Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Engraving Metal With a 20 Watt Fiber laser”.
Welcome back to make workshop, where we check out tools, toys and tech built for makers. Today we’re going to be engraving in metal with a fiber laser. This is the mon por 20 watt fiber laser. This thing has a 20 watt fiber laser light engine, a 6 inch by 6 inch operating area, that it can engrave in manual z, focus and it gets down to 0.1 millimeters of accuracy. The most important thing, though, is that it can engrave in metal – and i mean actually engraven metal, not just mark it a little bit or mark it. If you put a special paste on it, it can actually engrave metal, steel, brass, aluminum, titanium. The list goes on and on.
These are really cool. First off monport did not sponsor the video, but they did supply the laser for the video. Let’S talk a little bit about fiber lasers. Now you’re probably wondering why is it called a fiber laser? Well, that’s because the actual laser is over here in this box, and the light is transferred over to the galvo over here through this cable galvo is short for galvanometer, and it’s basically just two mirrors or a single mirror being moved two ways to take a single Point of light and draw with it the cool thing about a galvo is that it’s fast. It’S super fast like check this out. I don’t fully understand all the science behind it, but the fiber optic cable that the light goes through, is actually impregnated with a bunch of different rare earth materials that somehow magnify the light or something to make it work. So it goes into metal. Listen. I didn’t research that part, because that’s not what this video is about.
This video is about demoing this machine, so you can see if you want to go, hunt one down and find it or use it showing off cool stuff, just like the other videos in this series, so a fiber laser how’s it different from a diode or a Co2 laser well, i’ve got a video coming soon that really dives into that. But, let’s just say each one has their uses um, but a fiber laser mainly is used for cutting and engraving metal. That’S something that the other two really struggle with or can’t do it all. In most cases hey, you are you subscribed to make magazine. Yet if you like this kind of video of projects and stuff to build, you are gon na love.
Make magazine it comes out quarterly and it is packed full of tips and tricks, full projects that you can recreate and feature pieces explaining how makers are changing the world for the better? You can find information on how to subscribe in a multitude of ways, digital or get the actual print edition in your mailbox at the link above the link below in the description now back to the video when you’re using a fiber laser. You have your speed that the laser is moving and you have your power. That’S pretty much all you have on the others too, but then there’s an additional thing in this, which is the the pulse of the laser itself and different pulses, have different effects on metal. It doesn’t just engrave on things like titanium, for example, different frequencies on the laser can color it.
You can get blue and red and and orange i’ll find a an example online to show you, because i didn’t have any titanium here to experiment with um a great resource for learning. All the intricacies of this stuff is the laser everything youtube channel go check them out using the machine is pretty simple: once you get your reference material down um, you know, just guessing at the frequency can be pretty rough. You’D have to do a lot of trial and error.
There are some great options out there i mentioned laser everything earlier. I subscribed to their patreon and got an entire chart of different frequencies speeds and power that work with different metals, and it’s been immensely helpful. I would definitely recommend finding laser everything, but it works with either vectors or bitmaps. It uses easy cad 2, as the software. If you’ve ever used ezcad on a laser you’re familiar with how that works, you throw it in.
You set up your settings, but one thing that any galvo laser does that’s fantastic. Is you get a preview, especially if you’re working in vector you get a preview of exactly where your stuff’s going to happen and what it’s going to look like vaguely? So you can line stuff up perfectly check out this preview here on this little coin of a makey. I’M doing then, once you have your preview and your focus is set right, you hit go and it engraves that little galvo goes nuts.
It shoots that laser all different directions, it’s so cool to watch. I freaking love this thing. Prices for these have been dropping like crazy. For the last few years, when i first started looking at fiber lasers, i couldn’t find them for under, like fifteen thousand dollars.
This specific one, like i said, which is kind of the entry level machine, is just under three thousand dollars, so it’s actually cheaper than many of the co2 lasers. You see uh being used in your home. Of course your envelope is smaller.
We won’t get into all those differences right now, but at just under three thousand dollars. It’S a heck of a steal, get more information on this specific one at mon port laser. I will have a link to them down below thanks for joining me today to play with this laser a little bit uh, you know, be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe, and let me know down below what kind of gear or tools or toys You’D like to see us explore next i’ll, see you on the next article you .