When creating text and using laser line vs fill, the line is very thin, almost too thin on certain substrates. Is there a setting to increase the line width or to make the line bold. I have also tried graphics that have a vector outline and amongst the settings I do not see where you can set the laser outline width.
Is it possible to do multi pass with an offset of 2nd pass or some other way to make the laser etch outline wider and more pronounced ?
thank you anyone for your support
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Not clear if you’re talking about cutting all the way through, or engraving. But it’s basically the same problem with the same answers… I’ll assume “cut”.
The technical term for the slot left by the cutting process is “Kerf”. Typically, you want the kerf to be as small as possible. I have a UV laser that focuses down to a 0.0019mm diameter spot. But on my CO2 it’s about 0.1mm.
If you want a slot that’s wider than the laser’s kerf, you could try defocusing the laser a bit, but that might require multiple passes and will probably result in more singing. Less focus = less power. Better for engraving, less better for cutting.
The way I do this on my CO2 cutter is by using the “outline” function in Adobe Illustrator to create a second set of vectors slightly offset from the first. Then I just burn them both.
Far as I know, no laser cutter has a “make the kerf wider” feature.
thank you for the reply. The process I am working on is Etch like on Cork or Stone and the lines are razor thin and I would like to make the Kerf a little wider and was hoping there was a process option in Bambu Suite to make the Etch line a little more bold or pronounced. I will explore some of your suggestions with laser focus etc… I have a H2C 10w Blue Laser not a Co2 laser. So I will see what options there may be.
Thanks you Again
The light type and power dictates what you can and cannot laze, but all lasers work in the same basic way. Maximum power is delivered through a lens to a focused point in space. If you want a wider “cut”, you have to make the beam wider at the point it is making contact with your material. The only option for that is focus. Focus the laser normally, and then move it up a mm. The diameter of the spot that hits the material will increase. However, the power will decrease (same energy spread over a larger area), and with only 10W to begin with, you might not have enough power to mark the surface acceptably.
That doesn’t work, you need duplicate vectors that are offset a small amount from the primary vector.
If you have Adobe Illustrator, doing this is trivially easy and you can make the border as wide as you want by adding more slightly-bigger outlines running the same command repeatedly. I expect InkScape can do it to, and that’s freeware if you don’t have something like Illustrator already. But this is how I would do it with any of my lasers - select the vector I want to be thicker and make a few slightly larger copies surrounding the original.