this its my first try on laser etching, i think the artwork was really bad, and the laser cut some parts till the enclosure, but i think its ok.
If you could point out the bad parts, I. cant see them. Looks great!!!
This is much better than my first one!
There's much more to laser etching than loading your artwork and hitting start.
It's having the right image, getting the settings right, having the focus set properly, and also understanding that how much detail you can get will depend greatly on the finish you're etching.
Lots of patience and trial and error. Fortunately, there's a few people here that can answer some questions, so ask away.
And as I live and breathe, getting all that stuff right still won't save a crappy design.
Quote from: jimilee on August 16, 2014, 06:34:04 PM
If you could point out the bad parts, I. cant see them. Looks great!!!
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the head its bare aluminium
I like the stealth look to it :)
But with black paint on dark grey aluminium, you're never going to get great contrast. Infill, maybe?
Back when i was getting my enclosure laserized... the goal was to have the laser to go thru the paint for better contrast.
i.e.:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/64027_404780376263925_1910950468_n.jpg)
A few suggestions:
1.) You may need to turn the laser power up a bit. I would try running it at max power and then just adjust the speed as necessary. What wattage laser are you using? Also, what DPI setting is it set to? I suspect the problem isn't your artwork.
2.) With black, you often have to do more than one pass.
3.) I *always* clean every etch with flux remover or high purity alcohol. It just looks dirty without it. The catch is that this doesn't work with painted enclosures. I only use powder coated for this reason. Without some sort of cleaning, the laser etching isn't likely to look very good.
It doesn't look that bad, actually. I am just giving general tips based on my laser etching experiments.
Quote from: GrindCustoms on August 16, 2014, 10:08:49 PM
Back when i was getting my enclosure laserized... the goal was to have the laser to go thru the paint for better contrast.
i.e.:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/64027_404780376263925_1910950468_n.jpg)
best bass driver ever! Never leaves my board, of course now that I'm not playing it also never leaves the house. :(
Quote from: GrindCustoms on August 16, 2014, 10:08:49 PM
Back when i was getting my enclosure laserized... the goal was to have the laser to go thru the paint for better contrast.
i.e.:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/64027_404780376263925_1910950468_n.jpg)
in fact my goal was not to reach the enclosure but to burn the paint, as it was a BLMS 125b enclosure, it looked fine on that black paint... i will try with more power on the laser
It looks to me like the focal length wasn't quite right.
When you engrave the enclosures if you paint or powder coat the box yourself you'll get much better results regarding the contrast.
This is one i powder coated myself:
(http://distilleryimage7.ak.instagram.com/58be49be100f11e398c722000ab5a787_7.jpg)
Sanded with 400 grit before so nice and clean underneath the powder, the bare aluminum really pops.
This is the result on a hammond precoated enclosure:
(http://photos-a.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xpa1/924977_266239453555912_1393842549_n.jpg)
As you can see, no matter how many passes the result is never as good, just can't acheive the same contrast.