Laser cut inlays and how to use kerf offset in lightburn. 

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I am so glad you pointed out the just because you have figured out your KERF setting - that it doesn't mean that number will be perfect every time - that you have to also deal with the differences in wood, dryness, moisture, etc. It is really frustrating once you have it, to cut something and have the KERF be too tight or too loose!

When you are making those 19 rectangles, an easier way is to use the array button. Set the x columns to 19 and x spacing to 0. It will be much faster and more accurate than placing by hand.

Great video, I have just bought a laser mainly to help me get good inlays. It’s good to watch someone doing the exact thing. Hopefully I can succeed in time😅

Nice job, I'd love to see how you do with the plywood you spoke about. Also a little trick for that sanding, if you apply painters tape to your bench and the back of the piece then some CA Glue on the piece and spray the bench tape with activator and press together. It'll hold nicely while you sand and save your fingers and just pull the tape off afterwards

Well that just enhanced my life... THANKS! Subscribed

That is an excellent explanation and I am going to have to make some of my own. I saw the booger line on the right top edge of the face. I knew as soon as you turned the face down, there was going to be some scratches. I know you saw it too. Oh well, we finish and we learn eh? Thanks for the great video.

That turned out nice new sub here. I have playing with diode laser’s for the last four years with my little 10 watt Longer Ray with a .060 mm beam width it makes very tight inlays. On that radial arm suggestion, when cutting do not pull the saw towards in the cut. This can cause a kick back! You want to push towards the back of the saw when cutting. I am 70 years old and still have 9 fingers the tip of one was not a woodworking accident. 😀🛫

Thats pretty awesome, I think thats the cleanest I've seen any laser engraving. Had no idea they could be that tight without a full cnc inlay method.

Beautiful work friend. Thanks for the info.

Thanks, Learned something new that I can do with my Laser. I have lots of Black Walnut and a fair sized piece of Purpleheart that I can use.

Yes, please make the video you spoke of! Nice piece!

nice work/ The only downside is you can always see the charred edge versus a CNC inlay that will be seamless. But that defined edge could be a feature of the design. I think if I could manage it with the inlay design, I'd use the laser to make a template and then use a router inlay bit set yo do it without burning the wood.

What an awesome idea :0 I never even thought of doing this with my laser subbed ;)

WOW! Optimization settings!!!! Great heads up !!!! I did a puzzle recently and could not find a way to stop it cutting twice BUT just ran it with this setting applied and VIOLA! Success. Thanks to @frankligas and @MakeBetterWithKnowledge. Great video!

Well done! To get it to fit even better you should account the kerf angle. Which means to cut the inlay mirrored to compensate for the angle of the pocket. But yours is maybe perfect enough 😂

Quedó precioso!

Nice work mate.. my laser is arriving next week and I cant wait to start trying on projects like this.

Awesome!

Great, thanks. Subscribed

Brilliant move to make multiple cuts to multiply your kerf to get a more accurate measurement. I use duplicate quite a bit too. For something like this where I need several of the same thing, I would go to the Array option and make my copies that way. 0 spacing to get them all nicely lined up like you did here. You can make as many as you need that way, all in one move. If you need each object to always be like the original, there is a way to do that in the array feature so when you make a change to the original, all of the copies update too. 🙂 I have several pencil videos that I have done over the years. Fun to do. I make one for my brother with a bunch of geometry formulas on it. We do some fun problems from time to time and it is a helpful reminder for him. ;-) I can't wait to see how you do pencils. Are you going to use that big CO2 laser!? My little 5.5 was more than enough. I also used my desktop router to makes some. I built a fixture to help with consistency but only 1 at a time. I subscribed so I will see that when it comes out. I am totally interested to see a video on painting MDF and using that as an inlay. That is a great idea. One of my next projects is going to be using powder coat material in a laser engraved piece of wood and then head it up with a heat gun. Using the laser to heat the powder coat has too many issues and is the wrong tool for that part of the job.

Nice video. Ty.

so just to clarify your adding to the overall dimension of the inlay part to account for the laser cut when it cuts the part out. I have been using plywood 3/4 maple plywood with 2.7mm mahogany plywood inlays i am just starting to test pieces and so far haven't had much of a gap. i am using an OMtech 2440 100-watt c02. going to try your Kerf offset idea and see if it yields any better results btw a nice Video and a great project. will be watching for more from you

Lovely thanks, subbed 😊

Certainly would be interested in seeing a mdf inlay video.

When calculating your baseline of the kerf, the error is caused by cutting the vertical lines two times by cutting touching rectangles (and because the MDF is too thick). Lightburn can delete overlapping lines, or you could've just cut vertical lines (arrayed) and two horizontal just to make the rectangles fall out.

Wooops there! Your method is invalid. You will need to refilm and upload. You missed a critical setting. The issue is that the edges of your rectangles are cut lines and they overlap. Effectively you are burning the overlapping edges twice each. That will give you a false answer as to what your kerf is. To fix this issue, you need to prevent Lightburn from engraving overlapping vector lines. Go to: Window Tab // Laser // now in the Laser Window (which you might have docked. This is the window/docked window that has the Pause, Stop, and Start buttons on it) Click the Optimization Settings Button just below the Job Origin selector // Now in the Cut Optimization Settings Window it is the last setting at the bottom, Turn on "Remove overlapping lines" That should fix your issue.

Can you share your multi layer settings for the engrave portions? I see it’s a multi layer engrave, would love to know how you determined and set that up. Thank you!

Great. Video. I would be very interested in how you get on with inlaying painted woods, i wonder how it will work for the sanding?

Great video! I have a Monport 80w CO2, very similar to your to your laser. Mine came with air-assist, but I see many people use a seperate air-assist, usually a California Tools air compressor. What do you do? I’m wondering if my air isn’t really enough. Thanks!

Thanks for the information. Can you tell me what air pressure you are using? Thank you.

My take away is to skip the mdf bit and test fit using the material you’re actually using starting at a 0.1 kerf and go from there

Dude, for the love of your hands, use a dang holding stick to secure your work piece! If your stick gets cut, your fingers won't feel a thing! Seriously.... Trying to pick up fingers with no fingers just doesn't work. Otherwise, good demonstration of LightBurn Software's capabilities.

Love this. Thank you so much for sharing. Just subscribed. I was wondering how you determine the depth of your engrave to work with the inlay.

May I ask what glue you are using, as well as what Rubio Monocoat color you used?

How thick can you inset your inlay?

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Are you using an external air pump ? Sounds like a lot of air as evidence by it blowing your bits away, way more than mine.

I’m from the uk where do you get your exotic wood from?

ALL THAT WORK AND CALCULATING JUST TO MANUALLY GUESS AND TWEAK IT 20%. Measuring one cut would have gotten just as close.

Timestamp 6:11 Fishing? Turn down you power of your air-assist. 1,000 psi is too much.

You entered the wrong Kerf Offset the first time, and your second setting was more correct. First you did .102 should have been .101