Currently the laser processing on the rotary attachment is etching incorrectly based on the design and placement within the machine. It’s doing this with text and images. It isn’t egregious, but does make tracing over a previously lazered area impossible.
As you can see from this photo, the results do NOT match the design put in place.
This text design is taller by about 1mm from my measurements, and I am unable to line it up in Studio, even moving it around and re-taking pictures. This etch failed on the far right letters and I need to etch it again, but I don’t think I can without true accuracy.
My thought is both the picture taking / display is a bit off, and the actual laser process, since it’s measurements do not line up with what I expect. I’ve also seen stretching on some images, especially the further around the bottle it goes.
I’ve got an H2D with an upgrade kit for the 10W laser. I’m lasering at 42% power, 190mm/s, 3 passes, with dual scanning on.
The only option I’ve seen to really increase quality is the cross scanning, but that takes about 10x the time and isn’t a viable option for larger laser projects. Anyone seen or dealt with this problem?
EDIT
A photo of the engraving results. I’ve had these issues where the further out from the center you laser, the worse the results get. As you can see the LEM are all perfect, but all the outside letters contain residue. I now believe this is related to the photo taking / processing, as Bambu Studio doesn’t accurately get the outside edges of bigger laser files.
I don’t know why, but consistently the outer edges of every laser project I do with the rotary attachment has these results.
Does increasing laser power/slowing the speed help the edge texturing? It is entirely possible the coating is thicker on the edges. Additionally, the 1mm drift seems within what i would expect with a unit like this.
While the set up is not cheap, bear in mind it is not a dedicated laser much less one fine tuned for cylindrical objects. If you are selling lasered pieces off this machine plan on having at least one sacrificial piece to build your calibrations.
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In case this isn’t a dumb question, have you made sure the items you are using the LASER on are perfectly horizontal when installed and remain so during rotation?
This is me merely not able to pass by a common spelling issue.
Lasering something cannot include the letter Z as the word LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. We do not spell Stimulated like; Ztimulated.
Another (which you certainly did not use) is the word Taser, which is a brand name. The inclusion of a Z where and S should be appears to be something common by those using American English even if they are nit necessarily American themselves.
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I have reported numerous issues with the rotary module.
No matter what I do, the output gets distorted. For example, I created an image that was perfectly square, but one side became stretched, making it look more like a rhombus instead of remaining square.
I have tested this on five different materials, and all of them showed distortion. However, it does not always happen on the same side. Sometimes it affects one side, and sometimes it affects both sides.
The only response I have received from support is that I need to record a clear video of the issue when it happens and send them the .lac file and G-code.
So, if you still have yours, please send the files to support. At least for me, it has become too expensive to keep doing their work for them. Both in terms of material and time, it costs more than it is worth.
I use the 40W laser but still have all kinds of distortions when using the rotary tool. No issues using flat cutting etc.
My initial conclusion a few months ago was that the coating was thicker around the edges. This is possible, and I’ll run some tests on this bottle to see if that could be there case.
A 1mm drift is acceptable? I’m new to using laser’s, but in the 3D printing realm a 1mm drift would be totally unacceptable. This machine is certainly capable of being extremely precise, which I expect it to be.
Yeah, the rotary is still quite new and we’re definitely helping them get it working properly. In general I’m happy with it, and it’s my first laser experience. But there are just a few parts that make it difficult to use.
The flat laser stuff turns out perfect, yep.
Indeed, I’ve got a level and I use it before every project. I’m using the included stabilizer to help support the bottles. Now I cannot attest they remain level as I have never used the level after a laser project. I’ll try that.
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The 1mm drift is more of a calibration thing then a mechanical one. The machine could be extremely accurate, but I would expect a couple tries and making adjustments to get there.
