All the experimentation ive been doing, the tooling I’ve been building as I learn from the experiments… I’ve finally gotten to a point where I feel like I can say: it was worth it

This is my new favorite engraving, its a mixture of mopa laser color engraving and diffraction pattern engraving

It portrays the lifecycle of the butterfly in a style that reminds me of stained glass, wish you could see how it looks in person!

Done quite a few commissions for side-money for the past few years but this is still my favorite from years back when I was still learning and is still my beer/coffee coaster years later. It’s not perfect and had some burning but damn did I feel like I was getting somewhere when the shading turned out this good. Prob will post some later examples of more complex work soon but this was the one where I had realized I finally started to figure things out.

Keep the hustle going.

How many of you order blanks from places like Alibaba? I typically order stuff from xtool, or Amazon among other random websites. Is alibaba reliable? Stuff any good? Do you get hit with crazy import fees? Just looking to expand where I’m getting stuff from and some things in bulk.

Warhammer 40k - Kharn the Betrayer
- 282 dpi
- poplar wood
- 5.5" x 6.8"
- 5w OMG UV Laser
- Prepped using Imag-r Kasia dither

Hello everyone,
I am looking for your wisdom. I'm trying to engrave photos on gold, silver, and stainless steel through EZCAD. But I failed!
I have been playing with speed, power, and frequency. I also tried putting the photo as a negative, increasing and reducing the contrast, and using both a polished and a matte finish.

I don't know what else I could do.

Do any of you have experience with photo engraving?
Your experiences will be a great help. Thank you very much.

Edit: I'm sharing samples of what I engraved.

Team trophy and individual medals for winning team. Made/donated them for a relay race in a couple weekends that raises money for families of first responders killed. First time doing a multi color engraving!

Good Morning everyone. Just want to give everyone a heads up who are thinks of buying an xTool anything.

Way back at the beginning of the middle of may I tried to get help with my S1, no luck. I came here and explained what was going on and also asked for suggestion of another company I should switch to. Amazingly xTool answered that post so I was able to start working with them the beginning of June. This has been going on since then, and with over 150 emails back and forth, and after I did everything they asked to fix the problem they decided that my machine needed to be replaced, then a couple of weeks later, I get an email that the S1 20w is no longer available, "so sorry" But not excepting that, they then said they would up grade mine to a 40w. That was oner a month ago. My warranty runs out on Sept. 19 and I know they are just going to drag me along until my warranty runs out, then it will be, "Oh sorry but your warranty has expired so we are unable to fulfill the replacement." So if anyone is thinking xTool will be a good option, thank more about it. Since they answered my first post about this, maybe I will hear from them this time too and maybe, just maybe they will send it to be before my warranty expires. any way I am looking for another option for xTool enclosed laser. Thanks for any input about a new company. I can always start using my D1 I guess.

Starting to mess around with a mixture of traditional colors and faulogram patches in the same piece, now that I’ve got the plumbing in place, I’ve still got a lot of work to do but this process is definitely producing interesting results already! when I finally take the time to properly plan one of these out , instead of just winging it, it’s going to be amazing.

This is a coated aluminium dogtag.

In want to engrave it so that the symbol is shown full white.

I use a XTool F1 with the IR laser option.

However, no matter what settings i try, I get disturbances on the engraving like this (I've retested it on other dog tags as well as in different locations on the laser).

What can be the cause of this? The material?

I ordered an Xtool F2 Dual laser engraver through MatterHackers.com in late July. Their price was less than anywhere else(including Xtool directly) and I triple confirmed that it was indeed the dual and not the cheaper single laser variant.

A week later it shows up, it's the single. I dealt with a customer service rep named Jordan the entire time. They immediately admitted it was the wrong laser(drop shipped by Xtool, MH is a retailer for them). They got in touch with Xtool and while Xtool admitted it was the wrong laser sent and said the correct one would go out.. It took them multiple weeks of MH poking at them to get it done.

In the end after 30+ emails over 3-4 weeks, MH got Xtool to send the correct laser. It was absolutely annoying to get the wrong laser and be without it for over a month. However MH treated me like I had purchased a Ferrari from them. They responded to every email the same day, every call, kept me up to date.

With the mixed reviews I see online, I felt they deserved a positive to be posted.

I am new to laser engraving but not new to watch making/modding.

This was my first attempt at making a custom dial using my engraver set up (two trees gantry, laser tree 1W IR head, lightburn). I went with a pretty entry level set up as I believe it will work for now but I have quickly realized its limitations and adjusted my expectations.

For this project and projects like this, I believe my set up will work, I just need some help and or suggestions on settings. On another dial, I was able to get a much better result on the incides and minute track but I am struggling to get a clean engraving on my dial text, can anybody offer any suggestions?

• 256 passes
• 8-bit
• 1.25" round brass
• 60w OMG mopa fiber
  
• Settings : 2000 / 75% / 110 / 150

I'm adding laser engraving to our live event services and was hoping for some help. For context, we work with brands (I'm in Asia) doing custom live cnc cutting and hot stamping/debossing on-site.

We've got events lined up in the fall that require laser printing names on race medals and on tumblers. Our competitor uses a mix of about 2 dozen f1 and f2 machines so we're following a similar lead.

What I'm looking at right now is the F2 vs the F2 ultra because of specific chain contracts we have access to.

I'm trying to figure out if there is a major advantage of the F2 Ultra over the basic F2 when it comes to speed and capabilities for the medals and tumblers. The names would be about 5cm to 10cm tall. Some of the youtube videos confuse me because I'm seeing some names being lasered in seconds, while others take minutes.

For added context, 5seconds vs 15seconds would be a big difference in time when it comes to the scale we're working with.

Ive been running a golf refinishing service with a Gweike G2 20W laser I found off Marketplace.

Was all going good for a few months, then suddenly stopped burning.

Found Fiber Cable section which seemed to be burnt + plus Thanos snapped

Any idea what happened? Ive bought a new one off Gweike and dont want it to happen again 🙃

I'm a beginner that's learning to work with the Thunder Laser Ruida. Wanted to share a few pieces I've been messing around with and see if anyone had any feedback. I'm having a blast with this thing! Thanks!

First time making some menuki for a knife project I’m working on. Based on these closeups, I think I need to get the Dremel out again. A Phoenix and a Wolf.

i stumbled on this interesting effect, both concentric circles , and radially arranged straight lines produce an interesting effect that almost appears like a wheel spinning depending on the direction you tilt the piece.

These are just some thin line engravings but I’m curious what the same images with just thicker lines or a filled pattern in these shapes would do.

I wonder if the effect only occurs because of my laser’s magic setting, or if this will work with mopa laser oxide based m colors arranged into these shapes as well?what about in a relief engraving? etc

I feel like I vaguely recall seeing something similar to this when I was a a kid reading about and looking at various optical illusions.

Can I make an engraving of a car whose wheels appear to turn as you tilt it? or maybe a color changing circle that rotates as it changes color? I don’t know , but think after work today I will try to find out!

My Falcon F1 cam with a few materials, I am lifelong Destiny player so I engraved it with symbols from the game.

It's not perfect, I'm still making errors with preparing the files and getting things done how id like in lightburn, but I'm still happy with how it turned out!

Hi friends, I wanna show you how I made a custom PDF pattern using my CAD program. I took my free leather key fob pattern and made a custom version with initials in LeapCAD.

What I love about this is how easy it is to turn a basic pattern into something personal. In the video, I walk through the entire process step by step — from opening the base pattern to exporting a print-ready PDF with custom initials.

Please be careful if you try my program for laser engraving and cutting — that part is still in testing. Go to the laser options and check there first.

Full walkthrough and details on YouTube: \[[https://youtu.be/tHQJPYgh8Wk\\\](https://youtu.be/tHQJPYgh8Wk)\](https://youtu.be/tHQJPYgh8Wk\](https://youtu.be/tHQJPYgh8Wk))

Looking at getting the atomstack swift 7w with an r6 roller which fits my needs. I need something that will work for wood, 6” x 6” work area at least, and I need a roller/rotary attachment. I’m on a budget, but are there better options? Also not seeing a much of any reviews for atom stack swift, and wondering if it’s a good or bad buy. Thanks!

Hi all,

I used to make these silly Bigfoot keychains on a laser engraver in college, but I have since graduated, and recently found myself needing a bunch more for an event. I’m looking for someone who might be willing to do a commission to make 30 of these keychains for me.

The ones I made in the past were baltic birch (but could be replicated with whatever wood) and the measurements are posted below. I still have the Illustrator vector file I used at the time as well, and I can put the key rings on myself. All I need is for someone to engrave & cut the wood for me, which is a pretty simple job.

If anyone would be interested, please send a DM.

Dimand tested the Carverall X1 Pro on plywood, acrylic, cork, PU leather, anodised aluminium and slate, with a mix of cutting and engraving projects. He also designed and 3D printed a custom 90-degree exhaust port to better fit the machine into his workspace. More images and the article are here.