YOU Can Start Creating 3D Engravings NOW

Kyle gives you all the knowledge you need to run your first 3D height map engraving in this complete guide.
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[@swolgan3527]

Video is much needed and great timing. Thank you for the amazing video!!

[@LaserEverything]

Glad you enjoyed, thank you for watching!

[@tonyrichmond9428]

First coin video I've found that doesn't skip any steps and didn't lose me. Nice work, man. NICE.

[@LaserEverything]

Awesome, thank you!

[@cubingcracked3521]

Yes! I’ve been waiting for this video ever sense I saw it on the live!

[@LaserEverything]

🥳

[@brew0498]

Great Job Kyle, as always you break it down it down into the simplest method with plenty of explanation!

[@MrCtronic]

Thank you very much! This is amazing information!

[@LaserEverything]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@coulterjb22]

Thanks Kyle! 3D is on my list to try now.

[@LaserEverything]

Make sure to post and tag us in the results!

[@mrs.lasereverything]

Nice job Kyle 🎉

[@LaserEverything]

🥳

[@davidfigueroa1969]

This is great. :-) I wonder if you can run a picture through the process to make a lithophane for 3d printing and then convert it to a height map for engraving?

[@minnesotamaker1846]

Nicely explained

[@LaserEverything]

Thanks for watching!

[@LaserEngraving911]

Super Duper! Sick video

[@LaserEverything]

Thanks 🔥

[@BrentGe0rge]

What an amazing video! Thank you so much for this comprehensive guide on this elusive topic. It begs the question however: can light burn support images that have greater bit depth than 8? That would certainly take care of the stepping.

[@LaserEverything]

In our conversations with the lightburn team, I don't believe they currently support higher than 8 bit. Anything beyond that I imagine would maybe be downsampled I guess, though I'm not entirely sure, honestly haven't tried. In person, it really doesn't look all that bad, I was intentionally nitpicking the layers up-close with a tight shot to show the differences in the 2 approaches. To help smooth it out, could go less aggressive with the parameters to take less material away per layer, but that would also affect depth. Since it's not a 3D laser with a direct 3D file and only a 3D heightmap image that we are generating the layers from, we can't really control depth + smoothness in that way together, but I opted for depth since it really seems fine to the naked eye at this level, and we want to try out sending something like this through a vibratory or rotary tumbler to smooth and polish things up. Decent starting point, we'll look at improvements as we go :), I'm positive we'll have updates over time to our process and different lasers and add on steps for finishing/adjusting the results.

[@SmithAerosports1]

Excellent!

[@LaserEverything]

Glad you liked it!

[@beamituplaserworks]

You’re an awesome little pumpkin head. 😂 Great Vid bro!!!

[@LaserEverything]

[@beamituplaserworks]

@@LaserEverything lies! Everybody knows it’s the Christmas trees lol

[@kitjunya]

Thanks

[@LaserEverything]

Thanks for watching!

[@jakewidgeon]

Great video. I'm going to try this with my 30w Raycus. Does 2000mm/s, 75%, 60khz sound like a decent starting point?

[@killuificould]

great video

[@LaserEverything]

Thanks for watching!

[@slamfiretactical443]

Great explanation of the process. I see lots of people lasering coins, but I can't seem to find many files where else can we get files from?

[@iflyn2564r]

Great video! How long did the final run take?

[@LaserEverything]

I think it was ~65 mins on this run, but it can certainly be cut down in time with fine tuning settings. Reducing layers in this process results in loss of detail and flattened layers, at least depending on the design, so if its a design you can't reduce the layer count on, the only way to speed it up is with ensuring your timing/delays are tuned and cranking up the speed if you have the laser power to support that speed and still remove appropriate material. Thank you for watching!

[@Dekweekschuur]

Nice video again Kyle, How long dos it take to make the coin pumpkin

[@LaserEverything]

For a 40mm coin with a speed in the 1500-1900 realm, 256 layers, we've been seeing an average of 50-80 minutes. It's going to vary based on speed (timing and delay can have an impact too), and how much material is being removed as part of the layers/design. Designs that have less material removal can also make it faster, so hard to give an exact estimate. The finished product at the end for this I think was ~65 minutes for that one, and we didn't have the speed really fine tuned all that much since we can go faster on the 100w with higher power overhead and frequency. Working on fine tuning and we've got the time down a bit, we'll follow up with another project and more tuned settings as we go. We've gotten some tests down to sub 35 mins, but working on tuning for quality still, and that kind of speed is going to vary by the material and what the machine itself can do.

[@paulclark304]

Would love to see the same tutorial with EZCad 3 Thanks.

[@user-rs4mt2ty3n]

You don’t need to. Can just use the STL file straight up. Its great because you can input however many slices you want as well.

[@user-rs4mt2ty3n]

Check this out ; this man provides great instruction on the various ways to go about 2.5D engraving using EZCAD 3 m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZy5aXeDhNd-hpI

[@HDscreenerX]

Hi, I'm new here. Just getting my foot into the fiber laser engraving. I really appreciate all the info on fiber laser engraving you're sharing on your channel. Most of these lasers are rated up to 100.000 working hours, it's hard for me to understand how long it will last if you are going to use it for projects like this one, engraving brass coins which takes quite a bit of time to make one. Can you comment on that? Btw. haven't seen it on your video, how long did it take for your 100w laser to engrave one coin seen in the end of the video? . Best Regards from Norway

[@LaserEverything]

These projects can range greatly, and will depend on the parameters, quantity of layers which are needed, and how much of the material is actually being dug out. If its a design that only has a small portion of deep engraving, then it would be a significantly faster engrave. As a rough ballpark, 45-75 minutes is a good rough ballpark for a coin with 256 pass layer count. Some designs may need more passes, and some you may be able to get away with less if its only got a small gradient of gray to work with, it will depend on the design. If using a higher power laser like a 100w with a quality galvo head and you're willing to invest the time to tune the setting specific for that use case, you could probably get 1 side down in 20-45 minutes. This coin was done somewhere in that 1hr ballpark time, as this was very basic starting settings and there is a lot more fine tuning left on the table. In regard to the 100k hour lifespan on the source, that is roughly the life expectancy of most sources these days. In most cases, other components will need to be replaced or serviced long before the source dies (usually). The galvo head, power supplies, etc. With that kind of rating, I dont really have much in the way of concerns with running long engraves, but as a business expense I would set aside budget for parts/servicing of equipment that you would likely want to incorporate into each job you run and consider a couple dollars added to each long job as part of that budget. Generally, the laser source isn't a common part to fail unless something else happens to it, such as accidental damage to the fiber cable, or surge/electrical damage, or failure to service/clean.

[@HDscreenerX]

@@LaserEverything Thank you so much for the information. I really appreciate it. 👍👍 - Looking forward to your new videos.

[@james.5768]

Hi, Can you use this same process for a diode laser on different materials or would it not work the same? Even if just to get a 3D like effect engraved image? Thanks 😊

[@ndudman8]

Yep have exactly the same question... as the 3dslice isn't available for diodes or co2...

[@redbeard680]

I have a 100w with ydflp-100-m7-m-r laser source. I only have one lens that came with the laser it’s a high quality quartz and I want to get more but I seen you said you just had an opex lens on your 100w? Is this a good option because the price difference is huge and I’ve heard nothing but great things about opex but was under the impression that with a 100w I couldn’t use it? I love the show and appreciate all the info you’re all sharing thank you!!

[@LaserEverything]

We’ve learned more and more over the years about lenses from our early days. Opex is a brand, and while it is a good brand for sure, they have more than one type of lens material. you’ll want to ensure you’re getting a quartz lens for that wattage of laser. Some manufacturers will also say Si class of lenses are acceptable. You’re totally right, there is a significant cost difference to get lenses rated for higher wattage unfortunately. Another tip, don’t assume the price means they are rated for the wattage, be sure the listing mentions the lens material or message the seller to ask so you don’t pay a premium on a normal lens.

[@redbeard680]

Thank you so much!! So I have one more question, am I right to assume quartz is what I should be looking for material wise? And I guess I have one more lol could you recommend one or a brand or anything? Not many people with 100w so the info available isn’t as easy to find. Again thank you so much for everything!

[@LaserEverything]

@redbeard680 happy to help! Quartz is what I would be looking for, for anything 80w and higher on fiber. Head to the buying guide link in the description, the quartz lens link will be under Laser parts > f-theta lenses

[@redbeard680]

Thank you very much! I will check it out now!

[@ozziesoto2955]

Awesome tutorial! If you want only the pumpkin to engraved, how do you eliminate the square background?

[@LaserEverything]

Further into the video passed the testing where you see the square background, we address how to make the testing we did into a full project by fixing the square background.

[@ozziesoto2955]

Matt, my bad lost internet. I finally up and finished the video. Thank you for your reply!

[@LaserEverything]

No worries, glad to help and it's great to hear you enjoyed!

[@peterpresinsky6554]

could you make a video how to do depth map image from 2D image or photo?

[@LaserEverything]

There's a bit of a mixed answer to that I guess. You'd likely need to build it manually to get the same effect. It's not something we've dug much into as of yet though.

[@bryantovergard9824]

Have any recommendations on materials to use for prototyping relief engraving?

[@LaserEverything]

Normally what I would say is, use the material you plan to do the engraving with. The parameters will vary by material a bit, and by that I mean, if you're too aggressive, you can create large stair-steps, and testing with the same material will help you tune for that to get the results you are happy with. There is some post processing you can do to clean that up if its not bad, but a factor to consider. If you just want to get used to the design aspect of 3D heightmap / relief engraving and going through the steps and seeing what type of results you get based on the design, you could do something cheap and accessible. I find scrap stainless or aluminum to be good candidates for testing, but if you wanted something easy, you could get aluminum coins which are fairly cheap compared to most materials, and that usually engraves fairly nicely. Just depends what aspect of the testing is most important to you, and availability of materials for you in your area (and if you have access to something like scrap from a metal shop or something similar for cheaper material)

[@bryantovergard9824]

@@LaserEverything specifically what I have been working on is good creation of wax seals as well as mold positives for resin casting. Part of the process requires a lot of trial and error in that sometimes details within a design will not cast well or demold well. While I can get the detail that I want out of brass I find that is significantly faster to do the same process in aluminum. My question is more along the lines of what materials would ablate the fastest to quickly produce prototypes for the molding process.

[@Alasdair-Morrison]

A bit more info like where to set focal point, on surface or aiming through surface to lower point beneath the surface. but great video :)

[@LaserEverything]

Great point! I focused directly to the top surface of the coin for this one. In using a roughly 110 work area lens, you get more than enough focal distance, to get quite deep into the coin, since this is 3D heightmap engraving and not a 3D engraving (use of a 3D head+software Z control), we are relying on layering for the 3D aspect, and not a live adjustment of the focal height (or 2.5D in the case of only software Z control). If you go with something like a 70mm work area lens (F100) or smaller, you may have to focus in ~1mm or so to put the top layers at the higher end of the focal "hourglass", so that you have more reach into the coin. If it was a thicker coin and we really cranked up the layer count / aggressive parameters, moving the focus into the surface a bit before starting wouldn't be a bad idea. We may loop back and cover that in a different project, I just didn't think to include it on this one since the coin was 3mm thick.

[@Alasdair-Morrison]

@@LaserEverything Thank You for your very informative reply to my question and beyond. Mine is only JPT 60W Fibre M7 MOPA from Wiseley lasers but I gave it a go on scrap sheet 2mm brass following your setting but raised the power to 50% took 2hrs and went about 0.5mm deep but left a pumpkin impression :) A wee bit more fiddling with the power settings yet I think for mine.

[@LaserEverything]

Nice! You can absolutely do it for sure, just don't go huge on the lens and you'll do great. I would suggest dropping frequency to maybe 45 or so at the same pulse width if you are making adjustments for lens/power based on mine (the 100w pumps full power at 75 khz 200 pulse width), it should give you stronger pulses by a little bit and think will help balance it out as a starting point.

[@SniderandSonsCustomDesig-vr5tp]

Great video, question - when i do my framing i make a circle the same size and set as a toolpath, thrn select toolpath switch in the framing window. Is there any difference between that and your method ir will both ways work?

[@SniderandSonsCustomDesig-vr5tp]

God I hate touchscreens lol

[@LaserEverything]

Good tip, and yes! There are many ways to approach alignment / framing to be honest, but absolutely. The frame toolpath only slider in the framing menu is another way where you could highlight the design and toolpath and get the same result on the framing output. It will remove the step of going back and forth, depending on how you do your selections before running the job. My brain is just hardwired on "cut select" due to my workflow habits, so I go back out of habit really, and select the items I want it to output, but you're absolutely right!

[@LaserEverything]

I suffer from touchscreens time to time too hehehe

[@SniderandSonsCustomDesig-vr5tp]

@@LaserEverything awesome just making sure I wasn't missing something thank you for the reply, I've learned a lot from you guys!

[@csimpsontailoring5972]

is this diode laser possible?

[@LaserEverything]

At this time through Lightburn, I believe its only available to galvo lasers.

[@noochmahh]

Can you do this with an ezcam2 board?

[@LaserEverything]

This was done with a laser with an ezcad 2 board, using lightburn :)

[@randomashton9717]

how did you get it to crosshatch? thank you for the video by the way.

[@LaserEverything]

That's automatic to the 3D sliced heightmap option for the image layer type. At least in its current state

[@randomashton9717]

thank you, I was just being impatient I guess and not paying attention, you guys are great thank you for all that you do.@@LaserEverything

[@6r4metroman]

Would be nice to see the process of converting a normal B&W to a depth 3D image dor use in Lightburn...

[@weiwang9622]

No easy way to achieve this as he explained at the beginning of the video.

[@LaserEverything]

The process isn't likely to be the same as this, but I guess it depends on what you had in mind. You could already in theory take an image of something "flat" (like a logo for example) and assign a pass count to different layers to provide an impression with different heights, but a family photo for example wouldn't come out in the same way without some kind of additional processing. Either a manual heightmap drawing in some form, or some kind of AI processing maybe. The challenge of taking something like a family photo in black and white to a 3D heightmap type of engraving is that, dark hair for example on a person standing against a white wall would be significantly lower from being dug in vs a light shirt and background using a family photo with that method. If a heightmap was made from a digital 3D scan of a family in the same position as when the photo was taken, it would show the physical depth away from the camera position taking the photo, where tone and color in real life makes zero difference, the 3D heightmap uses the shade as a measured distance kind of. The background would be deeper, even though in a typical black and white photo it would be white, in a 3D heightmap it would be black to represent depth. I'm sure there's a method to convert it and get something that could be used as a heightmap from a traditional black and white photo, but I'm not familiar with any tools yet that wouldn't take a lot of time and 3D modelling and manual manipulation, which is admittedly not our strong suite, at least not yet. We'll keep our eyes open though, there's always new stuff coming along, and we'd love to see this happen in a approachable way for the masses too.

[@weiwang9622]

Just in case you are looking into science of this, shape-from-shading is one known method to capture a set of photos and generate depth maps. A commercial company called GelSight has some products that cost like 400$ to achieve this. However, all of these can only apply to small objects so far. For converting really life images. If your image is already a render of a relief or sculpture, then the best way to convert is to train a custom neural network. No one has done this yet but the pieces are there, just need to do the work. But if your input is a family photo, there is no easy way to do it due to the color reacting to the intensity of the pixel. You could however hire someone to do this, about 50$-70$ per photo.

[@pfiltz]

I have most of this in my head, however; your picking a 3D image to start off with and going on from there. Can you take lets say can you use an image of a company logo that is in color, but not in a 3D sense. I want to create some for one of my customers, but can't. Is it possible?

[@LaserEverything]

If it was a relatively flat logo (no gradients) You could likely build out layers based on color. While it wouldn't be the same process (you'd be engraving it as a vector, not a 3d heightmap image), you could apply different pass counts based on layer color to get depth and varying heights for a semi-similar effect in some ways.

[@-DoM-115]

is it possible with ezcad 2?

[@LaserEverything]

Ezcad2 doesn't really have the provisions to do this in the same way. Even something like pixel power adjust wouldn't really give you the same effect with the layers. The plus side is, if you can use ezcad2, your machine should be compatible with lightburn for the most part, so you could give it a try using their free trial if you wanted.

[@michab6848]

It should be. I use ezcad3 so straight 3d models.

[@LaserEverything]

Ezcad 3 is designed to work with 3d files inherently, ezcad2 is not. They are very much 2 different software packages that operate entirely differently, its not really a version upgrade (although 3 is newer), its actually for operating 2d vs 3d lasers, respectively. To add to the mix, this is also converted from a 3D file to a 3D heightmap to make it 2D laser capable, so another step in the other direction in this case.

[@Optikification]

I don't have 3d slice mode in my lightburn, I use a 10w diode and it cant even go past 99 passes.

[@LaserEverything]

Lightburn 3D sliced heightmap I believe is only available to galvo lasers at this time

[@Optikification]

@@LaserEverything ha right that would explain it as i just have a 10w diode as my first ever laser.

[@HarleyAssi]

There should be a way to convert a photo to a hight map with AI... Shame I'm too dull to do that... -.-

[@karljolley8346]

No NOT 3D, this is 2.5D engraving. mixing the two things is a disrespect to those that actually do 3D modeling. You Can 3D on a laser using a rotary tool and a full wrap around image, burning to depth. Other than that misuse of words, this is a helpful video.

[@LaserEverything]

Looks pretty 3D to me... Not sure why I would call something with three dimensions something other than three-dimensional?

[@michab6848]

@@LaserEverything by this logic, vector engravings are also 3D, @karljolley8346 is right, this is 2.5D. 3d engraving would have undercuts, good luck making those.

[@LaserEverything]

I think we are going to agree to disagree here. 2.5D is generally known as software Z control, and 3D laser would also involve the use of a 3D dynamic head, along with software control. This laser has neither, so I would have to disagree based on your explanation. I never claimed this was a 3D laser, just a 3D engrave. By your definitions, a 3D heightmap (which is traditionally used in CNC work, which is also widely accepted as 3D) wouldn't count as 3d then I guess? Either way, we thought the project was cool and fun, and we had many requests to share this type of project and our findings, we hope you enjoy, and if not, we're sorry to hear that. Seems silly to dig into semantics, it's literally labelled in software that way.

[@weiwang9622]

To achieve the results, you won't be able to tell if it is 2.5D or 3D. It's like a 5 axis CNC can do 3 axis CNC work but by looking at a 3 axis manufactured product you can't tell if it is done by a 5 axis machine or not. Without knowing more details of the engraving machine the video is using, we can't conclude it's 2.5D or 3D. The stairs flaws showed the end may be caused by 8bit PNG don't have enough bits to represent the finer depth info.

[@derek2593]

OMG, semantics. It seems the terminology depends on the software. You are BOTH right. If the software calls a "2.5D" feature "3D", you'll have to use it, regardless of the offensiveness of the software terminology. Just curious, but how might I plot 2.5 axes with a pencil, and graph paper? That is the hurdle my brain is trying to understand, and probably laser everything's too.