This is the best way to add detail to 3D prints and it works on almost every material

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]One of the biggest issues with 3D printing is how to get enough detail showing in your 3D prints. So, I'd like to show you how I deal with that issue.

[00:00:07]It's a process I've become completely addicted to. So, I wanted to also test the limits of what's possible. I'm going to be engraving on PLA, which does sound easy enough, but it's extremely sensitive to heat. We're also going to be making some engravings on stainless steel to compare them. And then we will take our 3D prints to the next level by making the finest detailed engravings possible. We'll even engrave a micro SD card to see if it does any damage to it.

[00:00:32]We're doing all this with the new machine called the Lumis Ultra made by We Create, which is now live on Kickstarter. So, let's get into it.

[00:00:45]My main complaint with 3D printing relates to the limits of detail from the nozzle size. Swapping the nozzle to a 0 2 does help, but that brings its own set of issues like extremely long print times. And what I've been doing is using the Lumis Ultra to engrave my 3D prints.

[00:01:01]And part of why I'm addicted to this process is that it is crazy fast. And engraving can range from just a few seconds to a total of a few minutes.

[00:01:10]That part alone is really nice. But what I would say is even better than the speed is the ability to add impossible levels of detail on to our 3D prints.

[00:01:20]So, I've been working on a design for 3D printable air pruning plant pots, and I originally made wooden plant tags to go along with those. Unfortunately, that wood ended up bringing a fungus along with it, which is not great when you're starting seeds. So, instead, I wanted to make plastic plant tags. And rather than just using words, I wanted a picture as well so I can identify each seedling at a glance. So what makes this laser so much different than anything else on the market, actually everything else on the market, is that it has the power of a Mopa laser and the precision of a cold ultraviolet laser. So if the MOPA laser and the wavelength of light for that MOPA does not agree with the material that you're using, then you switch over and you use an ultraviolet laser, a cold light laser. And that laser should be able to handle it.

[00:02:09]And I have quite a few tags that I want to make. And I'm going to be using the ultraviolet laser for this material. I also have these ones here. And these are made from stainless steel. And these will be better with the fiber laser.

[00:02:21]We're going to try that out in a few minutes, too. So, this laser has multiple lenses to choose from. So, here is the lens you would use for a fiber laser.

[00:02:32]And this is the lens that I have installed right now for the ultraviolet laser. So I'm going to reinstall this one because we're going to be using ultraviolet light.

[00:02:45]You have a pass through here. There is going to be a conveyor belt option for this machine. So you can load your conveyor belt and you'll be able to have it feed the material through basically production line setup. And there's also another option too with a slider system which allows you to do much longer material. And there's a small dot there and a big dot there. We need to align those two. We can just do that with the knob at the side. That's going to make sure that our focal point is in the right position right there.

[00:03:16]And now I will just pick one that I want to do my test on.

[00:03:23]13 seconds is how long this is going to take. So not very long. Normally, you want to make sure you have the cover completely closed. I'm going to record this, so I'm going to leave it open.

[00:03:51]And the one that looks the best to me is a speed of 500, line density 200, frequency of 48, power level of only 40.

[00:03:59]And this machine, by the way, can go up to 16,000 mm/s for speed. And that's because it has a Galvo setup. So extremely fastm moving tiny and lightweight mirrors attached to precise motors as well.

[00:04:20]So there's a very precise camera and we can get a flattened version of this image and we can place what we want on there.

[00:04:33]And that took a little over 3 minutes.

[00:04:36]And I went pretty extreme on the detail as you can see there. But I think that looks awesome.

[00:04:48]So here is all the purple done.

[00:04:52]Looking really good. I'm going to switch over and do the black.

[00:04:58]Heat.

[00:05:10]Heat.

[00:05:57]All right. So, I have a little microscope here. Take a look at what it looks like. This is 1,000 times zoom on black. And if you haven't caught my last few videos, I have been using this for pretty much everything. These are just labels, but it's pretty cool. Like even to be able to do this over trying to color print some of this text in there is a huge difference. It's very crisp and very clean. And this is not something that can rub off either.

[00:06:41]This is much more impressive than it looks. As you can see here, you can actually see right through this. This is only two layers thick. But we do not have any issues with heat on the backside.

[00:06:54]You can see right through it there.

[00:06:57]Pretty cool.

[00:07:00]They're probably a little bit too thin.

[00:07:02]Actually, I probably should have made them one layer thicker, but that's all right. So, it's really nice just to have the UV laser. But what makes this particular laser so much more special is this unit here. It plugs into the back.

[00:07:14]So, it's a Mopa fiber laser. So, you have complete control over your engravings. You can engrave in color, on stainless steel, on titanium. We need to remove the UV lens and install the fiber lens.

[00:07:31]And this is where the conveyor belt would really be handy. You could load them all on the conveyor belt and have it feed it in automatically.

[00:08:27]These did not turn out quite like I was expecting and the reason is because I set the frequency accidentally to the power level.

[00:08:37]So you can see here power level 48 frequency up here. So I had set the frequency to 48. There are a lot of options with the MOPA laser.

[00:08:50]So I'll try that one more time. I'm going to flip them over, do the other side with the proper frequency, and I'll try 400.

[00:09:19]All right. So, you can see here, look at the first one. Actually doesn't look too bad on the pumpkin. It has that kind of an orange look to it. This one is definitely deeper. So with a change to the frequency, you can dramatically change the effect that you get on stainless steel and actually all metals, but on stainless steel, you're going to get a variation in color as well. And that goes the same for titanium, too. So this is going to be the most detailed engraving that I've ever done. I don't even know if this is going to be visible from the naked eye. We may have to zoom in and see what it looks like.

[00:09:57]These are for my upcoming Kickstarter and I will put a link down there below.

[00:10:06]Definitely hard to tell. So, I'm going to try it one more time, but I'm going to use the bit map format instead rather than SVG format.

[00:10:28]That looks like Spider-Man.

[00:10:30]Wonder Woman. Is that Black Panther? So, I admit this is a little bit on the small side. There's no point in doing a pattern where you can't really see it, but I thought it'd be kind of cool just to see how small I can possibly get it. We are able to zoom in and see some of those images and see some of that detail.

[00:11:22]So, this is one of the SD cards that I use for my camera. And just to show how versatile this UV laser is. So, normally I just have marked for which camera it belongs to just so I don't get them mixed up. And I'm going to engrave on this with the SD with the micro SD card right in there.

[00:11:56]And this could be a mistake, but I'm actually going to even try to engrave the back of the micro SD card as well.

[00:12:02]Before I do, I'm just going to check to see if there's anything on it. So, I did have some files on here, so I've taken them off, but I've put five more files back on just to see if there's any damage to the micro SD card when we're done.

[00:12:25]Okay, now I'm going to put it back in the computer and see if it still works.

[00:12:30]We have success. it still works. Pretty cool that you're able to engrave things even as tiny as a micro SD card and not do any damage to them. The Lumis Ultra by We Create definitely did an excellent job on the stainless steel. I have the iridescent look that I was going for on these plant tags. And the cool thing about these is that these would have just gone into the scrap pile. So, I've been able to repurpose some of that material and make them into something useful. And as far as the plastic ones, I think it did a great job on those ones as well. They're really fast to 3D print and they're also extremely fast to engrave. This laser is able to handle a lot of different materials. And if you're curious about some of those other materials, I will leave a link up above there on the top corner to another video that I've made where I've covered a wider range of materials that I've engraved. So, if you've been trying to find ways to level up your 3D prints or just want one laser that can engrave just about any material, the link to the Lumis Ultra by We Create on Kickstarter is down there below. And if you're a backer for this machine, you get between 35% and 43% off depending on which version and which options you select.

[00:13:35]The more you spend, basically, the more you get off. Now, if you're into engraving metal and you want even more power, they are offering a 100 watt mopa option. The version that I'm using is a 60 watt, which is plenty for what I do, but it doesn't hurt to have more power.

[00:13:49]And you can just dial back the power settings if you need to. Since the one I've been testing is an early model, I've been able to provide feedback to we create and they've been great to work with because they've taken action on my feedback. They've improved the production model. So, if you do order one, you'll have a better version than the one that I have. One point I made was that the rubber gaskets when compressed around the lenses left a residue on those lenses. So, they've upgraded those gaskets to higher quality silicone versions. I also noticed a very small amount of deflection in the base plate. And when I reported that back, they actually added steel ribs below that so that it does not flex and it stays perfectly at 90° to the upright portion of the body. I almost forgot the Lumis Ultra came with a 75mm or 3in flexible hose adapter at the back, but I only use 4in hoses here. So, I've created a 3D printable adapter for this machine. If you need it, it will be linked down there below. It can be used with a gasket if you want the best seal, and mine is made from cork, so I will have a DXF or SVG version of that gasket. And I will also have a 3D printable version if you'd like to just use a knife to cut the gasket out instead. Remember to check out my other video if you haven't already, and thanks to We Create for sending the Lumis Ultra for me to test out. It makes a huge difference in my shop. If you've been watching any of my videos, you've probably seen me using it pretty much on every single thing that I make. Thank you to my patrons for helping to support this channel and thank you for watching.

[00:15:10]Hope to see you on the next one.