Filling Shapes Inside Other Shapes - Stainless Colour

LightBurn Software Questions
1

Hello

I am using a 60w fiber laser for colouring on stainless. I’ve done test grids so I know what settings to use.

My issue is I want to colour this image but I cannot figure out how to fill a shape with a different colour when its inside another shape.

This image for example. I want to replicate the black lines exactly but the shapes inside those lines I want to fill with different colours (dungarees blue, tongue red, skin yellow etc etc). But I cannot, even when I separate each shape into different layers, make it work! No matter what I try the layers dont separate into different shapes and therefore colours and I end up with the wrong colour in the wrong shape

Its probably something simple…Stuart’s face is how I’m feeling lol

Minion Stuart
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2

Welcome to the Lightburn Forum Stuart.
You have to Offset the shapes for each color.
Lets say you want one shape to be C02 and other to be C03.

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If you set the shape to C02 and the Layer to fill you´ll get this:
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In the example use the Offset Shapes Tool in the following way:

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Your original shape is set to C02 then do a little Inward Offset and set that offset to C03
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After that set your Cut/Layers to fill with the settings you have found to obtain the color you want in the output.

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The official Doc:

I have to leave now.

3

If you use other lasers, you’re probably never thought about temperature changes at the laser/material meeting area. Wood and natural items don’t conduct heat like metal objects.

I believe @parsec has it. I tried it with this image of Marvin the Martian.

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I broke it down, very much like @parsec described… I could get every color on my material tests.

The problem with this, is that what makes the color is an oxidation or annealing, depending on who you talk to. However, whichever it is, it has to reach a certain temperature to accomplish this.

If you have a 10mm square it takes x amount of time to do this.. time for each scan line. If you double the size, the time between each scan line doubles and more of the heat is removed from the metal, leaving you with a different color. Same thing occurs if the metal object size is changed.

I could save you a lot of time, just buy the stack of marked stainless I have to get rid of trying to do this.

I’ve tried this with a similar machine, spent hours, stack of wasted stainless. I don’t attempt it anymore.

Here is a more technical write up with some great photos from NIH. Here’s one from this article, Laser-induced plasmonic colours on metals

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Not saying you can’t, but I’m cautiously suspicious.

Please post a photo of your finished piece. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

:grinning_cat:

4

Thanks parsec! I will try this!

5

Thanks Jack!

6

Not the best picture but you can clearly see it works!

Still some fiddling around to do…larger projects would work better than this small keyring

1000018967
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7

Its oxidation, I don’t know why people in the Laser community keep calling it annealing, completely different things.

8

I know mechanical engineers who refer to it as annealing. I am not an EE or ME..

:grinning_cat:

9

Thanks for posting a photo.

:grinning_cat:

10

The mechanism behind the colour is a thin oxide layer / heat tint on the stainless surface. It is not annealing in the metallurgical sense, which means changing the bulk microstructure to soften the material or relieve stress.

Annealing can produce a colour change, but the color is still caused by an oxide layer formed from the heat, not by the annealing itself.

11

Thanks for not making me look it up. Your description is spot on.

12

Good work! Bigger the lens the better. A 300X300 defocused around 5mm and cross hatch will give you best colors with a 60W mopa. IMAO.