If you've tried engraving a photo onto stainless steel, you'll know it's the holy grail. It's one of the hardest things to get right. Too often you end up with a yellowy image that you can only see from certain angles, or shiny patches where the laser didn't mark at all.
I've done two videos on this: the one above with the xTool F2 Ultra UV, and an earlier one with the infrared laser on the base xTool F2. The workflow is almost the same on both, so this guide covers the shared steps once, then gives you the settings for each machine.
Jump to: The material · Focusing on a shiny surface · Material in xTool Studio · Preparing the photo · Framing · Settings for each machine · The bonus tip
1. The material and cleaning it
Both videos use a 304 stainless steel sheet from xTool, about 150 x 150 mm, with a protective film on it. A lot of dog tags are the same material, and the same process works on hip flasks, clips, blank tags and dog tags. The better quality the stainless steel, the better your results.
- If it has a protective film, leave it on until the last minute, then peel it off by a corner, taking care not to touch the surface.
- If it doesn't, give it a spray with 99.9% isopropyl alcohol and wipe it with a strong kitchen towel or cloth. Fingerprints and blemishes will show up in your engraving.
Shiny stainless is very reflective, and a lot of people recommend offsetting it slightly so the laser doesn't bounce straight back up into itself. I've engraved directly underneath plenty of times without problems, but that's your call to make.
2. Focusing on a shiny surface
On shiny surfaces the auto focus fails most of the time. In my F2 video I said nine times out of ten it won't work, and on the F2 Ultra UV it told me "autofocus failed". So focus by hand.
- xTool F2: turn the knob on the side. Clockwise moves the head up, counterclockwise moves it down. Stop when the two dots join together.
- xTool F2 Ultra UV: use the up and down arrows on the touchpad until the two dots overlap.
The paper trick
The dots are hard to see on a mirror finish, so here's what I do. Rest a normal sheet of paper on top (it's about 0.1 mm thick) and focus on that. Then, in xTool Studio, take 0.1 mm off the focus distance. Mine read 3.1 mm, so I typed in 3 mm and pressed Enter. That puts the focus right on the metal. The same trick works for glass and other transparent materials. If your sheet still has its protective film, you can focus with the film on and take 0.1 mm off afterwards.
3. Pick the stainless steel material first
- Click New project in the top right. It connects to your machine and updates the camera picture.
- Click where it says Unknown material, choose xTool's 304 Stainless Steel, and click Apply.
Do this before you touch the image. I believe the Auto Adjust feature looks at the material you've selected and adjusts the photo to suit it (xTool's own tooltip says it combines device and material for better results). Studio's default stainless settings don't work well for photos, though, so we'll swap those for tested ones in a minute.
4. Preparing the photo
- Import your photo with the plus icon on the left.
- Remove the background if it has one, otherwise Studio will try to engrave the white background too. I use Adobe Express, which is free: upload your photo, it picks out the subject automatically, then download it and import that version.
- Crop it tight. Click Crop in the top toolbar and drag the box as close to the image as you can without cutting into it, then Save. That makes framing much more accurate.
- Resize it. I filled the whole sheet to really test it, but on a dog tag it would be a fraction of the size, and the settings still work.
Adjusting the image
Select the image and click Adjust in the top toolbar (on older versions of Studio it's Edit, then Adjustments). Click Auto Adjust. It tweaks the contrast, sharpness and brightness for stainless steel and gives you a really good starting point.
Then look at it with stainless in mind. Very white areas can come out so bright that they don't engrave at all, and you end up with a shiny patch. Very dark areas can just look black. You want every part of the image to engrave, with tones in between. For my F2 photo I settled on minus 10 contrast and minus 5 brightness after Auto Adjust. Sometimes I also tick Grayscale and nudge its lower slider to around minus 10. Click a slider and use the left and right arrow keys for fine changes.
5. Framing
- Click the framing button in the bottom right and choose Rect. With a tightly cropped image, the box is a good match for the photo.
- Turn the framing light power up, as it's hard to see on a shiny surface.
- Click Framing and, while it runs, straighten the sheet by hand so it sits square along the bottom edge.
- Turn framing off and click the camera icon to update the picture.
6. Settings for each machine
I don't just guess these. I start with a test image (usually the same Reacher photo, as it has good contrast), take the best settings, refine the dot duration and DPI, then test again on other faces. They won't be 100% foolproof on every blank, but they'll get you in the ballpark.
When you apply your saved material, Studio may ask if you want to auto adjust again. Choose to keep the image as it is.
xTool F2 Ultra UV
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Laser | UV |
| Power | 100% |
| Dot duration | 650 |
| DPI | 1000 |
| Frequency | 40 kHz |
| Bitmap mode | Jarvis |
| Passes | 1 |
My full sheet took 2 hours 34 minutes. A dog tag takes a fraction of that.
xTool F2 (infrared)
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Laser | Infrared |
| Power | 80% |
| Dot duration | 2000 |
| DPI | 800 |
| Bitmap mode | Jarvis |
| Passes | 1 |
When you click start on the F2, it may show a fire detection warning. Click Continue, then Start again, and wait for the beep.
You'll find more stainless steel settings for both machines in my free Laser Settings Library, with pages for the xTool F2 and the xTool F2 Ultra UV.
Safety: the infrared and UV beams are invisible but can still damage your eyes. Close the lid, or wear the right safety glasses if you run it open. Keep your extraction running too. Stainless doesn't make much debris, but it does make fine particles.
The results
The F2 result kept all the resolution and shading: the muscles, the shirt, the scar, the hair, with no shiny patches, and you can see it from all angles.
The bonus tip: make it a little duller
On my F2 Ultra UV portrait you can spot a few shiny areas. On stainless steel, pure black in a photo often comes out shiny rather than dark. So make your source image a little duller by reducing the contrast slightly. Tweaking those adjustment settings is the key to a clean, consistent engrave every time.
Have a go
If you try this, let me know how you get on in the comments on the video, and tell me which machine you used.
