Has anyone tried to laser engrave their 3D prints with the 1.6W laser?
I would be interested in your experience with different materials, PLA, PETG, etc.
I’ve also been wondering if this will work well, so I’ve just done some tests. The simple answer I’d say is yes, but it very much depends on the exact filament.
All of these were done with the same settings, just changing the laser power:
B&W line fill
0.05 fill interval
3000 jog speed
500 work speed
Laser power as per each photo
All of these filaments print perfectly well with the same print settings, but as you can see, they burn very differently with the laser. The two black ones in the 10% photo are different brands, and they etch differently too.
The red comes out very nice at just 10 power as it has barely etched into the plastic at all, but instead just changed the color of it. The gold, however, is only visible at 60% (I guess because it’s more translucent?).
These are only small 20mm cubes, BTW, so the word escape is quite small and very fine lines.
WARNING: if you’re going to try, make sure you have good ventilation. The fumes from pla are not pleasant!!!