The thing is that i want to create some art with laser but Luban profiles are not so very good for everything. So im mostly trying to create just vector art. however making everything with one line thickness and filling stuff is very hard. i still have no idea how to create text in human ways.
usully i just get outer edges… So if anyone have good suggestions about that.
I would love to hear it.
However this topic is about laser height control. I tested engraving with manual height settings and 10W laser is pretty good. I havent done the test sheet, because it is a lot of work but my first test was something like:
100% power, 600 speed and laser height set 3cm above the actual material. i got very strong 3mm wide line that even “carved” in to the material. I tried even height of 5cm (dont remember speed) and got some nice blurry shade. So laser can do plenty of cool stuff but i have no idea how to make it work.
Since making different file for every line with and strenght, reprinting with it is kinda annoying.
most important thing is that this laser could to grazy line art if i were able to control its height and speed on the go. Starting whit thin line and going wide can create very good effects. this could even be used in cutting to create kinda 3 dimensional cuts.
I have no idea if there is any way todo such things, Machine clearly can but what kind of software can guide it?
Closest thing I can think of off-hand would be to set it up in Fusion360 as a CNC operation with a V engrave bit set to the focal cone angle. Use the engrave function, then modify the Z values from negative to positive so it goes up instead of down for thicker lines. This is only just speculative, but I have done some non-planar work like this before.
Would still be a lot of finishing work on the gcode though.
All right. Does not seem a easiest way to make art with hundreds of lines but i am still amazed.
I will dive deeper into your work, later today. Very interesting approach.
The hardest part would likely be scaling the power with the Z-height, or the speed. One of the two has to change to allow the de-focus to burn enough to match.
EDIT: I’ve actually got a test running using the method I mentioned above, it’s mesmerizing to watch, but the result is… well kinda looks like some sort of firework jumped around the material.
I still havent fully focused on your work… i run my eyes trough it and there is a lot of information to take in for me.
What i understood from that fast view is that: If i wanted to create line art with this method i should create my lines on simple 3d plane and then move those lines higher as i want to increase the line with. (i have no idea how much laser focusing system can do the job so i stuck with the idea of moving laser up and down, i saw u had a video there, doing just like that.) so:
laser moving up = wider line
therefore if its kinda running CNC program i should have my line bent up to actually make it become wide… feels like tons of quess work. Mby can be visually presented with nurbs but ill explain what im thinking.
All im looking for is that laser would be able to read line with and move up and down based on this.
So it reads like:
1mm line=10mm height at 600 speed
2mm line=20mm height at 300 speed
speed should be adjustable. So if one wants to burn in more into material then he can set lower speeds. Such method would have downsides like, wider lines will lose its sharpness but it would be pretty simple tool for artists to make more natural looking wood burn projects with way faster way than making bazillion dots or lines.
The problem is, the fact it would be slower than doing lines. Since you have to slow the laser way down to concentrate enough energy to mark the material out of focus. Also the calibration required would be rather difficult. The test I have running now is the best looking yet, and I’m varying the laser intensity vs height since it’s easier than speed. To get any meaningful results at wider parts, I’m down to just 100mm/min vs the usual 2000mm/min I’d run. So the same project with just whipping lines would take ~13 minutes, is taking ~1hr with inconsistent results.
Trying the Coca Cola logo, as it’s nice and swoopy with variable width lines.
How it looks in Fusion360:
Varying the speed with the height would be a better approach, but I’m unsure how to do it, as it’d be an inverse from varying power. Infact all I did here was match power to the Z height, which is suboptimal to begin with, but it was a good proof of concept.
My logic is to keep power 100% always to see the results of maximum power and speed.
Power audjustments should come in when you are fine tuning the quality of product.
Well that came out neat. Just winging it without any tests, I figured a defocus of 30mm would net about a 1.5mm beam at 100% power. So I setup Lightburn with an offset line.
The black line sections I put in a -30mm Z offset (to raise it 30mm over my material height), and set it up 1000mm/min, 100% power, 1mm interval. The red lines are 1mm offset and are done at my regular settings for maple, 2000mm/min, 60% power, 0.15mm interval.
