Ok. I use photoshop to design or layout what I’m going to laser engrave for my cutting board business. Even after a few years, I’m still learning Lightburn. Literally all i do is import or open a jpeg file I have and size it to my needs in lightburn the start it etc.
I would like to see if running multiple passes at a faster speed, and LOWER laser % will benefit my workflow.
right now just about everything I laser engrave is running at 125 and 50% power. I’m going to attach some pics of items. Usually one line on my realtor boards takes anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours to laser engrave.
Can anyone help me walk me thru how to do the multiple passes at a faster speed and lower laser % to see if I can save time?
Run a Material Test to pick the right combination of speed and power for the mark you want to make.
The Material Test also lets you test the Line Interval for engravings, so that you can select the widest line spacing that will work on that material.
The Line Interval should be about the same size as the laser spot. For example, if the spot is 0.1 mm in diameter and the interval is 0.01 mm, the laser will trace back and forth ten times over pretty much the same line, charring the same wood on each pass.
Changing the Line Interval will also change the visible results, so run another Material Test to find the new values to produce the right appearance at that interval.
Is this 125mm/sec? The material may make the difference, but I am running 2000mm/min at 25% power with a 10w laser on basswood ply. Maybe try 3x your speed and make two passes. That might reduce your process time by a third. Like @ednisley said, the Material Test should be your reference chart.
Just an FYI. I use multiple passes on many occasions, but I add a different layer for each pass because if you choose multiple passes, and your laser through LightBurn is optimized, it may make several passes in one spot and with the wrong speed/power, could start to burn - or overly darken. So I use 3 to 4 layers if I’m going to use 3 to 4 passes - each layer being the same speed/power, but it runs through one layer at a time at a time - as opposed to one specific area with multiple passes. Just a thought.
I do not see where this might make a difference, except on very small paths. Now if you are turning layers off, then on as needed, I like this idea a lot. Not dark enuff with one pass in a particular area? Do another pass of the problem area with another layer. A 3-pass cut not enuff? Switch to a 1-pass layer and hit it again. This would give you greater control over problem-child materials. Did I mention I like this a lot?
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