Hello folk.

I've just pulled the trigger on a Creality Laser Falcon laser engraver.

This was a bit of a spur of the moment "looks like a bargain" knee jerk buy. 🫣

I have used 1ManArmy laser cut masks and enjoyed their fidelity.

I am hoping that I will be able to create my own masks using this tool.

I have zero experience with this sort of thing so I have to expect failures.

There is also no guarantee that this device, which is aimed at the crafting hobbyist, will give me anything close to the fidelity I hope for.

Experimentation will be the name of the game.

It comes well packaged in a stout cardboard box.

Rudimentary instructions and assembly guide on the top with some fun stickers.

I made sure everything was present.

Creality include a pair of tinted glasses to use during operation but no base plate in this kit.

The user must source and provide a suitable flat metal plate to protect the workspace from damage.

The working area is 400mm x 415mm once everything is assembled.

The machine operates either by USB-USBC cable directly from your PC/other interface or by using a TF card straight into the engraver.

Creality supply a square of thin plywood and a pre-loaded test piece to give the machine a whirl.

I'll report back with more in due course.

Cheers,

Guy

Fascinating, Guy! I've always wondered if these consumer-level units were any good. Looking forward to your report!

Kev

Back from my hols and eager to try my new toy.

Turns out it's not a simple "plug and play" on my ancient PC. 😟

My PC doesn't recognize the machine so now I think I need to install either firmware, software or both.

As a complete luddite this is not as easy as it sounds 🫤

So, an inauspicious start to proceedings......

Good luck

Hopefully you can get it sorted in short order

That's a shame, Guy. I hope you can get it resolved without too much mucking around.

Kev

Thanks guys.

I'll be honest and confess that it's taken the wind out of my sails.

All of the "help" videos make everything look so easy because the software does what it's supposed to.

My PC won't recognize the laser at all so there's no current way of selecting it to move on.

I am going to see if there's a way to simply save a file into the supplied TF card and use the laser stand alone.

So far though I can't save a design as the correct file type....☹️

* Sigh *

Hi guys.

A short update on (lack of) progress.

I've had a great deal of help from Craig (CraigH on LSP) who has been enormously patient with my ineptitude.

However, we have come to the conclusion that much of fault lies with my PC and Windows 8.

A visit to the Lightburn forums seems to confirm this.

I have access to a laptop running Windows 10 so when I've recovered a bit and feel less fatigued by it all I'll have another try on that machine.

😮‍💨

Here's the latest.

With the help of my son we managed to get the PC and Lightburn to see the laser 😲

Whether I can do anything with it remains to be seen but it appears to be a step forward.

More soon.

So, I've had a very brief play with the machine.

I wanted to create a couple of masks for the seat of my Hunter model but lost enthusiasm when I couldn't get the laser working and hand painted the lettering instead.

However, I had already created a file in Lightburn so used that as a test.

Taking some scrap from the 1ManArmy masks I had left over from the Spitfire build I experimented with various speeds and power outputs.

There is still some work to be done as you can see.

This was two passes using 5% power and a speed of 3300.

I admit I'm more optimistic than I was this time last week! 😉

Progress is progress, Guy! Good to see you getting somewhere with it.

Kev

Thanks Kev.

Here's another pic of something I've been asked to try.

These stars are intended for 1/48th scale.

I don't know exactly how they will look when painted.

Also, I don't think the machine can do much smaller

Edited June 30Jun 30 by geedubelyer

I'd venture to say that this is still much better than any of the blade cutters could manage!

Kev

Thanks Kev.

The image above was the final try.

This used low power and slowish speed.

Anything stronger or faster didn't cut the finer details well.

As you can probably imagine I'm still at the experimental stage of all of this.

One thing in particular I've been keen to try is engraving onto metal.

In this instance, wine bottle foil.

For many years I have made data placards by scratching lines into the coloured surface of the foil with the tip of a blade.

This new tool permits greater sharpness and fidelity.

I cut these out with a blade but in theory I could turn up the power on the laser and cut them out using that. 🤔

Another thing I've thought about but have yet to try are instrument faces.

My plan is to overpaint some white/off white wine bottle foil with black and see if I can buzz just the black away leaving the white showing. Should be fun trying. 😄

Edited July 1Jul 1 by geedubelyer

After spraying a piece of white wine bottle foil with Chaos Black spray primer I tried a quick test with the engraver and things look encouraging so far.

The next test needs to be an instrument dial face.

Watch this space.....

Encouraging results, Guy!

Kev

Did your tests go well with masking tape also @geedubelyer ?

I really like the idea of using a laser instead of a blade. Gives so many options for creativity.

Also currently the Creative Falcon 5W is on sale for about 150€ so really cheap if it works for our hobby 🙂

Hi.

Apologies for the late response.

The results were ok but not great.

One of the issues was trying to get the text small enough and sharp.

Originally I was using text from the software's library but that was outlined letters and numbers meaning the laser was effectively making two passes.

After a little research I discovered single line text. As the name suggests this is purely a single line, like a stick figure if you will.

I've yet to try these in anger but I'm hopeful they could help sharpen the smallest lettering up.

More when I can.

Cheers,

Guy