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This guitar has never had a well fitting plate
I also had a play engraving on the grenadillo. Line and fill side by side. The fill have cut deep enough to actually inlay something
And just for fun, a photo
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I've just done a metal engraving test. I keep saying the laser won't engrave metal. I did try to see if it would mark chrome the other day, but no change at all. I sprayed some aluminium sheet yesterday for the next test
it took 5 minutes to engrave through the paint today. the stock images are pretty rough and ready, certainly for the tarot images, and the laser recreated it exactly. The Hermit is 40mm tall for reference.
That then got a dip in some ferric chloride to etch the exposed metal
then i cleaned off the paint with thinners
That is a massive success!
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Yes, I can (and have) set it up to cut and carve a complete body, but that's pretty time intensive on a hobby setup kit.
The real benefit is in doing the detail and time-consuming work. I've never had such well fitting pickups in cavities or covers into cavities, or screw holes in the exact right position, etc. I'm going to try some inlay work at some point too. I've trialled cutting designs ~1.5mm wide and then the inlays to fit into them, which worked well. That opens up all sorts of fancy inlay design work possibilities.
Hopefully going to start working part-time soon, so I'll have an extra day or two for doing the fun stuff.
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They are going to struggle cutting thicker denser material, so I probably won't bother cutting fretboards again with the 10w laser.. But it will still be great for marking out non-standard fretscales and helping with most decorative elements.
These things are getting better all the time though. They just announced a new version of the S30 range, the S30 ultra which will come in 11,22 and 33w along with a bigger working area of 600x600mm as standard - big enough for most guitar shapes.
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Its a handy little tool for thicknessing small items with the router, so will be used to tidy up some of those headplates I cut last week
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it is supposed to come apart like this for maintenance
note a brass section remains in the laser module. The replaceable lens goes in the removeable brass section.
well mine came out all in one go, and seems to be stuck together
This will be a good test of Sculpfun's support, and i will actually crack on with using some of the bits already made whilst I get it resolved
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It's still usable, but they are sending me a replacement nozzle. I will wait for that before doing any significant cutting. Apparently I did not need to remove the lens to clean, and could just a ear bud and isopropyl on the easy to get to bits. I only need to take the lens out when it is actually damaged. This wasn't clear in their guides which all say a regular cleaning is needed to maintain cutting power.
So on the one hand I am a bit annoyed by the video guide and instructions for cleaning/changing the lens. On the other, they have been pretty helpful resolving the issue and providing additional guidance. I should be back up and running soon.
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A few non guitar tests.
Mirror. I used a couple of doors from an old bathroom cabinet. Unfortunately these had some additional coating on the back that meant I got more smoke and residue and it started affecting laser power pretty quickly
I also tried etching a photo on the ither door, but that didn't work at all... but I think with a n9rmal uncoated mirror it should all work fine.
I also did a simple wallet. My stitching needs some work
And I've been working on zemaitis style designs so engraved one of those. Went a bit fast with some of it so got a few wobbles here are there.
But sadly my enchant didn't want to do this. It is old and pretty diluted so more is on the way.
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Slate engraving
Stainless steel
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I have tried photo engraving on the slate too, but not much success yet... It's a very narrow band of power setting's between black and white, making greyscale a challenge.
The stainless steel worked better than expected too. I had to cover that with black sharpie first, but got a very clean result
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Success but I took it too far and it textured the surface. I don't actually mind this look, just need to make it a bit more consistent if doing it for real. maybe a two step process where I do a clean engraving then come back and do an all over patina
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