Now let me be clear, I got my first diode laser in February of this year '23. So it might seem like i am new to all this. However I was volunteer number two at a scale structure model company called Imagine That Laser Art. Up until the company sold. Serendipitously the company sold and moved to London area from Windsor of Ontario Canada, at the same time I did. I always tried to get back into the company but it was turned into a family business, which is something I can respect.
So I set out to buy my own laser to make my model railroad structure kits. Having the bug set, I was determined to buy a laser. That’s before diode lasers came out.
Long story short, one day my son woke up before me and started engraving a rock. Took him a few hours of testing while I wasn’t around. Suffice to say he stumbled on a side hustle we have been swamped with since the first week of May.
First post is the intro, Ill be reserving post 2 for settings and techniques for different rocks.
Photos of my Boss and our O scale version of Ebbett’s Field. Funny story tied to this model. I might share it in the future.
I’m sure there is a formula we can come up with to translate diode power to CO2.
I use a first run as a 2 pass outline at 50mm/m and 100% power. Followed by a cross-hatched fill engrave. In move settings in lightburn I double the power and change line intervals to .3 for first run at 200 speed 100% power.
This was made with my 22w Falcon two with the fire lens on bottom of laser taped over. This laser is used only for Rocks. No wood as it would be a fire hazard to keep the tape on.
This look great!
I’ll be adding all this to my post and please feel free to add the settings you experimented with. I’m sure there is a formula we can come up with to translate diode power to CO2.
I use a first run as a 2 pass outline at 50mm/m and 100% power. Followed by a cross-hatched fill engrave. In move settings in lightburn I double the power and change line intervals to .3 for first run at 200 speed 100% power.
This was made with my 22w Falcon two with the fire lens on bottom of laser taped over. This laser is used only for Rocks. No wood as it would be a fire hazard to keep the tape on.
I think it was your account trust level that may have prevented you from editing. I’ve updated you to a “member” level. Can you see if the edit pencil is now available?
I think @berainlb is right. I edited, and closed, my post multiple times.
I noticed you are on a phone and I am on the web interface… but that shouldn’t matter.
Lets think about this for a minute — lasers do not fire a constant beam, lasers fire in pulses, firing for a fraction of a second at a time and a whole lot of times per second. The longer the firing time, the hotter the beam, (temp wise) and that determines weather your etching or cutting. ( % of power is really a measurement of time) Lets say you are running a 120w. laser. No matter co2 or fiber. I am running a 20w. diode and I’m etching sandstone at 14% power. 20w x .14% = 2.8w. So you need 2.8 w power to burn/etch my stone. So 2.8 w. of 120w = power setting of 2.333% Now you can burn my stone at the same power as I do. ( I think I got all this right?) And to make you feel better, nothing to it !! GO FOR IT !! ( I don’t know if your laser will turn down that low, I have read on here that some big lasers won’t turn down that low)
Randy – good Luck !
I have made 65 rocks with my son.
We bought a 2nd laser and updated it and it alarms out and doesn’t work.
But I have photos. You can surmise whatever you want. The real world is the the playing ground of practical reality, not theories. And until you realize that opening intervals to .25 give the laser a way to chip out stone. Think about it.
8-12 hrs. One full one full year with a creality F2 22w.
Btw I am sorry I forgot about this. I still cannot edit files. It surely has something to do with restrictions on users. Again between 2002 and 2007 I was a moderator for a Black Hawk Down forum, I should not be challenged by this.
Next because I couldn’t edit the post when I came back I lost steam in my attempt.
Custom jobs are the most valuable use for your laser when using it as a side hustle and rocks are an amazin avenue to pursue.
Lastly, I got many responses and Dont remember seeing any notifications to my post in my email. That’s weird too.
Generally speaking, ssl and glass tube co2 are generally cw or continuous wave lasers. A fiber is a pulse laser. Some types of YAG lasers naturally have a q-switch type of operation and we see these with the non fiber 1064nM lasers.
We drive ssl or solid state lasers on/off based on the period because they cannot lase at anything other than 100% power. In these cases it’s actually power/time or an average.
Whereas a co2 can lase continuously at any current value within it’s lase range. This is the advantage of a glass tube co2.
50% power with a glass tube will run continuously at 50% power, to get this with a ssl, you must turn it on/off at a 50% duty cycle to achieve the same 50% type of power relationship.
You can see how this would effect the material… hitting it with full power for 50% of the time or 50% power is different.
