Stepper Motor Snobs: I know pulse rev != steps - I'm just trying to explain it in a way that makes sense for beginners. You can skip leaving the hate mail below.
I'm new to Dremels, but this thing has been great. ru-vid.comUgkxfPgcZ5_Cl0HDUKkMJAKde11YKQZVgMoR The variable speed is awesome and the cordless aspect makes it so easy to work with. I am constantly finding uses for it that make tasks easier. Recently I put in a new deadbolt on one of our doors. I knew I had to enlarge the hold where the deadbolt goes into the door frame. At first I thought I would have to get a big router and figure out how to use it for that, but then I rermembered we have the dremel. I was able to enlarge the hole almost as easy as if I was drawing with a pen. It's also great for grinding our dog's nails done and so many other household tasks.
I have been so intimidated by the rotary, but with this video and lightburn, I was able to get up and running almost immediately and engraved a bolt-action pen for someone for Christmas! It isn't nearly as hard as I expected.
After almost 2 years of putting off using the rotary attachment because I didn't know how to make it work, this video helped me finally get it working. Still have some engraving settings to tweak. Thanks for making this available!!
This was so helpful. I don’t have a rotary tool yet but this took all of my trepidation out of the fear and trembling box and I’m confident that I can do it now. Great job Alex.
Helpful video just like all of your videos. Your channel has helped me out big time at getting the hang of learning the fiber laser. Your settings at least put me in the right corner of the spectrum and are not far off from my machine. I’m glad you are open about all your settings and are very helpful. Most ppl don’t want to share settings or give help for free they act like they have the fiber process patented like it’s a huge secret lol. But what you are doing is very generous and helpful for people starting out. You are really helping build the laser community and I wish you the best of luck with your channel. Thanks!
Great advice on the hatch direction. I imagine the split size will really depend on the curvature of the object and the depth of focus of the installed lens.
Great point! Definitely can go down the rabbit hole on "what's best" for each specific situation. Definitely wanted to keep things simple for people just getting started but I'm really excited to explore the nuances of all this on the channel down the road!!
You don't happen to be in So Cal are you? I'd pay you to come down and train some of my employees. I absolutly love how you are so thourough in your explanation because despite being a craftsman of many trades and tooling, in my retirement now I own a jewelry shop and purchased a really expensive unit only to find out just what a big learning curve it is to do basic engravings little lone the things I want to do beyond just jewelry (I also want to do knives and gun parts) and find your videos amazing. This rotary setup is fantastic, I don't suppose you have one on engraving rings do you? Settings in EZCad2, etc? If not, maybe in your next video but thank you and please keep the videos coming in!
Rings are on my short list for early 2022, just got my ring rotary in. I'm in upstate NY so that's a bit of a drive lol but may be offering like consultation and coaching calls next year. Recorded sessions or something idk yet. We'll see. In the meantime have your employees join the discord and just keep an eye on the channel. Request episodes as needed and consider joining the Laser Master Academy masters.lasereverything.net
Thank you SO MUCH for making this video! I got the same rotary and have been procrastinating setting it up. Going to watch the video tonight and set it up tomorrow!
Thank you so much for the video it will definitely help me a lot you explain it good but sort so you don’t get bored and fall asleep greatly appreciate your work
Great video, it helped me a lot in putting the right value To rotate the motor by table and switches with the correct value thanks a lot Mohamed from Egypt
OOT but Thank God that i lived the DOS PC era...those "advance machines" at that time sure love their Dip Swithes.... 😂 some times had 4 set (!!!) dip switches with no guide of what so ever, and that is the kind of living nightmare that i'm glad we all passed now a days...
Your videos are so educative. For a complet newbie like me this video on the rotary tool was just a game changer, i had been having a problem with my rotary but after watching the video and following the steps everything just fonctions perfectly. Guys like and susbcribe to this channel. Definately a game changer
Much obliged sir, for your kind teaching. We all know "give a ma one fish, to live a day...teach a man how to fish, to live entire life"..... Well you sir, just taught me how to make a fishing rod.... even if i can't fish, i certainly do bargain to fisherman...😁👍 God Bless you, dear good sir.
Just to add to the guide because it wasn't talked about. At 9:20 mark the mug wasn't fully seated against the chuck and will vary the engraving quality greatly because the level/distance will change as it rotates.
Soooooo fkn. Cooooool! This stuff is so high tech & you do a really great job of explaining it where a simple man, like myself can understand it. I have absolutely no business with a laser of any sort……. But it’s soooooooo coooool, I’m just fascinated & in love with it! So I ordered one!!! A Chinese 50w / JPT - Fiber laser w rotary & Ezcad2. It just shipped today, so not sure when I’ll actually get it. However, when I have it in hand, I’d love to retain you to video conferences & get some LIVE help. Your videos are AWESOME & I’ll DEFINITELY be leaning on them a lot! But I KNOW it’s easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble!!! I want to do it RIGHT & avoid as many mistakes as possible!!! Cheers!
Great vid, I sure would like to find an all enclosed all in one stepper driver like that, very cool. One comment though, the head on my fiber laser is only secured by 4 bolts up where the horizontal arm meets the column. if you loosen those you can move the head forewords and backwards, so that you can get the center line of the laser lined up with the center line of the rotary. Sure seems like an easier way to center things? No more messing about in the software with offset lines and such. Correct me if I am thinking about it incorrectly though!
Congrats on your baby :) I have my second on the way :D I try to make living with my lasers but you know, it is challenging. Thanks for sharing info about rotary. Recently i have many requests on wedding rings with fingerprints on the inside. I do make the rings by myself, so usually i just laser fingerprints on flat strip of gold and make a ring afterwards. Have you ever tried to laser fingerprint using rotary on the inside of a ring? I have some issues with this :)
I haven't tried that specifically but it seems totally doable! I'm getting a new rotary tool that will allow me to do rings better than my current gigantic 80 mm one so I will see you about producing an episode on the topic, hopefully that'll help!
Too small of a split size can be an issue too. The steppers have a set number of steps per rotation, and while geared down, small numbers can often lead to slightly inaccurate, or better put inconsistent, steps. I guess as you said, trial a number that you choose and see if it works on the job diameter you have. If you see issues, change it slightly and see if this fixes it. I have seen video where people use from 0.05 through to 5mm with no issues (except speed) so once you find a working value for your job and your laser then note it down.
Awesome, great information on this video. I am a little cautious using fiber laser with rotary tool. I always worry about the little lines left behind. On a side note, I was waiting yesterday for the LED video with Jimmy.
Yes the LED video is coming up really soon, that's another GIANT editing project for me and I've been promising this one for a long time so I had to get this one out for the folks who have been patiently waiting for it first. Don't worry, LED signs are coming up real soon!
Oh My god..You'r Amazing..Share Everything Very Very Detail..Thank You So Much...I Hope You Healthy Always Bro..Oh ya can I Ask Something? What Different Laser Tumbler With Rotary Mark And Split Mart 2 ? Split Mark 2 For What? THANK YOU..
Thanks, glad you liked it! Split Mark plugins you are telling the laser where to split up the image for rotation based on lines you place on the graphic, Rotary mark you tell the laser where to split up the image based on how many steps the rotary takes between marks. That's the only real difference.
Dear friend I’m watching your blog for longe times I’m really learn from you i wild like to thanks you for all information and all hard work . If you can tell me witch machine its good for birds rings, and witch sources it’s perfect for birds rings .
Great video! Please can you make a tutorial of ring engraving with rotary tool, gold and silver, maybe how to engrave draws not only letters, i am trying to do it perfectly
Hello videos have been great help. I have ran into an issue under rotarymark when I hit Light it will light but can never back out of it have to end task in task manager. If I hit mark the red laser outlines and rotary moves but not marking
Getting good results. thanks Alex. Can I ask, when doing a round design it comes out elongated on a cylinder. How do you get past this, do you stretch out the design prior to engraving ?
You can but if you're seeing a LOT of skewing it could be a sign your pulses per revolution aren't set correctly. Stretching can visually fix the issue a bit but your line distance and splits won't be accurate in that case. Best double check the dip switches on your controller and see if they match what's programmed in ezcad. We cover it in this video.
I’m so late to this video. But better late then never. Just got a 30 watt fiber laser and wanted to know if this machine with the power controller box is all I need I don’t have the controller inside the laser. But someone was telling me I need a stepper driver and the rotary is this essentially the same thing?
It would be great if you could do a video on wrap around graphics using a rotary.. my workspace is 175mm x 175mm but the graphic I am trying to engrave is 250mm x 60mm.. not having any luck.
I’m a total newbie to lasers and rotaries. I cannot get this one figured out to save my life. Where can I get more info? I’m using a 5W UV laser, roller rotary and EZCad. Where is the discord?
There's a link to the discord in the video description. I'd recommend joining either that or the facebook group so we can see your specific setup and we'll be a lot more helpufl that way.
New fiber laser user , followed all instructions have my sizing dialed in click “Mark” all it does is outline where it would laser and doesn’t actually mark the tubing. If you have a solution to that it would be VERY helpful , thank you in and advance and for the video
Triple check focus then check these things: 1. RotaryMark isn't compatible with raster images, that means no photos or pixel grids. It must be a vector. 2. Check your hatch. Make sure your hatch is running parallel to the direction your rotary is pointing. If it's going against the grain it may not mark.
Great job! Really helpful. Can you guide me for this? I have same system. But my target is to engrave a 325mm outer dia 300mm inner dia and 8mm width (Thickness) circular brass ring. However to hold brass ring I made an aluminum attachment when this ring fits. I removed chuck and connect my aluminum attachment directly to stepper motor shaft in order to avoid unnecessary load. My application is deep engraving. Almost 1mm deep engraving so I am using repeat mark. 200 marks with each segment width in order to get deep engrave. After finish of one segment rotary moves and start marking on next segment. Suppose my content is LASER EVERYTHING. total length of this text is 100mm. Sp each segment will be Divided in to 33.3mm length. 1st segment - LASER 2nd segment - EVERY 3rd segment - THING The problem is Due to CONCENTRICITY, unnecessary gaps are coming between each segments. It's not uniform. Somewhere there's a gap, somewhere perfect and somewhere it is overlapping. Can you guide me settings and suggestions for heavy or big dia objects? Dear sir I will wait for your valuable feedback.
Thanks for reaching out Hitesh! This is pretty high level support which I can't really provide via youtube comments. I would recommend either posting in our discord server or facebook group. facebook.com/groups/lasereverything www.discord.gg/lasereverything
Hey your videos are very cool since i'm folliwing this i've learned alot. So i just purchased a laser engraver and i'm learning how to use is since i have no prior experience with this. I have a question how do i determine the price to give my customers? I really have an issue with pricing. Thank you hoping to have an answer soon
I bought a fiber machine about 3 years ago, and recently the rotor has started misbehaving. the beginning of the engraving is all cramped up and engraved on top of eachother and not at all spaced out, but towards the end of the engraving the rotor starts spacing things out properly again. The people I bought the machine from have been super unhelpful and I dont know whether it is something misconfigured in the software, or if my rotor is dying.
Could be the stepper motor. Shouldn't have to buy a whole new rotary, stepper motors are super cheap may just want to replace it. Probably a nema 17 or 23, you can pick them up here: lightobject.com/?ref=ih3f7UHr
I don't know what to do. I have the same rotary and programmed it exactly like you did and it just printed a quarter inch worth of vertical lines. I'm stumped lol
Is your rotary oriented the right direction? Sounds like it might not be. Try either switching your rotation axis or physically rotating the rotary 90 degrees.
I followed the instructions to a tee but I’m getting some weird artifacts in the design- stars look a bit misshapen. Not sure if it’s the split size or perhaps the tumbler isn’t perfectly circular. I measured the diameter of the tumbler where the engraving would be but it’s possible it’s off by a fraction of a mm if the tumbler is warped
We can't really get into it in the RU-vid comments as it's not the best place for more intensive support threads but we do have a few options where you can get help. Either check out Discord Server or Facebook group - links in the description - or you can check out our new forum over at www.lasereverything.net/forum and I'm sure we can get you pointed in the right direction.
Unnecessary and in this context does nothing. Just ignore it if you're following along with the video. RotaryMark handles split allocation fine on its own. Force all split has implications if you're trying to let ezcad decide where to make splits, which I don't recommended. Static small split sizes is 100% the way to go.
Ok so I have a 50w fiber laser from OMtech and I also purchased the rotary tool from them. For the life of me I can't get the thing to work worth a crap if I try using the rotarymark option under laser. I have to use the split line one. Driving me nuts. Looks like crap with rotarymark and it tries to mark half the cup without rotating. So frustrating
Are you part of our discord server yet? If you're not join, there's a link in the description. Post your F3 param settings for rotary mark there so I can take a look.
Your stepper driver is probably set to 6400 - if you want to be sure you can look at the driver and check but if you're getting results then if it aint broke don't fix it!
Fiber lasers aren't very good at marking wood. Typically the energy density is too high by the time you're marking the wood which results in a fire and lots of burning. While I don't typically recommend it we may do a video on it in the future to demonstrate why.
Hellooo Thanks for a hundredth time ! This Video taught me a lot, to have my rotary running ! I have issues with Split lines, as in after engraving every section, theres a distortion line in between as it engraves, please how do i get rid of them ? Could it be because my part diameter isn't Accurate ? Thanks
Thank you for the video, I just pulled the rotary axis out of the box and did not know anything on how to set it up. My package did not come with a materials library for the speed/power/KHz canned settings , is this a file that can be shared? I would appreciate a head start on speeds and feeds for the Galvo (20w) I have an old beat up tumbler I am using for the test, I finally managed OK looking engraving. After a few botched attempts and a quick shot of matte balck over the tests I was able to run several tests on an otherwise junk piece. Maybe a hint for others, use a junk black tumbler, spray over tests to re use same piece for more testing, I know an erase pass (hatched rectangle fast and hot) would make the final engraving better but this is a test piece for me and mot worth the time and smoke in the shop.
Hey man, glad the video helped you! You can actually get instant access to my entire fiber laser and co2 laser libraries (updated MONTLY) by supporting the channel/podcast/community on our patreon page. You can check it out at www.patreon.com/lasereverything :)
Hi, we love your videos. When following along we noticed we don't have any of the add ons for the laser dropdown tab. There's only three selections in there but nothing for rotary. We have ezcad 3. Can you help us out on what to do? Please
Ezcad 3 doesn't have the same plugin support ezcad 2 does. What you need to do is head into F3 Param, find the Extension Axis section and activate the A axis, the mark/light area of the screen at the bottom will then have the rotary settings you're looking for.
I'd say no, the giant metal chucks put way too much pressure on glass to hold them and end up shattering the glass. Check out a roller rotary or something like the new PiBurn Grip if you want a chuck.
Really helpful video and great channel, congratulations. I am following your advice but I have that message on my screen: Axis must be Homed, Would you like to continue? Once accepted I got another message: Correct axis zero time out! Any advice would be appreciated as I cannot use the machine until sorting this out. Thank you!
I don't believe there's any way to do that currently in LightBurn or Ezcad without saving two project files and running one first, then opening the new project and running the second one after.
I am having such a hard time with my rotary. Iced confirmed the pulse rev but my images are extremely compressed. I've tried the same rotary on another laser with the same issue. I'm wondering if my gear ratio isn't 1? Any way to confirm this? Any other tips would be appreciated!
Make absolutely sure you're reading your pulse rev chart correctly. The ONLY way your gear ratio isn't one is if your motor turns gears and belts instead of turning the chuck directly, which I highly doubt (though if you're using a roller rotary you'd be correct and that's a different story). Otherwise something somewhere else is being miscalculated. This sounds like an issue for the fb group or discord.
Hi Alex! Thanks a lot, that was a great help! But I am facing a strange issue: the red-lighting seems to stay active when marking.. is that related to any setting that I have missed?
Thank you so much for the videos! I'm new here, and we're just getting our feet wet with the Cloudray 50w fiber laser . I have some specific questions to ask - do I ask here or send directly to you, or???
re: the settings on the controller and in EZCAD. Is there a physical limitation of the stepper motor itself as to how many discrete steps it can make in a 360 degree rotation? In other words, if you set the dip switches to 12800 steps per revolution, and set the same in EZCAD, but suppose the stepper motor itself can only physically move 6400 steps? In your case, can that rotary stepper motor actually deliver 51,200 discrete steps in a 360 degree full rotation? Reason I ask is because I believe I have the same rotary device, but the controller that came in my box has a maximum step size of 25,600. The default from the factory is set at 12,800 steps. So that has me wondering about PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS of those stepper motors.
That is a great question that I do not know the answer to unfortunately - it's a bit out of my realm of knowledge. It'd be a good one for the community though I'm betting someone has the answer. I saw in your other comment you weren't down for the discord but I mentioned we had a linke to the facebook group as well if that's more your speed. Hope that helps.
Had a fiber 16 days and it seems like years! Gave up on EZcad2 in 1 day …thinking LightBurn with the Galvo “update” added would be a doddle! The 30w Raycus seems to the one they assembled late Friday night and ran out of parts! Advertised with 300mm and 110mm lenses, only the 300mm was in the box. But it was OK for flat tests on scrap, but today is seconds day I reported back battle front, just me and a @#&$%=+ Kin 80mm Rotary First attempt. Silly me put blue painters on a stainless drinks bottle..well we do with diode lasers to run checks abd check the engraves image. Mistake 30minutes later cleaned of tape put a MUFC club badge in LB size and setting..pure guess..hit the go button…settings not the best and the image looking good in the top panel “tv screen” was burned into metal backwards and upside down.three more failed efforts after moving the image around and I was guessing its not lightburn its the freakin EZCad2 settings behind the spanner tool top menu. Forgot in my excitement, the ….sorry sir it was overseen when packing … 110mm lens arrived this morning and used! I need to discover how to keep the image used burned in correctly! 30w Raycuss. C/W 80mm rotary …500mm tower, akk had little use..about an hour so far! Soon to be looking for a new home.
Question - when I use my rotary, the size doesn't match what is on the screen. For instance, my 20mm side item becomes 80 when I use the rotary tool. The diameter is set correctly. Is there something else that I am missing to fix this? Thanks for your help!
Amazing video, just have 2 problems. My y value stays at zero when I open the rotarymark setting and I am unable to change it to the value of the text I am trying to engrave. Also when I press the light button in rotarymark all the the other buttons go gray and I am unable to exit out of the rotarymark mark setting.
Having trouble visualizing your first issue Mick. If you can get a screencap or some screen shots of what's going on to either the facebook group or discord server so someone can take a look that'd be helpful. Never light in rotarymark it doesn't work very well. If you do again by accident you can use the ESC key on your keyboard to get out. I always light my project in 2D non-rotary mode before proceeding to get a general idea of how the graphic is going to fall.
Hello Alex, first of all thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. I have installed a rotary to a BJJCZ FBL1-B-LV4 board with ezcad? I've been trying for a few days but I don't give. I have pin 14 to Dir and pin 15 to Pu, tb 5v 24 and the motor connected to COM4. But I can't get it to move me. Might you help me? Thanks in advance.
Hey Daniel, this is a pretty technically advanced question. I think you're going to have much better luck asking it on the Discord along with screen shots of your ezcad parameters and settings so we can take a look. Join up if you havent and post as much as you can there so we can effectively diagnose this. Thanks! discord.gg/5JQaja8j
good vid. Thank you. .Im just working on my new machine now but I find ezcad2 is very glitchy when using the rotary. It crashes and hangs at random times. What pc are you using ? I read somewhere that Ezcad2 doesnt like windows 10 and works better on older systems like W7!
I can probably help you out with that in the discord. I have a fix that will allow ezcad to use more ram but can't link it on RU-vid. Link in the description if you're interested
Hey Alex, great video it has helped a ton. Currently I am having a problem with using my rotary. I have done everything in this video including the steps per rotation. It will put everything in the tumbler just fine. The problem is it runs the same power and speed no matter what I change it to. I have tried the community edition and my issue over there is everything I run is extremely fast no matter what I change it to. I have tried discord and I haven’t received any help. Can you help please?!
I'm honestly at a loss on this one. Sorry I didn't see your post in the discord, things move very fast over there. In your original copy of ezcad check to make sure Hatch #2 and Hatch #3 are completely disabled and thaty ou're only using Hatch #1 with mark contour and follow edge once disabled. The hatch should be uni or bidirectional with a zero degree hatch angle. Make sure that hatch is the same color as the parameter that you're applying to it as that could be why the parameters aren't changing. You may be editing the blue or red pen inadvertantly or editing the parameters for hatch 2 or 3 when you mean to be editing them for hatch 1. If that doesn't work try some of these trouble shooting tips for the community edition as well and it may help narrow down the issue.
