If you've had a laser for any amount of time, you've probably got a box like mine. Material tests, engravings that didn't come out right, designs in completely the wrong place, and a few where the settings got pushed way too far. Once a laser has done it there's no undo button, because you've physically changed the material.
So I put six of my own failures through the xTool O1 Omni UV printer to see which ones I could actually save. Each one got a verdict: saved, sort of or bin. Just getting ink onto something doesn't count. To call it saved, it had to look like it was meant to be that way, something I'd use or happily give to someone without explaining the mess underneath.
Jump to: The process · Glass coaster · Bamboo opener · Slate coaster · Leather patch · Baseball · Coin · What I learned
The process I used for every item
- Prep the surface if it needs it. Glass got a primer wipe first so the ink would grip. The rest went straight in.
- Hold it in place. Every item sat in one of my O1 Omni jigs, so I knew exactly where it was.
- Scan in xTool Studio and use the camera view to line the new design up over the old engraving.
- Pick a design that covers the mistake. Edge to edge patterns and busy, colorful images hide far more than a simple logo.
- Put enough white down. The white layers are what hide the engraving underneath. As you'll see, this decided more than anything else.
- Add color, then a varnish if you want a matte or gloss finish.
Here's what each one took. These are xTool Studio's own estimates for ink and time.
| Item | Layers | Ink | Time | Cost | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glass coaster | 3 white, 1 color, matte varnish | 0.82 ml | 10m 39s | $0.11 | Saved |
| Bamboo opener | 3 white, 1 color, 2 gloss | 0.36 ml | 6m 36s | $0.05 | Bin |
| Slate coaster | 3 white, 1 color, matte varnish | 1.05 ml | 11m 40s | $0.15 | Saved |
| Leather patch | 3 flexible white, 1 color | 0.08 ml | 3m 27s | $0.01 | Saved |
| Baseball | 4 flexible white, 2 color | 0.11 ml | 6m 25s | $0.01 | Bin |
| Coin | 15 white, 1 color, 4 gloss | 0.78 ml | 16m 16s | $0.11 | Saved |
All six came to 3.20 ml of ink, about 44 cents.
1. Glass coaster: saved
There was nothing wrong with this coaster. I just didn't want the engraving on it any more, and once you've engraved glass, that's normally it. The catch is that glass is see-through, so the real test is whether you can still see the old design through the back.
After a primer wipe, I chose a blue and white tile pattern, edge to edge, so it would look like it was always meant to be like that. Three layers of white so nothing shows through, one of color and a matte varnish on top.
It looks excellent from the top and it wasn't scratching off. From the back I could just about see the old design, but really, really faintly. Not enough that you could tell. A complete success, and I was blown away by it.
2. Bamboo bottle opener: bin
This came from testing an automatic positioning feature, and the design didn't land where I wanted it. It's a perfectly good opener with a magnet in the back. I just never wanted the target on the front. The engraving is pretty shallow, so on paper it should have been easy. I printed a retro sunset badge over it with three layers of white, one of color and a gloss finish.
The image and the gloss are lovely, but look at the sky. Every one of those rings comes straight through. Three layers of white just weren't enough over a dark burn on wood. The one I thought would be easy was the first in the bin. I should have put more white down.
3. Slate coaster: saved
This was one of my first slate photo tests on the M2: 16 versions of the same portrait, all at different settings. The settings are saved now (you'll find them in my M2 slate photo guide and the free Laser Settings Library), so this coaster had done its job. A bright engraving on dark slate is a proper test of the white.
Instead of another photo, I went for something with a lot of color: Van Gogh's The Starry Night, edge to edge, using the same recipe as the glass. I couldn't see any trace of the portraits underneath, even holding it up to the light. It covered the coaster really well and it's one of my favorites.
4. Faux leather patch: saved
This one has a photo of me on it, and I forgot to invert the image before I engraved it. So I got a negative of my own face. Hiding it is only half the job, because patches bend. If the print cracks the first time you flex it, it isn't saved.
I printed the same photo again, the right way round this time, using flexible white: three layers of white and one of color.
There's a slight outline round the edge where I misaligned it a little, but then came the moment of truth. I flexed it and it stayed completely intact. A pass.
5. Baseball: bin
I'll be upfront about this one. The others are genuine leftovers from my own testing, but I engraved this one too deep on purpose. It's easy to think "I want it darker, so I'll add more power", and at some point you're not making it darker, you're just digging deeper. Deep engraving on a curve. Nothing about this one is easy.
I chose a watercolor splash, so if the edges went soft on the curve it would look like part of the style, with four layers of flexible white and two of color.
You can clearly see the burnt text underneath. I didn't use high drop mode, which I probably should have, and there's a lot of overspray around the outside. That's the limitation of a curved surface. You'd need so many layers of white to even start closing that gap. Definitely not recoverable.
6. Deep engraved coin: saved
This is the one I was most curious about. I was doing a deep engrave and stopped it about 45 minutes in. It looked brilliant, but it wasn't sitting where I wanted it, and I wasn't going to wait another two hours for something that was never going to be right. So this isn't just a mark. The pattern is cut right down into the metal.
I went big. A stained glass tiger with 15 layers of white underneath, then color, then four layers of gloss. If anything was going to fill those dips, it was that.
Wow. The gloss is absolutely beautiful. Run your finger over it and you can feel a very light raised edge where the old engraving was, but with that many layers of white the print sits pretty much flush with the top surface. I would sell that. It's my favorite result of the lot.
What I learned
Four saved, two in the bin, and not a single sort of. I went in thinking depth would be the problem, and it wasn't. The coin had the most material taken out of anything here and it's my favorite. The bamboo was barely engraved and it went in the bin. What actually decided it was two things:
- The shape. Flat items worked. The curved baseball didn't.
- How much white you put down. Three layers wasn't enough to hide dark burns on the bamboo. Fifteen made the coin look brand new.
So before you bin your next failed laser project, it's worth a second look. If the blank is still good, there might be another design hiding in there. Run a test, and if the old engraving shows through, add more white.
Got something properly ruined?
Tell me which result surprised you, and what you'd like me to try and rescue next, in the comments on the video. Maybe next time with high drop mode switched on.
