High Speed Wood Engraving Machine to Improve Your Work Efficiency

In this quick guide, you’ll read about high-speed engraving machines, CO2 lasers, and glavo systems, so you’ll understand what is best to buy for your business.

Introduction

The high-speed laser wood engraver is a demand from today’s market and is being catered by galvo CO2 lasers, among other solutions. As with any progressive market, scientific advances are made to address consumer needs and demands.

The engraving and marking market face a similar situation. Diverse requirements and customer-base have led to immense leaps in technological advancements. This was necessary to address the industry’s increased demand for sophisticated solutions for complex tasks.

From the basic hand-held rotary tool to a high-precision, computer-controlled laser device; a wide variety is available for consumers to pick from. The answer to the ‘which device?’ question is driven by a user’s needs and budget.

We shall be looking into high-speed engraving machines for soft materials. Soft materials can be acrylic and plastics but we will consider wood as our standard. For extreme precision and high working speed, the market is primarily catered to by galvo CO2 laser markers.

These are complemented by 3d galvo CO2 laser engravers. Let’s detour a bit before we dive deep into the dominion of galvo laser engraving and high-speed laser wood engravers. A brief look into the world of wood engraving in general and where it stands today is necessary. This will help us appreciate the significance of the domain. 

How Did We End Up here?

A brief look into the world of wood engraving  

Woodwork has been an integral part of human existence. With time, its purpose extended beyond that of just functional use. We started to use them as objects of ornament. Entire industries grew around this concept.

As technology stepped in to make human life easier, we let machines take over the heavy load. This gave us time to explore more meaningful endeavors. Today, these tools have automated the process and made it extensively simple to execute.

Using desktop laser engravers we are now able to customize gifts for loved ones. We can build functional objects on our table-tops. It is like a laser printer for wood. For those of a more curious or artistic inclination, this has opened doors to an all-new platform.

They can experiment with and express themselves in a new medium. Also, Youtube has a lot to offer if one wants to see laser etchers in action. It is fascinating to see these machines making complex, high-precision incisions at lightning speed.

People even find the videos therapeutic. From making signboards to marking serial numbers, the usage of laser printing on wood is now commonplace. The wood engraving process revolves around two basic methods.

One method involves using rotary mechanical tools. The other is that of high-intensity lasers. The former method has high-torque motors, conventionally with a collet and chuck at the rotational end.

The end shreds through wood making way for the required pattern. They do so using specifically designed etching bits. Laser etchers, on the other hand, slice through wood’s surface using a high-intensity light beam. Each process has its pros and cons.

High-Speed Wood Engraver’s Pros and Cons

Knowing the ups and downs helps avoid pitfalls of engraving

For rotary engravers, they come with a handful of practical advantages for a generic user. The technique is suited to almost all materials. These machines are simple to maintain and significantly less expensive than their laser counterparts.

But it does come with a few downsides. They are still slightly complex for a novice user when it comes to actual engraving. Furthermore, their resolution is limited to the size of the engraving tooltip.

Since the system has significant vibration, a robust setup is needed. This is necessary to sustain the minute jolts and jerks the tooltip may face when coming in contact with the wood surface.

Otherwise, the vibrations will translate into an imprecise etch. This consequently results in poor resolution of the markings.

High-speed laser wood engravers, on the other hand, are suitable for intricate designs. The adoption of the tech side of things also has a lesser learning curve. To top it off, it is much faster than a conventional rotary setup.

Laser Types For High-Speed Laser Wood Engraver

The types of lasers serving the market

Multiple laser sources are available in the market that serves the wood laser marker segment. The forerunners in the technology that have dominated the market are CO2 lasers, fiber lasers, and vanadate lasers.

We’ll be discussing CO2 in greater detail below but the following is a brief summary of fiber and vanadate lasers. Fiber lasers are solid-state lasers that generate a laser beam roughly 100 times higher in intensity than CO2 lasers.

Consequently, they are best suited to metal marking and laser etching wood using these are overkill. Vanadate, or crystal lasers, are also solid-state lasers. Functionally, they offer the same operational use as fiber lasers. However, they comprise expensive pump diodes that require replacement. Furthermore, the crystal itself has a short life.

Setting Up A High-Speed Laser Wood Engraver The Right Way

Knowing which setting does what when engraving or marking

Most laser etchers have common operational settings which are briefly discussed below:

Power Setting :
• Higher power burns deeper. Too much power leads to sacrifice in detail. However, this has no effect on running time.
• Lower burns shallower. Too little power also sacrifices detail. This also does not contribute to running time.

Speed Setting :
• Higher speed settings will obviously save time. But the burns will be shallower and there will reduction in detail.
• Lower speed increases time but burns deeper. Going too deep may also reduce detail.

PPI Setting :
• Higher PPI increases the burning or melting effect. This produces finer detail if the speed is not too fast. However, this will not affect running time and will have very little effect on depth.
• Lower PPI decreases the burning or melting effect. There will be a reduction in image detail if set too low. No effect on running time will take place and very little impact on depth. Very low settings are normally perforate the material.

Rule of Thumb :
• Doubling the power doubles the depth and halving the power halves the depth.
• Halving the speed doubles the depth and doubling the speed halves the depth.

Points To Ponder: Choosing The High-Speed Laser Wood Engraver That Works For You

Some factors to consider when selecting a high-speed laser wood engraver

Apart from the power of the laser, another important consideration when selecting a wood laser machine is its bed size. A bigger bed allows for a larger work area or multiple smaller pieces in a single go.

Depending on usage, a movable bed that adjusts in the z-axis is also available in certain models. This helps overcome the issue of being limited to flat materials or objects.

Following are links for some of the machines that are currently available in the market for high-speed wood engraving. These are examples of what features are conventionally available and at what price point:

DremelDigiLab LC40-03 CO2 Laser Engraver ; Bed Size: 12×20 in. Laser Power: 40W CO2 Laser

This built-to-last device has high-end tech supporting the basic functions of the machine. High-res smart cameras and a 7” LCD touchscreen allow for a sophisticated experience. Notifications such as project status and similar software functions provide additional efficiency. The devil lies in the details with this unit. It costs around 6000USD per unit.

HeatSign Co2 Laser Engraver 

Heatsign makes multiple types of laser etching machines. Their website also contains useful content on laser engravers. The site, in general, is worth looking into for other information on the wood etching process as well.

They explain the types of lasers and their uses. Separate articles are also available to guide their customers depending on what industry they belong to. As a company what sets them apart is a strong customer support service.

DIYers

If building things is what you like to do, here is a link for the DIY community. This brilliant web page details how anyone can build their own version of a galvo laser engraver. This is obviously not a CO2 laser as the design considerations for that setup are slightly more complex.

Some Material Process Considerations

Tips and tricks for a good finish on engraved wood

When using wood laser engraving, a brown residue will deposit on the surface of the wood which is normal. It is impossible to eliminate by power, speed, or PPI changes. Engraving deeper and/or slower will result in more residues. The residue is easy to remove using water and a sponge.

A kitchen sponge with a nylon string mesh wrapped around it is a good homemade tool. Dampen the sponge and wipe off the residue. Despite the ease of availability, Paper towels and regular sponges are not the go-to tools as they lodge into the engraved area. Also, wiping them out is extremely difficult.

Another strategy is to avoid cleanup altogether by masking the wood with transfer tape and peeling it off after engraving. Applying spray paint is a good way to color fill the engraved areas before peeling off the tape.

For intricate drawings, there will be multiple small pieces of tape. It is easier to remove by flooding the mask with water once the engraving is complete. This loosens the tape and is easy to remove by rubbing it off by hand.

Final Thoughts

Let’s wrap it up

Simply put, there is a multitude of options when it comes to marking and engraving tools. A variety of technologies offering a diverse range of features are available. For high-speed requirements, CO2-based laser etching and engraving machines offer an efficient solution.

When it comes down to selecting the right machine, there are tradeoffs. Precision is the most obvious. A close second is a speed. However, to make the appropriate choice when selecting a laser etcher it is imperative to understand one’s requirements.

For a hobbyist, a simple 200-300 USD machine would suffice. But for the industry, the figure increases exponentially. On the other hand, the ROI of the service offered using these machines sufficiently compensates for the cost.

Increased speeds mean more work done in the same amount of time. Reduced maintenance implies less downtime when operating machines. All in all, laser engravers for wood are a good choice. But selecting the one with the right features is where a user needs to do some homework.

Hopefully, the above explanation makes taking the jump of buying one, less daunting.