I have recently started using the xTool D1 Pro. The main aim being to engrave metal as deeply as possible. I recently upgraded to an infrared laser head because after lots of research this was going to do the job. However, after mainly failed attempts I’m starting to lose hope that I won’t be able to score or engrave more than about 0.05m. I don’t understand why doing more and more passes at a high power, slow speed isn’t engraving deeper?
I was generally using xTool Creative Space but now I have downloaded LightBurn in hope that this program will have more functions to achieve the effect I’m looking for.
Any advice is appreciated. Thank you in advance
Jasper
Diode laser (be that ~450 or ~1064nm) is the wrong proverbial hammer to the equally proverbial nail for deep-engraving metals.
You need MOPA/Fiber for that.
While LB -or any other software for that matter- won’t give You anything more than XCS would in deep-engraving metals, it will be guaranteed to open a whole new world of possibilities in everything else when it comes down to engraving and cutting materials that are laserable with said wavelength diode lasers.
Not to mention a truly superb forum where You can get help from truly knowledgeable group of people.
It is possible, but not advisable to deep-engrave/cut metals with 455 & 1064nm xTool heads with a few tricks, the risk of damage to the lens and/or the diode(s) by the reflected beam is too great to ignore.
For the 455nm head the answer is simple, without some trickery, almost all of the energy will be reflected, and very little or nothing will actually happen to the material.
For the 1064nm head the answer is equally simple, there just isn’t enough power to do what You want.
Additionally, in order to acchieve the best results, for the xTool 2W IR head the focus distance has to be just right.
Even 0.1mm off will cut the energy density in the surface of the material to be engraved roughly in half.
The surface to be engraved have to be obviously level within’ that same 0.1mm tolerance for the engraving to be consistent.
The distance arm on the older xTool IR units was way too long, but a few owners have since reported that the ramp test proves that it has been shortened at some point, and may be correct in the recent units.
The best (only) way to know for sure, is to perform a ramp test.
Engrave a line onto a sloped surface, find out the distances where the engraving starts and stops to be visible, the correct distance is the halfway of that line.
Thanks so much for your reply. All really helpful information. It’s a shame that my studio doesn’t have one of the fiber laser machines, would make my set briefs much easier haha
I am slowly learning the quirks and best ways to engrave with the D1 Pro though and just about getting there.
That’s a really good trick with the ramp test, I wasn’t aware of that.
Thanks again for the knowledge, much appreciated
Jasper
There’s lots and lots of helpful information here, both general, and xTool related.
And this is one of the frendliest and well maintained discussion forums I’ve been on.
Here’s one xTool IR head related thread from a while back:
and there’s quite a few others as well, the tabs and the search function are essential in the beginning of the laser journey
When you do the ramp test… you can use it to figure out the lenses depth of focus (dof). This will give you a range of focus distances.
If you knew the entry beam size and focal length you can figure the dof and spot size.
My F100mm fiber lens has a dof of only 0.7mm… It’s pretty tough to focus… I’d suspect, but don’t know, yours is likely less than this from a shorter lens.
The bottom line is that it’s only 2W… although my fibers pulses are 18kW peak, I don’t know how much peak pulse power is generated with a q-switched yag diode.
You need to know it’s dof for any real work and focus deeper into the material, maybe as much as half way.