My first laser engraver, (FoxAlien Reizer) got delivered last Friday. Have never used a laser before but have experience with my Shapeoko 3 that I got last year. So after the initial logo file that came with my machine and a couple failed attempts on tile I finally got a couple of test engravings to turn out. The first is my logo for my CNC company on oak.
Definitely need to play with the power and speeds on things but I am really enjoying this already. Can’t wait to try tiles and some other projects that may compliment my engraving. Got some ideas of how to use it to improve my cribbage boards. Thanks to everyone who has posted on the forums. I have been reading them for a while getting ready.
Hi Ryan, they look great considering it’s your first go!
I work with bigger C02 lasers at work but am looking at getting a little something for myself at home.
How big is the engraving of the cat and how long did that take to engrave?
Also what is the fume situation like for you and how do you address it?
Hi Simon,
Thanks. I have to say Lightburn made the first few burns so easy. It has been fun so far and I am learning so much about the engraver itself as well as the software so far. The cat took a little over an hour and is only 3x5. I was very conservative because I did not know how dark it would go if I went too high on the power. I don’t think I actually saved the settings on that burn. I can’t seem to find them anyway. If I remember correctly I was about 70% on the max power and went too fast. I think it was around 2000 mm/min. I remember manually changing the engraving speed and power using the adjustments though. I have been a lot more careful about saving settings lately.
With regards to the ventilation that is still something I am working on. When engraving wood it is not too bad if I open two windows and put a fan blowing out of one. I have started trying tiles as well and they smell way worse. Those I am probably not going to do inside the house until I build an enclosure and have a proper fan venting outside. My plan is to build a full enclosure and use dryer venting along with an exhaust fan to an outside vent. At least over the summer if I want to do tiles I can go out to the garage or even outside on my patio.
Lightburn is brilliant hey, I much prefer it to anything else I’ve used. Ok no worries thanks for that info. I’m used to machines that operate about 20 times faster than that so it might be a sharp lesson in patience once I do get my own! Have to start somewhere though hey. Would you recommend the Fox Alien?
Yeah I can’t believe how nice working in Lightburn is. For most of my CNC work so far I have been using Carbide Create, and Inkscape. Lightburn has some really nice features and a great interface compared to both of those.
This is definitely slow and I expected it to be somewhat faster but I think I am also being very conservative ever time I setup a burn. I just did this last night on a small scrap of cherry. The image is 2.75 x 5 and it took almost an hour again but that is after waiting quite a while at the original speeds I setup and then gradually ramping up the speed manually. I ended up at 200% so I can be far more aggressive with my setups. The image was imported from a JPG and not an SVG so it was not the best quality to start with but I am very happy with how it came out.
As a beginner laser this is working pretty well for me. So far I would recommend it. I know there are others out there with better specs but this seems to be good enough for what I wanted.
Yeah that looks really cool! Have you tried cutting anything yet or just engraved so far? And was the price the thing that made you decide on a Foxalien over other brands in the end? I’m in Australia so I’m not even sure yet if they ship over here! I assume they would though because it wouldn’t be a very big package.
Yeah so far I have just been engraving. I don’t have great ventilation so I hesitate to cut anything. I assume there will be a fair bit more smoke. Price was one of the main reasons. It seemed like a reasonable price for the features. I honestly had not done a lot of research into engravers before making the decision. My wife wanted a clock made for someone that is retiring and I figured engraving was the better option instead of carving with my CNC so I did a little looking around and FoxAlien came out as good price, available quickly and reasonable features. So far I have to say I am very happy.
Just applied the first coat of polyurethane to the clock so I would say the engraver has worked out well so far.
Yeah ok good point, ventilation is important. Yes there are a lot more fumes when cutting compared with engraving. Well that’s my experience using C02 machines anyway. Yeah it looks plenty good enough, well done! Thanks for the info and I’m glad you’re enjoying it
