Had an idea for my larger fiber laser. I watched videos of people engraving coasters made out of slate, so just for grins, I bought some to see how well that would go. Went through quite a few of them just experimenting, and I had a LOT of trouble finding the right settings to get a deep engraving into that rock. Oddly enough, the laser would just melt the rock, leaving shiny globs all over the design I was trying to engrave. Very unsatisfactory result, as those melted rock globs would leave a very rough and unclean looking finish on the surface.
Not sure exactly what I did differently with the following videoed job, but whatever it is, I am getting exactly the results I was after. I have to take some notes about EVERYTHING about the settings for this job so I don't lose the magic settings for other designs. This is going to be for my niece and her husband who have horses. Kind of long, but I found I am fascinated watching that laser work, and have already watched this through, beginning to end, several times already. Watching via a video is MUCH safer than watching it in real time. I use protective glasses to protect my eyes from the infrared laser beam, and besides running an exhaust fan to pull off the rock dust generated, I also wear an N95 mask too.
Oh, this is in 4K/60fps if you can view it that way.
Only have one more to do, and I will have a set of eight to send to them. Takes about 22 minutes or so per coaster. The noise that sounds similar to music in the background is me plinking around on my arranger keyboard while waiting for the engraving to finish. Fortunately for you, you really can't hear it all that well.
Threaded Mode
