Chinese Laser Engraver

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SenjinTG said:
It takes a little playing but you can control a rotary attachment by connecting the third axis to it. Yo will need to play a bit to find the proper rotation feed rate.
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I think what you are taking about has been discussed a few pages ago in this thread.
 

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Slight fail.

I used some post it's since the unit came out of the broken. One of the rubber bands didn't make it.

But anyway slight fail. Had the laser turned up too much first time and burned right through. This came our better. I think I have focusing issues.
 

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Ok Third real test and I'm very very impressed. I even think I can get it better with more fussing with the focus.

Also for what it is the software is very nice if you don't understand computers much. It scans all your com ports looking for the device versus you going into control panel and finding it out.

Just so you know I'm running it on an old but rebuilt XP machine.
 

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Rick_G said:
Ordered mine last week so now I just wait.
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I ordered mine form the Gearbest LA warehouse Monday Night and it got here this morning. Assuming yours is coming direct from China. It was actually cheaper then getting it from China.
 
chartle said:
Ok Third real test and I'm very very impressed. I even think I can get it better with more fussing with the focus.
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Looks pretty good to me! One other thing you can try (besides focus adjustment) is to give it a very light rub down with 320 or 400 grit, it can remove some of the "fur" around the edges of the burn and really get things crisp.
 
duncsuss said:
chartle said:
Ok Third real test and I'm very very impressed. I even think I can get it better with more fussing with the focus.
Click to expand...

Looks pretty good to me! One other thing you can try (besides focus adjustment) is to give it a very light rub down with 320 or 400 grit, it can remove some of the "fur" around the edges of the burn and really get things crisp.
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Does a coat of finish before burning help?
 
chartle said:
duncsuss said:
chartle said:
Ok Third real test and I'm very very impressed. I even think I can get it better with more fussing with the focus.
Click to expand...

Looks pretty good to me! One other thing you can try (besides focus adjustment) is to give it a very light rub down with 320 or 400 grit, it can remove some of the "fur" around the edges of the burn and really get things crisp.
Click to expand...

Does a coat of finish before burning help?
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I haven't tried that yet -- it's next on my list :rolleyes:

Perhaps it will help prevent soot from getting into open grain around the burnt image.
 
I've applied sanding sealer before engraving, and that worked pretty well. Put a friction polish finish over the engraving. I know some folks do CA first, then burn. I've also read where engraving over masking tape works well, but have not tried that yet. Right now I'm starting to experiment with the rotary attachment. Looking forward to seeing what your results are.

Regards,
Michael
 
duncsuss said:
Perhaps it will help prevent soot from getting into open grain around the burnt image.
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Well in this application the soot is a plus. Its a competition BBQ team so it looking like a branding iron only adds to the look.

I may not even seal them. They still smell like smoke.
 
Keith, thanks, that is exactly the sort of info I was looking for! Please, do, post some pix when you have the chance. Are you engraving in CA covered wood, Acrylic, both? Text is pretty much what I'm interested in.

Regards,
Michael

PS: Could one engrave on bare wood, then apply the finish?
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I have used one of these lasers to burn on pens both finished and unfinished. Both work equally well.

Mine is able to burn antler and acrylic as well. Doesn't do amazing on these materials, but it will work. One tip for these materials is to turn the burn time up so the laser stays on longer, and also put a strip of painter's tape over the surface. Light colored surfaces like antler and lighter shades of acrylic reflect the laser rather than absorb it. The blue painter's tape helps combat this since it's a dark color that is non-reflective.

Also, I put a small piece of the non-slip shelf liner on the laser bed. This not only helps hold stuff in place while burning it, but it also gives me a grid to line up to that helps keep everything square.
 
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Well, today makes one year exactly since I started this thread. 50 pages later, it is still going. For me at least, the NEJE has paid for itself--I hope others have had the same experience.

Regards,
Michael
 
Over the week end I brought home the engraver and set it up on a win 10 machine. Throughout this thread there are posts on getting working in win 10 well no problems, I didn't even have to install the driver.

I'll post pics of the pens tomorrow. I still have to work on my rotating jig. Right now its a piece of all thread on two oak guides. I need to come up with a way to have a little adjustment since the laser is not right in the middle of the machine and its a little crooked.

But my first two pens came out way better than expected.
 
I'd always wanted something which would fulfill the means of personalizing pens, and pen boxes. I had just recently bought a package of those WaterSlide Decal Papers, for my laser printer. I Haven't gotten around to using them, yet, but learned (after the fact of ordering) that these decals WOULD show slight border lines of the cutout decal's application.

For the past few days I had been looking at - and pondering the purchase of - the very laser engraving device that folks, here, seem to be in much favor of. It is on the strength of this that I JUST NOW submitted an order for one. A responder to this thread provided a link to the one that most everyone had been making reference to. So, yes, my order has been put through at a cost of $67.54 (free shipping).

After having read further, through this thread, I'm kinda feeling a bit of regret for not having paid the $10+ more, for the purpose of expediting the shipping. I think I recall that the expedited shipping translated into a 3-7 business uday shipping time, whereas the free shipping was stated to take between 7-10 business days, to realize receipt of the package. I'm not a very impatient chap, and would have no issue wading through those 7-10 business days. However, I've just read where one purchaser was in wait for at least six weeks and, even THEN, had to get PayPal involved.

Well, I hope to not have to experience anything like that. I'm looking forward to getting that 'toy' :), and putting it to task on some nice pen projects.
 
Here they are.

They are oak and maple. I know, nothing special about the blanks but I wanted to show off the engraving and its what I had in the basement. Also Rockler isn't open at 10 PM on a Sunday. :(

But I was quite surprised how crisp they are. The oak has a BLO/CA finish and the Maple has a Shellawax Friction Polish. i would have used it for both since I wanted a really quick finish but the oak was of course oak. I can't find my macro lens for my phone so I can't really show how clear the little "TM"

I think I'm not going to finish them any further. The reason is that they still have a nice "campfire" smell to them.
 

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chartle said:
NLAlston said:
So, yes, my order has been put through at a cost of $67.54 (free shipping).
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did you get it from GEARBEST? If you did and its this one you can get it shipped from the Los Angeles US Warehouse.

NEJE DK-8-KZ 1000mW Laser Engraver Printer-62.60 Online Shopping| GearBest.com

Ordering it from LA is also a little cheaper and I got it in 7 real days. See if you can cancel that order and re order it.
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Hey Cliff, thanks for the advice.

But I just revisited that site (GearBest), and could find nowhere that I could cancel my order. I guess that I could've contacted them (email) with an explanation on my desire to cancel out. But, I'm just going to let matters remain as they are. Mother's Day is approaching, and I had hoped to personalize pens for my mother, and mother-in-law. Even with USA shipped packages, there'd be no real guarantee that it (the package) would, indeed, make it here by then. So, I'll just keep my projects rolling along :)smile:) until such time as when that device DOES arrive.

And, again, thanks.
 
I saw a couple of people in this thread mention they used painters tape when engraving - I wondered why? Does it help keep the burn marks down? Does it help with a sharper engraved image?

Thanks

Bob


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app
 
Bob Kardell said:
I saw a couple of people in this thread mention they used painters tape when engraving - I wondered why? Does it help keep the burn marks down? Does it help with a sharper engraved image?

Thanks

Bob


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app
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Lighter colored materials like yellow, white, etc acrylic reflect the laser rather than absorb it and as a result, it doesn't burn well with laser diode lasers. Same with some antler. Putting the blue painters tape over the area to be burned stops the laser from reflecting and let's you burn the lighter materials. Not a perfect science, at least for me, but it does help a lot.


Buddy's Custom Creations
 
Buddy Stacy said:
Mine is able to burn antler and acrylic as well. Doesn't do amazing on these materials, but it will work.
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Interesting -- what is the power rating of your unit?

Mine is rated 1W (or as they like to call it, 1000mW :wink:) and Gearbest seem to have two different answers about whether it can burn/engrave in plastics. It would be great if it turns out I can use it on acrylic acetate as well as wood.

Thanks!
 
duncsuss said:
Buddy Stacy said:
Mine is able to burn antler and acrylic as well. Doesn't do amazing on these materials, but it will work.
Click to expand...

Interesting -- what is the power rating of your unit?

Mine is rated 1W (or as they like to call it, 1000mW :wink:) and Gearbest seem to have two different answers about whether it can burn/engrave in plastics. It would be great if it turns out I can use it on acrylic acetate as well as wood.

Thanks!
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Mine is 1000mW as well. Dark acrylics do well, sort of. After burning I have to fill the burn with paint to bring it out or it is really hard to see. Otherwise it doesn't do bad. With using the tape the lighter acrylics do ok, but again, fill with paint to get a contrast. Antler is iffy either way, but with tape seems to do better for me than without.

Wear at least a mask, a respirator would be better. The smell is pretty strong and probably even dangerous to breathe.


Buddy's Custom Creations
 
Got it this afternoon. Plugged in the software and got an unrecognized character cannot unzip error. After playing around and checking the internet to see if the software was available on the gear best website (it's not or at least I couldn't find it.) a light came on renamed the file using standard characters and everything worked as it should. I tried it on some veneer I had and it seemed to work fine. Then decided to try a pen blank I had and never used. The blank had my normal CA finish, about 8 coats of CA. For $100 Cdn. I'm happy. The white you see in a couple letters appears to be some CA, a light brush with a toothbrush and they are gone. Considering it costs me $20 to get a name engraved it should pay for itself fairly soon. Next step is to build the rotary setup I've seen on here. It actually looks better than the photo shows.
 

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Rick_G said:
Got it this afternoon. Plugged in the software and got an unrecognized character cannot unzip error. After playing around and checking the internet to see if the software was available on the gear best website (it's not or at least I couldn't find it.) a light came on renamed the file using standard characters and everything worked as it should. I tried it on some veneer I had and it seemed to work fine. Then decided to try a pen blank I had and never used. The blank had my normal CA finish, about 8 coats of CA. For $100 Cdn. I'm happy. The white you see in a couple letters appears to be some CA, a light brush with a toothbrush and they are gone. Considering it costs me $20 to get a name engraved it should pay for itself fairly soon. Next step is to build the rotary setup I've seen on here. It actually looks better than the photo shows.
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Hey Rick, that looks REALLY nice. I am truly impressed, and seeing what you've done makes me feel even better - and more anxious - about MY machine getting here :).
 
Rick_G said:
1. Plugged in the software and got an unrecognized character cannot unzip error.

2. After playing around and checking the internet to see if the software was available on the gear best website (it's not or at least I couldn't find it.)
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1. thats odd I just unzipped the file and ran the program, I already had the driver installed. (see below)

2. The driver/program is or more like it should be. I found what should have been the right software on the www trusfer com site and downloaded the dual usb series.zip file and installed the driver (Note not needed for Win10). I tried to run the exe but it gave me a not a valid win 32 program error. Once I got the unit and ran the file on the included card it ran fine.

Ok It mostly fine it still glitches every once and a while and I'm not sure whats happening or what I do to fix it.

ETA I just checked again and the program on the website is a 3.0 version, not the 3.52 on the chip.
 
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After a couple days fooling around I finally tried it on my pen and one I was making for my wife. Mine was CA finished 4 or 5 years ago and it's been my daily carry pen. I burned it through the CA with a burn time of 72.
The one for my wife I messed up on and had to sand it back to bare wood then added the colouring. Burned it with a burn time of 40 on bare wood. Then applied the CA finish.
Tried building a rotating mech. for the pens but not totally happy with it. The elastic band used to drive it tended to stretch a little before the blank started to rotate resulting in a little compression of the top. Likely wouldn't be noticed by someone else but I did so will have to find another way to drive it.
I played a little with some of the acrylics I had and found some worked and some didn't. If I took a black sharpie and went over the area to be worked on it seemed to give better results. They were mainly cutoff pieces I had so couldn't tell you what they were all made of.
 

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For those that are having trouble with the laser going through the motions, but not firing, check your USB cables. A bad cable can make it do this. I have no idea why.
 
sbell111 said:
For those that are having trouble with the laser going through the motions, but not firing, check your USB cables. A bad cable can make it do this. I have no idea why.
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I also dabble in electronics (Arduinos and the like) that use USB for data and power and the people in the know say when people have issues its best to check the USB cables first.

If the one that powers the motors and the laser (the non mini USB one) can't give enough juice odd things can happen.
 
Paul in OKC said:
Has anyone done antler?
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Antler can be tough for small lasers. I typically up the burn time to at least 80. I also use painters tape to help curb the reflection of the laser from the surface. Even then I don't always get a clean burn. It also helps when you have the opportunity to burn into the marrow. It is softer and actually adds quite a bit of color, although most people tend not to cut that deeply into the antler.


Buddy's Custom Creations
 
Well, my little Neje Laser Engraver FINALLY arrived, about a half hour ago :). I only had time to unbox it, and install the driver/software. Sometime this evening, though, I will certainly be putting it to task, on some scrap wood, to see about latching on to proper settings. Very anxious about it all. If it does anywhere even near what I am expecting from it, then I know that I will surely look into getting another model, which would afford greater real estate to burn in.

I've recently seen on, on a YouTube video, which handled up to 8"x10" (I believe it was). Something like THAT would serve me exceptionally well.
 
sbell111 said:
For those that are having trouble with the laser going through the motions, but not firing, check your USB cables. A bad cable can make it do this. I have no idea why.
Click to expand...

To add to my prior post. I fired up the laser to do a demo burn I wanted to post on FB.

I loaded the image and it did what I thought was starting to burn it moved around a bit and stopped. After I few tries I realized the software was tell me the burner was resetting. These kinds of boards will reset if they don't get enough juice. I knew my motor cable was ok since it was the one provided and I had it plugged into USB power hub in a 2.2 amp socket but for the data cable which I think also powers the board I had to use a USB extension which was pretty thin. Moved a little bit of stuff around and got it plugged in without the extension and everything is fine.
 
I just got in my NEJE laser a few days ago and have really enjoyed playing with it. I was able to put a name and then a small picture on a scrap piece of wooden dowel. It became apparent that I would need one of those rotary jigs to do pens the way I wanted.

I contacted Mike Shortness on Saturday about purchasing one of his kits. It was easy ordering and simple payment process through paypal to get it done. By Tuesday Mike sent me the tracking number and a nice "how to" pdf that he had made. He also provided some links to his youtube videos on how to use his jig and references to his "Shorty's Corner".

It is supposed to get here by the end of the week and I should be able to start using it this weekend.

I have been very impressed with Mike.
 
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