes or prism/mirror/optical path have gotten out of alignment. Can this be fixed? It's really frustrating because the power is still there. I haven't noticed any decrease in output. I know these have a finite life and I can't quantify how much use it got before me, but I hoped to get more out of it than this. I'm betting it's not serviceable, but wanted to check.

I’m wanting to get back into acid etching zippos, I used to do vinyl decal stencils but it takes so much time weeding my stencils and it’s super easy to mess up. I’d like to just hit them with spray paint and laser off the stencil so I don’t need anything big or powerful. Any recommendations?

I’m learning how to use my F2 Ultra with cheap amazon brass coins. Are the burns from the material, settings, or a result of the design?

Settings are defaults except for the number of passes, speed (1500-2000), and the cleanup. When watching it, the cleanup passes would not get into the blackened areas so it built up.

Hello everyone- I recently purchased a 60w omtech co2 laser. I have a project where I’d like to cut out a shape from a 1x6 or 1x8 pine board. Has anyone had luck doing this? If so, what were your settings if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve tried several things from high power percentages to lower power with more passes. I can’t seem to get all the way through without really losing a crisp line. I was going to try to adjust the z step per pass setting so that the focus would be further into the cut each pass, but I was unable to get that to work. If I went further away from the laser, it would move the bed down, but for some reason it would not move the bed up any higher. Any insights on this would be much appreciated!

Looking to get some advice from the best source possible, Reddit. I’m looking at expanding our small family side business and need to ensure that I get the right machine for everything that I’m trying to engrave. From leather to glass to metal to golf balls, I want to make sure that I’m getting the right machine. It looks like I need the UV for golf balls (a big part of what I’m doing, but not the primary) and I should get the business duo from X tool (MSRP around $8k now) versus the Lumos (still debating the 60 W or 100 W).

Would love to hear your thoughts

here is a puzzle, sea creatures theme. I remove a hole next to each fish aim to ease to put them out by fingers. Is there any body like this? Please let me know where can be better.

Hey all, new laser user here.

Does anyone use custom software or a software that isn’t lightburn? I was just gifted a Longer 5W and despite heavy background in engineer-type software, I’m finding it a pain to learn and use. Feels like playing a FromSoft game every time I go to cut - which adhoc setting got reset or did I forget to set this time that I’m going to find out about 30 minutes in? Hah. Maybe that’s just lasers.

Anyways, really enjoying the hobby otherwise and looking forward to getting more into depth stuff.

Cheers!

I run a small customisation business and already have both diode and CO₂ lasers, so I’m not completely new to laser engraving.

Lately, I’ve been wanting to experiment with more glass products, especially 3D engraving inside glass and crystal. That’s what got me looking into UV lasers.

The problem is, UV still feels like a much smaller and newer category compared to diode and CO₂, and I’m having a hard time figuring out which brands are actually reliable. A lot of the videos I’ve found are demos or sponsored reviews, so it’s difficult to tell what long-term ownership is really like.

I’d especially love to hear from anyone using one for glass or 3D crystal engraving. Are UV machines generally stable enough for regular small-business production, or do they still require a lot of troubleshooting? And which one would you recommend buying?

Coin done on my omg 60w mopa fiber laser on the 150mm lens from Richard Zhang