I recently bought a sculpfun s9 as my 1st ever laser. I had mixed results, much better with tile than wood doing relatively simple photos with both the NWT method and even multi-colored layers. It seemed I was doing something wrong as it would sometimes take up to an hour and 40 mins for a 4x4 tile. The s9 is a 5 or maybe a 5.5w diode. Amazon Prime Day had the s10 module on sale which is a 10w so I bought it and switched out the original s9. Lightburn didn’t notice a difference, and I am assuming it really doesn’t matter what power the module is, 50% power from a 10w should be 100% from a 5w. Is this correct?
Since the s10 has a built in air assist, I also bought a Dewallie one, which after minor tweaks works just fine. Some say use it for tile, some say do not. Not sure who to believe. What do you guys think? I have not noticed a difference for tile as far as images, but have heard it helps in keeping the lens cleaner.
And lastly, for you guys that do simply amazing quality photos to tile, is it a dithering mode or grayscale? And is it really normal for a diode to take up to 2 hrs for a 4x4" tile to get those results? Or am I just not processing the photos correctly in Lightburn?
Thanks for any and all responses. I am quickly getting discouraged and have watched and read damn near every thing I can find on the Internet.
I would use the air assist. It keeps the laser module from building up soot. If I do images on tile, I use grayscale. I have had great success with this, and bad results with the other modes. I have had vectored images on tiles take up to an hour. It all depends on how much black is to be on the tile. Images can take longer depending on the resolution. Whether vectors or images, I run my 5.5w at 900mm/min and 93% power. I don’t think you can go much faster no matter how hot. The bonding needs the laser not to go to fast. Bottom line, do a power tile for your new 10w.
It seemed I was doing something wrong as it would sometimes take up to an hour and 40 mins for a 4x4 tile.
No. Diode lasers ARE slow, depending on your project and it’s size, you will need from 10 minutes to more than 10 hours.
Lightburn didn’t notice a difference, and I am assuming it really doesn’t matter what power the module is, 50% power from a 10w should be 100% from a 5w. Is this correct?
Correct. LightBurn is not caring about any specifications of the hardware. It’s just sending control commands. 50% at a 10W laser is (roughly) the same as 100% on a 5W laser, in terms of energy at least.
Since the s10 has a built in air assist, I also bought a Dewallie one, which after minor tweaks works just fine. Some say use it for tile, some say do not. Not sure who to believe. What do you guys think? I have not noticed a difference for tile as far as images, but have heard it helps in keeping the lens cleaner.
Usually I recommend to use the air assist all the time since it keeps the lens clean better. But sometimes in engraving scenarios the output is not as desired. You need to experiment. Additionally, I recommend using the Sculpfun pump which has the option to change the amount of air flow.
And lastly, for you guys that do simply amazing quality photos to tile, is it a dithering mode or grayscale? And is it really normal for a diode to take up to 2 hrs for a 4x4" tile to get those results? Or am I just not processing the photos correctly in Lightburn?
Yes, as said above. But you might also share your settings here. Be sure to set the line width to 0.08mm or 318 DPI, which is the native resolution of the S9/S10 lasers.
Finally, here are some links that might help with getting started:
Thanks for your responses guys. I’ll keep plugging away. It can be pretty discouraging at times wasting so much time on what you think is going to a great burn only to have the finished product not even close to what you expected.
My air assist does have variable speed control although I usually run it on high. Generally speaking, I try to burn tiles at no more than 1300mm/m at 20% for painted tiles and up to 65% for NWT method. I have not noticed any difference between the sculpfun s9 module or the s10 at those settings however which seems odd to me.
Brad
So I gave it one more shot today. This is a 4"x4" NWT method.
Sculpfun s10 10W
1100 mm/min
Power at 60%
.08 or 318 DPI
Jarvis
All image processing done in Lightburn
2hrs and 17mins.
That’s not shabby at all. I think the one factor that is hardest to get down is your paint thickness for you. Once you perfect your paint coats, everything else is easy. All about consistency.
Thanks. I was pretty happy once I cleaned it. It looked terrible when first done lol. The very worse thing about the paint thickness and consistency is, I was a residential and high end new construction painter for 35 years. I’ve also done some oil and acrylic landscape paintings on canvas with brushes. You’d think I could handle a can of spray paint…not quite the same as a commercial sprayer. At all. And totally agree. When you are removing such a small amount it matters about the thickness a great deal or you can throw your test power and speed samples away.
I have more questions about burning on canvas (I’m so afraid of starting a fire), but I’ll try some and see how it goes and start a new topic if (and I know I will) have problems.
Really appreciate this and other communities. Lasering is not as easy as some like to make it seem and appreciate any and all help and advice.
Brad
This should give you a good starting point for canvas with 3 layers. Remember mine is a 5.5w. I processed the image on www.imag-r.com @ 300dpi. Preview says it took about 7 hours, but I remember longer. 3,000mm/min and 57% power.
I thought I had a better picture.
Very nice. Did you add additional primer or white (I am assuming it was pre-primed canvas)? So afraid 50% will just start a fire. And canvas is not as cheap as tile to practice on. I was thinking about using acrylic paints maybe thinned down a bit to keep brush strokes at a minimum. But in all honesty the beauty of canvas, imo, is the texture that canvas gives anyway so not overly worried about using a brush instead of a spray. Well…I do have a s9 with minimal hours if I do start a fire with the s10. I’ll just run some tests and keep a fire extinguisher close by. Really appreciate your help man. All of you guys on here have really kept my learning curve low. So appreciate it. I had delusions of mediocrity until I got my laser…jeeze wasn’t even close. I feel a bit better today, and kinda done using any other prog for lasers or design work. Thank you all guys.
Remember that there is no reason why the first layer can’t really be two layers of the same color. That’s what I do. The second layer may not be quite as thick as the first, but it gives you a little extra tolerance. The second and or third layer need to be the same thickness. I definitely burned to the canvas in the beginning, thus the extra thick first coat. Buy the 10 packs of 8x10 canvas for $10 from Walmart until you get good. The little 5x7’s don’t work. They just don’t absorb and or burn the same.
