Getting a great finished product isn’t always easy.  I like to think of these processes the same way you might think of a meticulous old machinist or a pilot going through his checklist.

Working through these things slowly and methodically will help you achieve better results.

Let’s get started, shall we?  My first piece of advise is to treat every job like it is the first job you are ever doing.  Be slow and work purposely making sure not to forget ANYTHING.  Let’s roll!

1. Inspect the piece you intend to etch on.  Make sure it is smooth, flat, sanded, has an even coating of whatever you put on it and is prepped to your satisfaction.  Poorly prepped parts will spoil your final product.

2. Second of all you need a GOOD, FLAT, SECURE surface.  Etching a grid on it is really beneficial for keeping your work piece straight.  Cut on a waste board and clamp that board down to your work surface if you can.

Use Your Grid Lines!

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No shortage of reviews for the Ortur Laser Master 2 and as always I won’t bore you with the things you can read anywhere else, like what models are available and what the real laser power is, etc.  You can get that info anywhere.

This is MY shakedown and I like to bring up the things the layman and weekend hobbyist might come up with.

First of all the cheapest place to buy one is Gearbest. You can get the top of the line (20 watt) for about $290.  So I ordered one.  And I waited and I waited and I waited and the status on Gearbest still showed it not being invoiced.  A lot of people on a lot of forums were saying they waited for months.

You can however just order one on Amazon and have it in 2 days.  This is what I eventually did.  The downside is that it costs like $120 more.  I can live with that.

I got the box which was well packaged and the kit was complete.  Assembly takes 30 minutes or so, however if you were building your 2nd one it would take about 10 minutes.  Translation:  The instructions are small and hard to read.  I ended up watching an assembly video on YouTube which made the process much, much easier.

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Ortur Laser Master 2

I got one of those Ortur Laser Master 2, laser engraving machines.   This is not really a review of the machine but suffice to say that I think it is awesome.

It is not the end all, be all machine for laser engraving for sure but it is WAY more than enough for most hobbyists.  Also it will do things that technically it isn’t supposed to do thanks to the ingenuity of community of people behind it.

Rather this post is about adding Air Assist to the laser.   In short if material is too thick to cut and takes many passes an air assist system will speed things up and produce much cleaner cuts free of smoke and burning.  In the picture below you can see evidence of burns in the lines and especially where the lines are close like in the “E” and the top of the logo.

Slight burning marks on logo and prominent on “E”

Here is the exact same cut, using the exact same settings, with Air Assist in the pic below.

Same settings with Air Assist

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