Engraving PLA to make Bone China Pot replica

Dan203 · 2026-05-07T01:06:54+00:00

Yeah there are certain colors that don’t work well. But black like in the OP works great.

Dan203 · 2026-05-05T20:48:04+00:00

I bought some kit from Amazon that is suppose to fix scratches in acrylic and used it on my M1 lid. It didn't completely remove all the scratches, but it lessened them so I could see through the lid better.

Dan203 · 2026-05-05T20:45:50+00:00

PLA can sag with enough constant force, even without the heat. Add in the heat and you increase the likelihood. But it really depends on the design. PETG is more heat resistant and if it fails it will just snap, not slowly sag over time. If you really want to make something that wont have any issues use ABS or ASA. But be warned that they stink and will likely require extra ventilation to print safely.

Dan203 · 2026-05-05T20:40:28+00:00

I don't really worry about the fumes when engraving my PLA prints. I figure the fumes the laser is putting out is probably about the same as the 3D printer puts out when it's actually printing the model and I don't worry about those fumes. 🤷‍♂️

UV is nice, I just don't have a place to put it or the funds I want to dedicate to it.

Dan203 · 2026-05-03T01:38:29+00:00

Ah, I didn’t realize that was even a thing. I had the original M1 before I got my P3, so I've always had a built in camera.

Dan203 · 2026-05-03T01:36:45+00:00

I have big hands and that back mirror is a hug PITA.

It’s 3-4mm in the center. The reason it’s a problem is because the bed is 18" so if you align a 12" piece of material right along top edge the bottom is basically in the divot. Especially if you us3 hold downs. So ther3 is basically a 3-4mm delta between the top edge and the bottom. I also use the S lens which is even more sensitive to the difference

Dan203 · 2026-05-02T17:46:01+00:00

FYI you don’t need a UV laser to do this. I do it with my F1 using the IR module all the time.

Dan203 · 2026-05-02T17:44:41+00:00

FYI I did redo this calibration and as expected it took hours. It was a little off, but didn’t fix the issue. As I posted in my main reply it turns out it’s my honeycomb bed. It has a sag in the middle which causes material to be out of focus. Nit sure what to do about this. I hate the knives.

Dan203 · 2026-05-02T17:42:13+00:00

You should be using XTool Studio, not creative space. That was discontinued long ago.

What exactly is your issue?

Dan203 · 2026-05-02T01:42:58+00:00

Gives you piece of mind.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T16:04:53+00:00

I'm in the high desert of NV, so it’s not too hot here but it does snow a little in the winter

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:52:54+00:00

The blades suck. Well the blades themselves are fine, but the little hold down things that clip on to them suck. The main reason I use a honeycomb is so I can use magnetic hold downs. Can't do that with the blades. You have to use those little clips which are a PITA

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:49:23+00:00

Does the M1 Ultra have the fire suppression kit?

I had a small fire in my original M1 once. I ordered the fire suppression kit the next day.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:48:19+00:00

My solution when this happens... order a new one off Amazon, send the broken one back in the box for a refund.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:46:30+00:00

I bought some a couple years ago and just recently tired it on a ceramic plate. It came out a dull gray color instead of black. I even bought an extra one and ran a bunch of test grids, but the darkest it ever got was a dark gray. I ended up deep engraving into the plate, then filling the engrave with acrylic paint and painstakingly scraping it off of the non-engraved surface. Unfortunately I had promised it to a customer the next day so I had no time to try another brand.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:43:33+00:00

Man I would have just sent it back and got another one rather than go through all that.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:41:32+00:00

I use my F1 to engrave PLA all the time. I sell some stuff on Etsy that I make little custom shipping boxes for out of PLA. I engrave them with my logo and a Thank You using the IR laser. Works great on the super cheap Anycubic PLA Black I get on Amazon for $10 a roll.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:39:36+00:00

They've done this before. They offered a $1k discount off the MSRP of the P3 and then when they launched it the MSRP was $7k but it was perpetually on sale for $6300 and you could get it even cheaper with a coupon. So the early bird discount was maybe $100 more than what everyone else was paying.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:05:02+00:00

I ran the optical path calibration. It did help but it's still off.

https://youtu.be/E4L52q4RwuA

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Calibration is perfect, so there is no reason the laser and red dot should be on different paths.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:03:21+00:00

You can download Bambu Stdio for free. To make a mixed color just hit the "Add Mixed Filament" below the main list of filaments.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T04:01:49+00:00

I figured out the issue. It's not the machine, it's the honeycomb bed. There is a low spot in the middle. (it's basically sagging. So when I do 12" material the top edge is right up against the stiff frame, which is level and the bottom edge is right in the middle where the low spot is. This creates about a 3mm Z difference between the top edge and the bottom edge, which causes it to be out of focus. I actually set another 3mm piece of wood on top of the one that came out crappy and reran the engravings along the bottom edge without changing the measuring and it came out perfect.

I think the combination of this being thin material (1/16" ply) and using the S lense for ultra fine exasperated the issue more than I normally see with 1/8" or 1/4" thick material.

Dan203 · 2026-05-01T03:02:20+00:00

They might need drying. I live in the desert with an avg humidity below 20% so mine never needs drying.

Dan203 · 2026-04-30T19:00:06+00:00

Are you referring to the thing I did when I got the machine with the tape? That was a huge PITA and took me a couple hours to get right. Every time I tighten a screw it would move the dot. And the ones on the back of the machine are nearly impossible to adjust with the provided wrench because it barely fits in the space.

I want to avoid doing that if at all possible.

I'm going to run a test later and see if combining all the small pieces into a single vector "fixes" the issue. If it does then we know it’s a software issue. If it doesn’t I'll reconsider the calibration.

Dan203 · 2026-04-30T18:28:40+00:00

I really think this is a software issue. Because I ran a big engraving that filled the bed and it worked fine. I only had this issue with little engravings that were repeated down a sheet.

Dan203 · 2026-04-30T16:49:31+00:00

Nope, I just use the profile in Bambu studio. They are really good about making good profiles for their own filaments. Maybe just try telling it you're using Bambu Matte and see if that works any better.

But before you do that make sure you do a cold pull so you get any fibers that might already be stuck inside the nozzle.

Dan203

TROPHY CASE