I’m using my iPad instead of phone and have not seen the center locator. It’s probably there and I’ll keep looking. Last time I used, I just placed the burn area in the correct location. Thanks Phil. Onward thru the fog.
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LP1 Pro 1st test
- Thread starter Bill Blasic
- Start date
It would have been nice if the app had higher contrast colors that didn't make it nearly impossible to see with the safety glasses on.
Here's my LP1 setup for signing bowls. I've also done some embellishing with it. This is posted somewhere else as well. Since this pic was taken I picked up a $5 USB powered fan that I set on the ways blowing upward to clear the smoke,
AFAIK, the only way to control the LP1 is from the phone app. I read some hacks on controlling it from other common laser software but they were quite complex and very unlikely to work. Did something change to allow an LP1 to be computer controlled?
AFAIK, the only way to control the LP1 is from the phone app. I read some hacks on controlling it from other common laser software but they were quite complex and very unlikely to work. Did something change to allow an LP1 to be computer controlled?
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I did a screenshot the other day when I was burning some wood nametags for members. It's really tough to read text on the buttons at the bottom.
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I bought the LP2 because I wanted something faster. I plan to do a lot more than a logo. I made a box for my wife and put some pictures of our dogs on it.
Cute pups
I have the LP2 as well.
In the designer App there is a dithering option and on that menu there is an invert slider that allows you to invert the image which would eliminate the black background. The contrast is another great option to use to clean up images on wood.
Bob
Speaking of those glasses, I stepped on mine. I went looking for a replacement and found mostly $40 goggles/glasses. Surely there must be some available in the $10 range. I'll keep looking.
Look at welding glasses on Amazon.
I wonder if I have to target the specific wavelength of the laser, or if any welding glasses will do.
I just looked it up. And no they don’t cover the correct wavelength. Sorry, it was the first thing I thought of. I looked up the wavelength and LP is 450nm.
Based on the laser labs I've worked at and around, the glasses have to be made to stop the specific laser wavelength. Welding arc light has a lot of white light and frequencies on both ends of the spectrum, IR and UV. Besides possibly being at the wrong wavelengths for the Laserpecker, they are necessarily dark to visible light and might make it difficult to see other things in the room.
I wouldn't mess around with a guess - I know people who have permanent eye damage from a moment of poor judgment - "Oh, I'll just pop in for a moment" at the very time when a tool or setup caused a thin line reflection across their eyes for a instant. Just dropping a tool through the invisible beam is enough.
I recreated the chart that was on the door to one lab:
. JKJ
Thanks I will play with that. I think part of my problem was burning samples on different wood until I liked them. Then when I burned them on the box they came out darker.
I started keeping a small notebook to keep a record of my settings for different substrates.
The LP2 also does a good job on slate coasters and aluminum discs if you use the laser spray on the aluminum.
I had come up with this when I was buying mine.
| Laser Type | 0.5W 405nm Blue-Violet Diode Laser |
They list the mini as 450 and the lp1 pro as 405. who knows??
I decided to get the LP4, dual laser. Apparently the lasers are:
- 450 nm blue diode laser for wood, acrylic, some metals, glass, leather, paper, stone.
- 1064 nm infrared pulsed laser for metals, most plastics, etc..
Maybe I'll find time to open the box in a week or two. I want to make some brass Round TUITS. I had some from the 70s made by smacking aluminum disks with hand stamps but I'm down to my last one. I still have a box of aluminum disks but figured engraved polished brass might be fun.
JKJ
Phil, no such luck on a center button on my LP-1 app on my iPad. However, the mounting post I made for the tailstock lets me line up the burn area quite nicely.
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Nice setup! I'll have to try hooking my Ipad to it. Doesn't make sense it would be different but I've seen other instances.
The use of these lasers is interesting to me. This is fairly high tech stuff and there's an apparent willingness to accept it. I kinda like this.
I'm waiting for some of the turning world "influencers" to go further and show that for less than the price of the least acceptable wood lathe + tools they can become world class producers of "turnings" on relatively inexpensive CNC wood routers. A few years back I predicted CNC would become the common method of "turning" in ten years, now I'd say sooner.
I'm waiting for some of the turning world "influencers" to go further and show that for less than the price of the least acceptable wood lathe + tools they can become world class producers of "turnings" on relatively inexpensive CNC wood routers. A few years back I predicted CNC would become the common method of "turning" in ten years, now I'd say sooner.
I think that, and especially when AI controls the CNCs, is when the die-hard turners' hand-made work will become valuable art and everything else will be fit for Walmart.
The use of lasers on turnings and furniture is potentially controversial. I bought a laser and have lots of ideas but one thing I DON'T plan on using it for is to sign pieces. My opinion at the moment is hand-signing something, at minimum, makes it more personal, and might even add to the "artistic" or craftsmanship value. Maybe a compromise is an engraved logo designed to incorporate an obvious handwritten signature?
JKJ
I would like to be around in ten years to tell you that you were wrong. My least acceptable lathe cost me $265. My CNC machine cost me $5000, I've spent another $700 learning how to use it and I've spent $1500 on cutters. That least acceptable lathe can produce a 12" wide 6" deep bowl. My CNC as much as I try to think how it could be done I cannot figure a way it could be done on a continuous piece of wood. I could do it making rings and glue ups but I already have a devise that does that. For most folks they have an interest in turning a few of us crazies have multiple interests that stretch you so far you get into the shop and you don't know what interest to play with
I think the sticking point for most folks is that they like turning. There's no reason you can't do bowls, boxes, etc. on a CNC, it's just that this crowd isn't interested. Sometimes that feels like we're old, stodgy, and not interested in new things. But for me, it's just that a CNC bowl is just... well, a Chinese $10 bowl.
I so bad want to take one of the rubber wood bowls they sell in Aldis occasionally and remount it, clean it up and do some embellishments then stick it out amongst mine at a craft show but so far I don't want to spend $14 which they seem to be and my sis says it's not ethical and probably true but I want to call it an experiment and see if it would sell better. Usually they are segmented.