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What is being made?
Very extremely basic laser engravings and cutouts in wood. today, i'm making catboy reinhard von lohengramm for a friend, but this process is applicable to anything.
Tools and materials i use (in order from most to least expensive)
*denotes not strictly necessary but like. you probably do want it or an equivalent
safety first
the print is by upthefolks on tumblr
sometimes you have to keep industrial equipment in your bedroom. that's life. i really need to get a table to better organize all this.
the stickers are from solarstorms etsy
step 1 - image creation
draw your image in whatever program you choose. you want your image to have the following qualities
import your transparent png and your solid color images into inkscape
use the command path -> trace bitmap to turn both into vectors. you'll have to play around with the settings to get something you like, probably
use the stroke and fill commands to change the solid fill image that is intended for our outline to no fill, with a red (255,0,0) stroke color. it's also best practices to clean up any janky bits of your images at this stage using inkscape's vector tools.
[after a trial and its associated error] i realized that my lines were too thin on my drawing, so i used the path -> outset tool on my engrave drawing to make my lines thicker. you can change the amount that offset goes by with this tutorial.
line your cut outline and your engrave outline up and group (objects -> group) them together.
[sidenote] here's something i didn't do, but is useful. it's in general nice to have your cut border wider than the image you're engraving. i think it gives a cleaner presentation overall (especially if you make it look wide enough to look deliberate) and it will help you not accidentally sand into your black parts of your image during your cleaning stage. you can do this by just using the outset tool on your border
in a new inkscape file that you'll use for cutting, make a rectangle in blue that is a size slightly smaller than the slice of wood you're cutting into. this is to give yourself plenty of wiggle room for human error. it is important that it is blue (0,0,255) and rectangular, because this will be used to help us line up our piece physically. put your cut/engrave image inside it, and make your page the same size as your blue rectangle (edit -> resize page to selection)
step 3 - prep your wood
select a piece of wood and cover both sides of it with a single layer of masking tape. i don't think the type is important but afaik lasers work best with dark colors, so i'd go with the blue kind. there's no point in getting the fancy kind sold for laser cutters unless you really really hate lining up strips of tape and want to lay out large sheets. try not to get any bubbles or overlaps between the strips of tape.
step 4 - lining up your workpiece
get your laser set up and turned on (check: coolant water is running, air pump on, exhaust venting outdoors)
import your inkscape SVG to k40 whisperer. double check that it has imported at the correct scale (you can see how large your workpiece is in inkscape)
to rotate it, open settings -> advanced settings -> rotate design
this tutorial assumes that you have already calibrated your laser/lens and know how high off the workbed your wood needs to be. if you haven't done that, you should run some tests to figure that out before you go any further. describing how to do that is beyond the scope of this post but i can if people want to know. though that would come with a heavy NOT AN EXPERT caveat. for reference, i keep my "active" wood about 1/4" off my workbed. i do this by sticking two pieces of scrapwood underneath. i'm using the stock laserhead that came with my cutter, but this will probably be different for you.
put your wood in your workbed
in k40 whisperer, move your design to the place on your workbed where your wood is sitting. to make sure that your design is positioned correctly, you will want to trace the design boundary (tools -> trace design boundary). i put a piece of scrap paper over my wood, and on very low power, just enough to scorch the paper (power 5 @ 50mm/s) i run the trace and make sure everything is over my wood.
depending on the size of your piece this process can take like 40 mins or longer lmao. it's time consuming.
step 6 - cut
run your cut pass. the settings i use are 8mm/s at ~24 power. again, your specific settings will likely differ. this usually goes fairly quick. also you definitely definitely definitely want to be sitting there watching this one like a hawk, b/c if things are going to catch on fire, this is when they will. [this is especially likely if you are not using an air compressor to blow fumes away from your laserhead, or if you are using too high of a power]
a note on engraving both sides of a workpiece
this piece, i only engraved one side, because i'm lazy, but it's totally possible to engrave both sides of a work piece. there are two main ways to do it.
the first way is to always make things in batches of two (or any even number). in your inkscape file, have both your front and back images lined up on your workpiece. run your engrave and first cut pass as normal, the VERY CAREFULLY, WITHOUT MOVING YOUR PIECE OF BASE WOOD, take out both pieces and flip them over to swap their positions. run your engrave pass a second time, and you're done.
the second way involves only doing one piece at a time. make your front inkscape file as usual, but when you come to the stage of making your blue workpiece outline, make it even smaller than usual-- as small as you can get it without touching your image. then save it as a copy. in the copy flip the image (object -> flip horizontal). if you're switching what is inside your red final cut outline, delete your front-engrave image and replace it with whatever your back engrave is going to be. save. in k40 whisperer, run your front engrave as usual. then run your BLUE VECTOR ENGRAVE, but run it with your usual vector cut settings. DO NOT run your red cut yet. note down the position that k40whisperer tells you that your image is sitting at (this should be preserved, but just in case). load your back engrave SVG into k40 whisperer. VERY CAREFULLY, WITHOUT MOVING YOUR PIECE OF BASE WOOD, flip your cut rectangle over. run your back engrave, then run your back red outline cut.
step 7 - cleanup
now you must weed all the blue tape off your piece. augh this is so tedious. you may be tempted to skip using the tape because of this, but that is the devil talking.
sand your piece to its final finish. you can do this however you like, but when i'm feeling lazy i just hit it with a 340 grit sanding block and call it a day. sanding will get crud into all the crevasses of your piece. i brush them out with a stiff paintbrush
protips
Very extremely basic laser engravings and cutouts in wood. today, i'm making catboy reinhard von lohengramm for a friend, but this process is applicable to anything.
Tools and materials i use (in order from most to least expensive)
*denotes not strictly necessary but like. you probably do want it or an equivalent
- pc capable of downloading and running programs (i use windows but i think mac/linux will also work)
- k40 laser cutter (there are a variety of models, many of which are better in specific ways, but i don't have them. this is the one i have)
- *fishtank air bubbler and some tubing to connect it to your laser cutter
- wood (I use 1/8" thick cherry)
- *drag chain / air assist nozzle
- bucket to hold distilled water
- distilled water (several gallons)
- *sandpaper
- *masking tape
- *stiff paintbrush
- scrap paper
- some sort of fire extinguishing solution (just in case!)
- [my laser came with, i did not purchase] water pump and its tubing, air exhaust tube, usb cable
- drawing program of your choice (i use procreate)
- inkscape
- k40 whisperer
safety first
the print is by upthefolks on tumblr
sometimes you have to keep industrial equipment in your bedroom. that's life. i really need to get a table to better organize all this.
the stickers are from solarstorms etsy
step 1 - image creation
draw your image in whatever program you choose. you want your image to have the following qualities
- solid black-and-transparent PNG
- 300 dpi or better, at the final size you want your cutout to be
- [i never follow my own advice here but] you don't want any of your lines to be too small, either black or white/transparent. they will not render well on the laser
step 2 - image processing
in order to cut out your image, we also need a solid color background that shows only our cut path. make a new layer behind your image and fill the outline of what you want cut out with a solid color.use the stroke and fill commands to change the solid fill image that is intended for our outline to no fill, with a red (255,0,0) stroke color. it's also best practices to clean up any janky bits of your images at this stage using inkscape's vector tools.
[after a trial and its associated error] i realized that my lines were too thin on my drawing, so i used the path -> outset tool on my engrave drawing to make my lines thicker. you can change the amount that offset goes by with this tutorial.
line your cut outline and your engrave outline up and group (objects -> group) them together.
in a new inkscape file that you'll use for cutting, make a rectangle in blue that is a size slightly smaller than the slice of wood you're cutting into. this is to give yourself plenty of wiggle room for human error. it is important that it is blue (0,0,255) and rectangular, because this will be used to help us line up our piece physically. put your cut/engrave image inside it, and make your page the same size as your blue rectangle (edit -> resize page to selection)
select a piece of wood and cover both sides of it with a single layer of masking tape. i don't think the type is important but afaik lasers work best with dark colors, so i'd go with the blue kind. there's no point in getting the fancy kind sold for laser cutters unless you really really hate lining up strips of tape and want to lay out large sheets. try not to get any bubbles or overlaps between the strips of tape.
step 4 - lining up your workpiece
get your laser set up and turned on (check: coolant water is running, air pump on, exhaust venting outdoors)
import your inkscape SVG to k40 whisperer. double check that it has imported at the correct scale (you can see how large your workpiece is in inkscape)
to rotate it, open settings -> advanced settings -> rotate design
put your wood in your workbed
in k40 whisperer, move your design to the place on your workbed where your wood is sitting. to make sure that your design is positioned correctly, you will want to trace the design boundary (tools -> trace design boundary). i put a piece of scrap paper over my wood, and on very low power, just enough to scorch the paper (power 5 @ 50mm/s) i run the trace and make sure everything is over my wood.
step 5 - engrave
you always want to run your engrave pass first. my settings are 150mm/s , power 11. no i don't know what this translates to in terms of the units that show your active power draw. i don't have a way of measuring that right now. you'll probably have to do some trial and error to figure out what your best settings are for your specific material and laser and the type of look you want.depending on the size of your piece this process can take like 40 mins or longer lmao. it's time consuming.
step 6 - cut
run your cut pass. the settings i use are 8mm/s at ~24 power. again, your specific settings will likely differ. this usually goes fairly quick. also you definitely definitely definitely want to be sitting there watching this one like a hawk, b/c if things are going to catch on fire, this is when they will. [this is especially likely if you are not using an air compressor to blow fumes away from your laserhead, or if you are using too high of a power]
a note on engraving both sides of a workpiece
this piece, i only engraved one side, because i'm lazy, but it's totally possible to engrave both sides of a work piece. there are two main ways to do it.
the first way is to always make things in batches of two (or any even number). in your inkscape file, have both your front and back images lined up on your workpiece. run your engrave and first cut pass as normal, the VERY CAREFULLY, WITHOUT MOVING YOUR PIECE OF BASE WOOD, take out both pieces and flip them over to swap their positions. run your engrave pass a second time, and you're done.
the second way involves only doing one piece at a time. make your front inkscape file as usual, but when you come to the stage of making your blue workpiece outline, make it even smaller than usual-- as small as you can get it without touching your image. then save it as a copy. in the copy flip the image (object -> flip horizontal). if you're switching what is inside your red final cut outline, delete your front-engrave image and replace it with whatever your back engrave is going to be. save. in k40 whisperer, run your front engrave as usual. then run your BLUE VECTOR ENGRAVE, but run it with your usual vector cut settings. DO NOT run your red cut yet. note down the position that k40whisperer tells you that your image is sitting at (this should be preserved, but just in case). load your back engrave SVG into k40 whisperer. VERY CAREFULLY, WITHOUT MOVING YOUR PIECE OF BASE WOOD, flip your cut rectangle over. run your back engrave, then run your back red outline cut.
step 7 - cleanup
now you must weed all the blue tape off your piece. augh this is so tedious. you may be tempted to skip using the tape because of this, but that is the devil talking.
sand your piece to its final finish. you can do this however you like, but when i'm feeling lazy i just hit it with a 340 grit sanding block and call it a day. sanding will get crud into all the crevasses of your piece. i brush them out with a stiff paintbrush
as you can see, my first one there has lost some detail (and i also ran it on a faster engrave-- 200mm/s). i fixed that by doing the image offset command earlier.
protips
- be careful with thin protrusions. as you can see, i snapped off my circle (rip)
- for large things it won't matter, but if you have something that's long and thin, make sure that you've got the grain of your wood going in the right direction, or your whole piece is liable to snap in half
