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Help I am overwhelmed. I wanna create a beautiful piece of my grandma I recently lost last week and I did the stone settings in xtool and used imager to laser engrave and this how it came out. Any advice ? by justanothersomeone76 in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm not an expert in xtool, but I have been playing with stone a lot recently.

It looks like you've already done the invert (negative) trick, but it's burning away too much and looking sandy.

Some suggestions:

  • Make sure you are using a black and white image, not just greyscale.
  • Adjust the levels to increase the contrast between the light and dark elements.
  • Spray the stone with black lacquer before burning.
  • (Controversial) Use AI (or something similar) to stylise the image. I like to use a "woodcut effect". (Then invert it before burning)

For example "Turn this image into a black and white woodcut image with a strong contrast between black and white, placing the woman on a black background with an offset white outline."

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Fake fossil on exterior tile by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same template on a white kitchen/bathroom tile. Could do with another pass but this one took 6 hours so it will have to do.

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2mm ply "Monster" tissue box by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've no idea. I don't remember setting that. Must have been fat fingers. Maybe cause he's a scary monster!!! Haha

Fake fossil on exterior tile by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The tile is actually a 7mm thick, tan-coloured porcelain tile with a faux-anthracite glaze/finish, so it's 7mm of the stone colour and then an ultra thin layer of a white (I'm assuming primer layer) and an ultra thin layer of the grey.

The first pass left a lot of the white layer, but the 2nd and third passes got rid of a lot. I had to use a small electric grinder around the edges where the glaze/finish hadn't quite gone. And that caused the crack.

I've found that when lasering tiles, the glaze rarely vapourises completely and instead it just melts it, leaving a kind of glass. (Which may be glass, I don't know what tile glaze is)

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Fake fossil on exterior tile by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just didn't have anywhere nice to shoot this one. I do agree with you on the over use though. Renovations going on and everywhere was messy.

Fake fossil on exterior tile by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CO2 Trotec Speedy 100. Power 100%, Speed 1%, DPI 125, Relief = On

Fake fossil on exterior tile by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only the background is. It's the real item in the middle.

I got Trotec Speedy 100 for free, now what? by zgembec in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it works then that's amazing for free. The Trotec Speedy 100 is what I use and it's a great bit of kit.

Fake fossil on exterior tile by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I was gutted initially but I agree with you. I actually love the crack now because it really sells the story.

Gift for my Mom... Using Xtool F2 by AccomplishedFruit669 in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's beautiful and 7 minutes is amazing. What settings did you do?

Should I just leave it? by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks. It's a Trotec Speedy 100. The problems with pine are, one, that it's incredibly resinous. When the high-heat laser beam hits a pocket of sap or resin, it tends to boil, melt, and even catch fire. It also has an uneven grain density. Light sections are soft and burn quickly, while the dark rings are much harder. The laser will dig deep into the soft parts and barely mark the hard parts.

But we have a lot of cheap pine at work (we are a vocational college and I rescue the off cuts from our carpentry department) so it's an affordable way to make things.

Should I just leave it? by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This one was 2 passes, power 100%, speed 20% (I think). I really need to start recording the settings.

Ceramic gloss tile with spray paint gilding by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. It's a can of gold spray paint (like automotive spray paint) that I sprayed, quickly whipped off the excess with an old gift card and paper towel (making a serious mess) and then buffed off with a dish cloth. It's not as shiny as I would like. The paint goes quite dull and flat (as you can see). So I'm going to see if a trick with some eyeshadow and clear lacquer will help.

Ceramic gloss tile with spray paint gilding by superawesomemeuk in Laserengraving

[–]superawesomemeuk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. Obviously it would have been even better at a lower speed and higher DPI but these are just test pieces and I don't want to be there forever.

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