James, thank you so much for your instruction and tutorials related to the Foxalien machines. I have found that you are the best resource for information when it comes to this particular manufacturer. I have a Foxalien Masutor Pro and I am about to get into the 20W Laser operation, and I have found that I am a little apprehensive to start, that is until I watched several of your Laser videos. I feel a little more at ease about this portion of my journey now. Thank you again.
Just had the sainsmart 1810 pro and laser 5.5 for xmas and although small it's the same as 3018.. I'm glad I found your vids as they have helped me a lot...keep them coming.
About to install the laser on my 3018 and use it for the first time, this tutorial makes it look easy. Had to pause and go back a few times as I followed along. Hoping to engrave a Bamboo coaster for Mothersday.
@@JamesDeanDesigns Got it going real easy. Need to put it into a box to hide the laser. More powerful than I expected for a 2.5W. 1000mm/min and 2000mm/min are too slow, burning 0.5mm+ deep into MDF and smoking it. Time to go watch that first vid.
The clue was in that other vid, grbl configuration, $31, had to set it to laser, now engraving mum and baby photo. Will find out in 45 mins how well it goes. Bamboo engraved nearly the same as MDF in the box test. Not sure if engraving across grain or with grain for raster images is best. Do it twice? Not sure but on low power it looks like the laser is bleaching the Bamboo grain. I do have a smoky BBQ scent now in my clothes.
Looks like a mum and baby, just about. A bit monochrome, going to take some tweaking to get more shades of grey. But that's all learning, which is why I got this thing. Thanks, your tuts helped. laser cover and exhaust will make it more pleasant, just like the vacuum head and mini cyclone dust system helped the 3018 router on wood. And the Bamboo did bleach lighter on the low power sections, wonder if it has a coating? Supermarket cheap coaster, on special 4 for $4.80 AUD today.
James I recommend you create a duplicate channel on Rumble, as many are leaving RUclips due to policy & politics. Your info is some of the best in the hobby CNC world, shame to miss you.
suggestion for vibration of machine , I have used a mat sold for anti vibration of washing machine and inside the box the sound has decreased a lot !! keep up the good work
@@JamesDeanDesigns I was wondering if the height of your laser was too close to the mdf? What would be the ideal height? Mine is all the way up with only the head of the lens showing. Would you change the height according to the material that is used? Great vids bru
Hi James, great video, it helped me a lot. I was very close to sending the laser back, because the results were nowhere near what I had seen.However, I must say I did not expect the amount of work to be so much, thanks.
Very nice overview of using laserGRBL & the relevant bits of GIMP. I saw a note in the laser GRBL settings (somewhere, maybe a release note, not sure) that you can set Smax to more than 100%. My interpretation of the note is that if you set Smax to ~120%, then for a greyscale where it would be outputting ~80% then for that and everything darker it will output 100%. I think that is how you get your full dynamic range - use the settings where 5% just makes a mark and then "overburn" at the top end. I know you say you don't want to run your laser at high power for life reasons, but I'm thinking there is a laser power that gets you black, and if you want black you have to run at that power. So you have to accept not getting fully black in that case. But actually, given that some of your test runs gave you a nice dark colour at the "top end" with your imposed 80% top limit, it must be possible to get the black you want with laser powers less then 80%. I think the whole thing is an artefact of the Gcode rendering. I'd suggest you open the Gcode from settings with "overburn" and look at the actual power levels being sent. My experience is that they are lower than expected, so with big numbers in the dialog boxes you actually get much less S numbers than you'd think. I've also noticed it seems be be handled differently between dither and line-to-line. And also for line-to-line, differently between the cross-hatch filling and the outlining.
Hi, nice stuff. i run my laser on a prusa i3 using stock firmware and laserweb on my mac. this is what i did to tune my laser min power. it is material-dependent, so you have to note down the best setting for each material. use the gcode console to feed power to the laser in increments until it starts to burn. then use rapids to determine how fast you have to go to achieve the burn you need. once you know what each level of grey needs in terms of laser power and speed you can then adjust your min and max to suit.
Hi James! Just wondering if you have a video on how to cut through the wood with a laser? Thank you so much for all your videos by the way, so so helpful!
hey james - great video, but I noticed that when you were in GIMP and you set the size of the image to 100x100, it completely changed when you dragged and clicked, so it ended up being a different size. @5:46
I encountered the same problem (using the same test image on birch ply) when calibrating my 5500 mw diode laser - the quick dropoff in gradient at the lighter end. I was using LightBurn, but by using a combination of reducing the speed, tweaking the power and using LightBurn's Dither options (I used Jarvis dither) I smoothed it out. I then tested out those settings on a different wood (lighter) and had to adjust my settings. Lighter materials reflect more of the light energy. Darker materials absorb more and tend to burn darker. I had to slow down the speed a bit on the lighter material. There is obviously a sweet spot (or more likely a curve) in the speed/power relationship.
Hi James! Love your videos and how you present the content. The laser topic just comes up at the right time. As you may remember, I also got one of these 3081 pro CNC and it came together with a 7w Diode laser. Have having tortured some of these tiny little decorative boxes, I must say that the material I'm probably most interested in would be acrylic. I engraved one with a 30 deg V-Bit on 4mm cast acrylic and it was ok. Now I wonder if I could achieve same or even better results with less effort and mess using the diode laser. Have you already tried this material?
Hi James, Thanks a million for your fantastic videos. I have noticed that when I click the instructional icon in GIMP, it doesn't show the menu on the left as it does when you do. An example is with Dodge, it does not display the shadow option.
Ive been experimenting with my machine have even got to cut out bits for my balsa wood planes and only draw back ive found on gbrl is you cannot go back and alter setting you have to choose the image again and alter it then Cheers for video
If you soften the edges of the image and have the laser setup that it is making the 5% to 20% tones white you will get sharp edges in the result. So I recommend setting up more detail to the brighter colors and less for the darker ones. (Sorry for the poor English.)
James - Some great, really helpful videos here - Thank you so much for taking the time to share. I've spent a little time learning how to cut 3mm ply using a 5500 laser. Yes it is a bit slow, but then it is a hobbyist tool. Would you be interested in some my experiences?
@@oldNavyJZ I used full power, 140 mm/min and 6 passes. Critical thing I found is getting focus spot on. I made lots of Halloween & Christmas decorations and even reworked a "Dr Who" Tardis I found on thingiverse [thing:19824] - It took 3 sheets and about 8 hours to cut!
Hi James, great video. However im struggling to understand the starting point of the image, I see you zeroed the machine in the bottom left corner but it zoomed off to the right. I want to place my image on a smaller bit of wood and was wondering how to position it correctly.
When you load your image in it should ask you what size so make sure your image is smaller than the piece of wood. When you get to the screen with all the red lines you should see that it starts in the bottom left. Simply position your laser head over the bottom left corner of the wood, once in place click the zero button
Hi James thank for all tour time in effort :) but i do have a question where did you get the orange laser protecting sheet ???? keep up the good work :):)
Hi James. Love your Channel! What’s the best laser that for the genmitsu 4030 and does it swap out with the Spindle easy? Or would you recommend a separate laser setup? I want a laser that has good detail for etching wood and metal and Aksum cutting through wood. Thanks, Bert
Thanks. If you can get a separate laser then do so. Most lasers run on belts because they can accelerate faster and get better results. However if that's not an option then the easiest option will be a 44mm wide laser and that should drop straight into the original holder. The FoxAlien 10w/40w is a good option www.foxalien.com/en-gb/products/foxalien-40w-fixed-focus-blue-laser-module-kit?sca_ref=725103.t6qfXeHAnx
Hi James, could you advise me? I have had several suggestions all conflicting. Having seen your videos you know what you are talking about. I have a 3018pro. My laser only produces a 4.5watt output. Great for small jobs but I want to do some metal engraving (Keyrings Etc). Could you suggest a laser unit that I could use that would be powerful enough and fit the 3018pro to do the job or is it a case of having to buy a new machine?
I didn't have the M4 available in Lasergrbl, ended up being a setting. $32=1 enabled it. Then I had to disable that back to 0, so that I could use the M3 S7 to give me a guide laser for focusing.
Hi James you video's are very helpful, i have a CNC 3018 i purchased a 5w laser it connected to my pc via grbl settings i got a pic in grayscale tried to burn it but the laser fires up turns on there;s very little movement in the axis and the laser doesn't burn i really a patient man but this is getting to me a bit ive watch your video's over and over but still cant get it to burn, ive been on it 2 days lol anything you can advice where i'm going wrong please regards Chris
Hi James, excellent video ,I have saved all your videos,looking forward to the next one,just one question,were do i get the test file from that you used in the video?. Thanks
Nice tutorials james good work Can i ask a couple of quick questions or requests for future tutorial,? 1 did you find the woodpecker board was good over the cronos board? As i need to upgrade my nano board on my woodpecker laser i think 2 i notice you have Lburn as well, did you manage to set up your laser in lightburn because i have tried snd csnt get the xy coordinates working if you did please could you possibly decsribe how you did it to help us out as a lot of people have found it difficult Thanks james
I ended up switching back to the Cronosmaker in the end. I found it to be more stable than the woodpecker. As for lightburn, its a much better program than LaserGRBL. I suspect your issue is regarding the start job from position. I cover this in my lightburn tutorial ruclips.net/video/2DSEZ8XJSV4/видео.html
Text is definitely possible. The cut out shape would probably need to be done as a separate layer and exported as a separate file so then in LaserGRBL you would load in your main photo and do all the settings for that, then load in the cut out image. I forget what the phrase is called but in LaserGRBL there is an option to load multiple files on top of each other
@@JamesDeanDesigns I'll check it out. Its similar to Easel where your cut out is on a separate file. Is it possible to take the Gimp manipulated image to Lightburn and then to add text and a cut out there? Can Lightburn do manipulation of a image the same as GIMP?
Hi James Thanks for the great video, I duplicate your video and everything went find but the laser burns too much where are settings to cut down on the laser output or do I have the laser too close to the wood burns too much even when I'm doing word signs and the laser also run too slow ? Thank you very much I'll appreciate your answer. Thanks again. Joe
Hi James please help I've had machine over two weeks I follow all to best of my knowledge however it keeps buffer not actually starting everytime I push the play button what am I doing wrong it won't start at all
Dear James , would you recommend this machine - as a designer I am really intrigued by this machine. Have you ever cut vinyl with it? Also do you know if it works with Corel Draw or Photoshop?
Hi, its a great way to get into CNC without spending too much. I havent cut vinyl but I believe it can. The way it would work is you can use your design software to make a vector or raster image, you then import than into your laser software where you can control all the cnc settings. So corel draw or photoshop doesn't work with the machine direct but can be part of the process if that makes sense
There are lots of options depending on what you want to spend, most will be around 5w of output power but the main thing is that to fit directly into the holder it needs to be a 33mm wide laser. Any larger and it will not fit in the holder
Hi James, I have the 3018, it's the first CNC I have bought. I have found your tutorials very helpful in setting up my machine. I now have encountered an issue. When I move the laser around to manually set it in the home position I want, it moves fine. But when I start the test burn in your videos or any other build the Y axis will only move one way. It will burn the line in the (Laserdrawlines) program but instead of moving over and back down, it will only move over, so each time it gets higher. When it is suppose to be going back down to be inline with the Y axis home position it makes like a ticking/ grinding sound. I have checked the mechanical parts and there is no damage or signs that would lead to this sound. I have changes the motors and the leads between the X and Y axis but it makes no difference. I have reset the 3018 and reloaded the program. Could you please give me guidance on what to try next. Thank you, Damian
Based on what you are saying, I suspect its skipping steps, possibly because your acceleration is to high. Check your $120,121 and 122 settings. if they are above 500 then bring then back down to that and try again, if it still sticks then come down to 300.
Hi James, I really enjoy the tutorial vids you put up, they are helpful and have taught me the basics. Even the tuning my machine: I have a few questions about my 3018 I have. I use easel to design and carve my ideas and I use laser grbl, well to laser engrave. Can I use both programmes together like carve out a sign to 3mm depth then keep those exact settings and use the laser to then colour the carved out depth bits. Can't find a way to contact you, I don't use any social media like FB, insta, Twitter. Cheers James hope you or anyone who reads th8s can help. I will have more questions too. 👍👍👍
Yes. Makensure both pieces are designed to the same size. You do your carving and at the end it should return to the zero. Then you drop the laser in, and do that. In theory as long as the laser starts at the same zero point it should work
How do i know where and how big the image will be engraved. Is there another option like easel . Where you can input the dimensions of the wood to see exactly where it will laser. Or can Easel be used to laser engrave ?
@Alex Che I got it working through M4 dynamic power. I typed in $32=1 in the gcode commands in LaserGrbl and managed to work alot of better, putting a picture on a canvas. Set your laser to home then type in $32=1 and press enter and then frame your image to see where it will end up and then press play, M4 dynamic power is much better.
Hi James, First I want to say thank you for some great vids that help me much setting up my own 3018 pro. I do have a question I hope you can answer. Is it possible to ramp the end mill into the material instead of plunge it into when using Easel? Best Regards Martin
Wished you had done these excellent videos before you did. I need some advice please. I have set up my laser as per your video and got it working with the smallest focal point. However, when I try to do the test prints on the wood, the laser lights up like it is doing something, but nothing appears on the wood. Not sure what I a doing wrong or what maybe I have missed??
Assuming your laser is actually working correctly, it sound like a power issue. I briefly cover it in the video but you need to make sure your $30 and $31 values align with the Smax and Smin values in the software. Have you done this? Also worth checking with another piece of software to be safe. You can do a trial of lightburn just to rule out software
Amazing video got my laser going on the first try just one thing I can’t seem to figure out is y the writing comes out backwards how can I flip the image or file when it’s engraving
Hi James I have followed tutorials you have made downloaded gimp.org done everything you have shown on my image but just keeps burning a straight black line what I am doing wrong
Hi James! Thanks for your videos. I would like to know how to create a program in LaserGRBL not only for engraving, but also for laser cutting along a contour on plywood. And is it possible to generate g-code so that engraving and cutting are done in one job?
Hi, What do you mean by the entire course? how long for the image to laser? I think it was about 20-30 minutes but it was a while ago so Im not 100% sure
trying to burn an image in lightburn low power to laser settings match in grbl and lightburn $32=1 and $131 = 1000 cutany layers speed 155 power 75what to do
Hi, Complete Novice Trying to follow your guides. Bought a Yorahome 3018 with Spindle and Laser. However, having tried to follow your LightBurn tutorial something has happened that now prevents the Profile base from moving to the back. It will move in a forward direction only and I can no longer use the FIRE button to test if the laser is working. There is an additional switch on the controller which I assume is a reset switch but that hasn't helped. I've switched everything off powered all done and restarted. Useless! I've tried with LaserGRBL and although it gives off the audible connection beep nothing will function not even the jog controls. Any ideas what may have happened here...
Hi Jerry. Check all connections both on the board and on the stepper motors? What happens when you click a direction and it doesnt travel? Is there a noise or is there any error message? Can you jog the machine around in Candle?
Hello there, Great channel really love videos and learning a lot, I have 3018Pro with Woodpecker board and trying for engraving some tests, so I have an issue with it, it is stacking in the middle of engraving but not at the same place all-time (it gives some red lines in code, but can`t understand what it means), also try to resume from previous commands, sometimes it works sometimes it not, did you have any issue like this, or maybe there is any community which I don`t know, where experienced people can help? if you can help maybe I can contact you somehow to show some pictures of the errors
@@LVA_DESIGN_LAMPS its really a case of testing on your material. You'll need to do some power scale testing and that will give you and idea of the best feeds and power for your laser
great video. I wish i could get laser GRBL to work on windows XP on my crappy netbook computers I use for milling. Anybody got any ideas on how to get that working? Will laser GRBL export gcode of those operations I could run from an offline controller or other software?
I would say its primarily for CNC. A lot of lasers are belt driven for faster acceleration and higher speeds. The 3018 copes with doing laser fine but I wouldn't say that was its primary design
Hi James, I have learned alot from this video but I think I am doing something wrong. I use the arrows to move the lazer to were I want my image to engrave but the laser moves and it won't do it were I want to too! Any advice?
Hi, I have a 500mw 65x50cm Laser Engraver setup with Advanced CNC 2-Axis Control Board & benbox software. I would like to add a NEJE A40640 module. What do I need to add or change?
You will need to check the connections are the same (usually a 3 pin connector) but the hardest part will be knowing if your control board can output enough power for it to run at 100%. Unless you know the spec of the board you may not find this our until you have installed the laser
Painted metal yes but technically you're just burning the paint off of that makes sense. But not raw metal, although it might do softer metal like aluminium
James, help! Lol. My 3018 is carving designs upside down, backwards, and negative to the x axis zero. I can not figure out what is happening. Help brother help
It will be your $3 setting which changes your axis direction, but it can change all 3. Try $3=1 first, test all 3 axis, if one is still wrong try $3=2... and so on. It only goes upto 7 so you just need to find the number that gets all 3 going correctly
@@JamesDeanDesigns thank you so much! You have been an awesome resource and help. I’m also having trouble running ugs. I downloaded it as you did but my hp with os windows 8 doesn’t have java to run ugs so I tried downloading java 8 which also didn’t work. Am I able to get to the $ controls in candle? And if so how?
Had to read that three times. Kept getting for three dollars you could offer a solution. Lol. I need to stop binge watching and pay better attention. Great work on the videos.
Hi James. Thanks a lot for your helpfull videos. I also follow you on instagram. Very interesting. I have one question and hope you can help me out. My cnc 3018pro works very slowly. What can be the reason?
@@dawidjlb2589 just trying to understand more about it. Is it showing greyscale in LaserGRBL when you load an image or is it the laser its self thats not doing the greyscale?
@@JamesDeanDesigns Everything looks good in the program but laser won't make greyscale effects. I have played with some settings because first it made some black holes almost like engraving. I tried on wood and cardboard on the back of drawing pad.
@@dawidjlb2589 assuming you have a laser that can work with PWM I suspect its one of two things. Either you haven't turned the PWM switch on the laser or your GRBL firm ware needs updating. I suspect you maybe running 0.9 and you need to be on 1.1. Google updating GRBL firmware
Kind of, they will burn out over time. Running it at full power really reduces the life span which is why I never really run mine higher than about 80%
James, thank you so much for your instruction and tutorials related to the Foxalien machines. I have found that you are the best resource for information when it comes to this particular manufacturer. I have a Foxalien Masutor Pro and I am about to get into the 20W Laser operation, and I have found that I am a little apprehensive to start, that is until I watched several of your Laser videos. I feel a little more at ease about this portion of my journey now. Thank you again.
Just had the sainsmart 1810 pro and laser 5.5 for xmas and although small it's the same as 3018.. I'm glad I found your vids as they have helped me a lot...keep them coming.
Yes, the series applies to a lot of GRBL machines, principles are all the same. Good luck with your new machine 👍
About to install the laser on my 3018 and use it for the first time, this tutorial makes it look easy. Had to pause and go back a few times as I followed along. Hoping to engrave a Bamboo coaster for Mothersday.
Hope you manage to get it all going OK and make a nice coaster 👍
@@JamesDeanDesigns Got it going real easy. Need to put it into a box to hide the laser. More powerful than I expected for a 2.5W.
1000mm/min and 2000mm/min are too slow, burning 0.5mm+ deep into MDF and smoking it. Time to go watch that first vid.
The clue was in that other vid, grbl configuration, $31, had to set it to laser, now engraving mum and baby photo. Will find out in 45 mins how well it goes. Bamboo engraved nearly the same as MDF in the box test. Not sure if engraving across grain or with grain for raster images is best. Do it twice? Not sure but on low power it looks like the laser is bleaching the Bamboo grain. I do have a smoky BBQ scent now in my clothes.
Looks like a mum and baby, just about. A bit monochrome, going to take some tweaking to get more shades of grey. But that's all learning, which is why I got this thing. Thanks, your tuts helped. laser cover and exhaust will make it more pleasant, just like the vacuum head and mini cyclone dust system helped the 3018 router on wood. And the Bamboo did bleach lighter on the low power sections, wonder if it has a coating? Supermarket cheap coaster, on special 4 for $4.80 AUD today.
James I recommend you create a duplicate channel on Rumble, as many are leaving RUclips due to policy & politics. Your info is some of the best in the hobby CNC world, shame to miss you.
I'll take a look at that. Never used it before but might be worth it 👍
suggestion for vibration of machine , I have used a mat sold for anti vibration of washing machine and inside the box the sound has decreased a lot !! keep up the good work
Thank you James. Set up my laser today with your help and Graham Bland’s excellent series of booklets.
Excellent. Just dont do what I did, spend several hours lasering MDF and wonder why you have a headache the rest of the night
@@JamesDeanDesigns It does give off somewhat! My wife has been complaining about the smell, as I’m using it indoors! 😂
@@JamesDeanDesigns I was wondering if the height of your laser was too close to the mdf?
What would be the ideal height? Mine is all the way up with only the head of the lens showing. Would you change the height according to the material that is used?
Great vids bru
Literally JUST got done putting together my 3018 pro with a laser. I JUST watched your last video, like 20 seconds ago. This is nuts.
Hi James, great video, it helped me a lot. I was very close to sending the laser back, because the results were nowhere near what I had seen.However, I must say I did not expect the amount of work to be so much, thanks.
Sometimes you will get images that work better than others but the more you do it the better you will be able to judge
Thank you for all the great information James. I recently purchased a 3018 small mill and a laser and your videos have been extremely helpful!
Thanks james,you're a legend 👍
Very nice overview of using laserGRBL & the relevant bits of GIMP.
I saw a note in the laser GRBL settings (somewhere, maybe a release note, not sure) that you can set Smax to more than 100%. My interpretation of the note is that if you set Smax to ~120%, then for a greyscale where it would be outputting ~80% then for that and everything darker it will output 100%. I think that is how you get your full dynamic range - use the settings where 5% just makes a mark and then "overburn" at the top end.
I know you say you don't want to run your laser at high power for life reasons, but I'm thinking there is a laser power that gets you black, and if you want black you have to run at that power. So you have to accept not getting fully black in that case.
But actually, given that some of your test runs gave you a nice dark colour at the "top end" with your imposed 80% top limit, it must be possible to get the black you want with laser powers less then 80%. I think the whole thing is an artefact of the Gcode rendering. I'd suggest you open the Gcode from settings with "overburn" and look at the actual power levels being sent. My experience is that they are lower than expected, so with big numbers in the dialog boxes you actually get much less S numbers than you'd think.
I've also noticed it seems be be handled differently between dither and line-to-line. And also for line-to-line, differently between the cross-hatch filling and the outlining.
Hi, nice stuff. i run my laser on a prusa i3 using stock firmware and laserweb on my mac. this is what i did to tune my laser min power. it is material-dependent, so you have to note down the best setting for each material. use the gcode console to feed power to the laser in increments until it starts to burn. then use rapids to determine how fast you have to go to achieve the burn you need. once you know what each level of grey needs in terms of laser power and speed you can then adjust your min and max to suit.
Hi James! Just wondering if you have a video on how to cut through the wood with a laser? Thank you so much for all your videos by the way, so so helpful!
Following on from previous message I have the Mostics 5.5w-445nm Power Module which came supplied with my CNC 3018 pro machine.
hey james - great video, but I noticed that when you were in GIMP and you set the size of the image to 100x100, it completely changed when you dragged and clicked, so it ended up being a different size. @5:46
Excellent video
Thank you very much!
I encountered the same problem (using the same test image on birch ply) when calibrating my 5500 mw diode laser - the quick dropoff in gradient at the lighter end. I was using LightBurn, but by using a combination of reducing the speed, tweaking the power and using LightBurn's Dither options (I used Jarvis dither) I smoothed it out. I then tested out those settings on a different wood (lighter) and had to adjust my settings. Lighter materials reflect more of the light energy. Darker materials absorb more and tend to burn darker. I had to slow down the speed a bit on the lighter material. There is obviously a sweet spot (or more likely a curve) in the speed/power relationship.
Hi James! Love your videos and how you present the content. The laser topic just comes up at the right time. As you may remember, I also got one of these 3081 pro CNC and it came together with a 7w Diode laser. Have having tortured some of these tiny little decorative boxes, I must say that the material I'm probably most interested in would be acrylic. I engraved one with a 30 deg V-Bit on 4mm cast acrylic and it was ok. Now I wonder if I could achieve same or even better results with less effort and mess using the diode laser. Have you already tried this material?
Great! Thanks James. Jim
You're ploughing through the videos today 👍
I'm enjoying them James. My problem will be remembering what I've seen and have to watch over and over. 😉
Hi James, Thanks a million for your fantastic videos. I have noticed that when I click the instructional icon in GIMP, it doesn't show the menu on the left as it does when you do. An example is with Dodge, it does not display the shadow option.
Amazing tutorial. Thank you.
glad you liked it :)
Ive been experimenting with my machine have even got to cut out bits for my balsa wood planes and only draw back ive found on gbrl is you cannot go back and alter setting you have to choose the image again and alter it then
Cheers for video
If you soften the edges of the image and have the laser setup that it is making the 5% to 20% tones white you will get sharp edges in the result. So I recommend setting up more detail to the brighter colors and less for the darker ones. (Sorry for the poor English.)
James - Some great, really helpful videos here - Thank you so much for taking the time to share. I've spent a little time learning how to cut 3mm ply using a 5500 laser. Yes it is a bit slow, but then it is a hobbyist tool. Would you be interested in some my experiences?
Always interested hear users experiences 👍
I also have a 5.5W laser. What power, speed, and # of passes did you find best for the 3 mil ply?
@@oldNavyJZ I used full power, 140 mm/min and 6 passes. Critical thing I found is getting focus spot on. I made lots of Halloween & Christmas decorations and even reworked a "Dr Who" Tardis I found on thingiverse [thing:19824] - It took 3 sheets and about 8 hours to cut!
I have the 3018 prover. Thinking about getting the laser setup. I'm assuming the setup will be the same as for the pro.
Great video and very helpful, Thanks
Hi James, great video. However im struggling to understand the starting point of the image, I see you zeroed the machine in the bottom left corner but it zoomed off to the right. I want to place my image on a smaller bit of wood and was wondering how to position it correctly.
When you load your image in it should ask you what size so make sure your image is smaller than the piece of wood. When you get to the screen with all the red lines you should see that it starts in the bottom left. Simply position your laser head over the bottom left corner of the wood, once in place click the zero button
Okay thanks, I’ll give it a try and see if I can make it central to my wood. Cheers 👍🏼
Hi James thank for all tour time in effort :) but i do have a question where did you get the orange laser protecting sheet ???? keep up the good work :):)
I got mine from Robosavy. But from what I gather clear amber orange acrylic from place like ebay does exactly the same thing.
Hi James. Love your Channel! What’s the best laser that for the genmitsu 4030 and does it swap out with the Spindle easy? Or would you recommend a separate laser setup? I want a laser that has good detail for etching wood and metal and Aksum cutting through wood.
Thanks,
Bert
Thanks.
If you can get a separate laser then do so. Most lasers run on belts because they can accelerate faster and get better results. However if that's not an option then the easiest option will be a 44mm wide laser and that should drop straight into the original holder. The FoxAlien 10w/40w is a good option
www.foxalien.com/en-gb/products/foxalien-40w-fixed-focus-blue-laser-module-kit?sca_ref=725103.t6qfXeHAnx
Hi James, could you advise me? I have had several suggestions all conflicting. Having seen your videos you know what you are talking about. I have a 3018pro. My laser only produces a 4.5watt output. Great for small jobs but I want to do some metal engraving (Keyrings Etc). Could you suggest a laser unit that I could use that would be powerful enough and fit the 3018pro to do the job or is it a case of having to buy a new machine?
Ooooh is that orange screen a laser safety screen? Where is that from? I need one of those for sure!
Check out my enclosure upgrade video, there should be a link in the description. From Robosavy if I remember correctly
Thanks!
Thank you. I really appreciate the support 🙏
I really like your videos,
I just got my CNC 3018. And your videos helped me to get it set up,
Thank you and God Bless.
que altura hay entre la lente del diodo y el tablero? muchas gracias
Awesome video series! Do you use ventilation when running the laser? What type of operating system do you use?
I do use ventilation now, before I just used to leave the door open to vent outside but it still got pretty smokey. I use windows 10
print your wood piece with black and after that add white layer ...in the end you will be happy
I didn't have the M4 available in Lasergrbl, ended up being a setting. $32=1 enabled it. Then I had to disable that back to 0, so that I could use the M3 S7 to give me a guide laser for focusing.
Hi James you video's are very helpful, i have a CNC 3018 i purchased a 5w laser it connected to my pc via grbl settings i got a pic in grayscale tried to burn it but the laser fires up turns on there;s very little movement in the axis and the laser doesn't burn i really a patient man but this is getting to me a bit ive watch your video's over and over but still cant get it to burn, ive been on it 2 days lol anything you can advice where i'm going wrong please regards Chris
Can you engrave ABS plastic using this laser?
Hi James, excellent video ,I have saved all your videos,looking forward to the next one,just one question,were do i get the test file from that you used in the video?. Thanks
There should be a link in the video description to download them all
Nice tutorials james good work
Can i ask a couple of quick questions or requests for future tutorial,?
1 did you find the woodpecker board was good over the cronos board? As i need to upgrade my nano board on my woodpecker laser i think
2 i notice you have Lburn as well, did you manage to set up your laser in lightburn because i have tried snd csnt get the xy coordinates working if you did please could you possibly decsribe how you did it to help us out as a lot of people have found it difficult
Thanks james
I ended up switching back to the Cronosmaker in the end. I found it to be more stable than the woodpecker. As for lightburn, its a much better program than LaserGRBL. I suspect your issue is regarding the start job from position. I cover this in my lightburn tutorial ruclips.net/video/2DSEZ8XJSV4/видео.html
Hi James,
Can one add text and a cut out shape in Gimp, before finalising your image so it will be part of your Laser GRBL burn?
Text is definitely possible. The cut out shape would probably need to be done as a separate layer and exported as a separate file so then in LaserGRBL you would load in your main photo and do all the settings for that, then load in the cut out image. I forget what the phrase is called but in LaserGRBL there is an option to load multiple files on top of each other
@@JamesDeanDesigns I'll check it out. Its similar to Easel where your cut out is on a separate file.
Is it possible to take the Gimp manipulated image to Lightburn and then to add text and a cut out there?
Can Lightburn do manipulation of a image the same as GIMP?
Hello, I need a way to set the z-axis directions because it works in the opposite direction. Please help me
Everyone go to the start of the video, and then press the 'j' key as quick as you can
Hi James Thanks for the great video, I duplicate your video and everything went find but the laser burns too much where are settings to cut down on the laser output or do I have the laser too close to the wood burns too much even when I'm doing word signs and the laser also run too slow ? Thank you very much I'll appreciate your answer. Thanks again. Joe
Hi James please help I've had machine over two weeks I follow all to best of my knowledge however it keeps buffer not actually starting everytime I push the play button what am I doing wrong it won't start at all
Sounds like a software problem or update required?
Dear James , would you recommend this machine - as a designer I am really intrigued by this machine. Have you ever cut vinyl with it? Also do you know if it works with Corel Draw or Photoshop?
Hi, its a great way to get into CNC without spending too much. I havent cut vinyl but I believe it can. The way it would work is you can use your design software to make a vector or raster image, you then import than into your laser software where you can control all the cnc settings. So corel draw or photoshop doesn't work with the machine direct but can be part of the process if that makes sense
hi James love your channel, im buying a 3018 machine but it does not come with a laser, can you reccomend the correct one for me to buy please ?
There are lots of options depending on what you want to spend, most will be around 5w of output power but the main thing is that to fit directly into the holder it needs to be a 33mm wide laser. Any larger and it will not fit in the holder
@@JamesDeanDesigns thanks James
Hi James, I have the 3018, it's the first CNC I have bought. I have found your tutorials very helpful in setting up my machine. I now have encountered an issue. When I move the laser around to manually set it in the home position I want, it moves fine. But when I start the test burn in your videos or any other build the Y axis will only move one way. It will burn the line in the (Laserdrawlines) program but instead of moving over and back down, it will only move over, so each time it gets higher. When it is suppose to be going back down to be inline with the Y axis home position it makes like a ticking/ grinding sound. I have checked the mechanical parts and there is no damage or signs that would lead to this sound.
I have changes the motors and the leads between the X and Y axis but it makes no difference. I have reset the 3018 and reloaded the program.
Could you please give me guidance on what to try next.
Thank you, Damian
Based on what you are saying, I suspect its skipping steps, possibly because your acceleration is to high. Check your $120,121 and 122 settings. if they are above 500 then bring then back down to that and try again, if it still sticks then come down to 300.
@@JamesDeanDesigns sorry it's taken a while to get back to you. I work away. Thank you so much, that fixed the issue.
Thank you for your video. I am curious about your laser enclosure. I assume your window is laser safe. Where did you get the window?
Yes its safe for lasers. I talk about it and have a link to it in this video
ruclips.net/video/x8OT2y2ospI/видео.html
Hi James, I really enjoy the tutorial vids you put up, they are helpful and have taught me the basics. Even the tuning my machine: I have a few questions about my 3018 I have. I use easel to design and carve my ideas and I use laser grbl, well to laser engrave. Can I use both programmes together like carve out a sign to 3mm depth then keep those exact settings and use the laser to then colour the carved out depth bits. Can't find a way to contact you, I don't use any social media like FB, insta, Twitter. Cheers James hope you or anyone who reads th8s can help. I will have more questions too. 👍👍👍
Yes. Makensure both pieces are designed to the same size. You do your carving and at the end it should return to the zero. Then you drop the laser in, and do that. In theory as long as the laser starts at the same zero point it should work
How do i know where and how big the image will be engraved. Is there another option like easel . Where you can input the dimensions of the wood to see exactly where it will laser. Or can Easel be used to laser engrave ?
Laser mode : M3 constant power , or M4 dynamic ?
@Alex Che
I got it working through M4 dynamic power. I typed in $32=1 in the gcode commands in LaserGrbl and managed to work alot of better, putting a picture on a canvas.
Set your laser to home then type in $32=1 and press enter and then frame your image to see where it will end up and then press play, M4 dynamic power is much better.
Hi James, First I want to say thank you for some great vids that help me much setting up my own 3018 pro. I do have a question I hope you can answer. Is it possible to ramp the end mill into the material instead of plunge it into when using Easel? Best Regards Martin
Thanks 😊 To my knowledge, I dont think you can. This seems to be on better software, like the Vectric range
James Dean Designs Thank you for your answer . I’ll try to look into some other programs to do that then 😊
@@JamesDeanDesigns 3
Wished you had done these excellent videos before you did. I need some advice please. I have set up my laser as per your video and got it working with the smallest focal point. However, when I try to do the test prints on the wood, the laser lights up like it is doing something, but nothing appears on the wood. Not sure what I a doing wrong or what maybe I have missed??
Assuming your laser is actually working correctly, it sound like a power issue. I briefly cover it in the video but you need to make sure your $30 and $31 values align with the Smax and Smin values in the software. Have you done this? Also worth checking with another piece of software to be safe. You can do a trial of lightburn just to rule out software
by a chance do you know if its capable or cutting/engraving leather?
Just a word of caution. Burning mdf liberates formaldehyde and other toxic gases. Make sure you have proper ventilation.
Very true. Ive just realised I dont actually refrence safety in this video like I normally do 🤔
Great video. Cheers mate
Amazing video got my laser going on the first try just one thing I can’t seem to figure out is y the writing comes out backwards how can I flip the image or file when it’s engraving
Thank you very much 👍 Its not the image you need to flip. You need to invert your Y axis. Try entering $3=2 to start
Hi James I have followed tutorials you have made downloaded gimp.org done everything you have shown on my image but just keeps burning a straight black line what I am doing wrong
Good afternoon, tell me where to download the installation file and programs for the machine?
docs.sainsmart.com/article/3jgtgas880-genmitsu-3018-pro-resources
Hi James! Thanks for your videos. I would like to know how to create a program in LaserGRBL not only for engraving, but also for laser cutting along a contour on plywood. And is it possible to generate g-code so that engraving and cutting are done in one job?
Hoping to do this in a future video 👍
Good night, how long did it take to complete the entire course?
Hi, What do you mean by the entire course? how long for the image to laser? I think it was about 20-30 minutes but it was a while ago so Im not 100% sure
Is there anyway to do this in Laserburn? I am running on a Mac and can't get/use LaserGRBL
trying to burn an image in lightburn low power to laser settings match in grbl and lightburn $32=1 and $131 = 1000 cutany layers speed 155 power 75what to do
Hi, Complete Novice Trying to follow your guides. Bought a Yorahome 3018 with Spindle and Laser. However, having tried to follow your LightBurn tutorial something has happened that now prevents the Profile base from moving to the back. It will move in a forward direction only and I can no longer use the FIRE button to test if the laser is working.
There is an additional switch on the controller which I assume is a reset switch but that hasn't helped. I've switched everything off powered all done and restarted. Useless! I've tried with LaserGRBL and although it gives off the audible connection beep nothing will function not even the jog controls. Any ideas what may have happened here...
Hi Jerry. Check all connections both on the board and on the stepper motors? What happens when you click a direction and it doesnt travel? Is there a noise or is there any error message?
Can you jog the machine around in Candle?
Great video and helpful for me. Can I replace the 5500 mW laser with a 15 or 20 watt one? Thanks.
Yes in theory, but there is a question about whether they are really that powerful so just be careful
@@JamesDeanDesigns Thanks.
@@JamesDeanDesigns Thanks
Very odd but I can do the circle burn but using the same settings with a photo is a blob.
Can I ask where you got the little fan from?
It was just off amazon I believe. USB chargeable fan
@@JamesDeanDesigns Thanks James
Hello there, Great channel really love videos and learning a lot, I have 3018Pro with Woodpecker board and trying for engraving some tests, so I have an issue with it, it is stacking in the middle of engraving but not at the same place all-time (it gives some red lines in code, but can`t understand what it means), also try to resume from previous commands, sometimes it works sometimes it not, did you have any issue like this, or maybe there is any community which I don`t know, where experienced people can help? if you can help maybe I can contact you somehow to show some pictures of the errors
Share some screen shots with me if you can on Instagram or facebook. And also let me know any info like the software you are using
Is this also possible using the 2.5W laser?
Yes, you may just need to go a little slower with the feed rate 👍
@@JamesDeanDesigns Oke thanks, and the other settings are remaing the same with those in this video? what do you suggest for feed rate using a 2,5W
@@LVA_DESIGN_LAMPS its really a case of testing on your material. You'll need to do some power scale testing and that will give you and idea of the best feeds and power for your laser
great video. I wish i could get laser GRBL to work on windows XP on my crappy netbook computers I use for milling. Anybody got any ideas on how to get that working? Will laser GRBL export gcode of those operations I could run from an offline controller or other software?
Is the 3018 a better laser or CNC ?
I would say its primarily for CNC. A lot of lasers are belt driven for faster acceleration and higher speeds. The 3018 copes with doing laser fine but I wouldn't say that was its primary design
Can lazer 3d cutting?
Hi James, I have learned alot from this video but I think I am doing something wrong. I use the arrows to move the lazer to were I want my image to engrave but the laser moves and it won't do it were I want to too! Any advice?
Are you clicking the Zero button after moving the laser to where you want it to start?
Hello, thanks for your videos, I have a question, do you have the CNC 3018 PRO suction 3D (STL) file? Thanks for your help...
No. Thomas who makes them might sell you the file though. I think I linked to his etsy page it in my tips and tricks video
@@JamesDeanDesigns OK Thank you I will look! ! !
OK, I found Etsy . I placed the order ! Thanks for your help.
Hi, I have a 500mw 65x50cm Laser Engraver setup with Advanced CNC 2-Axis Control Board & benbox software. I would like to add a NEJE A40640 module. What do I need to add or change?
You will need to check the connections are the same (usually a 3 pin connector) but the hardest part will be knowing if your control board can output enough power for it to run at 100%. Unless you know the spec of the board you may not find this our until you have installed the laser
@@JamesDeanDesigns Thanks for your quick response. I will let you know how it goes.
I moved my machine now this is the msg I get when connecting
The setup wizard does not know how to configure this type of controller and needs to be done manually
Looking to get one of these but have horrible internet. Does this machine require internet or can it run offline once the program is downloaded .
Yes, once you have your software it can be done completely offline.
@@JamesDeanDesigns Thank you so much
Can it engrave painted metal or raw metal?
Painted metal yes but technically you're just burning the paint off of that makes sense. But not raw metal, although it might do softer metal like aluminium
WHEN i TRY AND CONNECT IT CONNECT , DISCONNECT OVER AND OVER AGAIN WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE OR WHAT IS THE PROBLEM
That usually means the wrong com port has been selected or sometimes you may need to press the reset button on the board
How to trasfere DXF vectors in pazer ingraving programm? Anyone ideas??????
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
James, help! Lol. My 3018 is carving designs upside down, backwards, and negative to the x axis zero. I can not figure out what is happening. Help brother help
It will be your $3 setting which changes your axis direction, but it can change all 3. Try $3=1 first, test all 3 axis, if one is still wrong try $3=2... and so on. It only goes upto 7 so you just need to find the number that gets all 3 going correctly
@@JamesDeanDesigns thank you so much! You have been an awesome resource and help. I’m also having trouble running ugs. I downloaded it as you did but my hp with os windows 8 doesn’t have java to run ugs so I tried downloading java 8 which also didn’t work. Am I able to get to the $ controls in candle? And if so how?
Had to read that three times. Kept getting for three dollars you could offer a solution. Lol. I need to stop binge watching and pay better attention. Great work on the videos.
Hi James. Thanks a lot for your helpfull videos. I also follow you on instagram. Very interesting. I have one question and hope you can help me out. My cnc 3018pro works very slowly. What can be the reason?
Thank you 👍 Check out my video for tuning your GRBL settings that might help.
Im trying to set-up my machine but i gives only black or white on/off no greyscale at all :(
Is this in LaserGRBL? Make sure you do not have the B&W box ticked
@@JamesDeanDesigns Yes it is LaserGRBL and B&W box is not ticked. Can it be grbl settings?
@@dawidjlb2589 just trying to understand more about it. Is it showing greyscale in LaserGRBL when you load an image or is it the laser its self thats not doing the greyscale?
@@JamesDeanDesigns Everything looks good in the program but laser won't make greyscale effects. I have played with some settings because first it made some black holes almost like engraving. I tried on wood and cardboard on the back of drawing pad.
@@dawidjlb2589 assuming you have a laser that can work with PWM I suspect its one of two things. Either you haven't turned the PWM switch on the laser or your GRBL firm ware needs updating. I suspect you maybe running 0.9 and you need to be on 1.1. Google updating GRBL firmware
I didn't know people engrave on toilets
Does this laser have a lifetime?
Kind of, they will burn out over time. Running it at full power really reduces the life span which is why I never really run mine higher than about 80%
Have you any videos for idiots 🙈 that's looking to engrave on to small jewellery