Engraving etching aluminum / metal with some depth to it

[Gary Hair]

I have a 2" hose running to my exhaust fan that I move around where needed on the fiber. Nothing elaborate at all, about as low-tech as can be.

[Don Nguyen]

Interesting. So no enclosure on your fiber machine? Do you feel the need to shield yourself from the laser that's being emitted from the machine either?

Thanks for the info

[Gary Hair]

No enclosure. I don't feel like it's really a threat to me at the distance I would be from a stray beam. Plus, the chance of a beam being reflected at me are probably pretty slim. Do whatever makes you feel safe and comfortable, my choice to do it this way may not be advisable.

[Don Nguyen]

Understood, makes sense. I may be getting very close now to buying my machine. Fiber seems a lot simpler of a machine than a co2 based machine, since fiber doesn't have any cooling needed, minimal air filtration, and according to the manufacturer, no extra parts that I should order as spares because there's nothing on the fiber machine that will really wear out from use.

[Gary Hair]

A fiber is much easier to maintain than a co2 but figuring out settings can be a real pain because there are so many variables compared to co2. You have power and speed, just like co2, but then you add in frequency, hatch type, hatch quantity, hatch angle, hatch spacing, and a few others, and things can get complicated pretty fast. The good news is that if you are simply engraving metal then you'll only need a few different settings. I have engraved all kinds of plastics and needed to get results from deep engraving to no depth but a color change, and it took a lot of experimenting. Overall, you can do less with a fiber than a co2 but the materials you can mark with a fiber mark better than a co2 and get depth that is not possible with co2. If you can get both co2 and fiber, there isn't much you wouldn't be able to mark.

[Kev Williams]

After talking to some manufacturers. I have had one tell me that for a galvo fiber laser, if I am doing engraving on metal, that I do not need a fume extraction/filtration system. Is that correct?
Thanks!

Yeah, but--- I've been engraving aluminum boxes that have been powdercoated first. And that crap smokes and stinks----

I have a 2" hose running to my exhaust fan that I move around where needed on the fiber. Nothing elaborate at all, about as low-tech as can be.

Like most things in my shop, I can relate to 'low tech' --
Here's mine, sharing suction with the LS900

fibex1.jpgfibex2.jpg

[Scott Challoner]

I mainly make black marks on stainless so I just got a fume extractor like you use at a soldering station. When I needed to do a job that actually engraved into the metal I noticed smoke and debris in the beam path like Gary said. I figured that if I could see it, it was also blocking the beam so I positioned a small fan to blow on the work area (like air assist). To my surprise, it made a huge difference. When I turned the fan on, the flash got brighter and louder too. A good exhaust (and maybe a fan) can be helpful in my opinion.