Ultra-Fast Engraving with the ComMarker B4 Fiber Laser
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- ComMaker ( @commarkerofficial ) recently introduced the ComMaker B4 fiber laser, which is an excellent entry laser engraver. If you have a small engraving business with either a CO2 or diode laser, then you might want to consider adding a Fiber Laser to your shop.
In this video I will put it through its paces and show you what it is capable of. In addition to the usual engraving samples, there are a few surprises, so join me in this detailed review.
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Thanks Steve for a clear and easy over-view on the B4. I'm looking into fiber lasers and this really helps know where to start!
Stay tubed. I'll have a few fiber lasers coming up on the channel over the next couple of months.
Awesome as always Steve. Good to see and hear your opinions on fiber lasers, I hope you'll be doing more in the future 👍
Check out the community tab on my channel page and you will see an improved version of the 2.5D horse engraved in brass. This is a very nice laser for it's intended purpose.
*Excellent review* _for a newbie Steve!_ Good job man!
Thanks Rich. This kind of feedback coming from a guy like you means a lot! Check out the photo in the community tab of a brass engrave I did today.
great video ! do you have some type of different material sheet and their settings to use for this fiber laser ? thanks !
You can run material tests to find decent settings for fiber lasers - just like any other laser. It's pretty easy because it's built into Lightburn, though for fiber lasers, you would need to upgrade to the galvo version.
Thanks Steve, Great video. I'm looking to review a Fiber laser that can do a deep engrave on a brass coin. Keep the great videos coming.
I’d like to review one of these too. 50W seems to be where engraving gets very serious with fiber lasers
Would this work for quickly adding lot numbers onto aluminum beverage cans?
Yes this is a perfect use case for fiber lasers
Wow! How well could you engrave in Brass? The Aluminum horse looked very nice. Is Brass harder or easier to engrave then Aluminum?
Brass is a bit harder than Aluminum, but it's got to do with the characteristics of each metal and how it reacts to light from the fiber laser. In the video, the aluminum version of the horse was sunken into the aluminum, but the brass, it was raised (really everything around the horse was lowered of course).
11:34 can you go to say 5mm with doing 2 runs. I’m looking at getting a Fibre laser to make brass leather stamps. The thoughts are that the Fibre laser would be more accurate than a CNC. The texture I assume would stair case somewhat like a top of a 3d print.
Can you do a wet leather stamping using 2mm thick vegetan leather to see how that works?
Looking at something out of usa. So price is far higher than Chinese stuff. I was going to ask the dealer to send an example. To see how it works.
What you would have to do to engrave deeper is to resort to some trickery, like repeating the engraving task after dropping the focus a couple of millimeters. There are practical limits to doing this though - like the amount of time it would take. If you regularly need to engrave deeper then it makes more sense to jump to a 30 or 50W laser.
Regarding leather, fiber lasers can indeed engrave leather - be prepared for the smell of cooking hide though, so make sure the laser is in an enclosure ventilated to the outside.
Keep in mind that almost all lasers are built, or at the very least, part-sourced in China, so unless your goal is to help employ local people, you're really just paying more for the same components. (Not that I want to dive into global economic politics😉)
I was thinking about splitting file into top And bottom and run part 1 with 200 layers then run part 2 with 200 so total would be 400. It might be easier for colour graduation. I assume 256 would be a cap. The 50w are supposed to eat more in one pass so yeah that’s option. But are substantially higher in cost.
With leather it would be just etching logos or monograms in wallets. A logo on surface rather than 2.5d engraving. It would be far worse than burnt hair I assume.
Buying non Chinese where possible is due to desire to promote decentralized manufacturing ie buy local build local. Covid proved that having majority of stuff made in One country can cause massive disruption. Much same as I go to a checkout rather than self serve / as it gives the person a job.
Back in day before greedy shareholders wanted more profit you would be able to buy locally made. Tariffs if used well can equalize things. the same across glove but where the profits in that… 🤣
@@75keg75 Your rationale for local buying fits with what I aim for. And I go to checkouts too 😀.
Could you use the xtool rotary attachment that you featured in your video from last year? I bought it for my FSL laser on your recommendation and agree with your assessment of it
I would say no. In theory it's just a stepper motor but ComMarker uses an aircraft connector instead of a simple inline plug. It's more industrial-strength. Also there is a separate box that plugs in between the rotary and the laser. This box contains a stepper driver.
@@SteveMakesEverything thanks for the reply - I agree, in rewatching your video I saw the separate box and drew the same conclusion.
What is the difference between the b4 one and the b4 mopa one?
It says the mopa has only 10000mm/s speed and the one you are presenting has up to 15000mm/s. I guess you habe the normal one?
Yes, I have the regular 20W fiber laser, though the MOPA is a more appealing option if you have the budget.
These are different kinds of lasers. Fiber lasers have a fixed pulsed duration, while MOPA lasers have a variable pulse. MOPA lasers have a maximum pulse duration that is typically up to 80% longer. The result is that a single pulse of a MOPA laser can to more work than the pulse of a fiber laser, so there is less need for the speed to be higher.
What all of this really means is that for a given project where a fiber laser might have to do 100 passes, while a MOPA laser could do the same job in far fewer passes (and be just as fast or faster as completing the job).
Can you engrave clear acrylic? I am looking to do those small led night lights. I can do them on my CO2, but I was looking for something faster. I've seen some that say it can, and others that say it can't do it. I also want to do tumblers with a rotary. I would also like to do coins. I would appreciate any information about the acrylic engraving.
Clear acrylic is really the exclusive realm of CO2 lasers. Diode laser won't cut it well and fiber laser are more for marking metals (and dark acrylics). So you can do tumblers and coins easily with a fiber laser but you can't really cut anything.
Newbie here Why are they called "Fiber" I understand diode and co2 types a little. thx,
The laser is actually in the base and they use a fibre optic cable to pipe it up into the laser head.
I just received my Commarker B4. I upgraded Lightburn to the galvo version. I am having trouble getting Lightburn to recognize the laser. I tried to get Lightburn to find the laser, but it did not show anything. I tried to create the device manually but it is not showing up in Lightburn. If you can recommend a tutorial, or instructions to install it in Lightburn I would really appreciate it.
I’ll take a look at mine to see how I did it. I had to replace my shop computer so I am installing everything from scratch and can do exactly what you’re doing.
It looks like it was a combination of a couple of things. I had been installing the driver from the USB flash drive they included with the machine. I started getting error messages from Windows about the drive. I downloaded it directly from Commarker's website and installed it. I think the driver on the USB may have been corrupted. The second thing was that the USB A to B cable that they sent was flaky. I started moving it around and I kept getting connect and disconnect messages from the PC. I replaced it with a USB cable that I knew was good, and it seems to be working. I tried my first burn in the wee hours of the mornings. Of course, I made the noob mistake of not taking the lens cap off when I started the burn. I corrected that quickly, and opened a window!. I engraved some of the dog tags, and a brass challenge coin. It was your video that helped me make the decision to buy it. Thank you for your help and all the great videos!@@SteveMakesEverything
@@1vekeller Cool! I set mine up again today on my new computer and had to jump through a few hoops that I had forgotten from the first time I connected this machine.
Connecting a fibre laser to Lightburn can sometimes be an adventure 🙂
Great video. I just bought one of these B4 lasers and I am trying to get a dark black on anodized aluminum with some luck but nothing great. I have tried the sprays with little luck. These are the setting I am using without the spray. 100 speed 100 power and 50 frequency. Any suggestions? Thanks, Glen
You can try to pull the focus up a couple millimeters. It works on stainless steel to darken engraving, though I haven’t actually tried this on aluminum.
Yes I have. It makes it better, but not black black@@SteveMakesEverything
@@glenmilner2382 Yes, the challenge with aluminum is that it tends to melt under heat rather than turning black.
Have you tried doing an engrave and then maybe filling it black enamel paint instead? That might be easier.
Nice video. Could that same rotary be used for tumblers?
Yes, absolutely. Keep in mind that fibre lasers won't engrave glass, but if you are engraving Yeti type tumblers or mugs, or stainless steel, then you will be fine.
Steve, any idea as to the max diameter of a tumbler that this chuck can hold. Looks pretty small to me.
Steve, I'm new to diode lasers so I know nothing about fiber machines. I'm assuming the fiber laser will engrave wood but will it cut it too? Would you have to put in on a sacrificial board to protect the base?
Hey there, We have a Fiber laser and it does not cut wood. A Co2 Galvo would cut wood. Fiber lasers have the wrong wavelength and could easily set the wood on fire.
Fibre lasers will not engrave most soft materials, like wood, at all (not even a thin sheet of paper will be touched by a fiber laser). They will also not be able to cut materials (They are specifically for marking).
They are mostly for metals, including the ones I showed here, but also gold, silvers, and platinum (think jewelry engraving here).
A fiber laser would be more to augment something you already have. Use a CO2/diode laser for cutting (and engraving things like wood), but use a fiber laser for metals and do that very quickly.
I'm looking into getting the 60W version of this machine for my silversmithing small business but one concern I've had which I haven't found any commentary on so far is that given the sensitive electronics are in the base under the engraving bed there's the possibility that the engraving dust could get into the base through the threaded holes in the bed. Do the holes go through into the electronics cavity or are they blind holes? Thanks for the great video!
The holes do go through but it doesn’t seem to be a problem. I’ve engraved a ton of brass with mine and the inside of the base seems to be perfectly clean
@@SteveMakesEverything thanks for the speedy reply! I'm very glad to hear there's no issue from dust so far. It's still surprising to me that they would design it with through holes. Every other comparable competitor seems to charge $1000 more for the same specs so I'll probably still go with ComMarker but I wish they offered a split version or had better dust ingress prevention.
@@oxoniumgirl I guess if it really bothered you, you could crack it open and tape the holes shut from the bottom. But since you need some sort of fume extraction anyway, maybe that's enough to suck the dust/soot out before it settles.
Hi. Can an image that has been depth mapped be engraved with a ten watt diode? If so how is a depth map done please?
Yes, there are a couple of ways. The easiest is to engrave the image as a grayscale, but there is a better way. I’ll put a video together because I want to cover this for fiber lasers anyway and it is similar for diode lasers.
Ouch, your thumb
😀 Looks worse than it is. It's what your thumb looks like when you try to put the bit of an impact driver through it.