Laser Engraving Gone Wrong? Just Fill It In With A Sharpie
If you spent about $150 to have the case of your laptop computer laser-engraved with a cool design and something went wrong, would you expect to be told to fill in the problem areas yourself with a permanent marker? That happened to Haje. He's sympathetic to the technical issues involved, but not happy with the end result.
He brought his own design for the top of his black MacBook to the studio, RazorLAB, learned a lot about the super-neat field of laser engraving consumer objects, and then brought the artwork home, only to discover that the design hadn't quite turned out as he had envisioned it.
On my laptop, there was some white on some of the engraving, which Soner said was dust – so when I got home, I tried to clean it off, but to my surprise, it was going nowhere – whereas half of the laptop is very subtle (in fact, it looked bloody awesome – you can tell something is engraved on there, but you have to look quite closely to see what is engraved; it looks brilliant), the other half is streaked and milky white.
I tried cleaning it a couple of times, but the streakyness continued – so I e-mailed Soner to find out what I should do. Not much, as it happens: He said that "The problem with engraving big areas is that as the laser head moves away from the origin point (in this case top-left), the engraving results in different streak patterns -because of acceleration and speed changes at far corners". It seems as if the problems are quite rare, too: "so far, we did not have any complaints with regards to this issue as people usually treat this as part of the process -it is within laser engraving's nature to do these kind of effects."
Okay. So large surface areas don't look so great when laser engraved on a black background. The problem, to be clear, wasn't due to incompetence, but due to the nature of this kind of engraving. He would have been happy had the design turned out all white or all black, but not sort of a streaky color on the left-hand side. The engraver's suggestion?
"The only suggestion I could give is to paint the white areas with a permanent black marker. That should help to get rid of the gray gradient."
There we have it - a low-tech solution to a high-tech problem?
UPDATE: Reader Shane, an actual laser-engraving professional, weighed in in the comments. Here's his incredibly helpful advice:
I've operated a laser engraving business for the last two years, and can tell you exactly what happened.
The beam has less area to travel in one corner than the other, hence you will get a slightly more powerful beam and deeper engraving on one side than the other. BUT - it is usually so slight that you would never, ever notice. I've done full 24x18 pieces that show no difference at all. The only time I have heard of an engraving showing that much difference is when the tube is going out.
Laser engraving is all about guessing. You have a speed setting and a power setting. To get a good engraving, you need to take into account the material you are engraving on, the speed of the head, and the power of the beam. When you match everything up with the correct settings, you get a successful engrave.
Here is my best guess on what happened. He has too low of a power setting (or he's running it too fast), so you weren't getting a deep enough engraving to totally engrave off the anodizing. That is why you get that quasi-engraved look in the one corner. Second issue - I'd bet his laser tube is going bad, hence there is a noticeable difference in power that opposite corner. This could also be the contributing factor in why the rest of the engraving didnt go deep enough.
LASTLY -
If you are very, very careful and have a very, very good attention to detail, he can successfully line it back up for a second engraving. This should resolve the not-deep-enough issue, and get you a consistent white engraving across the entire design. If he would like some tips on how to do that, have him email me.
Thanks for the professional advice, Shane!
Laser-engraving my MacBook [Photocritic.org]
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Comments:
I saw this earlier today on his blog. I actually think the way it came out looked cool.
The laser doesn't move in 2D at a constant height from the surface? I just pivots from a point in the far corner? And the software can't compensate for this?
That sounds.....bizarre.
All I can really think of is to snoop around the internet to see if this is a common problem. If other people have had the same issue, and nobody at RazorLAB had informed him of the potential problems with his choice of design, he might have grounds for some kind of compensation. It would essentially amount to a case of willful negligence on the part of RazorLAB.
Otherwise, if it's just a fluke, Haje might be SOL on this one. Sometimes, things just don't work out the way you want them to.
I was looking at the image trying to find the flaws...then I realised that what I saw was the flaw..I think it looks really cool.
This is BS. I've operated a laser engraving business for the last two years, and can tell you exactly what happened.
The beam has less area to travel in one corner than the other, hence you will get a slightly more powerful beam and deeper engraving on one side than the other. BUT - it is usually so slight that you would never, ever notice. I've done full 24x18 pieces that show no difference at all. The only time I have heard of an engraving showing that much difference is when the tube is going out.
Laser engraving is all about guessing. You have a speed setting and a power setting. To get a good engraving, you need to take into account the material you are engraving on, the speed of the head, and the power of the beam. When you match everything up with the correct settings, you get a successful engrave.
Here is my best guess on what happened. He has too low of a power setting (or he's running it too fast), so you werent getting a deep enough engraving to totally engrave off the anodizing. That is why you get that quasi-engraved look in the one corner. Second issue - I'd bet his laser tube is going bad, hence there is a noticeable difference in power that opposite corner. This could also be the contributing factor in why the rest of the engraving didnt go deep enough.
LASTLY -
If you are very, very careful and have a very, very good attention to detail, he can successfully line it back up for a second engraving. This should resolve the not-deep-enough issue, and get you a consistent white engraving across the entire design. If he would like some tips on how to do that, have him email me.
I kind of like the way it came out. Maybe it's a happy accident. Of course, individual taste varies.
Perhaps they could have explained the possibility it wouldn't achieve his desired result prior to the work being done. I still think it looks nice though.
I think the biggest issue is that the URL is nearly out of sight when the laptop is opened. That's on par with the Apple logo being upside-down when opened...
@The_IT_Crone: If they chose the other way it'd be upside down when closed and we would complain about that too.
I used a dry erase marker to fill in the etching on my Macbook. Looks awesome and the marker can be wiped off the areas not etched.
I think it looks damn cool myself, but...whatever. D:
@gamabunta: Doesn't that also mean the dry erase powder is also coming off on your hands/clothes/cat?
100% in agreement with Shane on this. I have 1.5 years experience running an Epilogue laser engraver. there are settings, Speed and power, that are used with a variety of Substrates. A second maybe even a third run may have corrected the the problem, but I doubt it.
I also have to wonder if the top of the laptop was completely flat. The results on even a slightly curved surface will give you engraving at various depths.
Now, I don't want everyone to get the Idea that I'm blaming OP. Personally I would have told Op no, simply because I didn't want to be the one responsible for ruining a 1000.00 + laptop. If pressed OP should have been warned that the results can't and won't be guaranteed.
Folks there is only so much you can do with a laser engraver. We even hemmed and hawed at doing glass because the results were unpredictable and that substrate was on the list. Unlike laptops... I don't remember ever seeing laptops on the list.
@Shane Silcox: Except that he wants the black effect on the left side! From his website:
"I completely love the subtlety of the left-hand side of the laptop - just such a shame about the white streaky mess on the right-hand side of the lappy, where the logo is :("
Also, this is a black polycarbonate MacBook, so no anodizing here. So given that it's plastic, can you 're-explain' this one? Is the light area too much removed, or not enough?
IMO, the white streakys make a nice gradient effect, and also makes his URL almost readable. But, given that he's a photog, he probably knows exactly how he wants it and being picky like that is his job.
@ludwigk: It just occurred to me that one reason this might have happened is that the Macbook lid is not flat. Most of them have slight variances in height, or a bit of bowing that would result in changes in the distance of the laser. That is, unless the laser position is constantly scanning the surface that is being written on with micrometer precision to account for this, or something.
@ludwigk: If the surface of the macbook wasn't totally flat - that would definitely be another explanation. Not sure on the polycarbonate - I have never engraved one of those before. Is it some sort of polycarbonate coating? It really appears like the lower right hand corner engraving was engraved deeper than the rest, resulting in it exposing a lighter layer.
Actually, if you use a sharpie it will fix engraving errors. This is because of a chemical in sharpies called Beyess. Beyess is a remarkable chemical. It's not just found in sharpies either. It's used in homeopathic remedies, weight loss remedies, and customer service representatives.
@Shane Silcox:
Polycarb is pressed in layers so yeah that would account for the gradient look. Think "engraving plywood".
A waste of $150 and distroys the resale value of the laptop when he goes to sell it someday. Sad.
Or trust the MacGuyver way - cover it up in duct tape.
@dee1313:
That should be 'too'. I'm a moron.
Anywho, I think its great that its something that can't easily be copied. Woot for uniqueness!
The right side of it does look truly unfortunate, especially considering the price of that machine. Would be a nice gradient effect if it actually was a smooth transition. I'd honestly be looking for my money back or some sort of remedy to the problem apart from "Fill it in with a Sharpie."
@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: It really looks pretty good. The dark to light effect looks like it comes from a light source.
@PLATTWORX: i disagree. i've had some people go "eww that'll kill your resale value" but when i put out some feelers to sell my engraved black macbook ([flic.kr]) I was getting some interesting offers especially because of it. I particularly like the way the above laptop engraving came out, and there's always gonna be people who like it...
@Kia:
same here. It looks almost as if it was done on purpose. If no one told me, I would have thought it was just part of the design.
@edicius: The top can be re-ordered from Apple, replaced, and then they can re-try the engraving - all at their expense, of course...if they decided they actually wanted to try to make it the way the customer wanted it.
Just a possible option.
One thing the poster might want to do is maybe find a bottle of 'EM NU'. This is the stuff they use to repaint metallic ensignias in the military. Pretty common in Army-Navy stores. It is dark black, and VERY tough. Much more so than a sharpie, or even ordinary spray paint. A bit of this, and a cotton swab, and it will fill in those spots nicely.
btw folks.. shop around when you're doing engraving.. 150.00? total BS, unless the store designed the image, the shop I worked in it was 6.00 per image .10 cents a letter. that engraving would have cost that dude under 10.00 in my shop. Set up fee is a BS scam there is no set up. Scan graphics, make any corrections via Corel, run test, run laser engraver.
I think it looks cool too. It's an effect that sort of looks like shadows from other people in the crowd.
Given the choice, I'd pick that over a uniform shade.
This reminds me that I'm old enough to remember when people thought that their initials pin-striped on car doors was cool (think early 70's Lincloln Continental, Monte Carlo, etc.) and then the gold plating of car emblems & nameplates & wood dashes in the early-mid '90's. It's as cool as the fake woodgrain on a 1980's Sony Trinatron!
The tragedy here is the artwork, not the quality of the actual engraving.
Shane's info is very interesting, but I'd tell OP to leave well-enough alone, and not give it back to the engraver on the chance that he can "successfully line it up for a second engraving." In a follow-up comment, Shane even concedes there may be other variables that contributed to the outcome, i.e., if the surface wasn't flat, if the material was a polycarbonate coating.
The result may not have been what he envisioned, but it does look like something that was specifically planned and designed to look the way it does. It doesn't look like something that went wrong. It's not a "mess" at all. I think if OP lives with it for a while, and starts attracting compliments and interested comments, he will probably end up feeling fine with it.
Most of the places that I have seen laser engraving stating that you are getting the engraving with the understanding that 1. it can brick the appliance.
2. the results may vary due to the material being etched.
These lasers are powerful lasers and not handled properly can cause all kinds of problems. Also most places that I have seen you have to sign a statement that you understand the above and wish to have the engraving done anyway.
@lannister80: That's exactly what I thought. I figured it was like those machines that cut out plastic letters for banners and signs. You know, like a giant inkjet, but instead of ink, it's lasers (but without the sharks attached).
The person can always have the people color fill it with some kind of permanent paint or do it himself so it looks neat, and it doesn't take long except for the drying pending the deepness of the engraving.