Want to Sell Engraved Rings and Tumblers? How Do You Pick the Laser?
Summary
Choose the laser by the surface you're marking, and choose the rotary by the object's shape and how it has to be held. In xTool's material chart, bare metal is a job for a 1064 nm infrared laser, while plated or painted metal, wood, and leather can be engraved with a blue diode. Tumblers, rings, and other round items need a rotary attachment, and the holding methods available to you depend on which machine and rotary you pair.
Which laser marks which surface
The xTool F1 combines a 10W blue diode (455 nm) with a 2W infrared laser (1064 nm), and xTool markets it for engraving metal jewelry. Its product page splits the materials like this:
| 10W blue diode | 2W infrared (1064 nm) | |
|---|---|---|
| Engraves | Paper, wood, leather, MDF, stainless steel, plated metal, painted metal, ceramic, marble, dark glass, and more | Metal, plastic, black acrylic |
| Cuts | Paper, wood (up to 8 mm), leather, MDF, felt, some dark opaque acrylic (up to 5 mm) | None listed |
A painted tumbler falls in the blue diode column. For rings, the infrared column only says "metal." Gold, silver, brass, and aluminum aren't named anywhere on the page, so it doesn't tell you whether a silver or brass ring will engrave.
Rollers, chucks, spheres, and ring studs
xTool's roller method takes objects 3–198 mm across, and its examples are tumblers, ceramic vases, and baseball bats. The chuck handles up to 100 mm (mugs, wine glasses, irregular cylinders). The sphere method covers 25–100 mm for ornaments, baseballs, and golf balls, and the ring stud covers 11–70 mm.
The RA2 Pro user guide has separate chuck jaws for flat-bottomed and round-bottomed objects (1–100 mm either way) and puts rings on the stud components. For a mug with a handle, you move the baseplate to the other side. The rollers come off before you fit the chuck.
What works on the F1
xTool's guide for the RA2 on the F1 lists two modes, roller and chuck. Chuck mode requires the RA2 Pro; the RA1 and standard RA2 are roller-only. The ring stud appears in the RA2 Pro user guide, but the F1 guide says nothing about ring or sphere engraving. The F1 doesn't ship with a rotary, so that's a separate purchase.
In roller mode, the F1 guide sorts objects into three diameter bands (3–50 mm, 45–60 mm, and over 60 mm), each lined up against its own marks on the machine's base. You then turn the focus knob until the red and blue guide dots meet on top of the object.
Sources
- xTool Support — xTool F1 Product Introduction
- xTool Support — Rotary Attachment 2 (RA2) User Guide
- xTool Support — Use RA2 with xTool F1/F1 Lite
Specs and prices are as published on these pages on the date above and can change; check the manufacturer or retailer before you buy.