Greetings all, I am the proud father (i hope) of a new smapmaker 2.0 A359. I am not new to 3D printing and have both filament and resin printers already. what I am wondering what is the quality and success level of creating laser engravings from a photograph? any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Thanx,
For me what really made a difference was how I processed the photo, both in luban and beforehand. The way any given material will darken (burn) when heated by the laser is going to be different, even between pieces of the same material (goes double for woods) so get some extra and make both a few exposure tests and test prints at smaller scale.
If you’re using Luban the point-based fill might be your best bet for maximum clarity, but it will naturally be very slow. That’s just how it is until we get a firmware update that lets the laser move and change power at the same time. It will make a big grid of points, leaving the laser on at a constant % power for a variable number of milliseconds for each one. Lower power will mean each point takes longer to darken, which gives you more granularity in how dark it gets, but it also increases print time again.
If you can process it such that you’re only needing to do a small number of light levels (like posterization) you can get away with some faster methods. If you also keep your target in place you can mix and match the methods, running one over the other. I used this to create outlines in vector mode, and shading in line fill, and it came out really well! You just gotta be careful not to run too close to already burnt material, because the darkened surface will absorb the light from the laser better, and over expose that spot (scorch it). That particularly important when vector engraving font, which is usually a closed loop (two lines running very close to each other along the length of the ‘stroke’).
Again, get some spare material and do some tests with a variety of settings to see what comes out best for each portion of your print.
Hope all this helps, feel free to come back with any specific questions! The laser is probably the module I’ve played around with the most since I got my SM2.