Laser engrave tennis balls with 10W

[xchrisd]

Hey, welcome!

I am not sure how it would finish if you engrave tennis balls but if you want to use a maximum of the possible surface you have to go deep:

Guide for Non-Planar Laser Engraving

Sorry for taking so long to get this out, but here’s a guide following how I did the non-planar engraving examples. NOTE: This is not completely comprehensive, I’m sure there’s several ways to do this, including custom post-processors, custom tools etc. This is just the method I used and the examples within are very simple, more complex use cases can be done and may require tricks not outlined here. First off, I’m not great at Fusion360 yet, my job doesn’t afford me too much time to just sit a…

I think the 10W laser has a focal point of 15mm, this means you should be able to compensate the round surface enough.

Hopefully someone else jumps in .

What Z precision is needed for laser engraving?

The height variance is a bit forgiving, so 0.2-0.5mm is fine. I’ve done slightly curved and tapered surfaces with the 10W. Considering they boast 8mm basswood cut in 2 passes, I would say you have a window of 2-3mm of near full strength (1-1.5 on either side of the focal point).