10 Tips and Tricks for Laser Engraving and Cutting

10 Tips and Tricks for Laser Engraving and Cutting

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Hello, I'm Geordie and I currently work at ADX Portland running the Laser Cutter and Engraver. My job is to take in customer's projects, set them up and run them on the laser. As a result, I've learned a few tricks for how to set up jobs to get the best results, and in this Instructable I'm going to pass them on to you.

The laser I work with is an Epilog Helix and the program we use to run it is

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10 Tips and Tricks for Laser Engraving and Cutting by geordie_h

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Corel Draw. I'm going to try to write in general terms so you can use what ever laser and program you want to.

Note: For several of these tips it is important to understand the difference between Vector files and Bitmap files. Vector files are mathematical formulas defining lines, circles etc. These are created by programs like Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, AutoCAD and Corel. Bitmap files are collections of individual pixels. This included digital photos, Adobe Photoshop files, JPGs etc. With the Epilog laser (and I'm assuming other ones) you can only cut with a vector file. You can engrave with either vector or bitmap files. For several of my tricks you need your file to be a vector file for the trick to work.

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Step 1: Tip #1: Preparing for cutting or engraving

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Before we get to tips for cutting and engraving, lets start with some good ideas for preparing to cut or engrave.

Masking: If your going to engrave on something be aware that the smoke for the the engraving can stain the edges of the engraved surface. If you don't want that cover the surface with masking tape to protect it. The masking tape won't decrease the power of the laser much (bump up the power a bit if you feel it needs it) and the masking tape will protect the material around the engraving from the smoke. After running the engraving just peal the masking tape off. I use this a lot if I'm engraving on leather.

Presets: Your laser should have some suggested settings for cutting or engraving different materials and different thicknesses. You should also be able to load these settings into your computer or laser and save them as presets. Be sure to name them something that makes sense so you can easily find them That way the next time you need to engrave on leather or cut 1/8" thick acrylic, you can just find the preset for that material.

Test cuts: Even when I have a preset for cutting a material I usually try to run a test cut in it before I run the full job. Nothing is worse than taking the material out of the laser and finding that it didn't cut all the way through. I create a small circle or square (about 1/4" or 1/2" wide) and cut out in corner or on some scrap material. Then I can see if I need to increase or decrease the power before I run the final cut.

Step 2: Tip # 2: The power of layers



Several of the tricks I'm going to talk about require being able to print only part of a file or design at a time. The easiest way to do this it to put different parts of you design on different layers in a file. Most graphics programs allow you to create different layers and then to turn them off and on. While you can put everything on one layer here are some advantages to using layers.

1. Controlling the order of cuts. Your laser should have some options to determine the order in which lines are cut but one way for you to control that is to put different cuts on separate layers on to turn the print of each layer on and off in the order you want.

2. Have multiple parts and designs in one file. Rather than having a separate files for each design, just put them all in one file and put them individual layers. Then just print the layers one at a time. Helps keep things organized.

3. Creating guides. You might need to create some guides for laying out out your design or maybe you'll need a target to place an object in. If you don't want these to print put them on their own layer and turn off the printing of that layer.

Step 3: Tip #3: Wood grains and engraving



So you've designed a logo or a image and you want to burn it onto a piece of wood. Wood is a great material for engraving but you need to be aware of the difference between engraving on a solid piece of wood versus a composite material like plywood or MDF. Unlike a manufactured material, natural wood is not uniform. The grains in the wood represent different types of growth in the wood (winter and summer) and they will each burn differently. Usually the darker grains are harder and the lighter parts between them is softer. As you can see from the example photo you end up with a zebra pattern in the engraving. If having a uniform look to the engraving is important to you, you'll probably get better results from a good plywood where the top layer is more uniform.

One more thing to be aware of is materials with a thin veneer of nice wood on top. The engraving will often burn through the thin veneer exposing what under neath. Make sure what's beneath the veneer looks good and that you burn all the way through the veneer so you don't have a mix of veneer and under-surface.

Step 4: Tip #4: Overlapping lines.

Often when cutting out multiple parts at once, the temptation is but them up against each other so similar lines overlap. This is a good idea, but there is a good way to do this and a bad way.

Let's say for example you have a bunch of squares to cut out. If you draw 2 squares (4 sides each) and then but them up against each other it will look like there is only one line between them. The trouble with this is that although it looks like there in only one line on the overlapping side, the computer still sees 2. The end result is that lines will get cut one on top of the other. This can lead to that edge getting burnt, rather than a clean cut. It also waste time on a unnecessary cut.

The way to fix this is to eliminate one of the doubled up lines. Draw one of the squares with 3 sides and but it up against the one with 4 sides.



Step 5: Tip #5: Lines - Raster versus Vector

The main difference between a raster engraving and a vector cut, is that for the engraving the laser head travels left to right across the print area and then moves down a hair and repeats until it has engraved the image. With the vector cut the laser just traces the lines of the cut. As a result raster engraving take a lot longer than vector cuts.

So what if you have art work, like a Celtic knot, or a design, like a map, that is mostly lines. You can run it as a raster engraving. The advantage of this is that you can set you line thickness to what ever you want and have different lines be different thickness. The disadvantage is it is going to take a lot longer to engrave.

If your design or art work is a vector file (this doesn't work with bitmap images) there is a faster way to create your lines. Set your file up as a vector cut but turn the power down and increase the speed. For example to cut through 1/8" plywood I would have the laser power at 100% and the speed at 20%, but to just score the wood I would set the power to 30% and the speed to 95%. So rather than cutting through the material the laser just burns a thin line into it. The advantage is it is going to be much faster than engraving. The disadvantage is that the line is going to be very thin and you can't vary the thickness of it.

See my next tip for a way to get thicker vector lines.

Step 6: Tip #6: Defocus the laser for thicker vector lines.



In my last tip I covered how to use the vector setting to just score lines into material to produce line art work or designs. But the disadvantage of this trick is that the line is very thin. But there is a way to tick the laser and get thicker lines. The laser has a very tight focus so if lower your material a bit the laser will lose focus and spread out. The way I do this is to put a small piece of wood that is about 3/8" thick on top of the material I an using and have the laser focus on the wood. Then I run the laser on a vector setting (with a lower power setting and a higher speed). The result is a much thicker line than if the laser was correctly focused.

There are 2 disadvantages to be aware of with this technique. One is the line is a little soft and not as crisp as a raster engraving. Second, in the corners of the lines the laser pauses just a little as it changes direction so the corners get burned a little deeper. The corners look like they have little dots in them.

I discovered this trick when a client wanted a large order of wooden coasters with a Celtic knot designed burned into them, but they had a limited budget. To do the art work as an engraving would have taken to long and cost too much (about 5 to 7 minutes each). But by doing the art work as a defocused vector score, I cut the time to about a minute each and meet the budget.

Step 7: Tip #7: Adding a vector score to the edge of type or engravings



Normally you should get nice edges to any engraving your laser makes (if not check your lens and focus). But if you want to give the edges of your engraving a little extra sharpness here's a good trick. Add a light vector score to the edge of the engraving.

Once again you will need to have your image as a vector file. Select your image and add a thin stroke to the edge. When you set up the laser set the stroke for a vector cut but turn the power down and increase the speed so it burns but doesn't cut through the edge. After the laser does the engraving it will come back and burn a thin line around the very edge.

This is a great effect for type.

Step 8: Tip #8: Hitting the target



Some times you need to hit a target area that is not a the lasers origin. For example a piece of scrap plastic that you've already cut several shapes out of, but there is enough room between some of the old cuts to do a new cut out. How can you accurately get your new cut out into the left over space?

First measure the target area and get its rough dimensions. Make sure there is enough room for what you want to cut out. Then place the scarp material in the laser and measure down and across from the laser's origin to the target area. For example a 1" by 2" rectangle located 2.5" down from the top and 1.75" over from the left edge. Then in you file use guides to mark out the target area and position in the distance from the origin as the area on the scrap material. Place your design or cut out in the target area. Make sure your guides won't print out and run the file. If you've measured everything correctly your cut out should be in the target area.

Step 9: Tip #9: Engraving multiple objects



Lets say you have a bunch of wooded coasters that you want to engrave your logo on. You could put them one at a time at the origin of the laser and engrave them one by one. But wouldn't it be nicer to layout several at once and have the laser engrave them all?

The trick is to create a grid that you can lay the pieces out on and accurately have the laser engrave on them. Create a new vector file the size of your laser bed. Then measure one of your shapes/items. If you can get its exact shape great, but if not just figure out a nice geometrical shape, like a circle or square, that it will fit snugly into. This will be your target shape. Create the target and position your design (engraving or cut) in the target. Now copy both the target and your design and paste as many copies as you can fit in the space of your laser bed.

Tip : Leave a little space between the targets so you can set them down without bumping the ones around them.

Before you print the file, move the targets to one layer and your design to another layer. Then turn off the printing for the layer with your design on it.

Cut a piece of cardboard to the size of your laser bed and put it in the laser. Now make sure just the layer with targets is set to print. Engrave, score or cut the target shapes into the card board. This creates a grid on the cardboard that matches the one in the file. Now place the items you are going to engrave on the targets marked on the cardboard. Don't forget to refocus the laser on the tops of what you are engraving on. Now you can turn off the printing of the target layer and turn on the printing of the design layer.

As long as you don't move the cardboard you can just keep laying out new parts, hitting engrave and repeating until you have all your parts done.

Step 10: Tip #10: Using the Red Dot to fgure out where to cut or engrave



The laser I use has the option to turn on a laser pointer that projects a red dot where the cutting/engraving laser will fire. This is helpful for figuring out where the laser will cut before you run your job on your material. Simply turn off the power to the laser and turn on the red dot. Then run the file and watch where the red dot goes.

One thing to be aware of is this works well with vector lines, where the laser/red dot traces the lines, but not so well with engravings where the laser pass back and for over the whole area of the engraving. If I need to use the red dot to figure out where an engraving will end up, what I often do is to draw a vector square or circle around the engraving and then just having the red dot trace the square. Or draw horizontal and vertical center lines.



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torito79

Thanks for the advices. Im trying to engrave a photo on MDF but I always burn the material. Do you have any tip for this?

Thanks again.

geordie_h (author) torito79

Photos are tricky. The black parts of the image are going to be 100% power for the laser and white 0%. Make a square and fill it with black and then find a setting for the laser that doesn't burn through. Then try your photo at that.

ishmit geordie_h

Hi,can i have ur telephon number or line id or instagram or somthing like this for easier coonection?i have laser machine.when engraving photo on ston the picturehave black and white bound!means one bond about2 cm is strong and 2 cm or less or more is wake!and finally my picture will have bound...i can send its pgoto...please help me..my jobs stoped beacause that ...and nobody know that..

GeekTinker torito79

With MDF, you should test different sides of the material, too. The thing about MDF is that a great deal of it is made up of the glue that holds it together. Also, one side of the MDF is usually very shiny. This could be reflecting your laer. You may want to sand it lightly before you use it. In the end, you may simply need to switch from MDF to a thin wood.

jeffcole

Thanks for the tips.We have the same cutter at work.

Ralphxyz

You BUTT things up not BUT!!

Great article thank you!!



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coulterpwaldroup8

Great article! I found another site that has some information about the benefits and advantages of laser cutting - http://www.laserage.com/laser-cutting/

GWorks

Very nice & helpful :)

photonburst

Good article. I, too, wish I had read this article earlier. One suggestion I might make for improving the article is to give the reader some direction for when they have multiple shapes that result in overlapping lines (this happens a LOT). Usually, it's not a trivial case where they are butting simple geometric shapes next to each other, but frequently it's a combination of complex overlapping geometries whether the source art was in vector or raster. In particular, Illustrator seems to be fairly commonly used.

It seems that one way to resolve this in Illustrator is to use the scissors tool, click on either side of the overlapped line, then hit the delete key. The other approach that I had to use on my project today was to use the Direct Selection tool to select and delete specific anchor points on a shape.

The other thing is when you're wanting to score a vector outline around the shape in question. In Illustrator since my main artwork was already vector, I tried the approach of creating a stroke around the object as a whole and then using the above technique to get rid of everything but the outline. This was too tedious though and what I ended up successfully doing instead was to lock my existing layers, and then use the Pen tool to trace the outline. What made it easy was that since the underlying layers were visible but locked -- that meant that the cursor would automatically snap to the anchor points in the layers below -- and since the layers were locked I didn't have to worry about accidentally modifying one of the shapes below. If I didn't hit one of the anchor points accurately, no sweat, Edit | Undo and try that last anchor point again. Because of this, I was able to trace the outline blazingly fast without losing accuracy.

Great article as a whole - thanks for the contribution!

WravoR.

hello,

I have a problem with engraving picture,

always draw me a L profile line outside picture and i can not dissable it.

??

EliteEngraving WravoR.

Good afternoon WravoR,

What program/programs are you using? I have had this issue a few times on some of the items i have engraved, and usually is quickly solved by selecting the whole screen or engraving area and converting it all over to one single bitmap. When you do this ensure that the new bitmap has all edges turned off. I hope this helped you, if not you can reach me for more help at www.EliteEngraving.com



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GauriP

Hi!

Nice write up! Must say your article gave me useful insights.

I have a laser machine in place and have couple of queries and it'd be great if you could address them.

1. How should I photo engraving on pine wood mdf. I have a software called PhotoGrav Version 2_11, where I selected mdf as the material and didn't get the desired results. Is there any way I can directly use the laser cut software or corel draw to do it?

2. When is "grade engrave" and "hole" used?

Many thanks!

tallest

Another option is to place several vector lines extremely close together, III or IIIIII instead of I and you will still get what looks to the eye like one thicker line, and you don't have to de-focus the lens, which is nice if you don't have a z axis.

I run three multi headed industrial lasers as my day job, mostly etching and cutting hardwood veneers for smartphone covers.

AhmedB2

That's awesome and very helpful!

karicashen

This is so incredibly helpful, thank you for taking the time to post all this info!

ek.eyles ttompson

www.blnkdesigns.com.auContact these quys! :)

MelbaI

Another site on laser engraving you'll enjoy:

http://www.primeproductsinc.com/laser-etching-marking.html

ben.gon1

hi im buy a laser machine k40 the laser w is on only go to the lelt sida soo I turne off



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nwlaurie

Very useful tips for a beginner. Many thanks.

Kraegan

Man, thank you. I just got my engraver and have only tested on jpegs. This tip answer the question of head travel for me.

crawfordco

I really enjoyed your article and found it helpful. The more tips on laser engraving and cutting, the better!

http://www.crawford-company.com/laser-cutting/

LazyDMImprints

Very interesting. I am going to have to try that.

Waldo120

Where are those pre-sets for different materials? We have an Epilog laser engraver and I was trying to look up what's the best setting for burning an image into brass (see http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-etched-clock-with-photo/). Wound up opening the instructions and all it said was for metal to turn up the power and turn down the speed. So I did what you see there at 100% power and 10% speed. We also made a similar plaque on Polished Aluminum and had to do a bunch of test burns to get the image looking it's best. Knowing what's "suggested" would really save some time.

geordie_h (author) Waldo120

You should be able to go to the Epilog website and down load some of their suggestion for various material.

With our laser we can't do much with metal. Anodize Aluminum we can etch but its not powerful enough for most metals.

Waldo120 geordie_h

So, I called Epilog and found out that the "pre-sets" are NOT available for the FiberMark series. Something about focus being one of the settings that FiberMark doesn't have. What model do you have? There is however a chart in the instructions. Doesn't do a lot of detail, but gives a few metals.

By the way, regarding your laser de-focusing tip. I'm told there is a way to setup different colors to be different focal lengths. For example if some of your part is 0.25" higher then the rest, you can make this section a red and define red as 0.25" focus length and black as 0" focus length. So you could have focus'ed like normal, done some the vector in focus in black, and the out of focus vector in red. Don't know for sure if that would've been useful but it's a good to know.



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allaho

Thank you so much for the tips. I especially needed Tip #6: Defocus the laser for thicker vector lines.

Emad

AzzysDesignWorks

Even better than masking tape for many items is the paper based vinyl application tape. It is very easy to remove when done.

geordie_h (author) AzzysDesignWorks

I would want to double check what vinyl tape is made of. We don't cut vinyl in our laser because it contain chlorine and produces hydrochloric acid when it burns. Very toxic.I don't know if vinyl tape and vinyl are the same.

But I will agree that masking tape doesn't alway stick very well to some materials.

AzzysDesignWorks geordie_h

Application tape for vinyl, not vinyl tape. Like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Application-Transfer-GreenSt... (Just a quick google search, not affiliated)

Another plus is that it comes in much larger sizes than standard masking tape.

Ghostpilot

The masking technique is especially usefull when engraving on glass surfaces. The laser I use have a 4th axis for engraving round objects, mainly used to engrave drinking glasses. If I maske the glass area to be engraved with a wet peice of wiping paper just before engraving, the edges won't be as sharp and the engraved image will look much more "in focus". The paper shouldn't be dripping wet, just moist enough to stick to the glass surface.

geordie_h (author) Ghostpilot

Cool technique. We have a rotating unit for our laser but since the object just rests on it it tend to slip or not rotate evenly.

But I do engrave on flat pieces of glass so I will give your tip a try.

Thanks

labernache



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These tips are indeed very useful, especially those that differentiate between raster (bitmapped) and vector-based images. I have done quite a bit of vector based image work in the last 30 years of CAD/CAM engineering, primarily for the creation of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) designs, but also for mechanical engineering works. Knowing these types of labour saving utilities is invaluable for streamlining and design for manufacturability. All of this translates to saving you or your company quite a bit of money. Thank you for passing on your own experientially gained knowledge in a very concise set of observations and guidelines. My only concern is that, though your composition is nicely phrased, you appear to have made the same error many instructable authors have made in failing to proof -read your contribution prior to submitting the material for publication.I don't want to come across too harshly, but spell-checking is not enough and sometimes adds to the problem. Proof-reading from top to bottom prior to submitting your masterpiece will in most cases catch all those "gotchas" and leave your audience with not only the clear and concise tutorial you intended, but will also ensure that the first purpose of your work: communication, is well served.Despite the prevalence of errors, this Instructable did convey a wealth of information in an interesting and engrossing way. Next time, just take a couple of minutes to proof-read your work. I think it is deserving of the extra effort, don't you agree?

By the way, I favorited your excellent contribution. Had you proofed your work, I would have also voted for you.

Thanks for the interesting read.

Cheers,Labernache

By the way, I did proof my work, and may still have introduced errors. But this step is crucial, especially on the Web because of the huge potential audience you may reach.labernache.

jktechwriter

Man, those are some outstanding tips, including the example photos. Thanks for sharing this with us novice laser cutter users... I'm going to begin experimenting with many of these ideas.

nwlaurie

Concerning the price of lasers: my chinese K40 (35 watts and good for thin ply, acrylic up to 5mm and, of course, lighter materials plus engraving almost anything except metal) cost m a tad under 400 on FleaBay. I spend about the same again with an American firm called LightObject for more sophisticated electronics. For well under 1000 I now have a machine that can earn its keep doing light cutting and engraving work.

It'll probably be even cheaper in a year or two!

David Drage

I have been running a laser cutter for a few years, and I really wish I had had this guide when I started out. These are all good tips and worth a read if you are new to laser cutting!



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yogunny

Some of the best tips Ive seen. Very well written. Its too bad that lasers, powerful enough to do a myriad of work, are so expensive and beyond the reach of most woodworkers (we use two in our shop). But things change and prices drop. Id recommend readers keep this article for future use when the money starts flowing and you can afford a laser. :-) Sorry, dont mean to rain on your parade Geordie in re the cost of lasers - yours is an uber fantastic presentation. I give you six out of five stars!! :-)

geordie_h (author) yogunny

I agree that its to bad that lasers are out of the price range of most people. I know there are some Maker spaces where people can rent time on them and at ADX where I work we offer the laser as a service for people to either rent or for us to run jobs for them.

I tried to write these tips to help people who where renting time or paying for someone else to run their project for them. Hopefully this will help people lower their costs and get better results.

yogunny geordie_h

Ill up that to seven out of five stars - didnt think of Maker spaces - need to check that out. Again, mega kudos for a fine ible.

Squidyman

Do you know if it is possible to either buy or make a laser engraver for a lot less money than when I do a quick google search for one? I can think of a million uses for one but don't have a million $$$ lol :P

lauralbaby Squidyman

There's instructions here on making one. Some day I will hire someone to do that for me, heh.

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