How to Engrave Pens with the xTool F2: Anodized Aluminum and Bamboo

Pens are cheap to buy, quick to engrave and feel like a premium gift once they have a name or a logo on them. They're also a good one to sell. I've made two videos on them with the xTool F2: anodized aluminum pens in my first video, and a batch of bamboo pens in the video above.

The setup is the same for both: hold the pens still, keep the design on the top of the curve, and frame every pen. The settings are different, so I've split them out below.

Jump to: Holding the pens · Focusing · Design size · Anodized aluminum pens · Aluminum settings · Bamboo pens · Bamboo settings and score line · Framing each pen

1. Holding the pens still

Anodized aluminum pens come in lots of colors, and you can pick them up cheaply from most wholesale sites. Bamboo pens come in packs of 50, 100 or 200.

The trouble is getting them to sit still. Lay a pen on the bed and it rolls, and the part you want to engrave won't stay level.

That's why I use a jig. A jig holds every pen in one position, so you get consistent, quick results, and you can close the lid while you engrave. I use my Metal Pen Engraving Jig for the aluminum pens and my Bamboo Pen Engraving Jig for the bamboo ones. Both fit the xTool F1, F2 and F1 Lite.

2. Focusing

If the two dots aren't joined, you're out of focus. Turn the knob on the side of the laser head: counterclockwise lowers the head, clockwise raises it. Adjust until the two dots join.

Then in xTool Studio, click New project in the top right. When the F2 connects you'll hear a beep and see a green symbol. You can also click the ruler icon to auto measure. The lights dim, the head moves to take a reading, and you get a number and an updated camera picture. It's handy, but it's not always 100% foolproof, so I still focus by hand first.

3. Keep the design on top of the curve

From above a pen looks flat, but it's round. If you engrave too close to the sides, the beam glances off the curve and doesn't make good contact, so it won't look great. Keep your design in the narrow band along the top.

I found a height of 5 to 6 mm works well. I used 6 mm for everything on both sets of pens.

4. Anodized aluminum pens: the design

1. Click the T on the left, click on the workspace and type your text. I did my name and the names of my wife and daughter.
2. Choose a font. Click the font box and hover over the list to preview them. I went with Aclonica.
3. Set the height to 6 mm and place it in the middle of the pen.
4. Copy and paste (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) for each pen and change the text.
5. To add an icon, open the elements tab (the square and circle on the left). I picked a monkey, a butterfly and a bunny from the animal category, each set to 6 mm tall.
6. Line each icon up with its name. Drag a box around both (or click one and Shift-click the other), click the small down arrow in the align tools and choose Vertical align center.

5. Settings for anodized aluminum pens

I saved these as my own material called aluminum pens (various colors), based on my testing. Select everything and apply it.

Cross hatch makes the laser do two sweeps in different directions, down and then across. It gives a strong contrasting white and a nice clean finish. All three pens took just 22 seconds, even with cross hatch. You could probably do it in half the time without it, but I'd rather be safe than waste a pen.

Engrave with the lid closed. The infrared laser is invisible, but it can still damage your eyes. Anodized pens give off a fine powder too, so make sure your extraction is on.

They came out really clear and contrasting, and 6 mm was enough to capture every detail.

6. Bamboo pens: the design

With bamboo, the contrast between the wood and the engraving looks brilliant. I did five at once, because if you make one of these you'll probably want to make more.

1. Click T, click the workspace and type your text. I made some branded L3D Accessories pens.
2. Text comes in as Score by default, which only draws the outline. Switch it to Engrave to fill the letters.
3. Pick a font. I used Bangers.
4. Spread the letters out a little so they fill the pen and read more clearly. Select the text, click the small up and down arrow icon in the top toolbar, and use the up arrow on the spacing box on the right (the one with a line either side).
5. From the elements tab, open Pattern, click See all and add a pattern either side of the text.
6. Set the text and patterns to 6 mm tall.
7. Drag a box around all three, then use the distribute option (the square with a line either side) to distribute horizontally, and Vertical align center.
8. Copy and paste the design onto every pen.

7. Bamboo settings and a score line to make it pop

I saved a material called Bamboo Pen. The engrave settings are blue light, 75% power, 300 mm/s, 120 lines per cm.

Here's the trick. After the engrave, I run a scored line around everything to make it more prominent. You can do it as two separate jobs, but you can also do it in one go with a second layer:

1. Select the whole design, right-click, copy and paste.
2. Right-click the copy and change its layer to another color (I used blue).
3. Click Score for that layer and set blue light, 70% power, 175 mm/s.
4. Drag it so it sits exactly over the original design. This step matters.

Now set the order so it engraves first and scores second.

1. Open the Layer panel. The order of the colors decides the order they run in.
2. Drag the engrave layer (red for me) above the score layer.
3. Next to the Process button, click the arrow, open the auto planning option, choose User defined and then By layer.

Click Process and check the path preview. Mine showed all five engravings first, then the score line around everything, and took 1 minute 52 seconds for all five pens. These settings are saved in my free Laser Settings Library with my other xTool F2 settings.

This uses the blue diode, so close the lid. Bamboo makes a lot of smoke and soot, so good extraction is a must.

It did a really good job. Bamboo, like some other woods, isn't always consistent, so you'll notice each pen looks slightly different from the next.

8. Frame each pen separately

This is the most important step for both kinds of pen. The camera isn't directly above the pens, it looks at them from an angle, so a design that looks centered on screen often isn't centered in real life.

1. Click the arrow next to the framing button and choose the rectangle. It's better than an outline here, because you just want to see the box sits centrally on the pen.
2. Turn the light power up (I used 10) so you can see it clearly.
3. Start framing. With several pens, it frames one big box around everything, which doesn't help much.

4. While it's framing, drag a box around one pen's design on screen. The frame now shows just that design.
5. Watch the pen and tap the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge it until it sits along the center of the top.
6. Do the same for each pen, then select everything again to check the overall box.

Here's the same thing on an aluminum pen. Even though the camera made them look central, my pens still needed nudging into place.

Questions?

Put whatever you like on these, a business name, a person's name or a little icon. If you get stuck, ask in the comments on the anodized aluminum pen video or the bamboo pen video.