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I’ve been getting into laser engraving and cutting in a big (and small) way.
I’ve been getting into laser engraving and cutting in a big (and small) way.I continue to be impressed by what today’s laser engravers/cutters can do. Chief among them is the huge range of projects they can handle with almost no restrictions on the size of the finished projects themselves.
In most cases, you need to size a tool to fit the job. Big holes take a big drill, for example, and small details take a small cutter. And while lasers come in a wide range of physical sizes and power levels, the results they produce aren’t dictated by those sizes.
Take a look at the pair of images above. While the examples depicted weren’t done with the same machine (or even in the same country), the same laser could easily have done both. The only meaningful difference is the complexity of the engraving and how much time it took to do the jobs.
Those toothpicks I’m holding took less than five seconds each, which shouldn’t be a surprise since they’re so tiny. The complexity is nearly nonexistent. Once the text was keyed in and centered on the toothpicks, all I had to do was press a button.
That engraved mural by Kat se Blad Laser Studio, on the other hand, consists of 36 separate 17″ x 36″ MDF panels (22 of them engraved) and once assembled measures 8-1/2′ high and 19′ long. Total engraving time for this project was about 128 hours. However, one of the nice things about lasers is that once you hit the button it takes over for that workpiece. As long as you tend the laser, you can work on something else.
The machines used were different – my toothpicks were done with a CO2 laser, while Kat se Blad used a diode laser – but the effect produced where the laser dot hits the workpiece is the same. I could have done those toothpicks on his laser, while he could have done his mural on the laser used for the toothpicks and they would have come out the same.
That is one of the best examples of versatility I’ve ever seen. The more I learn about these machines, the more excited I get about what I’ll discover next. Stay tuned.
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