I was planning on replying in a couple days, but I did contact Opt laser and I sent my laser back to them and they repaired it at no charge and it is currently in transit back to me. Hopefully by next weekend I’ll be up and running. I will follow up once I get the laser in and fire it up.
Al, I received my laser back from Opt Laser. They repaired it and sent it back to me at no charge. They never even questioned my request. I really can’t say enough good things about them, they are a 1st class company and I will recommend them to anyone. I connected my laser and started running test burns and it works excellent. I’m running it with Lightburn and that seems to be an ideal pairing. I know I still have some setting that could be refined but for my first night of testing I think this turned pretty good. I can’t thank you enough for all your help, I’m not sure I would have ever been able to figure it out on my own.
Chad,
dude… that turned out fantastic!
A few things that might help…
Try focusing your laser a bit finer. It appears a little bit wide. I use a wood block cut to 3" to set my Z height over my project workpiece. Once you fine tune the focus at that point, setting the Z height is a matter of attaching the laser, and using the block. simple and easy. You should be able to achieve a focus of .006" or less at that height.
If you are running grbl 1.1f, which i hope you are, try using M4 mode in lightburn.
Also, in Lightburn, use the overscan function to prevent the laser from “digging in” on the edges of the burn.
As the cnc pauses to reverse direction and switch positions, the laser will burn a little deeper on the edges. Overscan mode prevents this by getting the axis moving before turning on the laser, moving slightly outside the project path to gain speed as the laser turns on. It works beautifully.
Great design. I may have to “steal” that look!
Thanks. I was wondering what the magic focus number was. I had it set up pretty close to that, I was measuring from the bottom of the z axis bracket which was less than 3" but close to that from the air nozzle. Are you 3" from the air nozzle?
When I set my Z height, I remove the nozzle and block straight from workpiece to the bottom of the laser body. Not the lens, but the laser body.
That way, my focus is preset, and if I want to defocus the beam (for various reasons) I only have to adjust the Z height a few thousandths to achieve my desired focus.
It gives you a known repeatable reference for the beam focus.
I was thinking along the same lines when I chose the bottom of the z axis bracket but I like your idea better. I did watch the tutorial on the lightburn which did cover the overscan but I forgot about the M4, Thanks for reminding me.
No problem. Happy to assist!
I’m certain you will have no trouble getting things setup quick and easy…
A short story. Not about the Opt Lasers diode, but the people behind it.
Back when I ordered the diode I got the disco laser goggles too. A while ago I dropped them and had one of the lenses come off. It was a very small drop (from the cnc table to the bench top), but I got unlucky. No matter how I tried to snap the lens back on, it would pop out right away.
I sent an “any advice?” email to Opt Lasers to share my pain. I was expecting a “try filing that side” response at best. Instead, they sent a new pair. I offered to at least pay for shipping. They said no, it’s their duty to provide with what I paid for.
Yes, they replaced a product they purely resell, not manufacture, for a mistake that was not their own, at their own cost.
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Hi, I have a question about PLH3D-15W. I need a solution for more industrial work for several hours a day, do you have any experience? I didn’t saw anything on forum about 15W.
Sorry, but I have no experience with the 15W version of their laser.
I ended up moving to a larger cnc a while back, and haven’t used a laser since. I am in the market for a new one though, and that seems a probable solution for me.
Al
Hi Michael, You certainly don’t need to have a 15W unit to consider a laser as industrial. Our lasers can be operated without using any duty cycle. We realize that our units are not the cheapest, but we really care about their longevity because we also manufacture them as OEMs for industrial markets.
So basically, if you are happy with the speeds (for 6W units) that we showcase on our site, you don’t need to overinvest. Laser Cutting and Engraving Tests
Anyway, if you need a beast then the PLH3D-15W unit awaits 
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Great information! Thanks for replying!
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There are great videos covering this on Youtube
Been trying to dial in my opt laser just so i can get a basis what is a good speed, focus depth, and power setting for a portrait type of image in lightburn?
Hi Devin, do you have the 6w or 15w optlaser? The 6w has a focal length of 60mm (there is an L block of aluminium shipped with the unit - or mine did that allows you to set the head height above the piece to be etched). The 15w is 4mm and I’m using a piece of 4mm thick aluminium to set the gap between piece and head.
As for lightburn, there are many settings you can change, speed, power, angle of cut amongst others. There is no universal setting as it depends on material, type of image, how deep you want the etch etc. I generally test on a piece of scrap before doing the final etch. Optlasers do have a table of suggested speeds/power on their website, these are a good reference but even then you should test before leaping in. Not a definite answer but I hope it helps. Both lightburn and optlasers have a pretty good support team/user groups.
Thanks for the feed back Ive got the 6w opt laser Ive tried to boost my speed and lower my power but still get deep burns I was able to do some what of a picture image but I haven’t been able to capture it in full detail Im trying to work on some STL files but i cant get the laser to home in on the different darker to lighter areas in order to produce the gray type of areas in order to produce the 3D type of image I’m shooting for…similar to the photo I posted
Hi Devin, this Lightburn thread covers quite a lot. I know it’s an image explanation but hopefully will help with the shading issues. The way the image is prepped, machine settings are all covered too. Good Luck, please post how you get on.
I got up this morning decide to play with the laser I tried to burn an image that was a drawing. I had the height set at 60 mm while using the high resolution lens I don’t have the big gimpin so I used only light burn to adjust the drawing the settings I used were under the adjust image tab my DPI was at 454.5 my gamma was at 0.100 my brightness was at -1 my contrast was at 10. under The cutting layers tab my speed was at 400 my power was at 25% my DPI was set at 450 the overscan was at 4%, and using the jarvis setting. my results were fairly decent but yet I still lack a little bit more fine-tuning I’m hoping that we can maybe compare notes not on the same image it can be a different image but I’m just trying to get mine dialed in. I have 1000mm x 1000mm x-carve with opt lasers 6 watt laser, I’m trying to get the results like the guy from SouthernSmoke Engraving( https://youtube.com/user/zerica24 ) gets. I will attach the link of the image that I attempted to burn Black Panther (Drawing) by legend518 on DeviantArt
I chose this image because it had a lot of black and a lot of Gray tones and that’s what I’m trying to dial in on. Any pointers in the right direction are greatly appreciated. I’ve been searching for someone with the same set up that I have, that post videos or images of STL engravings or portrait unfortunately those are few and far in between I’ve only heard stories about it never actually seen anything
Hi Devin, I’m busy for the next few days, but happy to give this a go later in the week. What material are you burning onto? Different materials will produce different results…. Cheers
I used a scrap piece of Baltic birch plywood