Darkly Labs emblaser - affordable laser cutter - review

[GWR57xx]

Time for an embarrassing revelation - I bought my Emblaser1 three years ago but for one reason and another it’s been sat in its box ever since. Mainly because I thought it would be too difficult for a dummy like me to get to grips with.

 

I’m currently trying to put together a block instrument along the lines of the old Triang RT-268 set. As part of this I need some indicator needles. I thought I might be able to get some suitable clock hands, but couldn’t find anything close. So I tried cutting some out of HIPS with a scalpel. I failed to produce anything that I was happy with - they were too asymmetrical.

 

This prompted me to finally put the Emblaser together. So yesterday I built it, which turned out to be very straightforward. I had a couple of minor issues others have reported: the two acrylic side panels weren’t drilled for the attachment bolts and the shorter slide bars were 6/7mm too short so we’re a sloppy fit in their brackets (fixed by packing out with ply off cuts).

 

Also the front bracket bolt is positioned exactly where the belts cross and rubbed on the upper belt. I fixed this by swapping the supplied bolt for a panhead version and inverting it so the washer and nut are uppermost. The belt still just touches the panhead, even though I filed it down a bit, but hopefully won’t cause a problem.

The only other thing wrong with my Emblaser was the “monocle” laser adjustment tool, which is supposed to clip over the lens ring to make focussing easier. Mine was some kind of rigid black 3D printed resin, which shattered as soon as I squeezed it. The tool shown originally by Darkly looks like a flexible white nylon material, which may well have worked.

 

Fortunately, focussing seemed fairly straightforward without it.

 

When I first received the Emblaser I downloaded the included Cut2D Laser 8.5 & VTransfer software, which seems to do everything necessary. I also decided to download DraftSight for doing the CAD designs. This was free at the time, and I spent some time learning how to use it. Then they revoked the free licence, so I gave up on it and looked for an alternative. I tried the free version of QCAD and liked it so much that I bought a licence for it. I’ve been using QCAD for a few different things and find it quite easy to use.

 

Today after work I ran the Darkly Labs test calibration file. This was cut very accurately, other than my positioning of the paper to be cut.

 

On a roll, I had a play at cutting the pointer needles for the block instruments from 1mm black HIPS. These cut very nicely, but I thought they were a bit thin, so repeated the job using 1.5mm material, with a couple of small design changes to make them more robust. I’m over the moon with the results, and kicking myself for not getting the Emblaser going before now.

 

It’s too dark to get a decent photo now, but maybe tomorrow.

Edited March 13, 2021 by GWR57xx

[Jub45565]

Has anyone got any experience with this 0.5mm plastic? It says its laser safe, and I've been meaning to buy some for a while to test but haven't got round to it - but the discussion of similar materials has prompted me into life.

 

https://kitronik.co.uk/products/polypropylene-sheet-05mm-x-1050mm-x-750mm

[GWR57xx]

The pic below shows:

on the left is the cardboard mock-up of the panel I'm making, with pointer needles drawn in QCAD;

top middle is the best results I could achieve cutting the HIPS with a scalpel / Stanley knife / hand guillotine;

centre middle is the first few attempts at laser cutting them in 1mm HIPS;

lower middle are three of the four final needles from 1.5mm HIPS (the fourth is mounted on the servo far right);

centre right shows servos with & without the needles;

the five pence piece for scale (this is 18mm diameter).

 

 

These are the best I could do by hand:

 

First laser attempts (far better):

 

And the final product:

 

The bulge in the middle just covers the white servo drive shaft, and gives the needle a lot more strength in this area. Very little of it shows once the screw is in place.

 

I've tried to do some close-ups to show the finish:

 

(PS: from the centre of the mounting hole to the tip of the needle is 17mm).

 

The material has one (unprotected) matt side and one gloss side that has a transparent cover sheet to protect it.

I want to use the matt side, so it was lasered gloss side down. I just used paper underneath as a base sheet and the edge of the gloss side isn't great, but can't be seen when on the servo.

 

I have some ply on order to make a proper base plate, which will have a sheet of glass on top.

 

This is the stuff I used, bought from here:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polystyrene-Sheet-Black-Solid-Plasticard-matt-gloss-A5-to-A3-0-5-to-3mm-thick/222282872752?hash=item33c11777b0:g:BloAAOSwg0pZZNkN

 

 

 

Edited February 11 by GWR57xx
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[GWR57xx]

21 hours ago, Jub45565 said:

Has anyone got any experience with this 0.5mm plastic? It says its laser safe, and I've been meaning to buy some for a while to test but haven't got round to it - but the discussion of similar materials has prompted me into life.

 

https://kitronik.co.uk/products/polypropylene-sheet-05mm-x-1050mm-x-750mm

Hi @Jub45565,

Kitronik looks like a good find. The price on their HIPS sheet is much better than the eBay site I used, although in their questions section they recommend against lasering it.

 

I can’t answer your question re polypropylene as I haven’t got beyond paper and HIPS so far in experimenting with materials, but I would be very interested in your findings if you do try it.

 

Thinking about my HIPS needles, if I needed a cleaner finish to the edge with less melting on the bottom surface, if I’d done one or two fewer passes with the laser it would have been quite easy to finish the last little bit of the cut with a scalpel using the lasered outline.

[GWR57xx]

The original attraction of the Emblaser for me was the ability to etch "brickwork" into ply panels and produce detailed, accurate window frames etc for buildings, having seen the superb examples presented earlier on in this thread.

 

I thought it might also be possible to produce signs, such as station running-in name boards.

 

So I thought I'd have a bash:

 

This was the first trial run on a piece of ply, just to see what happened.

I was quite encouraged by the result, even though it is a bit over-cooked. Shows potential?

 

The letters in these trial pieces are all 4mm high. I believe the letters on GWR running-in boards were more like 12" high? In which case this is only half size, as I model in 7mm.

 

I'd previously looked at the products from Trotec, as recommended earlier in the thread, so obtained some samples to try.

This is the same sign on 0.5mm Trolase Thins Gold/Black (obviously not the material I'd use for a proper sign):

 

 

Three attempts, starting at the bottom. First one was way over exposed so aborted quickly.

Second attempt at 1/3rd the exposure of the first, still too hot.

Third attempt halved the exposure again, this time not too bad. I'm sure a decent result could be obtained with a bit more experimentation. Not much point doing it with Gold/Black though, because I expect the laser settings for Trolase 1.6mm White/Black will be different.

 

Proper chuffed! 🙂

 

Edited February 11 by GWR57xx
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[nick_bastable]

45 minutes ago, GWR57xx said:

The original attraction of the Emblaser for me was the ability to etch "brickwork" into ply panels and produce detailed, accurate window frames etc for buildings, having seen the superb examples presented earlier on in this thread.

 

I thought it might also be possible to produce signs, such as station running-in name boards.

 

So I thought I'd have a bash:

 

This was the first trial run on a piece of ply, just to see what happened.

I was quite encouraged by the result, even though it is a bit over-cooked. Shows potential?

 

The letters in these trial pieces are all 4mm high. I believe the letters on GWR running-in boards were more like 12" high? In which case this is only half size, as I model in 7mm.

 

I'd previously looked at the products from Trotec, as recommended earlier in the thread, so obtained some samples to try.

This is the same sign on 0.5mm Trolase Thins Gold/Black (obviously not the material I'd use for a proper sign):

 

Three attempts, starting at the bottom. First one was way over exposed so aborted quickly.

Second attempt at 1/3rd the exposure of the first, still too hot.

Third attempt halved the exposure again, this time not too bad. I'm sure a decent result could be obtained with a bit more experimentation. Not much point doing it with Gold/Black though, because I expect the laser settings for Trolase 1.6mm White/Black will be different.

 

Proper chuffed! 

 

something like this sign perhaps

 

 

 

Nick B

[GWR57xx]

9 hours ago, nick_bastable said:

something like this sign perhaps

 

 

 

Nick B

Nice inlays!

[Giles]

Small lettering is never as easy as one would think, as anywhere the letter thins out - like the middle arm of the 'E'  for instance - over heats far too quickly, scorching or melting, where the rest of the letter may be fine. Small holes can create similar difficulties,  and it can take a lot of experimentation in cutting path as well as speed and power to achieve a clear hole - certainly never as simple as cutting a circle or square when below a certain size.

 

 

[GWR57xx]

May I ask what you all use for glueing layers of thin filigreed card together?

I’ve just lasered 4 layers of 0.3mm card to make a window frame. Very pleased with the accuracy of the Emblaser, resulting in glazing bars 0.5mm wide (about an inch in 7mm scale, so looks ok).

I then tried glueing the layers together, two layers of card either side of a piece of acetate (overhead projector slide).

As this was an experiment I used Mod Podge Matte on one side and Matt varnish on the other.

Both worked well on the outside edges but the thin glazing bars soaked up the glue and distorted.

I’d like to be able to glue the bars to the acetate for strength and to avoid them being damaged over time, but without ruining the transparency of the “window”.

Any suggestions?

[Greengiant]

47 minutes ago, GWR57xx said:

May I ask what you all use for glueing layers of thin filigreed card together?

I’ve just lasered 4 layers of 0.3mm card to make a window frame. Very pleased with the accuracy of the Emblaser, resulting in glazing bars 0.5mm wide (about an inch in 7mm scale, so looks ok).

I then tried glueing the layers together, two layers of card either side of a piece of acetate (overhead projector slide).

As this was an experiment I used Mod Podge Matte on one side and Matt varnish on the other.

Both worked well on the outside edges but the thin glazing bars soaked up the glue and distorted.

I’d like to be able to glue the bars to the acetate for strength and to avoid them being damaged over time, but without ruining the transparency of the “window”.

Any suggestions?

 

For card windows I use Deluxe Materials Roket Card Glue.

 

https://deluxematerials.co.uk/collections/emulsion-adhesives/products/roket-card-glue

 

Another glue I use is Super Phatik which would do ;the card to acetate joint.

 

https://deluxematerials.co.uk/collections/emulsion-adhesives/products/super-phatic

 

Martin

[nick_bastable]

1 hour ago, GWR57xx said:

May I ask what you all use for glueing layers of thin filigreed card together?

I’ve just lasered 4 layers of 0.3mm card to make a window frame. Very pleased with the accuracy of the Emblaser, resulting in glazing bars 0.5mm wide (about an inch in 7mm scale, so looks ok).

I then tried glueing the layers together, two layers of card either side of a piece of acetate (overhead projector slide).

As this was an experiment I used Mod Podge Matte on one side and Matt varnish on the other.

Both worked well on the outside edges but the thin glazing bars soaked up the glue and distorted.

I’d like to be able to glue the bars to the acetate for strength and to avoid them being damaged over time, but without ruining the transparency of the “window”.

Any suggestions?

white pva works for me

 

Nick B

[GWR57xx]

On 20/03/2021 at 00:11, Greengiant said:

 

For card windows I use Deluxe Materials Roket Card Glue.

 

https://deluxematerials.co.uk/collections/emulsion-adhesives/products/roket-card-glue

 

Another glue I use is Super Phatik which would do ;the card to acetate joint.

 

https://deluxematerials.co.uk/collections/emulsion-adhesives/products/super-phatic

 

Martin

 

On 20/03/2021 at 00:45, nick_bastable said:

white pva works for me

 

Nick B

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

Mod Podge is a bit like a mild PVA, but it doesn't dry rock hard. It's white, dries clear and cleans up with water.

 

You reminded me that somewhere I had a bottle of the SuperPhatic glue, so I had a hunt around gathering up all the potential candidates for sticking card & acetate. I then did some experimenting:

• SuperPhatic - I've had this a while so it is probably past its best. It did a great job of attaching card to acetate but was too thick for the glazing bars and the excess couldn't be removed.
• Superglue - I tried attaching card glazing bars to acetate. They stuck solid, but caused some frosting to the "glass" and any excess couldn't be removed.
• Spray Varnish - I tried spraying the back of the glazing bars then attaching the acetate, but the bond was very weak.
• Kristal Klear - painted onto the card glazing bars then stuck to the acetate, but again the bond was very weak.
• Cheap Hairspray - very weak bond.
• Mod Podge - great for gluing the card to card and also the card to acetate, only at the borders not the glazing bars.
• Vallejo Matt Varnish - painted on the glazing bars / acetate, forms a great bond and the excess can easily be rubbed off using the side of the tip of a cocktail stick. The drawbacks are it's very time consuming and some bars distort. PS: if the excess is left on it gives a fabulous impression of filthy windows that haven't been cleaned for 30 years (but that's not the look I'm going for).

So, none of the others was any improvement over the Mod Podge / Vallejo Matt Varnish combo I tried originally. Most were a lot worse. I think I'll order some 3M Permanent Spray Mount to try (unless anyone has any better suggestions?), because if it works it will be far easier than painting the matt varnish along all the glazing bars (which in any case caused some of them to swell and distort).

 

When hunting around for glue I also came across an offcut of 2.5mm balsa wood. This must have been in the cupboard for at least 20 years! Searching on RMWeb and this thread, there is hardly any mention of balsa and none that I could find about lasering it. The Darkly Labs website says that the E2 can cut up to 10mm balsa, so out of curiosity I tried it on my E1. I was very pleasantly surprised. I thought I'd start out with a low setting based on my results with the 0.3mm card but this turned out to be way too high and cut through the balsa in one pass as well as several sheets of paper beneath!

 

Any reason why balsa isn't more widely lasered?

 

Here's my latest attempt:

The four layers of card making up the window frame (front & back):

 

 

The holes in the corners are 2mm diameter to take some 2mm steel pins for alignment.

 

This is the 2.5mm balsa. The engraved bricks were still done at too high a setting and almost cut through at 100% & 12mm/s 1 pass. The cut was done at 100% & 9mm/s 1 pass. Very little scorching.

 

The two holes in the top left corner are 0.6mm and were just a test for a future idea. They are the perfect size for a Peco SL-14 track pin, which I'm thinking will make perfect representations of rivets (functionally as well as aesthetically).

 

I tried to get a shot of the cut edge, which to my mind is very clean:

 

All the layers stacked up, including the acetate "glass":

 

These are just laid on top of each other at the moment - I'm off to try gluing them shortly.

 

This is what I'm aiming for:

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrsa1456.htm

 

Obviously the final version would have several more layers of wall at the front as well as an inside wall behind, so still a way to go but very much enjoying the journey 🙂.

 

BTW, I'm still using VTransfer V1 (Build 80) Beta, which was current at the time I bought the E1. I've seen the discussions on the Darkly Labs pages regarding an "upgrade", but they were all about bugs in the later release and I didn't see anything about them being resolved. I haven't noticed any problem with this version other than it says "Beta", but is it going to bite me at some point in the future?

Edited February 11 by GWR57xx
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[GWR57xx]

Quick update: here's the glued up version:

 

 

As you can see, I forgot to put the sill in before I took the photos 🙄.

 

This is the back, showing the bars that distorted:

 

When the varnish is thoroughly dry tomorrow I'll scrape the excess off the window panes and fit the sill 🙂.

Edited February 11 by GWR57xx
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[Simond]

That’s very nice.  Might it be worth finding a suitable roller to apply glue to the frame?

[GWR57xx]

19 minutes ago, Simond said:

That’s very nice.  Might it be worth finding a suitable roller to apply glue to the frame?

Thanks Simond. Trouble is that the acrylic varnish dries almost as soon as it’s off the brush. If I tried to coat the frame first it would be taken up by the card before I could put the roller down and pick up the acetate, let alone get it lined up properly.

 

The varnish makes a good firm bond between the bars and the window, so is at least a good solution if I can’t find anything better. I’ll try using less next time, but I already used the smallest brush I have (00) this time.

 

Just mucking about at the moment to find out what’s possible, using random bits of card I happen to have lying around. I’ve ordered some proper laser materials to try out, which will hopefully give more consistent results.

[Greengiant]

I made these 4mm scale windows using Trotec laser card and stuck them together with 3M Spraymount. They are made up of 3 layers.

Martin

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Greengiant

[GWR57xx]

On 22/03/2021 at 10:22, Greengiant said:

I made these 4mm scale windows using Trotec laser card and stuck them together with 3M Spraymount. They are made up of 3 layers.

Martin

 

 

Thanks @Greengiant, they look great so I've ordered some 3M SprayMount to try.

 

The window cleaner has been, and estates management have fitted the sill:

Edited February 11 by GWR57xx
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[monkeysarefun]

Well done getting balsa to work. When I tried it I got my first actual fire, so that scared me off!

[GWR57xx]

On 15/07/2017 at 08:31, monkeysarefun said:

G'day Giles,

 

Theres no reason why the same can't be done on the Emblaser 1, you'd  just need to download laserweb,  work out the settings then save the gcode,  and send to the Emblaser 1 using Universal Gcode Sender (available on darklylabs site).

 

If anyone wants a more in-depth how-to, I'm happy to put one up here.

Hi @monkeysarefun,

I realise that you posted this rather a long time ago, but if you can remember what you did to get laserweb to work with your E1 I would be grateful for a how-to.

I’ve downloaded laserweb from the Darkly Labs website and run it up. It talks to my E1 ok in as much as it correctly found the origin when I clicked “Goto XY zero” button.

In settings I changed the working area dimensions to match the E1 and saved as a new profile, but when I tried to raster an image the laser carriage drove from 0,0 up the Y axis until it crashed into the frame, just as I hit the power button to turn the E1 off.

I just wanted to try etching images with the E1, which I don’t think Cut2D can do?

Thanks,

Peter

[monkeysarefun]

10 hours ago, GWR57xx said:

Hi @monkeysarefun,

I realise that you posted this rather a long time ago, but if you can remember what you did to get laserweb to work with your E1 I would be grateful for a how-to.

I’ve downloaded laserweb from the Darkly Labs website and run it up. It talks to my E1 ok in as much as it correctly found the origin when I clicked “Goto XY zero” button.

In settings I changed the working area dimensions to match the E1 and saved as a new profile, but when I tried to raster an image the laser carriage drove from 0,0 up the Y axis until it crashed into the frame, just as I hit the power button to turn the E1 off.

I just wanted to try etching images with the E1, which I don’t think Cut2D can do?

Thanks,

Peter

Hey mate, that WAS a long time ago!  I'm sorry to say that I don't remember much about that - I did have the E2 by then and ditched laserweb as soon as I could for Lightburn, so the E1 / Laserweb issue is something that I don't remember how I got working.

 

Did you check out the Darkly forums? I haven't been there for a while since 3D resin printers  came along and took up the last 2 years of my hobby time. I'm ashamed to say that I don't even know what is happenning in the Darklylab world  now, I assume that Lightburn is still the product of choice, but again, I don't know if that is usable on the E1?  If it is, then that is the way to go.

 

Maybe someone else here has more recent experience and can help out?  Again, apologies for the lack of help.

[GWR57xx]

On 13/03/2021 at 07:50, Giles said:

As an aside, I just tried cutting some components from my latest batch of Trotec ADA, and I can't get a clean cut, try as I might....... It ends up with furry edges. I put a but of my older stuff in, and perfect.... New stuff, rubbish....

 

I've dropped Trotec an email, but until I find out what's going on, I couldn't recommend the stuff - and I can't make anything!

Hi Giles,

Did you get any joy from Trotec?

My birthday is coming up and my good lady has offered to buy me some laser materials, but I don’t want her to waste her money if it’s not useable.

Is it the ADA Signage range that you use?

Thanks,

Peter

[Giles]

It's on going...... I will phone them again on Monday. Certainly it's an issue that affects more than just me!

 

Yes, ADA signage.

 

I'll post what results I get!

[Giles]

Just to keep people informed - it seems my email with the batch numbers went astray, so when I phoned them today they said they still needed them! So I've given them over the phone....

 

The sales team seem to think it's a manufacturing problem, which I find encouraging, but apparently the stuff is manufactured in Austria, so now they have the batch number they are going to contact the factory. 

 

During the next contact I shall ask them to send me some samples of any more recent stuff they have....

 

For info, the dodgy stuff I have is....

 

The LS401-103 is Lot no. 0401004857169

the LT404-102 is                0101004750102

 

Hope this helps!

 

Giles

[Giles]

Trotec have very kindly offered to send me a repeat order -  but I've asked them just to send me one sheet so I can try it (from a different batch) which they're putting in the post  - so we will see whether that cuts properly or not, as I really don't want them or me to waste materials unnecessarily . My guess is that it won't..... but Trotec are being really good about it. They've forwarded all the information to the factory is Austria for their comment,  including what type of laser I'm using, what settings etc....

[GWR57xx]

I've been increasing my carbon footprint over the past week, but have now come up against an issue that has me stumped.

 

I have a sheet of 2mm laser ply that initially cut and engraved very nicely, and I've cut a few sample wall sections out of it cleanly and with minimal scorching at the cut edges.

 

After the initial success I designed a larger wall panel which again engraved nicely but when it came to cutting out the window aperture and the brick edges I was unable to cut through despite trying 20 passes at the same settings as the previous pieces (which cut through in 5 passes).

The laser just appeared to create a trench full of ash, which seems to have hardened with each subsequent pass.

 

I’ve tried the obvious – taken the lens out and checked – it was clean.

Spent ages refocussing the lens so that it can cut through paper and card with the fastest moves and cleanest cuts.

 

The shroud microswitch is definitely doing its job – the laser moves to the cutting site on focus power then brightens significantly for the cut.

The laser power light blinks then stays lit.

The fans on the laser head and chassis are both running.

The FFC is fully engaged in the sockets at both ends and I've added a ski ramp for it to slide on to stop it getting wrapped around the left-hand slide rod and rear bracket.

 

First passes on the ply leave a nice deep mark but subsequent passes just seem to produce scorching and ash.

 

I’ve checked the G-code and it is definitely setting the power to 255 (100%).

 

I've tried lasering the ply from the reverse side.

I've tried putting different materials underneath the ply.

 

I have spent days trying different things, but am now at a loss to explain what could have changed in my setup to prevent the EB1 doing what it did before on exactly the same piece of material.

Anyone got any ideas what else I could check? I've run out of ideas.

Thanks.

Peter

 

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by GWR57xx