LightBurn Tutorial 26 – Setting Up The SculpFun Laser With LightBurn

0:02the sculpt fun s9 is a diode-based laser

0:05engraver with a work area of 410 by 420

0:08millimeters the s9 builds on the

0:10previous generation s6 engraver and

0:12features a 5.5 watt laser fixed focus

0:15for easier adjustment as well as a

0:17circular cover on the end of the laser’s

0:19head to help with filtering uv light you

0:21will still want to be sure you’re

0:22wearing appropriate laser safety glasses

0:24when operating the machine the machine

0:26is constructed of aluminum extrusions

0:27that come with easy to follow assembly

0:29instructions that should have you up and

0:30running in about 30 minutes the s9 is

0:33running grbl firmware and is compatible

0:35with lightburn in this video we’ll go

0:37through the process of getting the

0:39sculpt fun s9 set up with lightburn on

0:41windows as well as mac and we’ll go

0:43through a short tutorial project this

0:45project will help you get familiar with

0:46lightburn and show the process of

0:48running a job on a machine without limit

0:50switches timestamps will be in the

0:52description below so that you can skip

0:53around as needed

1:00the first thing you’ll need to do is

1:02download the driver for the scope fun s9

1:05and for this it’s the fairly common

1:07ch340 driver that’s used by a lot of

1:10different diode lasers we have a link to

1:12this in our documentation but i’ll also

1:14place a link in the description of this

1:16video to this direct downloads page to

1:18make sure that you are downloading the

1:20correct thing for windows there’s only

1:22one option and you will need to click on

1:24the download windows ch340 driver which

1:28will download a zip file once the zip

1:30file has been downloaded you’ll need to

1:31extract that file to do so just open up

1:34the folder that it’s been downloaded in

1:36which is typically your downloads folder

1:40and then right click on the zip file

1:43and select extract all

1:46it’ll let you choose where you want to

1:47extract it but the default location is

1:50the same location as the zip file itself

1:53once extracted it’ll open up another

1:55window that will have the executable

1:56file to install the ch340 driver so

1:59we’ll need to double click that to open

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

2:01up the driver installation window on

2:03this window all that you need to do is

2:05select install there’s only one driver

2:07option so you don’t need to make any

2:09changes

2:11it should be fairly quick and once the

2:13install is complete you’ll get a pop-up

2:15just saying that the driver install has

2:17succeeded and you are ready to move on

2:19to the next step

2:22with the driver installed we can plug

2:23the power cable into our machine

2:26followed by the included usb cable one

2:29side should go into the machine and the

2:30other should go into your computer and

2:33then we can power on the sculpt fun s9

2:36you’ll know it’s powered on because the

2:37heatsink fan will kick on and you should

2:39also see a led on the top of the laser

2:42as well now we’re ready to head over and

2:44install lightburn

2:46now that we’ve got the machine powered

2:48on and plugged in we’re ready to

2:49download lightburn to do that you’ll

2:51need to head over to the download page

2:53on our website and scroll down to where

2:55you’ll see a couple of different options

2:57for windows there’s a 64-bit version as

3:00well as a 32-bit version most modern

3:02computers are going to be running the

3:0464-bit version of windows but if you

3:06want to confirm this you can easily do

3:08so by mousing over the start menu and

3:10clicking on the start menu and then

3:12typing in sys or system which will pull

3:15up the system information app and when

3:17you click on that it’ll open up a window

3:19that will contain a lot of information

3:21about your specific computer as well as

3:24the type of operating system it’s

3:26running and as you can see here next to

3:28system type mine says 64 so i know that

3:31i am running a 64-bit system and yours

3:34will also tell you if yours is 64 or

3:36again 32-bit

3:37now that we have that information we can

3:39head back over to the downloads page and

3:41select the correct version again i have

3:44a 64-bit version of windows so i’m going

3:46to be choosing the 64-bit version of

3:48lightburn when you select that it will

3:50open up a window to allow you to save

3:52the lightburn installer which will then

3:54go ahead and download and once it’s done

3:56downloading if you click on it that will

3:58launch the lightburn installer window

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

4:01once the installer pops up it will guide

4:03you through the entire installation

4:05process there’s no special steps here

4:07and you’re just going to be installing

4:08it like you would any other program on

4:10your computer

4:12if you just select next for all of the

4:13different options that will get you to

4:15where you need to be

4:18on the final window of the installer

4:19you’ll see a couple of different options

4:21you can ignore these the ftdi driver is

4:23specifically for larger dsp machines and

4:26not a diode laser so at this window if

4:29we click finish it will launch up lightburn

4:32 the first time lightburn starts

4:34you’ll be greeted by the device window

4:35and we’ll need to add a device as you

4:37see in the device list it’s blank which

4:39is expected we need to then add the

4:41sculpt point s9 and to do this we’ll

4:44start off by heading down to the find my

4:46laser option which will open up the find

4:48my laser dialog window this window will

4:51scan our computer to see if it detects

4:53any lasers that are connected at this

4:55point again the laser should be

4:57connected via usb to your computer as

4:59well as powered on

5:01once you’ve confirmed that that’s the

5:03case click next and it will take a brief

5:05moment as it scans the system to see if

5:07it detects our machine and it did we can

5:10see here that we’ve got a grbl machine

5:12that’s got a work area of 410 by 400

5:14millimeters on com port 4 as well as

5:17that it is connected via serial and usb

5:19and it is a g-code type machine if for

5:22some reason it doesn’t detect your

5:23machine i’d recommend confirming that

5:25you installed the driver that we covered

5:27earlier in the video as well as

5:29restarting your computer the other thing

5:30to try is power cycling your machine and

5:33then unplugging and plugging in the usb

5:35cable once again because it should

5:37detect your machine

5:39when you do see your device pop up you

5:40can head down to the add device button

5:42and select that to go through the rest

5:44of the setup process

5:46the first window is going to ask you to

5:48name your machine and this is especially

5:50important if you’ve got multiple

5:52machines to be able to easily identify

5:54which one you’re selecting in this case

5:56i only have one sculpt fun s9 so i’m

5:58just going to go ahead and name this

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

6:00device the sculpt fun s9

6:03you’ll also want to confirm the work

6:04area of the machine the 410 by 400 is

6:07read directly off of the controller and

6:08that’s what i recommend leaving it at

6:10there is a slightly larger value for the

6:12work area listed on sculpt funds product

6:14page and i did confirm that you can get

6:16a few more millimeters if you really

6:18want to but with the 410 by 400 you

6:20don’t have any risk of accidentally

6:22having the head run into the extrusion

6:24so again it’s just a safe place to keep

6:25those values at

6:27the next window will ask you where the

6:29origin is for your laser which should be

6:31the front left it should automatically

6:33choose that for you but if not for the

6:35sculpt fun s9 you will want to select

6:37the front left and that’s the case for

6:38just about all g code based machines

6:41and then for the auto home your laser on

6:43startup it does have that unchecked

6:45which is what we want that’s only

6:46something you’d want enabled if you have

6:48a machine with end stops but in the case

6:50of the s9 it does not and would cause

6:52issues if it was enabled so leaving the

6:54values how they are which is front left

6:56and disabled for the auto home is going

6:59to be correct the final window is just a

7:02summary of all the different settings

7:03that we chose just to confirm that

7:05everything still looks correct which it

7:07does so we can select finish

7:09and now in our device list we’ve got the

7:11scope fun s9 which is what we want to

7:13see and it says that it is a grbl based

7:16machine

7:17at this point we can select ok in this

7:19window to close out of the device window

7:22and if everything has gone correctly in

7:24the laser window on the bottom right you

7:26should now see the status ready listed

7:30also if you look at the console window

7:33you can see that lightburn has read some

7:34values off of the controller

7:38if at some point you open lightburn and

7:40see that the laser status doesn’t read

7:42ready but it says disconnect and the

7:43machine is powered on and plugged in

7:45it’s very possible that your computer

7:47has assigned it a different com port and

7:49so to check this if we go down in that

7:51same laser window next to where it says

7:53devices there will be a drop down where

7:54we can see all of the different active

7:56com ports on our computer currently i

7:58only have com4 that’s my laser that’s

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

8:00plugged in but if you have multiple

8:02options it’s a good idea to try the

8:03different com ports and see if you’re

8:05able to reconnect to your laser

8:14before we do anything else we need to

8:16install the ch340 driver which is the

8:19most common driver used for a lot of

8:21diode lasers we have a link to this in

8:23our official documentation but i’ll also

8:25place a link to this direct page so that

8:27way you can make sure that you download

8:28the correct thing

8:30on this page if you scroll down there is

8:32a section for macintosh i recommend

8:34going with the direct download link

8:36currently as a recording the version 1.5

8:39is going to be the latest and clicking

8:41on that will download the package file

8:44once you’ve saved it and it’s downloaded

8:46clicking on it will open up the

8:47installer which will guide you through

8:49the rest of the process

8:52just go ahead and install this like you

8:54would any other program on your computer

8:57it’s a fairly quick process and it

8:59likely will have you enter in your user

9:01password

9:03once it’s installed you might get this

9:05warning or notification that a system

9:07extension was blocked that’s fine you

9:09can just click ok on this window the

9:10main thing you want to see is that it

9:12says that it was successful the

9:13installation on the primary window and

9:15once that’s done before doing anything

9:17else there’s a restart button because

9:18you will want to restart your mac

9:21now that we’ve got the driver installed

9:23you can take your included power cable

9:25and plug it into your machine as well as

9:27the included usb cable one end will need

9:29to go into the sculpt phone s9 and the

9:31other end should be going into your mac

9:34and we’ll also need to power on the

9:35machine by flipping the little rocker

9:37switch you’ll know that the machine is

9:39powered on because the heatsink fan will

9:41kick on and you’ll see a little led on

9:43top of the laser

9:46next we’re ready to download and install

9:48light burn to do this we’ll need to head

9:50over to the downloads page on the

9:52official light burn website

9:54and scroll down to the area where there

9:56are some different download options

9:58for us we’re going to be going with the

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

10:00mac os version and clicking on the mac

10:02os version link will download the

10:04package file

10:06that will then need to save

10:09once it’s completed downloading click on

10:11the downloaded file

10:12then we’ll need to drag the lightburn

10:14icon into the applications folder which

10:16will install lightburn

10:18the first time that you try to run

10:19lightburn you’ll get a notification

10:21pop-up saying that lightburn can’t be

10:23opened because apple cannot check it for

10:25malicious software this is expected and

10:28all we’ll need to do at this point is

10:29click the show and finder option this

10:31will open up a finder window with all of

10:33our applications where we’ll need to

10:35scroll down to where we see light burn

10:37and right click on lightburn

10:39and then choose open when you click open

10:42you’ll get another pop-up window that

10:44has a similar warning to the one that we

10:46previously saw but now we’ll have the

10:48ability to open the software clicking on

10:50open will let lightburn start up like

10:52normally and this is only going to

10:53happen the first time that you run it

10:55after this you can now start it from

10:58your launchpad and this will only happen

11:00again the first time you install

11:01lightburn or if you update leiper into a

11:03newer version

11:05the first time you open up lightburn

11:07you’ll be greeted by this device window

11:09and under the device list you’ll see

11:10that it’s blank which is to be expected

11:12we haven’t added anything yet and the

11:14first thing we’ll need to do is add our

11:16sculpt fun s9 to do this we’ll head down

11:18to the find my laser button and select

11:20that which will open up the device

11:22discovery wizard and at this point if

11:24you follow the steps you should have

11:25your machine both powered on and plugged

11:27into your computer which is necessary

11:29for this device discovery wizard to be

11:32able to find your laser clicking next

11:34it’s going to scan your computer to see

11:37if it detects any machines connected to

11:39it it might take a second but if all

11:40goes well you should see your machine

11:43listed if for some reason you don’t see

11:45your device listed then make sure you

11:47did install the driver that we covered

11:49earlier i would also recommend powering

11:50on and off your machine unplugging and

11:52plugging in the usb cable again and

11:55restarting lightburn as you can see

11:57lightburn did detect our machine and it

11:59was able to read some information off of

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

12:01it that it is running grbl firmware with

12:04a work envelope of 410 by 400

12:08millimeters and also that it is a g-code

12:10type machine connected via serial and

12:13usb once you see your device listed here

12:15you can go down to click add device

12:18which will take you through the rest of

12:19the setup this page is going to ask you

12:21to name your device this is especially

12:23important if you’ve got multiple

12:24machines that you’re running since i’ve

12:25only got one sculpt fun s9 i’m going to

12:28just name it the actual model number

12:30which again is the sculpt fun s9 as far

12:32as the dimensions or the work area the

12:35410 by 400 is read directly off of the

12:38controller on the skull fun website they

12:41do have a slightly larger work envelope

12:44listed and i did confirm that you can

12:46squeeze a few more millimeters out of

12:47both the x and y but to be safe and to

12:50prevent your laser’s head from bumping

12:52into the extrusions i recommend starting

12:54off with the 410 by 400. the next page

12:57is going to ask where the origin is for

12:59the laser which should be the front left

13:01and it should have that marked actually

13:02if for some reason it doesn’t then just

13:04select the front left that’s the case

13:06for this machine and that’s primarily

13:08where it is for most of the g-code based

13:10machines also there’s an option for auto

13:12home relaser on startup that’s only

13:14something that you want checked if your

13:16machine has end stops in the case of the

13:18s9 it does not so you’ll want to make

13:20sure that you leave it unchecked or red

13:22which is what it should be by default

13:24based off of the parameters it read off

13:26of your controller just a moment ago

13:29once you’ve confirmed those two things

13:31you can click next the final window

13:32contains a summary of all of the

13:34different settings we’ve chosen up until

13:36now it’s a good idea to just quickly

13:38browse through these but everything here

13:40looks great and we can go ahead and

13:41select finish

13:43now in our device list we have the

13:45sculpt fun s9 listed and it says it is a

13:48grbl based machine and we can click ok

13:52in my experience on macs it’s going to

13:54say disconnected when you are done with

13:56the process all that you’re going to

13:58have to do is close lightburn and

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

14:00quickly reopen light burn and it should

14:02automatically connect to your machine as

14:04you can see here now in the laser window

14:06it says ready and if we look up at the

14:08console we can actually see the lightburn

14:10 has read quite a bit of information

14:12off of the controller

14:14lightburns typically going to reconnect

14:16to your machine every time you open up

14:18lightburn as long as it’s powered on

14:20and plugged in but if for some reason it

14:22says disconnect it’s a good idea to go

14:23down to where it says devices in that

14:25laser window and select the drop down

14:27menu and as you can see here there’s a

14:29couple of different options for com

14:31ports i have the correct one selected

14:32which is the usb serial 1340. but if you

14:35have multiple options you can click on

14:37those and see if that will reconnect to

14:39your machine you also will want to when

14:41you choose one of these different

14:42devices close out of lightburn and then

14:44reopen it just like we did a moment ago

14:46so that way it can connect to your

14:48device

14:54next we’re going to run through a small

14:55sample project engraving some text this

14:57will teach you some of the basic tools

15:00within lightburn as well as get you

15:01familiar with the workflow of using

15:04lighturn

15:07there are a couple of different ways

15:08within light burn to position your laser

15:11head and to tell lightburn how you want

15:13to run a job the three methods are

15:15absolute coordinates current position as

15:17well as user origin we’re not going to

15:20cover all of these in this video but we

15:21will in a separate video specifically in

15:23today’s video and project we’re going to

15:25be looking at the absolute coordinates

15:27which is the best for beginners and the

15:29easiest to understand i’ll place links

15:31in the description to this documentation

15:33but i think that our documentation does

15:35a great job of explaining it and it

15:37states that the page grid you see in the

15:39main editing window represents your

15:41machine’s work area anything you place

15:43in that area will be cut on its

15:45corresponding place on your machine so

15:47essentially what you see is what you get

15:49if you place something in the center of

15:51your workspace you can expect that it’s

15:52going to be engraving in the center of

15:54your machine in the example image here

15:57as well as in our workspace within

15:59lightburn we’ll see a red and a green

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

16:01square on the bottom left corner if we

16:03have absolute coordinates selected and

16:06the green square represents the job

16:08origin and the red square represents the

16:10machine origin and that is where we are

16:12going to want to have our laser head

16:14before we start our job on a machine

16:17with end stops it would automatically

16:18home to the front left so you wouldn’t

16:20have to do it yourself but for a machine

16:22like the skull fun s9 it’s still a very

16:25simple process and we’ll just need to

16:27manually move the head of the laser to

16:29the front left using our hand before we

16:31power on the machine this is something

16:33that we’ll cover in a moment here so

16:35don’t worry about doing it yet

16:38we’ll start off by heading over to our

16:40s9 and powering off the machine and then

16:43we’ll need to grab whatever it is we’re

16:44going to be engraving i’m using a really

16:46thin piece of balsa project wood but it

16:49doesn’t matter whatever you’re using it

16:51is fine and you’ll start by placing it

16:53somewhere in your workspace next grab

16:55the head of the laser and drag it over

16:57your material before grabbing the

16:59included measurement tool

17:01we’ll need to loosen the two thumb

17:03screws located on the back side of the

17:05laser so that way we can slide it up and

17:06down and then place that measurement

17:08tool under the heat sink making sure

17:10that the head of the laser the heat sink

17:12portion is rested on the top of that

17:14piece

17:15once done use one hand to hold the head

17:17of the laser in place and your other

17:19hand to reach behind and tighten those

17:21two thumb screws this is to set the

17:23correct focal distance for this material

17:26once the head of the laser has been

17:28secured you can remove that measurement

17:30tool since we’re going to be using the

17:33absolute coordinates like we discussed

17:35we’ll need to grab the hand of the laser

17:37and move it all the way to the front

17:39left of the machine making sure it butts

17:41up against the frame the last step is

17:43just to power on our s9 and then we can

17:46hop over to lightburn and start our

17:47design

17:49absolute coordinates should be the

17:50default value for the start from in

17:52lightburn if for some reason it’s not

17:54just head over to the start from section

17:57in the laser window click the drop down

17:59and then choose absolute to switch over

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

18:02to absolute coordinates now as you can

18:04see on the bottom left of the workspace

18:06we have that green and red square the

18:08first tool we’re going to use for our

18:10project is the text tool and we’ll get

18:12to that by going over to the left

18:14toolbar and clicking on the icon of the

18:17letter a

18:18you’ll know it’s activated because the a

18:20will turn red with the text tool active

18:22we’ll head back over to our workspace

18:24and click somewhere in the center to see

18:26the text cursor pop up where we can then

18:30enter whatever word it is we want to

18:31engrave i’m going to go ahead and

18:34engrave the word lightburn

18:36to get out of the text tool and back to

18:38the select tool which is the default

18:41mouse cursor we can either go to the top

18:43left option on that toolbar or we can

18:45hit escape to exit out of the current

18:48text we’re typing

18:49and escape one more time to get back to

18:51that select tool

18:54now that we’ve got something in our

18:55workspace if we head up to the top right

18:58cuts and layers window we’ll see that we

19:00have a layer there and there’s quite a

19:02bit of information here this corresponds

19:05to a specific layer which is going to be

19:07anything on a workspace that has been

19:09generated with the color black we can

19:12see that the mode is set to fill mode

19:14the speed is set to 2000 which is 2 000

19:18millimeters a minute the power is set to

19:2120 percent and on the bottom of that

19:23window we’ve got the ability to adjust a

19:25couple of different settings like speed

19:27power how many passes we’d like as well

19:30as the interval

19:33if your mode isn’t set to line mode

19:35we’re going to go ahead and do that we

19:36just need to click where it says fill

19:38next to the color in the layer which

19:41will open up the drop down where we can

19:43select line

19:46now we’re going to head over to the

19:47preview window and to get there we’ll

19:49head up to the top toolbar and we’ll

19:51click on the icon that looks like a

19:53computer monitor which when you do that

19:55will pop up the preview dialog window

19:59in this window we can see what the

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

20:01output of our current job will be all of

20:03the items in black are the actual

20:05portions that will be engraved and the

20:07thin red lines going between each of

20:09your letters are just showing the

20:10machine’s travel movements

20:13you can hit play on the bottom right

20:14which will actually show you what the

20:17path is that the laser will take

20:20and you can click and drag the timer

20:22back and forth to sort of quickly scrub

20:24through all of the engraving this is a

20:27really good place to get in the habit of

20:28checking before you’re running a job

20:30just to confirm that what you think is

20:32going to be happening is the correct

20:34output and what lightburn is actually

20:36going to be running

20:39next we’re going to play around with the

20:40style of our text you’ll need to make

20:42sure it’s selected by clicking on it and

20:44you’ll know it’s selected because you

20:46will see moving squiggly lines and once

20:48it is selected if you look up in the top

20:50toolbar you’ll have some options to

20:52configure or customize your text you’ve

20:55got a font drop down height the

20:57horizontal spacing vertical spacing the

20:59ability to make everything uppercase

21:01bold or italicized go ahead and go

21:03through the font menu and find a font

21:06that you like as you’re scrubbing

21:07through the different fonts you can see

21:09it update in real time which is a really

21:11nice way to make sure you like a font or

21:13that it’s going to go with a specific

21:15project

21:16when you’re happy with a font go ahead

21:18and click that to confirm and make the

21:21change to your text

21:24if at some point when you’re designing

21:26you do something that you’re just not

21:27happy with it’s really easy to undo

21:30there is both a undo arrow as well as a

21:32redo arrow in the top toolbar and you

21:35can also use the shortcut on your

21:37keyboard ctrl z to undo your last action

21:41next we’re going to change this layer

21:43from line to fill by heading up to the

21:45cuts and layers window clicking the drop

21:47down under mode and selecting the fill

21:50option

21:51once we’ve done that we’ll head back

21:53over to the preview window we were just

21:54at a moment ago to see what changes that

21:56made

21:57as you can see now by the text in all

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

22:00black it is going to be filling in the

22:02entirety of the text and not just doing

22:04an outline like the line mode and if you

22:06click the play button you can see the

22:07path that the laser is going to take as

22:09it travels back and forth filling in

22:11each of the letters

22:14now we’re going to add an outline to our

22:16text and we’re going to do this using

22:18the offset tool to activate the offset

22:20tool we’ll head over to the left toolbar

22:22and click on the offset tool which is

22:24the o roughly center of the toolbar

22:26which will open up the offset dialog

22:28window

22:29in this window we’ll have the ability to

22:31control quite a few different things

22:32like the direction of the outline do we

22:34want it to be outward inward both

22:37we also have a few different options for

22:39the corner style and we can choose the

22:42offset distance there’s not a right or

22:44wrong here so just play around and

22:46select something that you’re happy with

22:47i’m going to go ahead and choose the

22:50round corner style with the offset

22:52distance of three and as far as the

22:55opposite distance goes you can change it

22:57by typing in the text box you can also

22:59use the arrows on the right side of that

23:02text box and if you mouse over the text

23:04box and you use the scroll wheel on your

23:06mouse you can actually scrub up and down

23:09to really quickly adjust the offset

23:11distance size

23:13once you’ve found something that you’re

23:14happy with go ahead and click ok to

23:17apply the outline

23:19now we want to make sure that just the

23:20outline is selected if you have the

23:22inner text selected hit escape on the

23:24keyboard which will deselect it and then

23:26click on the outline to make it active

23:28you’ll know it’s active based off of

23:30those dashed moving lines

23:32with the outline selected head down to

23:34the colored toolbar on the very bottom

23:36and choose a different color from the

23:38color palette to change the outline as

23:40you can see now it’s blue and in the top

23:42right cuts and layers window we still

23:44have our black fill layer for the text

23:46but the outline is blue and it has been

23:48assigned a line layer which is exactly

23:51what we want the letters of our text

23:52will be filled in and then there will be

23:54just a single line that will make up the

23:56outline when we run our engraving next

23:58we’re going to adjust the power and

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

24:00 speed starting with the fill layer we’ll

24:02 need to click on it to make it active

24:04 and then in the bottom of that window

24:06 where it shows speed and power we can

24:08 make these changes these settings are

24:10 going to vary heavily based off of

24:12 whether you’re using a different

24:14 material if you’re not using wood or

24:15 again if you’re using a completely

24:17 different laser altogether but i’m going

24:19 to be starting off with a speed of 5000

24:21 millimeters per minute and the power set

24:24 to 50

24:25 for the fill layer and for the line

24:28 layer clicking it to make it active i’m

24:30 going to run that a bit slower because i

24:32 would like it to be darker than that

24:34 fill layer so i will go with 2 000

24:37 millimeters per minute on the speed with

24:39 a power of 35

24:42 one last time go up to the preview

24:44 window to take a look and make sure

24:46 everything looks correct you should see

24:48 the fill happening first followed by the

24:51 outline the goal of this is just to sort

24:53 of build those good habits from the

24:55 beginning you will never be upset that

24:57 you checked the preview window but you

24:58 will be upset if you didn’t check the

25:00 preview window and there’s an artifact

25:02 that somehow damages whatever you’re

25:03 planning on engraving so this is a

25:06 really good thing to do every time to

25:07 just make sure you are giving yourself

25:09 the best chance at success

25:12 now it’s time to get our work piece

25:14 positioned that we’re going to be

25:15 engraving we’re first going to activate

25:17 the ability to fire the laser from

25:20 within light burn this is just going to

25:21 be used to help us with more accurately

25:24 positioning the laser to do this we’ll

25:26 head up to the device settings which is

25:28 the wrench icon in the top toolbar and

25:31 clicking that will open up a dialog

25:32 window what we’re looking for is the

25:35 setting that’s labeled enable laser fire

25:37 button which is disabled by default

25:41 clicking it will enable it you’ll know

25:43 it’s enabled because the swatch will

25:44 turn green and we can click ok to exit

25:47 out of this menu

25:48 this won’t take into effect until we’ve

25:50 restarted lightburn so we will quickly

25:52 need to do that when you go to exit out

25:54 of light bird make sure that you save

25:56 your project so that way we don’t lose

25:58 all of our progress and that you can

25:59 quickly reopen it when we do open up

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

26:01 lightburn in just a moment now that

26:03 we’ve restarted lightburn if we go under

26:05 file and recent projects we can just

26:07 click the project that we closed a

26:09 moment ago which will load all of our

26:10 settings and if we head over to the move

26:13 window which will be right next to the

26:15 cuts and layers window we will see that

26:16 there is a power text box and a fire

26:19 button now available i recommend setting

26:21 this to just roughly one percent our

26:23 goal here isn’t to cut anything we just

26:26 want to be able to click the fire button

26:28 to activate the laser so that way we can

26:30 really make sure that we’ve got things

26:31 lined up correctly

26:33 as you can see here pressing the fire

26:34 button turns the laser on and pressing

26:36 it again will turn the laser off now

26:39 it’s time to run framing to help us

26:41 align our material with the correct area

26:43 it’s going to be engraving in the laser

26:44 window if we click the square framing

26:47 icon the head of the laser will move

26:48 from the front left corner it’s

26:49 currently at to the area it’s going to

26:52 be running the engraving and it will do

26:53 an outline of the entire area that

26:55 you’re graving will be inside the

26:57 process here is to run the framing

26:59 command see where it moves and then move

27:01 your piece of material until it is

27:03 completely underneath it for the

27:04 entirety of the framing if your material

27:06 is too small you can always resize your

27:09 text but you want to make sure that your

27:10 material is large enough for the entire

27:13 frame to be on top of it since we

27:15 enabled lightburn earlier to turn on our

27:17 laser if we hold down the shift key on

27:19 our keyboard and click the square

27:21 framing command it’ll run the command

27:22 again but this time the laser will be on

27:24 and this is my final step in order to

27:26 really tone in the positioning of where

27:29 the engraving is going to be

27:31 once you’re happy all that’s left to do

27:32 is to hit the start button and the job

27:35 will start to run while the laser is

27:37 running you’ll want to be close by and

27:38 it’s never recommended to leave a job

27:40 going while the machine is unattended

27:43 if you notice that the text isn’t quite

27:45 as dark as you would like it or it’s too

27:47 dark you can always go back and adjust

27:48 both the speed and the power settings in

27:50 the cuts and layers window that we

27:52 covered earlier after a few minutes you

27:54 should be greeted with your finished

27:56 engraving and this has been a great

27:57 first step and learning your machine

27:59 learning a bit about lightburn and the

Transcript for Setting Up the SculpFun Laser LightBurn Combination (Cont…)

28:01 workflow of designing something and

28:03 getting a job to run as well as aligning

28:05 your material and the next steps i’d

28:07 recommend would be to take a look at the

28:09 official lightburn documentation go over

28:11 and join the lightburn forums as well as

28:14 check out the many other tutorial videos

28:16 we have over on our youtube channel i’ll

28:18 place links down below in the

28:19 description to all of the resources

28:21 mentioned

28:23 if you’re a machine manufacturer and

28:25 would like us to make a video like this

28:26 about your machine please contact us at

28:29 business@lightburnsoftware.com