Laser engraving / cutting of leather

[Gulrok]

44 minutes ago, RockyAussie said:

Thanks for the video @Gulrok I would not have believed that possible without seeing it. Now I am starting to think of going bigger than my little 2.5 watt diode laser. How big a size cutting area can yours handle? Must be fairly big if you can cut belts. I assume there is some serious $$$$ to spend to get that far.

So I don't do any handcutting or punching anymore. I've completely moved to lasering at this point. 

As for investment, I'm probably in the neighborhood of $17,500 USD. It wasn't the cost of the laser, but merely the upgrades, a fume extraction system (in a commercial space ,got denied venting outside, it has to be vented/purified in house). The air compressor, lines run throughout the shop... 

There was a lot to do to get it to cut so nicely.

The laser tube in it is a 150 watt tube, it has a 60" x 40" bed on it. 

--

I have a 4" lens on the laser when I cut belts and 2" when I cut wallet weight stuff. 




I have personally found that my cuts are the cleanest with a 4" lens. I hit that wide field of depth (they say the 4" lens can cut items up to 1"). Because we have that wide field of depth the laser does not create excessive soot since I'm in that perfect cutting depth band. The closer your material is to that - the better off you are. I've cut 3/4" plywood with 'light brown' charring and no soot. My personal experience is also that leather being tanned and so tough, is harder to cut cleanly than plywood. So there is some science to it.

A belt takes me... 2 or 3 minutes to cut per belt. About a minute is spent engraving our logo on the back of buckle end that wraps around to the back. 

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Gulrok

[RockyAussie]

Thanks for sharing @Gulrok. It gets very interesting when you experiment and come up with good solutions. The few changes I have made on my little one have worked out very satisfactory for me and it gets a lot of use nearly every day. Putting a larger cooling system (2" fan) and a shroud to give some air assist as well allows me to run a full power for hours at a time. There seems to be no drop off in performance over the last couple of years to my surprise and I think the larger fan aside from keeping it cool, helps to keep any smoke away from the lens as well.I do run an extraction system as well which works very well as well. My bed I rebuilt to do poster size and that works well but I would not mind if it was a fair bit larger. Where yours will do it in seconds mine would take a lot lot longer but good thing it keeps going while I get to do other stuff instead. It started off as a 2.5 watt Elksmaker pro which was open air (scary) for just under $400AU and I think I would have spent about another $600 getting  it way larger and safer. Again I thank you for sharing 

[Ferg]

On 5/25/2022 at 4:53 PM, Gulrok said:

 I would have to disagree. See the video I just posted. 

I have personally found that inexperienced laser operators tend to have struggles when dealing with materials. I run test cards when I get new leather (a 6"x6") on the leather. I then pick the best settings from my test card. Depends on what thickness I cut - but I usually use my 4" lens on any belt leather. I have my laser dialed in to be able to cut 3/4" plywood without problems.

I cut 1/2" plywood boxes all the time. You can wipe your hand along the edges without soot. 

Yes the edges have char - but it goes away with burnishing and my normal edge dying process. 

You have to remember my laser is a 60/50W. I probably have issues and differences in abilities that you do not have with your laser.

Thanks for your outlining some of your experiences much appreciated.

Ferg

[Gulrok]

17 hours ago, Ferg said:

You have to remember my laser is a 60/50W. I probably have issues and differences in abilities that you do not have with your laser.

Thanks for your outlining some of your experiences much appreciated.

Ferg

 

On 5/25/2022 at 2:18 PM, Ferg said:

I am convinced that most any absorbent material such as wood or leather would/does laser better and relieve the operator of 

way too may hours of cleaning when the product is sealed and has a finish coat on it. My jigsaw puzzles prove that to me.

My lasers, I have a 3W Diode laser also, provides some fantastic product. The possibilities are only diminished by your imagination.

Ferg

Understandable, I'm not trying to be argumentative. I just want to clarify that it was I disagreed with the blanket statement in bold.

As for your laser. I think you'd be personally surprised what you can accomplish.

For example our laser is cutting at 26% power and 10mm/s for 12/14oz leather. You'd likely be able to hit 50-60% power on your laser by slowing it down. Definitely possible. The only reason we have the powerful laser is because of the bed size. We could easily downgrade the tube and still cut everything at the same speed but more power. Just keep your mind open to the possibilities.

 

[Ferg]

Thanks,

Every day I turn the laser on I am amazed at what is possible.

Have had a woodshop for over 70 years, I am 88 years young and taught myself to program our two head CNC beginning in the 80's.

I am to this day amazed at what I can accomplish with the machine we paid close to $150,000 in 1986.

Taught my kids to never look back. You can accomplish anything you put your mind to.

Ferg

[RockyAussie]

12 hours ago, Gulrok said:

For example our laser is cutting at 26% power and 10mm/s for 12/14oz leather. You'd likely be able to hit 50-60% power on your laser by slowing it down. Definitely possible. The only reason we have the powerful laser is because of the bed size. We could easily downgrade the tube and still cut everything at the same speed but more power. Just keep your mind open to the possibilities.

So that means you are using only around 40Watts? The 4" lens gives you that sort of improvement? I was thinking awhile back on one of these 50watt fibre lasers that I think are getting better on price. One fella over here said he only paid about $7000 for one and another said he got one out of China for under $4000. I know they can cut metal to some degree (they make stamps) so now I am really starting to wonder if they could do leather as well as you can with yours.

[chrisash]

Could you not replace one of these double diode 10W output to shorten your cutting time, in the UK they are around £250 now which would enable you to check out over your 3 W model

[Gulrok]

7 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

So that means you are using only around 40Watts? The 4" lens gives you that sort of improvement? I was thinking awhile back on one of these 50watt fibre lasers that I think are getting better on price. One fella over here said he only paid about $7000 for one and another said he got one out of China for under $4000. I know they can cut metal to some degree (they make stamps) so now I am really starting to wonder if they could do leather as well as you can with yours.

In theory yes. I don't know if 100% power is the peak or working rating of the laser. My tube has a 150W tube has a 150W working rating and 180W peak rating. Is 100% power peak rating or working rating - honestly no idea.That is something I could measure - with that being said, I haven't since I never go that high to begin with.

The 4" lens absolutely makes that much difference. 

Remember the you get bad charing and cutting when your laser is out of focus. 

[RockyAussie]

16 hours ago, chrisash said:

Could you not replace one of these double diode 10W output to shorten your cutting time, in the UK they are around £250 now which would enable you to check out over your 3 W model

I could do that but I am thinking of setting up another laser for cutting the leather. I do a lot of product box cutting and the fine beam of the 2.5 watt is excellent for cutting the fine lines into the cardboard for folding and it does that better than the 5 watt diode one does. The 5 watt cuts twice as quick but does not do it quite as fine. the beam does not go down that small. Same with the engraving a bit. I was surprised awhile back that when I started making stamps out of black acrylic that on the finest setting it cut through 3mm no problem at all and I had to speed it up quite a bit to get the cutting to only go 2 or 2.5mm deep.I now only do the stamps on 10mm thick.

[chrisash]

Thats impressive on the acrylic is it with the 3 or 5W laser

[RockyAussie]

1 hour ago, chrisash said:

Thats impressive on the acrylic is it with the 3 or 5W laser

No the 2.5 watt laser. I am not sure if the 5 watt would do it that neat but I have not tried it yet. If I get the time I will give it a go and let you know.

[Dwight]

OK guys . . . I'm impressed as I can be . . . and about equally confused.

Honestly I'm looking to laser engrave the back of billfolds . . . some belts . . . purses . . . etc.

Would like also to be able to do some on metal . . . like initials on a belt buckle . . . etc .

I'm thinkng looking at some of the models offered on Ebay . . . they do 400 by 500 mm or so . . . was thinking of doing the first 400 mm of the belt . . . move the leather and have the laser pick up where it left off by some imaginative designs.

Thinking of deer hunting scenes . . . deer . .  trees . . . meadow . . . etc.

How powerful a machine would I need to only do stuff like this?

AND . . . will I have to buy special software . . . or can they take my "picture" or drawing and do it from there???

Thanks, may God bless,

Dwight

[Bert03241]

A 60 watt co2 laser will do all you want and more and do it much faster then a diode laser. You should be able to find a decent 60 watt for under 5k maybe a lot less then that even. It won't engrave bare metal but will mark bare metal with cermark. It will engrave most coated metals, painted, powder coated, anodized ect ect.

[Gulrok]

20 hours ago, Dwight said:

OK guys . . . I'm impressed as I can be . . . and about equally confused.

Honestly I'm looking to laser engrave the back of billfolds . . . some belts . . . purses . . . etc.

Would like also to be able to do some on metal . . . like initials on a belt buckle . . . etc .

I'm thinkng looking at some of the models offered on Ebay . . . they do 400 by 500 mm or so . . . was thinking of doing the first 400 mm of the belt . . . move the leather and have the laser pick up where it left off by some imaginative designs.

Thinking of deer hunting scenes . . . deer . .  trees . . . meadow . . . etc.

How powerful a machine would I need to only do stuff like this?

AND . . . will I have to buy special software . . . or can they take my "picture" or drawing and do it from there???

Thanks, may God bless,

Dwight

 

13 hours ago, Bert03241 said:

A 60 watt co2 laser will do all you want and more and do it much faster then a diode laser. You should be able to find a decent 60 watt for under 5k maybe a lot less then that even. It won't engrave bare metal but will mark bare metal with cermark. It will engrave most coated metals, painted, powder coated, anodized ect ect.

I completely agree. A 60w CO2 laser is definitely a strong starting point. Its a good balance between power and speed.
 

[Nikos69]

22 hours ago, Dwight said:

OK guys . . . I'm impressed as I can be . . . and about equally confused.

Honestly I'm looking to laser engrave the back of billfolds . . . some belts . . . purses . . . etc.

Would like also to be able to do some on metal . . . like initials on a belt buckle . . . etc .

I'm thinkng looking at some of the models offered on Ebay . . . they do 400 by 500 mm or so . . . was thinking of doing the first 400 mm of the belt . . . move the leather and have the laser pick up where it left off by some imaginative designs.

Thinking of deer hunting scenes . . . deer . .  trees . . . meadow . . . etc.

How powerful a machine would I need to only do stuff like this?

AND . . . will I have to buy special software . . . or can they take my "picture" or drawing and do it from there???

Thanks, may God bless,

Dwight

FYI... a CO2 laser cannot engrave metal -- you will need a fiber laser for that. The CO2 laser can remove powder coating and anodization to reveal the silver base color. You can also using a marking spray to get a black mark on various, uncoated metals.

Edit: just noticed this answered above.

As for software, it depends on which machine you purchase and most will be compatible with Lightburn. There are tons of videos on Youtube that will show you how to prep your image for engraving.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Nikos69

[Bert03241]

2 hours ago, Nikos69 said:

FYI... a CO2 laser cannot engrave metal -- you will need a fiber laser for that. The CO2 laser can remove powder coating and anodization to reveal the silver base color. You can also using a marking spray to get a black mark on various, uncoated metals.

Edit: just noticed this answered above.

As for software, it depends on which machine you purchase and most will be compatible with Lightburn. There are tons of videos on Youtube that will show you how to prep your image for engraving.

No one sais a co2 could engrave metal please read the posts!

[Nikos69]

On 5/31/2022 at 2:41 PM, Bert03241 said:

No one sais a co2 could engrave metal please read the posts!

It was clearly implied so please keep your ignorant condescending attacks to yourself.

 

On 5/30/2022 at 2:19 PM, Dwight said:

Would like also to be able to do some on metal . . . like initials on a belt buckle . . . etc .

I'm thinkng looking at some of the models offered on Ebay . . . they do 400 by 500 mm or so . . . was thinking of doing the first 400 mm of the belt . . . move the leather and have the laser pick up where it left off by some imaginative designs.

 

First sentence he mentions engraving metal.

Second sentence, he mentions the $400 Ebay machines which are CO2.

Edited June 14, 2022 by Nikos69

[Dwight]

6 hours ago, Nikos69 said:

First sentence he mentions engraving metal.

Second sentence, he mentions the $400 Ebay machines which are CO2.

And what exactly is your problem???  I asked a couple of questions . . . because I did not know the answers.

If you have a problem with people asking questions . . . maybe you ought to go somewhere else where people are more like you . . . . and know all the answers all the time.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Bert03241]

2 hours ago, Dwight said:

And what exactly is your problem???  I asked a couple of questions . . . because I did not know the answers.

If you have a problem with people asking questions . . . maybe you ought to go somewhere else where people are more like you . . . . and know all the answers all the time.

May God bless,

Dwight

Thanks Dwight , you never implied that a co2 could cut or engrave metal , were this guy read that I can't . figure. I probably know more about co2 lasers then he'll ever know

[Dwight]

29 minutes ago, Bert03241 said:

Thanks Dwight , you never implied that a co2 could cut or engrave metal , were this guy read that I can't . figure. I probably know more about co2 lasers then he'll ever know

Gotcha . . . but for what I'm looking to do on the leather only . . . do these 300 . . . 400 . . . 500 dollar lasers do what I'm looking for???

Some guys use theirs for cutting . . .  I'm not really interested in that . . . more just the engraving . . . decorating . . . etc.  

And . . . how does it do the engraving?  I'm thinking it just uses the power of the compressed CO2 . . . would that be how it is done?

Thanks, may God bless,

Dwight

[Nikos69]

Dwight, I was not targeting you, just showing your new BFF how you wanted to engrave bare buckles in one sentence and you referred to CO2 machine in the next sentence.

And for Bert, you also explained that CO2 "won’t engrave bare metal". Hypocrite much? 
Shouldn’t be casting stones brother.

On 5/30/2022 at 9:24 PM, Bert03241 said:

A 60 watt co2 laser will do all you want and more and do it much faster then a diode laser. You should be able to find a decent 60 watt for under 5k maybe a lot less then that even. It won't engrave bare metal but will mark bare metal with cermark. It will engrave most coated metals, painted, powder coated, anodized ect ect.

 

 

[Bert03241]

Dwight a 40 watt co2 laser will engrave Veg tan leather nicely . I will also engrave wood, glass, and many other materials. It will not engrave bare metal but might mark bare metal with the help of cermark, but I wouldn't count on that cermark needs slow speeds and more power.

1 hour ago, Nikos69 said:

Dwight, I was not targeting you, just showing your new BFF how you wanted to engrave bare buckles in one sentence and you referred to CO2 machine in the next sentence.

And for Bert, you also explained that CO2 "won’t engrave bare metal". Hypocrite much? 
Shouldn’t be casting stones brother.

why dont you go some place were you have a clue as to what your talking about your talking in circles.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Bert03241

[Double Daddy]

On 6/14/2022 at 10:00 PM, Dwight said:

Gotcha . . . but for what I'm looking to do on the leather only . . . do these 300 . . . 400 . . . 500 dollar lasers do what I'm looking for???

Sir...I can't/won't wade into the back & forth of these other fellas' technical conversation about this & that type laser (not that well versed in the matter quite frankly)...but...here's some work I had done up on my brother's AtomStack (it is listed as a "40watt"...not sure what that rates out to as far as output but it does what he and I need...woodworking for him and leather for myself). He purchased it as a "test tool/toy"...just to see if it was something that would be worth the time and effort...I also gave him some scrap leather pieces to play with from my inventory. Aside from his butcher blocks, charcuterie & cutting boards and other pieces going "under the light"...he practiced with the leather I gave him, then I turned him loose.

First...I'm no photographer and my phone is old. Sorry for the pic quality.

I started by drawing up a coaster pattern in CAD (the "camouflage stamp" took a little bit to duplicate but now I have it...subsequent coasters will see this image scaled down and re-arrayed so that there are more of them, smaller in size)...all that needs doing per order is changing the text for what the customer wants...there's plenty of room around the border for sewing to a backer material (cork, etc...I use an oil tanned leather that has a grippy texture on the bottom). We ran a "test" coaster first (second pic)...you can see that the border is a bit light on the RH side vs. the left. Once we got the settings dialed in, the little AtomStack even managed to cut out the (4) I sent the customer (farthest to the left in the third photo)...this was 5/6oz drum-dyed veg-tanned.  The portfolio fronts and their initials also turned out pretty well...it's not stamping or carving AND the laser etching of leather STINKS to high-heaven (really need to get your exhaust worked out, even in a shop situation)...but...you can be doing other things in your shop while this is cooking.

I believe Lil' Brother's AtomStack was in the $300-400 range...I've looked at them myself and they head upwards from there (up to around $16-1800 or so, maybe more for models with work area extensions and air-assist and other add-ons).

Just my recent experience...

[Dwight]

1 hour ago, Double Daddy said:

Sir...I can't/won't wade into the back & forth of these other fellas' technical conversation about this & that type laser (not that well versed in the matter quite frankly)...but...here's some work I had done up on my brother's AtomStack (it is listed as a "40watt"...

Thanks, Double Daddy . . . 

That's all I'm looking to do . . .

May God bless,

Dwight

[laserleather]

TheParchedPony - Etsy makes some cool leather products and have even laser cut some with a laser cutting system.