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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 3:30:41 GMT -5
  Well, everyone I spoke to said it was not possible to make engravings on rock with such a weak laser, and seeing that I am possibly the very last contrarian and love to throw wee little brown jobbies at the wall to see what sticks, I am posting my very first attempts using the woefully underpowered little laser machine. It literally costs about 150 dollars, versus the huge amounts one would pay for a 30W or bigger one. My aim is to be able to engrave the whale cottage designs logo (the little whale tail) onto the back bottom of my cabochons. Just an outline would be good and fine, like the letters on the images I posted above. Size would be 3 mm by 3 mm odd. This was my first try ever on a laser, and my very first couple of hours attempts on the little DJ6 laser. Of course after burning bunches of words and images during the hour before that on wood and stinking out my lounge with the smell of wood burning. My burn on the purple Australian rock (the name escapes me now) was without covering the stone with anything, just a direct burn with 100% laser, 20% speed and 40 passes. It took about 10 minutes but I did not record the time. And that came out pretty fine for my purpose! On the more transparent agate, I covered the surface of the agate with black sharpie so that the light did not just pass through the surface without having something to focus on. And as you can see, it did etch the surface, but because it is transparent and the laser is pretty weak, the etching is not that visible. I may have to get more creative on more transparent cabochons, put on masking tape, burn the logo into the tape, and then paint or goldleaf fill the etched part before pulling off the tape. I did see that Katydid and Rob were testing out more powerful lasers on YouTube, and that Katydid even cracked an agate from the laser's heat. But I do not think I will have a problem like that with this weak one! Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions from folks that use and understand lasers that do not involve me paying 1000 dollars or more for a stronger laser will be very appreciated! Theo |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 3:36:18 GMT -5
Note that on the agate, the bottom etching had also had the black sharpie, but I cleaned it off with alcohol.
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Post by liveoak on Oct 30, 2024 6:14:12 GMT -5
I have no useful input, except to say, That's cool !! 
Patty
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 6:21:49 GMT -5
liveoak I do appreciate that, useful or not! :-)
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 30, 2024 7:14:46 GMT -5
Someone suggested that I cover my clear rocks with toothpaste rather than masking tape. That worked much better.
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 8:14:04 GMT -5
Hi JugglerguyCheers for that! Another one I read about was mustard, of all things! And I saw a video on it working on glass, made me bellylaugh, this world is such fun. |
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 30, 2024 8:19:23 GMT -5
Hi JugglerguyCheers for that! Another one I read about was mustard, of all things! And I saw a video on it working on glass, made me bellylaugh, this world is such fun. I hadn't heard of mustard. I wonder if there's any chance of that staining a rock? Not something like Montana agate, but a more porous rock like Petoskey Stone might turn a little yellow. Toothpaste worked really well and was easily removed with a toothbrush, believe it or not. The problem with masking tape is that it burns around the edges and it's very difficult to remove all the burnt areas. |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 8:32:52 GMT -5
  And I have now figured out how to get an image into the laser too, and that is our little logo! Whoooooooo!!! |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 8:35:49 GMT -5
Hi Jugglerguy Cheers for that! Another one I read about was mustard, of all things! And I saw a video on it working on glass, made me bellylaugh, this world is such fun. I hadn't heard of mustard. I wonder if there's any chance of that staining a rock? Not something like Montana agate, but a more porous rock like Petoskey Stone might turn a little yellow. Toothpaste worked really well and was easily removed with a toothbrush, believe it or not. The problem with masking tape is that it burns around the edges and it's very difficult to remove all the burnt areas. I take your point about the white colour of the toothpaste, and I did watch the video and saw the result! I will do some tests to see! As you can see from the above where I did not use any type of mask, if the rock is opaque you can just burn directly, which is what I did there! It is only the transparent rocks where you need to put something for the laser to focus on, otherwise the light just passes "through". Thank you again for the ideas! Appreciate them! |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 8:49:41 GMT -5
And me being me, I only just figured out who you are Jugglerguy :-) Thank you again, and bless you for your videos, I have watched a ton of them and enjoyed them! Shukran Habibi! |
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Post by Jugglerguy on Oct 30, 2024 9:38:15 GMT -5
That logo looks great. I agree, there's no need to use any covering unless the rock is translucent.
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Post by liveoak on Oct 30, 2024 9:48:48 GMT -5
And I have now figured out how to get an image into the laser too, and that is our little logo! Whoooooooo!!! Looky, Looky - WOW !!!!! 
OK, now I want the specifics- how powerful (watts) is the laser, please.
Much potential here - way cool !
Patty
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Post by parfive on Oct 30, 2024 11:44:44 GMT -5
liveoak . . . Check thread title for a hint, Patty. : )
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Post by parfive on Oct 30, 2024 11:45:47 GMT -5
Theo - I’d be tempted to write Stone Canyon on everything for a while just for wee little brown jobbies and giggles.
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Post by liveoak on Oct 30, 2024 11:49:49 GMT -5
liveoak . . . Check thread title for a hint, Patty. : ) Sorry, Rich a little slow on the uptake today.
Patty
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 19:39:34 GMT -5
Hi Jugglerguy Cheers for that! Another one I read about was mustard, of all things! And I saw a video on it working on glass, made me bellylaugh, this world is such fun. I hadn't heard of mustard. I wonder if there's any chance of that staining a rock? Not something like Montana agate, but a more porous rock like Petoskey Stone might turn a little yellow. Toothpaste worked really well and was easily removed with a toothbrush, believe it or not. The problem with masking tape is that it burns around the edges and it's very difficult to remove all the burnt areas. One thing I did notice, and imagine would be the same in most cases, is that the laser etching with this weak laser would not work as well on something like Petoskey stone where there is an irregular surface. You can see how my burns on a homogenous flat surface looks great, but where I had printed the WCD bit at the top where there are cracks it did not do so well. But perhaps a stronger laser would just laugh at that and make it look fine. |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 19:46:30 GMT -5
And I have now figured out how to get an image into the laser too, and that is our little logo! Whoooooooo!!![/quote] Looky, Looky - WOW !!!!! OK, now I want the specifics- how powerful (watts) is the laser, please.
Much potential here - way cool ! Patty I am so chuffed. I really only thought I had a 10% chance of it working on stone! And the machine can be used for other purposes too. If you make up a little wooden box to put a pendant or whatnot in for a client you can print the logo plus the lettering on top of the lid of the wood etc. |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 19:47:22 GMT -5
Theo - I’d be tempted to write Stone Canyon on everything for a while just for wee little brown jobbies and giggles. Hee hee.... I agree! |
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Post by aDave on Oct 30, 2024 20:28:13 GMT -5
My burn on the purple Australian rock (the name escapes me now) Mookaite? |
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Post by whalecottagedesigns on Oct 30, 2024 20:28:22 GMT -5
And just notes for first time laser users like myself. I know that a year ago this Daja DJ6 was way more difficult to get started as a lot of the instructions were in Chinese, and even the little application had tricky issues with connecting to an app on your phone or PC based on all the video's I watched about it on YouTube.
But this could literally not have been easier, the manual is now fully in English and easily readable, and so is the application on the phone. I am a slow learner so if I could do it, anyone can.
The hardware is literally just sliding the foot unit into the back of the head unit. That is it. Done.
The software. I just installed the App on my phone - you can install to a laptop or such too. For the phone it connects using Bluetooth.
All you do is scan a QR code which is in the manual (Android or Apple or Playstore). Then it will download the application. This does take quite a while, took me about 50 minutes on a high speed internet.
Then you should be able to just follow the instructions in the manual. I got this all done and burnt my first bit onto wood within an hour including the software download time (they supply some test wood pieces with the unit).
Theo
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