Are you in holster Hell?

Bongo Lewi

Bongo Lewi

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I have an Xtool laser etching machine that I bought for my wife's hobby/small business. She makes and sells all sorts of handcrafted, artsy items and wanted to put her brand on a small leatherette patch on each piece she makes.

While helping her make some of these logo patches this weekend I had a brain fart. I literally have a truckload of holsters and I'm a bit lazy when it comes to organizing them. It's damn near impossible to remember which holster goes with which gun if they get all mixed together. My holster morgue is a couple of cardboard boxes. Completely disorganized. And that grates on me.

So I pulled one out, and etched the type of gun it fits into the kydex. It worked perfectly. See photo. It's a Vedder pocket J and as you can see it fits the Ruger LCP Max.

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When are you going to start your side hustle on the side of Mrs. Bongos's side hustle? I am getting tired of sneaking my gun stuff into the dog nametag engraver kiosk at Petsmart.
 
Bongo Lewi said:
I have an Xtool laser etching machine that I bought for my wife's hobby/small business. She makes and sells all sorts of handcrafted, artsy items and wanted to put her brand on a small leatherette patch on each piece she makes.

While helping her make some of these logo patches this weekend I had a brain fart. I literally have a truckload of holsters and I'm a bit lazy when it comes to organizing them. It's damn near impossible to remember which holster goes with which gun if they get all mixed together. My holster morgue is a couple of cardboard boxes. Completely disorganized. And that grates on me.

So I pulled one out, and etched the type of gun it fits into the kydex. It worked perfectly. See photo. It's a Vedder pocket J and as you can see it fits the Ruger LCP Max.

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Does your machine engrave aluminum?
Could you use it to serialize a P80?
 
It'sMe said:
Does your machine engrave aluminum?
Could you use it to serialize a P80?
Click to expand...
Yep. I've already done it. Aluminum, stainless, brass, plastic, whatever. I recently made stainless dog tags for our two newly adopted hounds.

It works best if you first spray the part (metal) with laser marking spray. You do the burn then wipe off the excess. Nice black image in the metal
 
Bongo Lewi said:
Yep. I've already done it. Aluminum, stainless, brass, plastic, whatever. I recently made stainless dog tags for our two newly adopted hounds.

It works best if you first spray the part (metal) with laser marking spray. You do the burn then wipe off the excess. Nice black image in the metal
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Awsome! Which model do you have?
 
On that note.
I have been on the edge of my seat to jump into laser etching and the xtool F1 has been on the top of my list.
Also have a neighbor that turns pens interested in etching them.
Would this be a good start?
 
Started with the F1, which is a dual laser unit 10 watt (diode) and 2 watt (infrared). It will engrave metal but you have to fiddle with the settings a lot and sometimes do 2-3 passes. It does great once you get it dialed in. My wife was using it so much for her craft work that I got another. I went with the S1, which is 20/40 watt. Big difference in what it can do and the price difference isnt that huge from the F1. I'd spend the extra coin and get the S1. It will engrave anything in one pass and can also cut thru acrylic or soft woods up to 10mm thick.

I'd compare it in some ways to getting a decent 3D printer. Once you have one, you come up with a lot of other uses beyond your original reason for buying it.

The software that comes with Xtool lasers is pretty good. Not great, but it does everything you need it to do. Like 3D printers, there's a hobbyist community/forum that can help you figure out some of the more obscure features of the units and also give you insight into some cool things other people are doing with the Xtool products.

Overall, very good quality and reliability. I've only seen one glitch. I had powered off the F1 and the next day turned it on and somehow the last job that I cancelled was still in its non volatile memory. On power-up it restarted the job and etched the baseplate all by itself. There is an emergency power down. And the last job was engraving pleather for my wife, so no harm done. Just a weird bug in the unit's internal software.

I use an iMac with mine. The software supports Mac or Windows.
 
That one S1 comes with the riser base.
It's not clear if that base has an opening or door to work on longer projects?
Can the unit run without the base, say set it on a table top and engrave the table?
 
gandrfab said:
That one S1 comes with the riser base.
It's not clear if that base has an opening or door to work on longer projects?
Can the unit run without the base, say set it on a table top and engrave the table?
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I'd say no to it being suitable for a piece longer than the inside dimension of the unit.

I'm not sure about the second question. Why would you want to do that? It will definitely run without the extension base. That's mainly for accommodating larger objects and allowing it to work with their accessory for etching rounded objects like water bottles or mugs.
 
engrave the table top
Airplane or truck panels before installation.
 
gandrfab said:
engrave the table top
Airplane or truck panels before installation.
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Ah. Industrial. Like in the cockpit? You might consider the 40 W. I would think engraving wise you would want to go as deep as possible. For a big panels, registration might be a challenge. Moving the unit around to accommodate a big piece. You might want to take a look at some of the other types that are more like an X-Y plotter that can handle large, flat stock.
 
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In the starter up budget package, plan. :)
Woke up about ready to choke on the F1 Dual Laser 2W IR, 10W Blue Diode
Bundle List Price: $2,739.96 Details
Bundle Price: $2,169.00 linked above

Then saw the deal on the 20W that looks like it will still need a IR module for metal.

I'm the welder 🤪 trying to figure it out.
 
gandrfab said:
In the starter up budget package, plan. :)
Woke up about ready to choke on the F1 Dual Laser 2W IR, 10W Blue Diode
Bundle List Price: $2,739.96 Details
Bundle Price: $2,169.00 linked above

Then saw the deal on the 20W that looks like it will still need a IR module for metal.

I'm the welder 🤪 trying to figure it out.
Click to expand...
Understood. I'm no expert on lasers. My experience with the F1 was that I could produce an acceptable etch in the metals typically used for serial number plates on polyment guns. The molded-in type you find on P80s and the GS9. I dont thin the F1 can make the numbers deep enough to pass any 'official' examination though. But they seemed permanent enough for me.

The S1 performed much better for obvious reasons. A more powerful laser. Deeper etch on one pass and it will do better on harder metals than the F1.

For a big piece, I think it would be hard to move the laser unit around the piece and assure everything gets etched where it's supposed it. It could probably be done but it may be clumsy and error-prone. The software that comes with the Tools is configured for the machine. So your workspace or cavas if you will in the software is the same virtual size as the 'bed' or what I would describe as the 'printable area' of the machine.

Something like this might be better suited. Buy XY-Plotter Robot Kit v2.0 With Electronics Online in India | Fab.to.Lab

I've seen kits for different sizes. You have the option of adding whatever laser device is best suited for the material you are working with.
 
Awesome. Good luck! Smart move on the air filter. Some materials smoke and you really dont want to be breathing the exhaust from these machines. I didnt buy the Xtool product because I had a professional soldering station with a similar air filter device already.
 
Got home and from opening the box to these was about an hour.
Including xtool creative space download to laptop.

xtooltestn.png
xtooldogtagbandit.png
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