40W Chinese Laser - Engrave and Cut Leather - Discuss

[Bert03241]

On 1/25/2022 at 1:12 PM, ToddW said:

Email sent!

so its been 4 or 5 months what have you done, have you got a laser yet? what did you get? hows it working out for you.?

[mchaney2003]

20 hours ago, Bert03241 said:

so its been 4 or 5 months what have you done, have you got a laser yet? what did you get? hows it working out for you.?

Hi, Bert! I know you weren't asking me, but I'd like to chime in anyway. My laser has seen a ton of use recently, and it's completely redefined my leatherworking. I have had my laser for 1 year and 3 months. I'm just a hobbyist, leatherworking on weekends and occasional evenings. 

A working knowledge of vector design programs like Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator goes a long, long way to getting great results. However, you can also just buy designs or patterns from sellers on Etsy that sell vectors and Laser patterns pre-made. 

 

[Bert03241]

I was looking for an answer from him, wanted to see if he ever bought a laser , what he got and hows he doing.. I've been lasering leather for almost 6 years now. I do all my designing in Coreldraw . You'll find most engravers use this program altho Light burn is becoming popular. Its new but people find it easy to use. I won't change as Corel can do a lot more.

[ToddW]

sorry guys.. mom got sick and passed so been burried in all that for the last 2 months but coming up for air.  I have not bought a laser but decided on the MF2028-60 - 60W CO2 LASER from OMTech..  I did buy a cobra sewing machine and bell skiver.. just need to get the laser cutter..  I think I will be buying it in July unless shipping or availability gets more crazy than it is..

Edited June 8, 2022 by ToddW

[Bert03241]

Hey Todd So sorry for your loss.

Hope things are going better for you now. Keep us informed when you get your laser. We can help you with the curve. Also theres a Great Forum called sawmillcreek. It a woodworking forum but has a laser section , and these guys really know their stuff.Not much in the laser world they cant tell you how to fix.

[Gulrok]

On 6/4/2022 at 6:01 PM, Bert03241 said:

I was looking for an answer from him, wanted to see if he ever bought a laser , what he got and hows he doing.. I've been lasering leather for almost 6 years now. I do all my designing in Coreldraw . You'll find most engravers use this program altho Light burn is becoming popular. Its new but people find it easy to use. I won't change as Corel can do a lot more.

I'm pretty active in laser cutting community and for the most part the laser community has shifted to lightburn for interacting with the laser. 

Most of the laser community designs their stuff in another software like Adobe illustrator, inkscape, CorelDraw, etc... and then import the SVG file to lightburn to cut. 

I've personally trialed CorelDraw, but I didn't know that it was able to speak to your laser natively. 

[Bert03241]

On 6/8/2022 at 7:13 PM, Gulrok said:

I'm pretty active in laser cutting community and for the most part the laser community has shifted to lightburn for interacting with the laser. 

Most of the laser community designs their stuff in another software like Adobe illustrator, inkscape, CorelDraw, etc... and then import the SVG file to lightburn to cut. 

I've personally trialed CorelDraw, but I didn't know that it was able to speak to your laser natively. 

Mine doesn't, I design in corel save as a DXF then transfer to the laser. I think corel can talk to the laser direct but some say it doesn't work well so I never tried it. its no big deal to do it my way. Sounds like light burn is the same, you design in another program then save it as an svg then transfer it to light burn.

[Gulrok]

8 hours ago, Bert03241 said:

Mine doesn't, I design in corel save as a DXF then transfer to the laser. I think corel can talk to the laser direct but some say it doesn't work well so I never tried it. its no big deal to do it my way. Sounds like light burn is the same, you design in another program then save it as an svg then transfer it to light burn.

Correct. We save our files as SVG or similar (dxf, etc). We import to lightburn and then use lightburn from there. I admire anyone who is able to get their laser cutter to work. It is definitely a learning curve. If you way works then it works. Thats all that matters.