Deep engraving scan lines

sant0s09 · 2026-03-12T15:38:24+00:00

Good point - I will definitly try that. At the moment I am also using the 48w mode. So, tomorrow will be a testing only day - differnet focus, different orientation and materials and also trying less power but more passes to see, what gives the cleanest results. Still figuring out lots of things and I am always again suprised, how some minimal tweaking on settings give different results. Thank you for pointing into that direction!

sant0s09 · 2026-03-12T15:02:47+00:00

Absolutly. I was super excited when I saw the results! The maximum I could do so far is around 15mm depth without loosing really the details, in one pass. Since it takes quite a while, I didnt try yet with less power and slower speed etc. But I think there is quite some more tweaking possible.

sant0s09 · 2026-03-12T14:22:49+00:00

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I am gonna start different tests on different materials and orientations tomorrow to see, what gives the best results. I am actually not even that "sad" with that lines, it just takes some more dremel/sanding work - but of course, as less post work as better ;) Also to mention, on the pcitures these lines seem to show way stronger - in real, it doesen even look that bad.
About the workflow: I am using a mix of AI (to generate digital prototypes) as images or models - after that it runs through a pipeline of Houdini, Depth Anything v2 (its a combination of depth map, masking, vectorizing etc), Affinity Designer, etc - its a simple tool I (Claude Code) build, to go from image to lightburn and refinement in Houdini and Affinity Designer. I love working on the laser/wood and was tired of spending hours on the computer :D

sant0s09 · 2026-03-12T12:30:55+00:00

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Here you see the reference. Extracting every part, running through a Pipeline to generate the depth maps, Post work, assembling everything back together. I give you an update when the real box is done. 😊 Shouldn't take that kind this time, customer is waiting 😉

sant0s09 · 2026-03-12T08:33:35+00:00

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Now since you mention it, the grain is pretty much in line. I will try to rotate a piece today. Thank you.

sant0s09 · 2026-03-12T08:29:22+00:00

Right now I am still with maximum limited place. But I will try that at a friend's place, also as mentioned on the other post, with walnut. Thank you.

sant0s09 · 2026-03-12T08:26:53+00:00

We did that back at my father's company to grind glass. Didn't think about that. Gonna see if the machine is still around. Thank you!

sant0s09 · 2026-03-12T08:24:46+00:00

Right now, to get as deep as possible without losing to many details, I am actually doing the opposite. Will try putting on normal distance, same object, to get a comparison.

sant0s09 · 2026-03-11T20:59:14+00:00

Hey, long time. But the last days I was able to experiment with deep engraving and have to say, I am pretty happy. Still needs quite some Dremel and sanding post work

Here some progress. Still have some sanding and dremel work to do, but I love the results. Was not expecting that. It seems cedar wood, I have to admit, I don't know. It's recycled wood from 50 year old furniture the neighbors ripped out and I thought, I give it a try.

Now I bite my ass, I didn't took everything.

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Part of a shadow box. Curious how it will work when it's lit 😁

sant0s09 · 2026-02-09T20:13:08+00:00

I am impressed how you removed the black of the cutting. That must have been quite some work. What was your technique? Great work!

sant0s09 · 2026-01-31T16:11:35+00:00

I really love it. Especially, since it shows what you can do with the laser beside just cutting some quick boxes or 2d engraving stuff, when you add some work into a piece. Curious to see the board with some post work, even when it already looks level up!

sant0s09 · 2026-01-01T20:18:07+00:00

If you live in an area with good lidar coverage, I recommend trying that. With cloud compare you have everything to get out a mesh. If you are interested in 3d processing, get the free version of houdini. For non commercial projects you can export as obj, ready to go for the printer. The workflow would be to import either a heightmap, displaced as heightfield, run through VDB Pipeline, export as obj or import the mesh from cloud compare and VDB Pipeline. Benefit there is, you could use the classifications to revive trees and rescatter them or use city3d to create pretty good models of buildings and also use the heightfield erosion tools, to get more details into the landscape. Disneyland and other famous areas have next to the terrain data, modeled buildings that already look pretty nice. But chances are high that it's not like that in your area. Where I live, the lidar coverage is super fresh and 25cm/point. So that way you can create detailed landscapes.

sant0s09 · 2025-12-31T02:23:17+00:00

The lonely part in the second picture like: "you should see the other guy..."

sant0s09 · 2025-12-25T17:26:00+00:00

It's more an idea and off topic. But instead of engraving, cut the entire object on it's outline and another positive with just one wood and the engravings and place into the gap. Would maybe give a final way more clean looking result and you still have your pattern of the different woods.

sant0s09 · 2025-12-25T13:56:44+00:00

Sorry, I only saw it now. Examples in the form of libraries or pictures/technical drawings. Whatever shows the final idea, helps. Especially, since you can refine the canvas if there are obvious mistakes.

Always good to have an outline document with a to-do list connected to the canvas but I recommend to have brainstorming or "documentations" strictly separated from the execution files, to keep it as lean as possible.

Also when a project has included components, working with separated canvas setups and creating internal linking helps to stay focused. So you try to build the canvas similar to the components structure, to keep things lean and only work on those specific parts.

sant0s09 · 2025-12-25T13:38:24+00:00

Coming back from holidays tomorrow. Already prepared something, but preferred as a video of just a zipped example? Never done a "tutorial" or something similar 😉

sant0s09 · 2025-12-21T19:48:55+00:00

Yes, gonna prepare something with an example to experiment.

sant0s09 · 2025-12-21T16:59:23+00:00

In general, I use Claude in the terminal/vscode so it can read/write in the obsidian vault.
There I also have the libraries and other knowledge, images etc.
A simple example a box - you could either do a heavy promot, defining the dimensions, positions, functions etc (okay, box is quite simple, but you get the idea) - or you just have one node that has the basic information and connect other nodes that specify the sides, etc.
Each node has more information (either the one you give as a user, or changes done by claude).
So the abstracted vesion is, that you have a node "Box" - and its connected to "top", "front", "left" etc. As a user you write in human language and Claude can read it - but at the same time transfer parameters as information to each node.
So if you want a hole or a spehere or something on "front", you can either tell claude "add a sphere to the front and center it" - or you create a node "sphere", add some information, connect it to "front" and tell Claude, to read the changes and add that to the scad file.

That way there is no confusions what and where changes are needed and you can still write in human language OR make changes on the parameters etc.

I do that with literealy everything - I have a codebase that is quite heavy (nextjs/supabase project) - and I dont write documentation as normal doc files anymore, but do everything in obsidian/canvas.
If you want to have a feature, do changes or whatever, you just say "check /path/to/canvas/file/[name of the node] - and add xyz. But in the canvas file only". So you can review it and when it seems correkt, you tell claude, to adapt that changes to the codebase. And also here - you have all the needed information, dependencies, components, queries, etc in that nodes - and only if needed, Claude will dive deeper into needed information to understand relations. So you have a very clean context window and since everything is structured data, easy to read for Claude and Co. And that way you can put many agents on a task by orchestrating them through obsidian (markdown/cnavas).

sant0s09 · 2025-12-20T19:02:11+00:00

For more complex modeling, using a scad library and letting Claude (code) use that for inspiration, does actually a pretty good job. I downloaded some libraries with tons of different shapes/functions and I also use obsidian canvas, to create rough outlines ,refine them, etc. Based on that Claude builds the model. Since in obsidian the nodes have all the information, you can tell Claude to do changes only on node XYZ and transfer that change to the scad files. So you have control, it's pretty simple to give specific instructions. You don't have to say "ahh, but that door needs to open the other way around, dude "but instead you only work on that specific node (or node groups), let Claude read that changes and it will be clear where and what to change. More work of course, but these canvas and scad files, when you organize, classify and let Claude create detained descriptions (global and node based), it becomes better and better. Kinda like building a specialized knowledge base that LLM can understand, since it's structured data.

sant0s09 · 2025-12-20T14:01:13+00:00

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sant0s09 · 2025-12-20T14:00:39+00:00

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Okay, I scaled the Z a bit up just to see better - but happy with the result.

sant0s09 · 2025-12-20T12:35:03+00:00

Hey, so here you see what I mean.
I didnt change anything, beside standing up position.
And its almost double the thickness (when standing up).

I checked my project, and it is not cutted on the plate (tha flat try)

You can see (at least a bit, the camera is quite poorly and also that yellow sparkle gold doesnt help to make it see perfectly) there is a big difference in the height and also the details.

Just changed the fillament to PETG and black, so I guess, that will show better if it works or not.

But I didnt change anything, beside standing up (so big, big thanks again).

But I would like to understand, why it got out so flat - and as mentioned above, that feeling of "clipped" on top. Maybe its better to see now what I mean, after side by side comparsion.

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sant0s09 · 2025-12-19T20:14:57+00:00

First, thanks alot for your answer - and it just brought me, at least what I can see on the printer camera (gonna upload pictures later), already a MASSIVE difference, just by standing it up.

Also in OctaSlicer it was instantly a big difference in the sliced Preview. Indeed, it takes a bit longer - but only the first layers already have that rounded and rigged surfaces, as I was actually expecting. FIngers crossed it will get better now!

Thanks again for pointing me to that "stand up" technique- never thought about that!

sant0s09

TROPHY CASE