Other hobbies besides metal detecting

[Dig-on]

3D print, make meads and beer, ride motorcycle, melt metals and cast, amateur Agorist

 

[stetam]

I repair and restore pre 1922 phonographs. Here's one I am working on.

Steve

 

[raptortrapper]

Falconry and firearms

 

[Carol K]

Nice workshop Xray. What are the pictures of Jesus made out of?
What is fiber lazer?

 

[Xxray]

Nice workshop Xray. What are the pictures of Jesus made out of?
What is fiber lazer?

Hi Carol, religious pics I posted contain models of many different wood species, and also plexiglas in the 1st post. I have also done them in corian, MDF and even insulation foam, basically anything that will carve and hold detail can be used.
A fiber lazer is a fiber optic laser that excels at quickly etching metal, whereas other lasers [diode/CO2] are more for wood and other organic materials, some others [IR] are optimized for glass.
Tons of videos on them here is a guy etching a gun

and here is another guy doing personalized items like dog tags and jewelry

Really an exploding market, a few years ago they were out of reach for most at $20k +, now under $10k

 

[Cherry Picker]

That is cool.

 

[zeemang]

Just jumped into another hobby, fiber laser - This thing will be a $$ maker for sure

You gotta tell us more about that! Whats the setup and how does it work?

 

[zeemang]

Hi Carol, religious pics I posted contain models of many different wood species, and also plexiglas in the 1st post. I have also done them in corian, MDF and even insulation foam, basically anything that will carve and hold detail can be used.
A fiber lazer is a fiber optic laser that excels at quickly etching metal, whereas other lasers [diode/CO2] are more for wood and other organic materials, some others [IR] are optimized for glass.
Tons of videos on them here is a guy etching a gun

and here is another guy doing personalized items like dog tags and jewelry

Really an exploding market, a few years ago they were out of reach for most at $20k +, now under $10k

Are those videos sped up? What do you think the actual work time was on the pistol job?

 

[Vlad]

Too many hobbies to list, but I always wanted to learn hand engraving since I was 16 or so.
I ran into an engraver locally by pure chance and he was nice enough to give me a crash coarse...
We are good friends now.
I took some classes and do a bit of scratching here and there when time permits.

 

[Xxray]

Are those videos sped up? What do you think the actual work time was on the pistol job?

Looks like real time, they are [or can be] amazingly fast compared to a CO2 laser, printer or CNC. Not advanced enough yet to estimate time it would take to do a pistol, I would think 10-20 minutes would be a good guess, some guys do multiple passes to get desired effect, some use slower speeds, some use tighter line spacing for finer detail which adds to time, lots of variables. Right now I am doing simple metal business cards, dog tags, easy stuff to get the hang of it, already have some orders - This is my setup, machine to the left. It is relatively compact but the max size I can engrave is only about 12", I have come no where near close to that yet, it is really optimized and designed for smaller items.
It also has a rotary attachment, which can be seen head on to the left on the machines bed. It is for doing cylindrical items such as tumblers, coffee mugs and rings - Etching jewelry is another area I will get into but it will take some time to work up to that.

 

[Xxray]

Too many hobbies to list, but I always wanted to learn hand engraving since I was 16 or so.
I ran into an engraver locally by pure chance and he was nice enough to give me a crash coarse...
We are good friends now.
I took some classes and do a bit of scratching here and there when time permits.

Wow those are some dream like etches, impressive.

 

[Vlad]

Wow those are some dream like etches, impressive.

Thanks,
you have a nice setup Xxray, how deep does your laser etches? Can it etch say 1/32" in steel?

 

[Xxray]

Thanks,
you have a nice setup Xxray, how deep does your laser etches? Can it etch say 1/32" in steel?

Etches steel like a dream, right now I am trying to get good dark burns in brass, a myriad of settings with multiple lenses nad machines and settings change for each one ,, Just about anything you can say "google it and find out" but with this, you really can't its mostly trial and error. The program I use [lightburn] has only been out for fiber lasers a few months, but the main reason is when guys find good settings that produce great etches, they tend to keep them to themselves, which makes sense.

"Etch" is actually the wrong term, they can actually engrave, at least the more powerful ones like mine [80w] Here are a couple this guy posted in a laser FB group using a brass blank [oops other won't load too big] ,,, And he isn't sharing settings or files, but there are decent tutorials for getting started, which is something I wll get into once I master the basics

 

[Vlad]

Pretty slick, this could be a major time saver for background removal or gold inlay for what I'm doing.
It takes ages to do it by hand...

 

[zeemang]

Too many hobbies to list, but I always wanted to learn hand engraving since I was 16 or so.
I ran into an engraver locally by pure chance and he was nice enough to give me a crash coarse...
We are good friends now.
I took some classes and do a bit of scratching here and there when time permits.

Very nice work there, well done!

 

[Xxray]

Pretty slick, this could be a major time saver for background removal or gold inlay for what I'm doing.
It takes ages to do it by hand...

They excel at surface prep and removal, alot of guys use them to zap rust off of tools. I guess the tricky part for your application would be programming it to do precisely as you wish

 

[hoser]

I collect and "TRY" to breathe life back into these beauties.

 

[partyofone]

Used to be woodworking/cabinet making. Lately I've been into watch repair. Both pocket watches and wrist watches. This hobby is a lot of fun, but my eyes are not what they used to be. And those little screws are getting harder to see.

 

[Diggerjonny]

Tinkering with my old cars

 

[markinmichigan]

I LOVE old fords...

Mark in MIchigan