That's great! I have mine on my desk and it up out of the way until I need a good task light. That is nice there is such a great coupon on the product right now. That was good timing on your part to be able to get that at with such a discount! 🙂

I agree. LightBurn always has impressed me with its functionality and ease of use for the price. There are some smart and clever people on that development team. 🙂

That is an interesting idea. The blue masking tape is more difficult to cut through due to its color relation to the blue laser. At best, it would slow down any cutting into your table. I do not use a laser attachment with my 3018. I did add a wooden waste board to protect the table and to insure flatness in relationship to the cutting tool. There should be a video on that. Let me look that up... I guess not. There is a video on modifications I had made to my 3018 and you can see how I integrated the wooded waste board: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d76oqMibnZyUYpc.htmlsi=XFQW6WOEmc4-byxp

@@CNCATHome thanks!

Just engraving and cutting acrylic. I had not heard of Rowmark before. I looked it up and it just acrylic but layered. I am going to have to give that a try! That looks like it could be fun to try both for the laser and for the CNC router. Thank you for the idea! 🙂

@@CNCATHome yeah they make it with brushed metal finishes and glow in the dark and all kinds of stuff. Was always curious if it would work with a diode laser. Also curious to know how it does with a CNC too.

Very interesting. I had a similar thing happen with a ceramic tile and was never able to duplicate it. I don't know what I did differently on that batch of tiles. I will have to try using it on black acrylic to see if I get similar results. 🙂

That is a great question. The tiles I use, I would call glossy and they have worked great as long as I have my parameters set properly and my lens is clean. ;-) I will have to look for some matte finish tiles the next time I am at the store. I don't remember seeing any. I may have to go to an actual tile store! Which wouldn't be a bad thing as I would like to play around with some colored tiles.

You are completely correct. I didn't mention the heat part. I was thinking more about what you can take away. Heat is a difficult one to remove. It is important to respect all tools as they are both your friends and enemy. All we can do, if we are going to use them, is to use best practice.

Not directly. I would reach out to Atomstack support and see what they have. www.atomstack.com/ I saw an entire refurbished P7 for $170 on their site.

Thank you for the input. You may have noticed that the two runs were done differently. I do like to save time when doing my etching. In this case, running one tile at a time wasn't a good time saver. I had already run a similar project and I knew the settings would work well. Your method would be if I was doing this for the first time or had made some major change that might affect the outcome. The second run was quite a bit faster which is one of the advantages of running batches vs one at a time. I like the way you are thinking! I do like to run a preview of a job and play with the optimization to see if there is a faster way. 🙂

Thank you so much for that. I am glad you are able to learn something from our videos. That is one of the main reasons we do them is to present things in a way that people can get something helpful from them.

That is a great question. I was using my Genmitsu LC-50 + which has a 10 watt diode (LED) 455nm laser.

Nice catch. I looked up some formal information on this and before the wedding, such as announcements, you put the bride first. After the wedding day, such as a thank you card, they have the groom's name first. As these are place markers for after the wedding, it could be Justin and Gwen. It is also the same day as the wedding so it should be bride first. I always do the bride first as a wedding is "her" day. I know Gwen and have not yet met Justin so he gets second seat. Why do wedding have so many rules! ;-)

That is very odd. I was able to watch past that time point without issue. I have not gotten any other notifications that the video is acting up. In digging through my KZfaq portal, I am not seeing anything there either. There have been times when I have had a video freeze on me when it gets to a specific point. Not sure what causes it. If I skip forward in the video, it is fine. If I go back it is find. Then it sticks when it gets to "that" point. Eventually, it has always played after skipping back enough times. When that happens to me, it seems to be some type of corrupt video information that I got from KZfaq. You would think a reboot would have done the trick too. Give it some time and try again. If it still won't play for you, please let me know and I will dig into this a bit more.

@CNCATHome where I begin to play the Twilight Zone theme, is when I play from any time *before* the glitch, it shuts down at the exact same spot every time. If I begin the video at a point *exactly* one second later, it plays all the way through to the end.

I let the video run from start to finish and it didn't have any issues. My guess is that your browser received some bad video data and cached it and that is why it doesn't want to play. Watching it later or clearing your cache would likely resolve the issue. Do let me know if you continue to have issues with this video. Thank you Hugo.

@@HugoHugunin - You are in a place where time and video are out of sync. A place where lost information prevents you from seeing the whole video. You are in, The Twilight Zone. That sound exactly like corrupted data getting to you. I have verified that the video itself is OK. How you describe that is how corrupted data that is cached in your browser will behave. You can skip that second of the video or clear your cache. Thank you for letting me know about the issue so I can keep an eye out for others having a similar problem and I can look into the analytics for this video once they start to settle in.

🙂

No, I'm not funny. 😆

I wish it was the battery! That can be an easy one to overlook if you think it is fully charged. Several years ago, there was an issue with the battery not wanting to charge. I had fully charged it recently and I did put my meter on it and it was putting out full voltage plus a little extra like a fully charged battery should. I also plugged the radio into the wall power supply to insure it wasn't a power input issue. I did some testing with the meter in the radio to insure the power was getting from the power management board to the brains of the radio and it was. One of the volume knobs had been acting up and would cause the power to shut off to the who unit even thought it was not the one with the on/off switch. I am guessing that is where the problem is hiding. I did what I could do with the equipment I have and just didn't get it going this time. I have a friend looking at it who is an electrical engineer (recent graduate so it is all fresh in his mind) and hope he can figure something out. I did buy a new radio and am figuring out the new technology. 🙂

@@CNCATHome Maybe you need to spray some of that electrical stuff on the on/off switch. It might not be making good contact anymore.

@@karlriley1314 - Good place to look. I was able to trace power and the on/off switch was turning it on and off so that wasn't it. Old equipment with mechanical switches and such are prone to getting dirty and some good contact cleaner can make a big difference sometimes.

Thank you so much! I had been researching new radios and had not pulled the trigger on getting anything. When this radio went out, I knew it was time. It also helped that they were having a flash sale on the two rigs I was looking to get. They came with some extra stuff and where $20 off to boot. They are both here now and I have been playing with the handheld unit. I am warming up to it after 29 years of using the same one. I also got a mobile rig that I will set up more like a base station but also put in my car when I want to. :-) With the price of electronics going down and the functionality going up, I got both of these radios for less than my old one 29 years ago.

@@CNCATHome Years ago I had a friend who was a HAM (WB6MMM) and I thought that I might try it. Darn morse just wouldn't fit into my brain. So, I went CB and had an 18' base antenna that I would take up to the top of Mt. Hamilton. On cold winter nights I could "reach out" and my furthest skip was Point Barrow, in *Alaska* from San Jose, California. Oh, and no linear amp! Well, since you don't *NEED* the $5, how about buying a really decent beer to enjoy? 🍺🍺🍺

@@HugoHugunin - Back in the 90s, they opened up a new license where you do not need a code rating. You have to pass two tests, general and technician. If you do that, you can get what is called a no code tech license. The only restriction over a regular technician license is basically some restrictions in the Morse code bands. If you know some basic electronics and and learn a few rules, it is easy to get. CB is a nice long wave band. That is 10 or 11 meter frequencies? It's 11m, I looked it up. ;-) That is incredible that you got all the way from San Jose to Barrow! 18' antenna is a half wave and would have worked well for you. Barrow changed their name to Utqiagvik. Try saying that 5 times fast. ;-) My son and a couple buddies were just up there for the summer solstice. He just got home today and I can't wait to see the pictures and hear the stories of their adventures.

The best way to be consistent is to have some sort of zeroing template. You need a way to insure your tiles are always where you need them to be. I have a couple videos on making templates. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rrKBf6iSm6m2pZs.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rZeZe9CUuM7Yp2Q.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n89kddCds5u7d3k.html

@@CNCATHome thanks for the reply!! My quadrants are not being burned onto separate tiles but on to one large surface.

@@sadlerro - I got ya! That is what you were saying but because it was on this video about breaking up an image for tiles, I assumed... ;-) If you are using LightBurn, you can use their Print and Cut feature to burn an area, move your material, and continue burning. You will have to break up your burn into the areas you can do at one time. I have a couple videos on the Print and Cut feature. You can also check out the LightBurn KZfaq channel for some videos on that feature. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/at6Xdcaendich2g.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/h7iYm6WFrcismqs.html www.youtube.com/@lightburnsoftware7189/search?query=print%20and%20cut

Good question. Aluminum is none magnetic and this would not work. You would need to use a different type of clamping method.

You remind me of Mr Roger's. I used to watch Mr Roger's Neighborhood all the time, about 35-40 years ago. This is a good video for beginners.

@@sdrawkcab_ssa - That is high praise being compared to Fred Rogers. I grew up watching his show 50+ years ago. Land of make believe, trolley, King Friday... Thank you for that. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

@@CNCATHome Mr Roger's definitely made a big impact on kids back in the day. I see your videos doing the same in the laser community as well.

That is a great question. I have not gotten that to work yet. I have also not tried very hard to use this with metal. It is a good thing to put on my list to try. I have tried using an etching compound designed for metal. With the lower power of my diode laser, I did not get it to work.

That is great! I am glad it help you out. Thank you so much for the greetings from Spain! :-)

Thank you so much for this. My coffee comes in a can and is called Coke. I will totally have one. 🙂

That is funny. It must be the style of shooting the video that I do that is a holdover from the 90s. I am surprised it isn't from the 70s or 80s. ;-)

@@CNCATHome Yeah, some of it just reminded me of VHS tapes. But then again, some other parts didn't. So it's not like it's fully consistent either

@@TNH91 - That is interesting. I used one video camera for all of the live shots. The LightBurn was captured directly from the computer. The website for the boxes does have quite a retro look to it. Maybe that is part of why it has that feel to it. :-)

It is unfortunate that any comments may have been removed. In the entire life of the channel, I have removed one or two comments from the channel. I am looking now to see if there was some sort of automated thing from KZfaq that did something with your comments but am not finding anything. I found 5 comments that were held for review and none of them were from your account. I am at a lost as to what happened to your comments.

Seems like KZfaq likes to delete comments at odd times, with no real reason that I can see. It's happened to me more than I think KZfaq should do, for innocuous comments. At least they've managed to do _something_ about all the scam comments that were everywhere. So this might be some false positive results from that as well.

Thank you! :-)

That is a great idea. What type of material do you use and how thick is it? I would think something thin would work well. I was thinking of lining my box with felt and still might do that.

I am glad it helped out! I hope your burn turns out well.

Thank you. It is a great way to learn. Something, something goes wrong and it turns into a new technique for doing something. Or is it is a big loss of material and a good learning experience.

Thank you for the input! 🙂 My next steps are going to be to do a proper material test using greyscale to see how the different power settings seem to react with the TiO2. Then I can do some testing with better images to see how it really works.

That is a great question. What I have found is less is better. The trick is to get as light or thin of a coat onto your medium as you can while maintaining full coverage. With TiO2, a thicker coat will require a little more power or longer burn time and generates a thicker and rougher end result. I have found that a wide range of feeds and speeds will work well with TiO2.

@@CNCATHome thanks

Thank you for asking. I should really make sure to mention what laser I am using in each video. This one is an AtomStack P7. It has a 200X200mm working area and is a 5.5 watt laser with a 40 watt power supply. I really like using it for smaller projects. It is very portable and easy to set up and use on smaller projects.

Just a little something for everyone. :-)

I have avoided using Greyscale as it tends to be very picky. For images, I have used the Jarvis method with great results. Using that method will give you that news paper look close up as that is exactly how news papers print images. They have black ink and to make if look grey, they make small dots and lines mixed in with the white paper color to trick our eyes and it works well. I really like that you found, quite by accident, that changing your laser position will give you that nice black crystal structure in the TiO2. :-)

I found that my laser needed to be 1.5 further away for engraving with TIO2 and also i firstly applied with a poly brush to get a smooth layer and then air brushed over the streaks well is came out almost perfect using grey scale I did a pirates ship and it came out like a B/W photo so smooth at a 245 DPI very impressed well i have found my technique that looks awesome and hope some one else tries it and gets good results So Happy Oh I do prefer Jarvis for doing Vectors also to say i mixed two tea spoons of TIO2 with four water and one PVA for the air brush And two TIO2 and two water and one PVA for the Poly brush

@@spudnickuk - That is fantastic! I am glad that you found what works well for your set up. I love that feeling when it all comes together and you know what you did and can repeat it. ;-) I just might have to give Greyscale another go to see if I can get that working. :-)

@@CNCATHome I did try grey scale at first and didn't get no joy as came out pale Then I went to Image R website to try there software and still no joy As new to light burn I played around with the image settings and realised it has to be dark for the burn As for Image R website Well It is pointless if you have Lightburn as all the adjustments can be done in it And stored into profile's

@@CNCATHome Thought to say as I did more Greyscale etching today and got better results. After touching up with airbrush after applying the main first layer with poly brush to gain a smooth layer i found i had speckles caused from the airbrush so after using airbrush I let dry and use tissue paper to wipe down the surface to make it smoother Not rub! well the results are astonishing now and getting repeated perfect results. There is science behind it but I will not bore you lol just think about light scattering and absorption

That does seems slow. I am glad the results are turning out good. I have been using a 3:1 ratio of denatured alcohol to TiO2 and applying it with an airbrush. I can get a consistent layer that isn't very thick and it burns quickly and dark black with my 10watt output laser and I think I am running at 4,000 mm/min with 40% to 50% power with a 0.100mm interval.

That's great! That is the main reason behind the channel. 🙂

I have an upcoming project where this will come in very handy!

It has been a great laser for me. :-)

That is great! I am glad you found this video and it was helpful for your project.

Absolutely. That should work just fine. I have had people tell me they use water. Some use a mix of water and white glue. Anything that will hold the TiO2 in suspension long enough for you to get it on your tile is good. As long as it will evaporate away. ;-) As for the mix, I am using a 3:1 mix and applying it with my air brush. :-)

@@CNCATHome thank you:) 8ll do 2:1 and paint it on since i do not have an airbrush. I have done many tiles with paint but have been teying to use titanium dioxide in a solution for a while

That is fantastic. I should see how well this thinner mix works with a brush. The cleanup sure would be faster. ;-)

@@CNCATHome kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qNx-q72gybWsipc.html

@@CNCATHome kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qNx-q72gybWsipc.html no thinner.pva glue water and the dioxide.its the best amon other solutions.

@@CNCATHome1 part pva glue 1 part dioxide 3 parts water.search it on youtube.its the best method

I am glad that you were able to get something from it. I enjoy trying new things and by documenting my experience, my hope is to encourage others to try things out. Sometimes, all you need is a little encouragement or direction to go. I hope you enjoy working on your own projects as much as I do. 🙂

I have had several people comment on using white glue to help with the suspension. I have not yet tried it. I have been using a thin mixture with a little food coloring in the airbrush and getting good results. I am glad there was something to learn from the video. :-)

I did finally get to try Tio2 with PVA glue and applied it using a cheap battery air brush It covered and dried perfectly And to say after doing a material test using Light burn I found the correct settings And so I did etch an image and it came out awesome

@@spudnickuk - That is fantastic! I am so glad that it is working for you. You should be able to make tons of projects with this method. 🙂

​@@CNCATHome thank you but to say I'm glad I have seen your method and to say I think it just needs to be perfected so don't give up on it and others will also learn on what can be done And try and may get good results Anyway their is much contents that you show that one can learn from