set up help

[Bert Kemp]

I have several different shaped and size flat objects I want to engrave, and would like to do several at a time.is there an easy way to do this.

[Bill George]

Do the Files one by one and then Import via Corel into the named file your going to cut / engrave from. Take into Lasercut or I just use the ULS printer driver. It will do them one by one, I have done up to 30 at one time, no reason it could not have been 100 or more if I needed.

[Bert Kemp]

Not sure I understand what you mean or maybe you don't understand me. I have 100 flat rocks that I want to engrave. there all different shapes and sizes and I want to engrave a different name on each rock. There pretty close in thickness so I'm not worried about focus just how to lay them out to engrave and get it where I want it

Do the Files one by one and then Import via Corel into the named file your going to cut / engrave from. Take into Lasercut or I just use the ULS printer driver. It will do them one by one, I have done up to 30 at one time, no reason it could not have been 100 or more if I needed.

[Gary Hair]

Wait until Glowforge comes out - with its built-in camera you should be good to go!

[Mark Sipes]

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

I CAN TAKE 1 MINUTE TO RUN ONE OR 150 MINUTES TO SETUP A JIG FOR 100 ROCK ALL DIFFERENT SIZES......AND WAIT 2 DAYS FOR SOMEONE TO TELL ME JUST TO RUN THEM ONE AT A TIME... OR THREE DAY TO BUILD A JIG YOU WILL ONLY USE ON THIS JOB..




MERRY CHRISTMAS


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[Bert Kemp]

Great Idea Gary I'm ordering 2 as I type so I can do more rocks at once

Wait until Glowforge comes out - with its built-in camera you should be good to go!

[Bert Kemp]

I've been banging my head are you taking over for me

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Jack Clague]

Bert have you considered making a jig not to hold the stone but to place them roughly centered.

example: you cut a jig out of any material lets say wood which has for example 20 square holes in it equally spaced apart, the holes are bigger than your biggest stone, after its cut you draw pencil marks on the center of each side of the squares so you can get a good estimate when placing a stone inside

then use this jig template in Corel to position your engraving names centered to each individual "square"

place the jig in the machine with your stones in the center of each "square" and jun the job, if done right the laser should engrave the name centered to each square hole which will have your stones in

[Kev Williams]

Bert, no real easy way to set up a matrix of different shaped parts. Easiest layout setup I can think of would be to lay out some 1/2" (or narrower) tape on the table at specific coordinates, and visually center the pieces to the tape---

In this example you can just edit the text for each of the 6 next pieces while 6 pieces are running... just beware of the max length of the piece. If the pieces are odd-shaped, small variances in off-center won't matter much...

If it works satisfactorily, you could add extra rows easy enough...

[Bert Kemp]

Kev and Jack I'll see if these ideas work, I know they will just figure out the easiest and try it thanks guys.
also while banging my head I was thinking lay a bunch of them in the scanner , scan them then trace them in corel the lay out like Kev Or Jack said . Like you said no easy way but something should work better then 1 at a time LOL

[Jack Clague]

I kinda like Kev's idea, just make sure you get the spacing on the tape pretty accurate

[Mark Sipes]

Bert.. this reminds me of a story from WWII where the General called the Engineer Captain into a staff meeting. The General asked the Captain how long it would take to draft up a plan to build a bridge to cross a major river in support of his Advance. The captain called the General the next day and told him the bridge was in place, the plans will require 2 more days to prepare!!

[Scott Shepherd]

Or the easiest way.... "Sorry, we don't engrave rocks"

Thanks for that story Mark, that's a great one and so true. Some times it's easier to just power through something.

[Gary Hair]

In all seriousness... I have 350 stones to engrave and they are all very different sizes and shapes. One option would be to apply stencil to them all, laser, then sandblast. The better option was to have professionalmask create photo-resist that I'll apply to the stones and then sandblast. It cost me just over $200 for the stencil and will take about the same time to apply them as it would have to apply the stencil that I would have lasered - and I would still have had to laser them! Considering they are not flat, not the same shape, not the same size, and not the same thickness, I would have been lasering for days - trading $200 for pre-made stencils was the best use of my time/money on this job. You might want to consider the same option.

[Bert Kemp]

Spending money on a free job is not an option Time I have Money I don't. I'm engraving or attempting to engrave

USMC US ARMY USAF US NAVY and Coast Guard on flat rocks to give to Veterans as worry stones or what ever. I did a few singles and the guys love em.