Everyone here knows, when I'm making honey dipper lids for mason jars I use a cheap laser to embellish the lids. Everyone always asks, how big of a piece can you do? No one ever asks how small. I had an idea today to embellish a knob or two to see if it would work. So, here is the result, toothpick on top for scale. Keep in mind this is done with cheapo machine that's probably 4 years old now, not sure about that anymore. I'm still amazed at what it will do.

 

 

They actually look much better in reality, picture is blown up enough to show the imperfections pretty good. Still, I think the "honey lady" is going to like them.

Steve, are you running one of the CNC software programs to do those designs?

45 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Steve, are you running one of the CNC software programs to do those designs?

 

Fred. I draw nearly everything with Inkscape which will export to DXF. Since the laser is only 2 dimensional I don't need a full blown CAD program. Now and then I start with Delta cad but always go through Inkscape for the final file. The software I use to actually run the laser is T2 laser, available at benboxlaser.us

That is awesome!

If I was not trying to slim the shop I would buy one. Great idea for the small stuff

Those are really cool Steve.

4 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Steve, are you running one of the CNC software programs to do those designs?

Fred I do mine in the CNC software program. I can put any photo in it and run a vector file on it. You need the vectors to cut or burn. After the vector program runs you can go in and fine tune everything.

Great.  Small is usually hard to achieve.  Well done.

9 hours ago, RustyFN said:

Fred I do mine in the CNC software program. I can put any photo in it and run a vector file on it. You need the vectors to cut or burn. After the vector program runs you can go in and fine tune everything.

 Thanks, Rusty (and Steve). But when you talk to me about such things it pays to type very slowly and use really small words. That's the reason I don't have anything CNC in the shop.  Still, I keep hoping something simple will come out and I can work with it.

Very nice!

Now you have a benchmark with which to compare that new machine.

34 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

 Thanks, Rusty (and Steve). But when you talk to me about such things it pays to type very slowly and use really small words. That's the reason I don't have anything CNC in the shop.  Still, I keep hoping something simple will come out and I can work with it.

 

Fred, it's exactly like learning to turn, or to use a carving chisel, or even basic woodworking. Baby steps, I've taken many of them.

 

Inkscape is a drawing program that will also manipulate images. It is an open source version of Adobe Photoshop I think. One of the great things about Inkscape is that is an "open source" program. What that means to you and to me is that it is completely free to download and use with no restrictions.
https://inkscape.org/

 

A DXF file is the extension for a "drawing exchange format" file. It is like a jpg in that it is a standard that can be created in one program and then used by a different one. Another really nice thing about Inkscape is, there are dozens, if not hundreds of tutorials on youtube, everything from how to draw a line to complex, advanced drawing techniques, I've watched a ton of those as well, many of them over and over as I forget how to do something if I don't use the program for a while. Inside information here, I've even watched some of my own videos to help me remember how I turned this or that.

 

Delta cad is another great program, it's not free  but it is very reasonably priced at around 30 bucks when I bought it. Once again, there are many tutorials available to help learn what it can do.

 

T2 laser is simply the program that ultimately controls the laser engraver. It again is a very reasonably priced program and there is a forum dedicated to using it, a person can always get help there.