For our fourth assignment, the laser cutting, we had to work in partners and successfully laser etch the Rice War Owl.
For the ones that doesn’t know, Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to cut materials that works by directing the output of a high-power laser most commonly through optics. The focused laser beam is directed at the material, which then either melts, burns, vaporizes away, or is blown away by a jet of gas, leaving an edge with a high-quality surface finish.
The objective of this assignment was producing a high quality piece using the BOSS LS-3650 laser cutter and the EngraveLab program. There should be minimal to no charring, the edges should be clean, and the part should have the correct geometry.
I decided to list out work as the steps we took in the direction of our final product.
- In order to perfectly etch the owl, me and my partner Lucas, decided to make a speed / power test before the owl etching itself:
On this test we etched several circles with speed 400 and power from 10 to 80. During the test we noticed that either the machine or the program would crash whenever we put more than 5 speed / settings, so we had to do two different tests…
2. Owl etching:
After the testing we tried to do our first owl! But our settings were too high… So the owl turned out like a burnt piece of wood:
3. The third “laser cutting”activity we decided to do was another testing, varying not only the power, but also the speed settings:
After analyzing the test board we decided the the speed doesn’t make a lot of difference and that, in order to avoid burning, we would use the power between 10 and 30.
4. Our fourth step was making another test with speeds going from 15 to 30, with a 2.5 increase in speed:
The test came out pretty good and we decided to go to the next step!
5. Owl etching (again):
For this owl we decided to use these settings:
Our biggest problem in this part was that we decided to contour cut the owl but we had no clue on how to do it!
After 30 minutes etching, the owl turned out pretty good… But it was cut in all the boundaries and completely ruined!
6. Owl etching (x3):
Finally we found out the contour cutting tool! But we didn’t know how to use it properly… So the same happened and I refused to take a picture
7. Owl etching (another time):
This time we decided to make a small owl first, so that we wouldn’t waste one and a half hours if something went wrong:
It turned out really good despite the wood imperfections. Then we decided to make a bigger one:
It was looking pretty good but as the wood was bent one side was darker then the other and I accidentally broke a little piece of the face…
6. Owl etching (one more time):
This time I found a nice piece of wood over our working table and I decided to use it to do the owl.
This owl, in my opinion turned out even better… But the wood was thicker and the didn’t cut the contour very well, so when I removed it from the rest of the wood I broke a little piece (again):
7. Owl etching (6x):
Spoiler alert: Now it worked!
For our final owl we used these speed / power settings:
And the final result was this:
Ps.: I also sanded the wood before, so it would turn out smoother…
In my opinion it turned out pretty good, with no parts burnt and a good contrast!
Using the laser cutter and the EngraveLab was very frustrating but now I really learned how to use a laser cutter and I am really happy about that. For someone who have never heard about it, I can say that I learned a lot and I really liked it!
I hope you have liked my final product and I see you next on the fifth assignment: Plasma Cut and Post-process.
