Absolute Black Granite Engraving

[Abdul Baseer Hai]

All
Finally I think i got the art of engraving on granite, perfectly right.
I did use Keith's trick of applying Armour All on the tile before engraving.
Comments please

abdul

[Steve Clarkson]

Great job Abdul! I can only hope to make one that good someday. What settings did you use? Did you use photograv?

[Abdul Baseer Hai]

Steve
Yes, I used Photograv. I selected the Spectralite Grey Granite PRM file.
For a 50 watt laser, I used 100 speed, 40 power and 300 DPI.
I have found that you get the best results when you engrave an inverted image on a white background. Spend some time preparing the photograph, you wont regret it.
By the way that is my picture. Taken 35 years ago when i got my commission in the army.
Abdul

[John W. Love]

Awesome Job!!! It does indeed appear that you do have the granite engraving down.
I think the granite is my absolute (ok pun intended) favorite thing to engrave on.

[Steve Clarkson]

Abdul,

Interesting that you chose the Grey Granite option......did it work better than the Cherry Wood and Black granite options (I assume you did alot of experimenting).

It looks like you have two oval masks.....(one around the actual picture and one around the background)......did you powerclip it or create the mask in CorelPaint?

For a thirty five year old photo, that came out great.....but aren't you supposed to be making stuff FOR OTHER PEOPLE?????? Well, I bet your wife likes it!

[Abdul Baseer Hai]

Steve

I posted my picture because I was'nt sure if it was a good idea to post a customers picture, plus, I was as good looking then as I am now.

About the image.
I first removed the background in the cutout lab of photopaint, ( You can also use a program called Vertus Fluid Mask) ,Worked on the image and gave it a feathered edge.
Now here is a time saving trick:
create an oval object with deep feathering and a white fill.
Invert the image, convert to bitmap,remove the background in photopaint,save and invert again and then store it over a black rectangle. (You cant see a white oval otherwise)
Store this bitmap in a separate file.
Whenever you want to engrave different images on granite, you just have to work on the image, import the stored oval and resize it to fit the image. (it can be resampled without maintaining the aspect ratio, this way you can resize it to fit behind any image)
Before sending it to Photograv, you have to select both and convert them to a bitmap.
Have fun
abdul

[Steve Clarkson]

Hmmmmm....you're modest too!

Thanks for the tips.....I'll give them a try.

[Mike Christen]

Abdul

Great job, is that without any color fill? I have never been able to get that kind af contrast out of granite.

Mike

[Abdul Baseer Hai]

Mike
No colorfill at at all. Just aply armorall before engraving and you'll be surprised. You have to use good quality absolute black granite.

Abdul

[Patrick Bauer]

I'm a teacher in a new high school with a 35 watt Epilog mini. I'm wanting to do some of the black granite, and would love to get information how to get started with it. I don't have photograv, nor will it be possible to get, so I have to make due with photoshop and illustrator.

I presume you create the original picture by first going to grayscale, sizing the photograph to the finished size, converting to 8-bit, and then moving to a bitmap? What DPI is best for the epilog and what dither pattern. I somehow don't think 72 dpi is really what we're after, but should I match what is available on the laser (200, 300, 400, 600, and 1200 dpi)? I don't want to create a moire pattern.

Also, another question....when engraving a picture on granite or marble, do you do an inverse image? Does the area the laser pits turn white or gray? Obviously, the stone is already black. It would seem to me if you don't create what we used to call the 'negative' image, then what you would actually engrave on the stone would be just the opposite of what you want.

Can anyone help with this?

[Jackie McGowan]

I'm a teacher in a new high school with a 35 watt Epilog mini. I'm wanting to do some of the black granite, and would love to get information how to get started with it. I don't have photograv, nor will it be possible to get, so I have to make due with photoshop and illustrator.

I presume you create the original picture by first going to grayscale, sizing the photograph to the finished size, converting to 8-bit, and then moving to a bitmap? What DPI is best for the epilog and what dither pattern. I somehow don't think 72 dpi is really what we're after, but should I match what is available on the laser (200, 300, 400, 600, and 1200 dpi)? I don't want to create a moire pattern.

Can anyone help with this?

Patrick,
This older thread should help
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=91076&highlight=unsharp