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Absolutely. Feel free to hop in my Facebook group. Tons of help there as we are over 8K members. You can also PM me directly there as well. Happy to help. facebook.com/groups/552428990283321

Glad you enjoyed it

It is indeed!

TY

Jigs and templates are key for mass production or just regular repetitive production. It helps tremendously.

I'm glad you liked the video, thanks for watching and commenting. :-)

It is an EM7. I honestly don't remember the time on the rock, I want to say 30 to 45 minutes or so.

TY

Lol. Indeed....

facebook.com/groups/552428990283321

That's a 4" slate coaster. Took about 28 minutes or so.

Thank you!

Thank you 👍

Title has the laser used for that video. ;-) Since you have the 40w, you'll cut it much easier than I did as I was using the 20w.

@@lasersandbeyond I'm struggling with it. I try lower power and slower and higher power faster with multiple passes. I think it's the focus that's causing issues. I can't get all the way through and the cut starts to burn more wood the deeper it goes.

Thank you! 👍

There is no way to prevent chipping other than doing the engraving correctly. Improper engravings chip, proper engravings do not. I know that is not very helpful, but that is the reality of it. There is nothing you can do after the fact to prevent chipping.

Thank you. My grid test wasn't very helpful, I'll try it bigger next time. I may have to subscribe with light burn then.

Hi, thanks for watching and commenting. :-)

At that crazy angle, I doubt that inch would amount to much...ha...that's what she said. :-) I have 4 other lasers now, so I don't do this method anymore.

that 1/4 inch would not really do much. I have other lasers now for these so I don't have to worry about this anymore. :-)

Please do! I'm always curious of others' successes or failures when utilizing something I talk about. :-)

Thanks for watching!

Yes, it works on anything. I did a ramp test and the results showed 18mm as the ideal focal range for that setup. It came from the factory with a 20mm block to use for focusing. So it was off by 2mm. Everyone should always do a ramp test to see what the ideal focal range is.

Hi, thanks for watching. The file I mentioned is in the files section of my FB group. Feel free to join and download all the goodies we have in there. :-) facebook.com/groups/552428990283321

Hi there, thanks for watching. I think I used 8700 speed and 75 power, somewhere around there. I did a full tutorial on how to do those trays and I'm pretty sure I go over settings in that one. These little quick vids with no talking is part of my "Only Engraving" series for folks who just wanna watch the machine and not listen to me. lol th-cam.com/video/uZcer4ZWIp8/w-d-xo.html

I cannot express enough how much my laser life has improved since getting the co2's into the mix. The diode is fun, but it's night and day difference on many levels.

Gotta give the Corps its due. Semper Fi.

Well, if I am being honest, that would be a 2 month long video...and no one would watch it. lol. There are a lot of things that go into play, most of all testing. With these images, the prep work has been done for us, so that takes a huge part of the job out of our hands...which is a good thing. I probably tested for about 2 hours before I found the right speed and combo that gave me the detail I was looking for. That will vary with each differing materials. The quickest way is to crop out a piece of the original image you intent to use. Do not shrink it, but crop it. Make that cropped square or rectangle about 20x30 or so. That way, it is quick to run and you're not wasting hours doing 1 single test. Run that cropped bit, and make sure the cropped bit you select is a portion of the image that has many variants in shading and light lights and dark darks. Run that test using various speed/power combos until you find the "one". For me, I go fast until I see and hear the laser module jittering and jutting when trying to do a line. this means that you are going too fast and it can't buffer the image properly to handle the speed. So once you find that "max" range, start slowing it down until it can complete the test without jittering and buffering. Then begin to fine tune it by adjusting power up or down accordingly until you find the output you're looking for. Once you do, run the whole image. You may also need to adjust again if it's too light or dark...which is why it is important to use a good sample block for your crop. That is just how I do it. There are many ways...but I get the best results doing it as such.

Thank you.

Yes. There are many people in my FB group who use the F1. I have seriously considered buying one to do exactly as you want to do...take it to craft shows. It does patches/coasters/keychains/wallets etc all very well. Click the link in the description of the video and come join our FB group. Lots of helpful folks there.

Oh ya, if you do end up buying he F1, use our link. It helps support the channel and FB group, at no extra cost to you. :-) www.xtool.com/?ref=wag&

Hi there, thanks for watching. Honestly, you're going to be on the struggle bus with a 5w laser. Prices keep coming down and down, so hang in there.

I guess a new laser module has to go on my Christmas list. Any suggestions?

@@idmnstr really depends on budget and usage. Hobby, business, high volume, focusing on specific materials ie. glass? slate? wood? etc.

:-)

Thanks for watching, and commenting. :-) Having travelled all over the country...my accent is a train wreck mix of southern, Texan, and now Mainer. lol Oh, and I'll glady give you settings if you submit your request on a crisp $100 bill.

Nice. Always 15 ways to do this stuff, it's neat to hear how others work through and come up with ways that they like to use as well. Thanks for stopping by, watching, and commenting. :-)

You're welcome. I hope to start doing more Lightburn stuff for you guys. It's just time consuming so I can't pop them right out. Don't give up, your life will be better using Lightburn over XCS.

I have 3 new machines since this video came out. :-) Speed over all else when it comes to my needs. That does not mean sacrifice quality at all, but speed is important when you get to the level of doing a few hundred cups per month on a regular basis. I bought a 130w co2 for doing large format signage and large scale mass productions. It's a finicky bastard for sure, but it sure is nice to lay down a sheet of plywood on that 5 foot bed and engrave/cut a few hundred ornaments at Christmas time. I bought a 80w co2 for doing tumblers. On the xTool it took an average of 12 minutes per cup for my wine tumblers, and longer for larger tumblers. On the 80w co2, it takes about 1:45 to do the wine tumbler. Huge difference. I went from taking a week to get orders done to the point where I can now pop out 200 a night easy if need be. I was gifted a Creality Falcon 2 40w diode laser in a non-formal partnership with Creality. I put it through lots of tests, beat it up, push it, and try out all kinds of things with it and I post some of that on my TH-cam channel. I still have a lot of testing planned for it, I'm just busy with orders now. It cuts fantastic, I can't say enough about it's cutting ability for a diode laser. Engraving...well...it's about on par with the other diodes. I still do not have a fiber laser, and I need one badly. I get a lot of requests for coins and guns and other metal work and a fiber laser is needed for that. But I'm buried in laser payments right now, so I can't get the fiber until I pay them off. If I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know now....I would have invested in a high quality mid-range co2 and a fiber laser. Contrary to what people say....there is no place for a diode laser as the main laser in an engraving business. I killed my xTool twice from what I can only state as overuse. It's not made to do the volume I was doing. You can do a nice little side hustle with the diodes...sure. You can make decent side money and even pay it off in a month or two. But if you scale up and keep using it for high volume...it will break. That's what co2's are for. Do I regret starting out with the diode? Not at all. It has been a hell of a ride and a great experience. Had its share of ups and downs, but in the end, it's a fine machine and capable of great things. I had no idea I'd even have a legitimate business when I bought it. My intention was to spend a month learning how to use it a bit, have some fun, and make some stuff to hopefully sell one day and try to get my money back by summer time. In the first month I was putting out decent products and people started asking for stuff. 2 months later it was paid for and I had landed 3 local companies as regular customers. 5 months later I needed another machine to handle the workload. 3 months after that, I needed another machine to dedicate to tumblers. It all started with the xTool D1 Pro 20w. It was my gateway drug into this maddening laser life. Thanks for stopping by and watching my video and thank you for your question.

I could have. At one point I was using one of those paint scraper wedge things...other have used door stops. I chose not to go that route for the sake of consistency. The more parts and pieces you introduce into the equation makes for more chances for something to move and throw off being square to the gantry. There are many makers out there who make 3d printed levelers and jigs to aid in this, and they are quite affordable; so I would rather just buy those than come up with make-shift homemade remedies, which is ultimately what I ended up doing. I bought a small leveling device for the rotary and then ended up getting a much nicer one...which I have a 7 part series on my channel about it where I review it from start to finish.

Too much power and/or too slow. Glass needs to be quick and light yet with enough power to make the mark. It's a fine balance to find the perfect storm, but you can do it with some practice. There is no magic number, you just gotta find it. :-)

I may or may not have peed shortly after making the video....

You're welcome. :-)

Yeah, don't believe everything you read online...even though this is text...and you're reading it...lol. I initially put it that way because the plug was over on that side of the frame, lol. You can do it any way you like, just make sure if it's opposite you flip the image in lightburn to compensate for the mirroring.

@@lasersandbeyond thank you!

I never touch the focus lever adjustment on the xtool. To defocus, all you need to do is lower the focus bar like normal but have a 1/8" piece of something on top of your material and let the lever touch that. Then when you put the focus lever back up, remove the piece you used to focus to. Super simple that way and you don't have to adjust the actual position of the lever.

I get those from JDS Industries. They are a business to business provider of laserable goods. You can make an account and buy from them if you have a business set up. If not, I can sell you some. You can email me at ernieparrow@parrowenterprises.com if needed.

@@lasersandbeyond hey thanks for sharing man, I will check into them

Hi, thanks for watching.

there is adjustments for the crosshairs in the settings in lightburn. But honestly the crosshairs are just a guide...you can always fire the laser at like 3% and use the actual beam for alignment.

Thank you!

I figured it would have been more hassle than it was worth, plus at such a large angle...I think it would have suffered stability issues.

Thank you! Cheers!

Hi. Thanks for watching. I tell you what....no joke...best out of box cable management I've seen yet. The joy of not having to mess with cables all over the place is so nice.

Definitely better than my Atomstack A30. I had to make a few modifications to that.

Hi there, thanks for watching and commenting. I have another video that I'm editing for upload soon which does various cut tests on 6 different species of wood using this machine. This was just a quick fun one I did at random. :-)

Awesome, thanks for stopping by. Get that rotary spinning up man!