27 topics · active now
Ten boards covering everything from your first engrave to running a laser business. Machine tags on every topic, so you can find people using the same hardware.
Latest: Lp4 Rotary only etches a circle/line, need help · 2 days ago
Latest: Backlit acrylic signage: the three mistakes I made so you don't have to · 2 months ago
Latest: Clear glass keeps chipping — what am I doing wrong? · 2 months ago
Latest: Rotary vs versatile roller for tumblers at volume? · 2 months ago
Latest: Getting Illustrator files into LDS without the paths going weird · 2 months ago
Latest: Engraving is fine, cutting suddenly stopped going through — same file as last week · 2 months ago
Latest: Layered mandala: 5 layers, one sheet, how would you improve the depth? · 2 months ago
Latest: Selling files here: what makes a listing convert? · 2 months ago
Latest: Read this first: materials you must never put in a laser · 5 months ago
Latest: Could the materials database filter by laser type as well as machine? · 2 months ago
Comes up constantly, so here's the short version from someone who runs both. Diode (445–455nm), e.g. LP2/LP4 diode module: - Wood, leather, cardstock, dark acrylic, coated/painted metal, sla…
Pinned because it comes up every week and the answer never changes. Never cut or engrave these: - PVC / vinyl / faux leather with PVC backing — releases chlorine gas. It will corrode your ma…
Just bought the LP4, for rotary work. After doing some test with machine on simple flat materials, I hooked up the rotary, and followed all steps, but the machine only etchs a line around th…
Nothing changed. Same 3mm acrylic, same file, same settings. Last week it cut through in one pass, this week it doesn't.
Swapped ISPs, new router, and now LDS won't see the machine. It worked perfectly for two months before. USB still works fine.
Doing roughly 300 powder-coated tumblers a month. Currently using the rotary extension and it's fine but setup per item is slow — I'm losing a couple of minutes each time getting the alignme…
I've had files up for three months. Some sell steadily, some never sell at all, and I can't see the pattern. For those doing well — what's in your good listings that isn't in your bad ones?
Consistent problem: cuts through cleanly on the left third of the bed, doesn't quite make it through on the right. Same file, same material sheet. Cleaned the lens, checked the material is f…
The settings database is great, but a lot of entries make more sense if I can see whether they were done on a diode or a fiber source. LP4 and LP5 have both, so filtering by machine alone is…
Engraving wine glasses with an LP4 Safeguard. The mark comes out flaky and chipped rather than a nice frost, and sometimes bits of the surface come away completely. Tried lower power, higher…
Working on a 300mm layered mandala. Five layers of 3mm birch with 3mm spacers, backlit with a warm LED strip. Current problem: the middle two layers read as one because the shadow gap is too…
Sharing what worked after a lot of scrap. This is on black anodised aluminium business-card blanks, LP4 diode module. - Mode: engrave, greyscale off, 1-bit line art - Power: 100% - Speed: 12…
