I have heard that engraving food is safe, so I decided to try my luck on some sugar cookies I made for my little guy’s birthday. Since his favourite team just won the DFB-Pokal, I had to include some of FC-BM cookies as well!
This was my first bigger project on my K40 and my first chance to test out my hacked stock blower (photos of the hack were in a previous post - April 15, 2016). I don’t have an air assist (yet) on my machine and I was really impressed how well the blower hack actually works!
A special shout out to @Yuusuf_Sallahuddin_Y who’s recent comments led me to increase my engrave speed and shorten my engraving time!
@Yuusuf_Sallahuddin_Y yes, they do have a slight burnt taste. Only in the larger dark areas, though. You really can’t taste a difference in the lettering. I’m hoping with your suggestion of a faster speed, the engraving is not as deep, hence less burnt flavour. My birthday boy hasn’t seen them yet. They’re for later today. I’m pretty sure he’ll like them, though.
@Jim_Hatch I’ve read about that, too. Got to give that a try!
@Ulf_Stahmer What power settings are you using? Try minimise the power down to 4mA (or lower if you can get it to mark, I can’t mark below 4mA). Also you could consider increasing the Pixel Step to 3 or 5 which will minimise the overall burn but decrease the clarity ever-so-slightly.
edit: earlier today I was considering Laser Cutting some steak into the shape of Australia. I imagine it might take a bit to cut through a steak though. Thin bbq steaks might be okay though.
@Yuusuf_Sallahuddin_Y Excellent suggestions. My machine only has a % power indicator (I’ve ordered an ammeter, an am waiting for it to arrive). I tried 150 mm/s at 15% and I didn’t get anything, so I upped the power to 25% and 250 mm/s. Increasing the pixel step is a great idea. I’m still very new to this. I understand the theory of the setting differences, but haven’t had the opportunity to try different settings out.
Steak sound’s interesting. You could likely engrave toast really well. There, the burnt flavour might not make a difference at all.
I am really impressed with the machine’s ability to engrave marble, glass and stone!
@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty What exactly is overturn food? Never heard of the concept, however thanks for pointing it out, as it is probably a good idea for us to all be wary of food related lasering & disease/bacteria growth.
@Ulf_Stahmer I have the potentiometer & ammeter setup on my machine. I would like some kind of digital meter (similar to what I believe @donkjr has if I recall correct). I’ll get around to that once I reach that point on my mental-list of mods to make. Seems like a nice simple mod to keep track of the power % (or value).
I have yet to try marble, glass & stone. I did try some mosaic tiles & I was pretty impressed with the result, even just a basic 1 past test. I think
