LightBurn material library for 80W MOPA Fiber Laser

Community Laser Talk
1

Hi everyone,

Over the past month, I’ve been working with an AI to develop a comprehensive material library for an 80W MOPA fiber laser for various metals, including:

Brass
Stainless Steel
Aluminum
Copper
Titanium
Gold
Silver

This library includes settings for:

Engraving (Light, Medium, Dark, Fine Detail, Solid Fill, Smooth Fill, Deep Mark)
Image engraving (various dithering modes and 3D slice)
Cutting (for various thicknesses)

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:

For the most part, only some, Brass and stainless steel, have been tested. The other settings are currently UNTESTED. They are based on theoretical knowledge, general best practices, and some publicly available information.

USE THESE SETTINGS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I am not responsible for any damage to your laser, materials, or anything else that may result from using these settings.

TEST ON SCRAP MATERIAL FIRST. This is absolutely crucial. Start with low power and high speed and gradually adjust as needed.

These settings are provided as a starting point only. You will likely need to fine-tune them based on your specific laser, material, and desired results.

Cutting Gold and Silver, especially at thicknesses greater than 0.25mm, should be approached with EXTREME caution with an 80W MOPA fiber laser. The settings provided are experimental and may not produce satisfactory results. There is a risk of damage to your material or your laser.

Key Features of this Library:

I’ve tried to provide comprehensive material coverage: Including a wide range of common and less common metals.

Detailed Settings: Provides settings for various engraving styles, image engraving, and cutting.
Gauge Information: Includes approximate sheet gauge equivalents for cutting settings.
Color Engraving for Brass, Stainless Steel, and Titanium: Includes experimental settings for achieving different colors. These are experimental. I suspect that your results will vary.

I encourage everyone to test these settings on their own machines and provide feedback. Your input will be invaluable in refining this library and making it a valuable resource for the LightBurn community.

Thank you, and happy lasering!

80W Fiber 160mm( 110X110)-metals-(24-12-20).clb (42.8 KB)

2 Likes
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This is very interesting to me as I am in the early [very] stages of setting up a OMTech M7 80w MOPA laser. I bought a returned unit and got an 80w for the price of a 60w so expect some ‘issues’ will arise. Gene

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My apologies to all who may have download this library only to find it didn’t work. I broke one of the most scared cardinal rules of programming, TEST BEFORE RELEASE. Well, Simple rule, but I let my cockiness get in the way. Again I apologize.

So, what went wrong. Not too difficult to analyze I added an XML tag that was not recognized by Lightburn. Once removed, I found that I had left out 2 required tags. Started fixing and spent a good portion of yesterday day testing while my internet was down.

I’ll be working today on, shall we say, fine tunning and further spot testing on some of the materials that I have at hand.

I guess a little background as to why I’m doing this. I’m fairly new to the laser world. Just started back this last spring. I needed something to occupy my time after my wife passed. I was looking for a box for my wife’s remains and couldn’t find one that I liked/afford. While surfing You Tube, I stumble upon a video by Skylar Ewing where she was holding a nice looking, simple, box that she had made using only a laser. That caught my attention. Lasers appeal to me because I only have one function eye, and using reciprocating equipment, like table saws, and other mechanical device could and do pose a very real threat to someone who has limited dept precipitation. Thus the appeal of lasers. After several week of research I settled on Roloy Automations Lasermatic Mk 2 and LIghtburn. Coming from a computer world, with an additional background in digital photography, this has been a rather fun experience. Since acquiring my diode laser, I have acquired a 80W CO2 laser, and recently a 80W MOPA fiber laser. Yeah, lasers can be quite addictive.

WHile working within the diode laser world, most people were willing to share their settings. But once I got into the fiber laser world, things were different. One of the things that irked me was when someone asked, myself include, we would often be told to run the build-in material test. Well, this is all well and good, but where do I start? In my case, and I suspect in most cases people, only want an idea of where to start. Instead of burning through material trying to find the settings that work best with, oh say brass, I could have a starting point and I could build a material test based on this starting point and fine tuner my settings.

I’m quite aware that my machine and materials will differ from what someone else has. We can have the exact same machine and the same material, but there will be differences, sometime quite significant. But having a starting point helps narrow down one’s testing and use of expensive materials.

Thus was born my desire to create a materials library with conservative setting that someone could use as a starting point. This can be a rather expensive hobby/small business to get into, and the materials cost can be quite prohibitive. Especially when it comes to just running a material test(s) in the blind.

So I’ve set out on an adventure to try and create material libraries that could help reduce some of the testing. My libraries will be based only on the machines that I currently own. It’d be cool if other want to contribute to my little project. While I thought that this would be a simple project, I’ve been disabused of this foolish notion.

To start with, I’ve not talked to the folks at Lightburn about this idea, and not sure if they would be happy with someone “monkeying around” with their system. My goal is to create conservative settings that the public could use at their own risk with the understanding that they are free to use and make changes to these libraries, but neither Lightburn, nor myself would be responsible for any damages that might result to their equipment or themselves.

OK, I’ve taken enough of your time. Now off to finish fine tunning and testing my first attempt. I may have it done later today perhaps tomorrow. I’ll be sure to date each update so you can see what is the most current.

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if you’re interested I have a library that I give my customers when they buy our fiber machines?

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Thank you. I’ll be more than happy to share my work with you as well.

I’ve completed the rebuild of my library and I’ve done some preliminary testing with acceptable results. At the moment, I have the system doing a 3d slice on a piece of copper. I’m finding that copper is probably the most finicky of the metals to work with. I have managed to get it dialed in enough so that you can even do grayscale with one pass, but a second can help improve the contrast.

I should have something ready a little later today.

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no problem dude, try this? this is for 110x110
MarkParam.clb (62.9 KB)

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Thanks, I’ll check it out.

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John- I appreciate your efforts. I bought my first CO2 laser in 2015 and have been obsessed ever since. Have never touched a diode laser but a lot of peeps are getting into them.

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John- I typed the reply above yesterday end of day and thought I had lost the whole thing but I guess only most of it. My memory is defective so I don’t recall everything I had typed but I will try your [and Armando’s] settings when I get running, Gene

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Well, I haven’t got past my Fiber Laser yet. I have an 80W CO2 Monport, with a set of American photonic lenses, which I’ll be doing the same thing for. But that is down the road a bit. I got it for cutting and engraving clear/translucent acrylic, and larger wood project that wouldn’t fit my Roly Lasermatic Mk2.

Since I encountered most of my troubles with the fiber laser, that is where I started. Wood and acrylic are less expensive than metals.

Diode lasers are good for fine engraving on wood, at least that is how I use it. No problems cutting up to 6mm ply and 3mm hardwoods with my 30W. I haven’t had a need to work with any other wood at this point. Roly Automation just released a sneak peek at their Mk3. It’s going to shake up the industry.

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Armando- I was just looking at the GuEagle site- those are some serious lasers. When I went to Tech school one of the instructors was Mr Kern who started Kern Lasers later in Wadena, Mn- my hometown. He makes some serious lasers too. Gene

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yes sir, before I worked at this laser company I ran a a POP/Display shop and had been interested in a KERN so I went down there to look at a them, they were a bit higher up there on price and I ended up getting an Eagle laser (my employer now). im the only American tech here so everyday is a fun learning adventure!

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Well, took me a little longer that I thought, plus a couple of interruptions, and one rush order. Anyway, here is my latest attempt at creating a Materials library for an 80W MOPA Fiber Laser with a 160mm Lens (110X110).

Remember my setting and yours will vary even though we may both have the same machine. These are conservative settings, but they should get you in the ball park. You might want to build a small grid around the setting in the library to fine tune to your laser/materials.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
For the most part, only some, Aluminum, Brass, stainless steel, and Titanium have been tested. The other settings are currently UNTESTED. They are based on theoretical knowledge, general best practices, and some publicly available information.

USE THESE SETTINGS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I am not responsible for any damage to your laser, materials, or anything else that may result from using these settings.

TEST ON SCRAP MATERIAL FIRST. This is absolutely crucial. Start with low power and high speed and gradually adjust as needed.

These settings are provided as a starting point only. You will likely need to fine-tune them based on your specific laser, material, and desired results.

Cutting Gold and Silver, especially at thicknesses greater than 0.25mm, should be approached with EXTREME CAUTION with an 80W MOPA fiber laser. The settings provided are experimental and may not produce satisfactory results. There is a risk of damage to your material or your laser.

_80W Fiber 160mm( 110X110)-metals-(24-12-25).clb (89.1 KB)
.

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Yep- expensive but good apparently. I got some samples [forget how now] but they are mind blowing. I am interested in anything you might have for a JPT 80W Mopa with F=160mm 160Q 0551 and F=290mm 290D 02939 lenses. These are from the sides of the lenses- have had years of experience with CO2 lenses but I am a rookie with these. Thank you Gene
I am new to this forum so if you need my email I will happily provide it, is there a internal message service here?

And thanks John- still building a base with storage for the machine and finishing the enclosure. I have a large corner in one of my former buildings and the company is closed till next year so I have been fairly productive for my old self, but I am getting closer to the big moment. Kind scary actually.

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Sounds like my machine - 100mm (70X70), 160mm(110X110), and a 290mm (300X300).

Hope this library helps you get dialed into your projects. Remember, this is only a conservative starting point and your system will behave slightly different than mine. You’ll still need to do some testing, but it should help cut way down on the amount of testing required.

Interestingly enough, my next library project will be for my 80W CO2 laser using a 1.5 inch lens from American Photonics.

BTW, if anyone is interested, I just did an expanded library for the Roly Lasermatic with the 2W diode IR module.

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I would like to have the library

Thank you.

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I have an F420mm for 300x300mm coverage… 290mm seems awfully short…?

:smile_cat:

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MarkParam.clb (62.9 KB)
80watt 110x110

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You are correct, the 290 is 210X210. Not sure where I got that 300 from. Probably some place we don’t want to go